Presentation Training Tips:
Solving The PowerPoint Riddle
By James A. Baker
Presentations Training Institute.
May 2009
Question: What is shiny, colorful,
and ubiquitous (300 million copies sold worldwide), which can
absolutely destroy your ability to deliver a persuasive
presentation?
Answer: That set of PowerPoint slides you are probably working on
right now.
In what surely is the best example I can think of to prove the old
adage: “Familiarity breeds contempt.” PowerPoint technology and its
ilk have inundated the presentation and public speaking arena like a
stifling outbreak of “tribbles” from an old Star Trek episode.
Looking back now, I suppose it wasn’t such a bad idea initially.
After all, visual enhancements are supposed to reinforce the mind’s
natural learning processes and help audiences retain more of what
you tell them. Of course, that presumes that they are paying
attention, and therein lays the problem with the way
PowerPoint-style presentations are used today.
Question: If a picture is worth a thousand words then what are a
thousand pictures worth?
Answer: NOTHING!
Day after day, in classrooms, boardrooms, and auditoriums around the
world, people sit and stare at screens in semi-darkened rooms while
daydreaming about trips to Fiji and scrolling through their
Blackberry’s while some unfortunate soul stands at the front of the
room and drones on through slide after slide in an attempt to
deliver information that someone believes to be important; though at
the moment it is hard to understand why. He might as well be reading
it straight out of an old-fashioned handout, for all the good modern
technology is accomplishing.
Where did the PowerPoint revolution go wrong? There is nothing
intrinsically wrong or evil about PowerPoint slides. They are quite
simply tools to enhance communication much like overhead projectors,
flip charts, and those old-fashioned mimeographed handouts that came
before them. But somewhere along the way, people forgot that
PowerPoint was a tool – a means to an end – and began to mistake it
for the end itself. In other words, people began to assume that if
they just strung together enough information in a glitzy and
attractive way, making liberal use of colors and animation – even
sound effects and special effects – the entertainment value and the
high-tech ambience would imbue their presentations with the
credibility necessary to create maximum impact on the audience.
Well, it doesn’t really work like that. Let me tell you why.
The persuasive power of your presentation isn’t issued from your
content, as important as it may be. If all people needed was the
content, why even bring them together for a presentation? Why not
just email them the PowerPoint file and they could review it at
home? The reason is that we humans are affected by our personal
interaction with other humans. Our opinions and decisions are
subject to influence in the presence of a persuasive person. That
person can utilize the PowerPoint slides to achieve a certain
impact, but the PowerPoint is not what drives the presentation.
I am strongly convinced – and psychological research backs this up –
that people are strongly influenced by body language, gestures, eye
contact, and tone of voice. In a very real sense, the messenger
actually becomes the message. An effective presenter or public
speaker takes the entire audience along for the ride, connecting
with individuals one by one and eye to eye; thus inspiring them and
cajoling them with compelling variations in tone of voice and
reinforcing the urgency and sincerity of the message through body
language and gestures that mirror the scope of the content’s
implications. Consciously or unconsciously, the audience resonates
with these non-verbal cues and either accepts or rejects the
speaker’s overall message on that basis. At the very least, the
personal energy the speaker invests into connecting with the
audience sets the parameters for how much value the information will
offer to the listener.
So, you tell me; when the attention of the audience is focused on
the screen and reading along with the speaker (except they are
reading silently at twice the rate he can read out loud), what
happens to the impact of eye contact, body language, and tone of
voice? Obviously, it is mostly lost, and the opportunity to
effectively communicate the full impact the could-have-had message
is gone with it.
This doesn’t mean you have to ditch the PowerPoint; just scale way
back on the number of slides you use and change the way you use
them. PowerPoint is a good tool to use when:
• Citing important statistics involving graphs and series of numbers
• Bridging from one outline topic to the next
• Introducing a KEY fact or point of emphasis
• Displaying a dramatic visual
Keep the lens covered until it is time to reveal your next slide.
Even when you are showing the slide, LOOK AT THE AUDIENCE! Never
break eye contact or turn your back on the people. Keep your energy
up and allow your body language to flow naturally with the message
being spoken, not the slide you are showing.
Quit hiding behind the slides, and don’t expect them to do the work
for you. Stand tall, speak clearly, be enthusiastic, maintain eye
contact at all times, and show a slide only every once in a while
when you need to make a big point. Your audience will thank you, and
they are certainly much more likely to remember the crux of your
message tomorrow.
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