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The Passionate Speaker
"Vision is the art of seeing the invisible."
- Jonathan SwiftA Newsletter for Speakers By Michael Landrum August, 2004 – Number 65 Personalizing PowerPoint Giving a PowerPoint presentation is like taking a Great Dane for a walk. An introverted speaker hopes that the dog will be the only thing people notice. If the speaker is an extrovert the hope is the Great Dane will add impact. Either way, what actually happens is that the dog sets the agenda for the walk, dragging the hapless presenter down the street. It's been said that PowerPoint lifts the floor of public speaking but it lowers the ceiling. Presenters love it, audiences hate it. They groan and roll their eyes, but they demand it. Polls show that audiences give more credibility to the speakers with computer-projected slides than to those without. PowerPoint holds the business presentations market hostage the way the Yankees dominate major league baseball. Why? Stage fright. . . and the chief cause of stage fright is lack of preparation. With PowerPoint the speaker can allay fear in two ways: first, with a large colorful screen to hide behind; and second, by being forced to prepare on at least one level. Most PowerPoint presentations are organized and given a certain polish; they are laid out on a solid track that the speaker and audience can follow together. With an arsenal that includes animation, color, clip art, font choices, sound, video, internet access, and unlimited graphics options, even the most disorganized speakers feel they can deliver at least the basic information. So why do audiences often loath these spectacles? Even speakers who use PowerPoint themselves, cringe when forced to sit through someone else's offering. The problem arises when PowerPoint slides are used as a substitute Teleprompter. Words projected on a screen and then read aloud to an audience can turn a roomful of MBA's into a lynch mob. How to fix this problem? Here are a few suggestions: 1. Turn the dang thing off: Push the 'B' key from time to time, let the screen go blank and step forward to address the audience personally. Establish contact. Tell them a story. Notice as you do, the sigh of relief that will issue from your listeners. 2. Trim the content: Three to five strong, valid points are all most audiences are capable of absorbing in one sitting. Present the crucial information and cut everything else. Put the cuttings in a handout, white paper or article, but resist the impulse to inflict every last iota of data on your audience. 3. Simplify the language: Get rid of jargon. Written language tends to use complex, compound words - spoken conversation is more simple and direct - and much easier to understand. Consider these events 'talks' rather than 'articles.' 4. Give them pictures: Find graphic ways to express the essential points you need to make. Graphs, drawings, diagrams, photos, video clips, etc., are visual expressions that work well projected onto a screen. Words are intellectual expressions that work well on paper and spoken aloud. 5. Take the time to PRACTICE: Lack of time is the most frequent excuse for this whole sorry pattern. The exec is too busy, so she has her assistant create some slides and then all she has to do is read them off. And if she makes time in her schedule what does she do with it? She spends it fiddling with the slides, making them twinkle, instead of practicing her delivery. The plain fact is that PowerPoint cannot create rapport. It's a strictly passive form of communication. There is no closing of the loop, no feedback possible; it does not respond well to the immediate concerns of the humans in the audience. It is indifferent and unrelenting. That is why audiences feel so overwhelmed and helpless under a PowerPoint barrage. There is no way to affect the thing. Mark Sanborn, past president of the National Speakers Association says "Audiences do not want information. They already have more information than they can possibly deal with. What they want from us (speakers) is insight." Information squeezes out process and it is process that leads to insight, to meaning. In order to re-raise the ceiling of our presentations, we need to cut short the volume of content and make some space for the process of human contact, communication and meaning. ©2004 Michael F. Landrum |
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