Presentation Training Tips:
Follow These Three Keys to Presentation Success
By James A. Baker
Presentations Training Institute.
February 2009
The topic of presentations or public speaking
covers a whole lot of territory. It can refer to anything from
delivering a nomination speech at a political convention in a packed
auditorium to presenting a sales opportunity to a 4-member client
panel in a back office. It might involve training a group of
volunteers for the local Children’s Advocacy Services Agency or
presenting a technical lecture to a workplace safety convention.
Anytime someone gets up in front of other people for the purpose of
delivering important information to them, a presentation is taking
place. Another thing that is taking place is that someone is
probably daydreaming about their vacation that is starting next
week, or maybe they are simply counting the ceiling tiles.
The biggest challenge to delivering a high-impact presentation at
any level is making it interesting and engaging enough that your
audience will pay attention and remember what you told them. Even
the most experienced and respected public speakers will admit that
it can be hard to keep people focused. Anything from temperature in
the room to the time of day to the quality of the sound system to
the comfort of the chairs can undermine the effectiveness of a
presentation, and that is assuming that the presenter is highly
skilled at his or her job. A poorly prepared, unskilled presenter
can have even bigger problems. How do you keep people engaged and
focused during your presentation?
Well-known life coach and seminar leader Tony Robbins reports that
if you just stand their and talk, people remember about 5% of what
you say. If they take notes while you talk, their retention goes up
to 30%. However, if you combine talking with note-taking AND active
participation, the retention rate goes up to a whopping 70%.
Clearly, the key is to keep the presentation lively by creating ways
for the audience to interact with the process. How can you
accomplish this?
For smaller groups – anything under 50 participants – one of the
best things you can do is request/require audience participation.
This is especially important if you are leading any kind of training
event. Throughout the presentation, plan spots where you will call
on members of the audience and ask them a question, or ask them for
their opinion about the topic at hand. You might even ask them for
feedback about what someone else just said. Make the process feel
like one big backyard conversation, but make it clear that anyone
could be called on at any time. Invite people to come up and write
on the flip chart or whiteboard. Break the audience into small
groups of 4-5 and ask them to brainstorm on a problem for a few
minutes. At the end of that time, ask them to share their ideas with
the group. Anything you can do to keep them moving, thinking, and
talking back will boost their interest and their retention.
What about with bigger groups, say, anything over 100? You can still
draw them in. Ask them to repeat key phrases back to you, call on
volunteers from the audience to come up and participate with you in
an exercise of some kind. You can even have the entire group stand
up and engage in some guided body movements that are coordinate with
a point that you are trying to make. Any kind of movement or
audience participation keeps things loose and lively. People won’t
have time to let their thoughts wander because they will be
preparing for the next surprise you could be throwing their way.
They will probably also be having so much fun that they won’t be
tempted to stair off into space, thinking about ceiling tiles.
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