Thanks for staying tuned to these lines that swing greatly from small jokes to travel novels.
The topic of today is how to make shortcut in the noble art of getting the message across, when you best need it. Having seen a number of great presenters in action recently its was strikingly clear that great speakers rely on three fundamentally different skills. And the other key-take away was that few combine all three at the same time.
Skill #1 - The preparation of the storyline, messages and visual support
Great presenters often have the ability to be dropped into any kind of presentation situation and come out on their feet whatever visual support they use. They might even skip it all together and just rely on a pen. Great presenters get the messages across, but were they the best ones?Were they the right ones? Where they sharp enough?
The greatest presenters avoid the last trhee question marks and stick to a set of basic rules
- They schedule their talking time to 50% of the allocated slot, and reserve the rest for interaction with the audience.
- They frame their session with the 3 fundamental slides that are easy to skip; Goals with this session, Topics to be addressed and Summary & Key take-aways
- The pick 5-6 slides as visual support that are designed around the "whole message in one-slide" approach
- The slide messages are focused on insights rather than information
- All slides used adhere to the Back of the Napkin thinking, putting simlicity and focus on the essential point in focus
- The message is word-smithed as a sharp sentence that includes a number in stead of the commonly used alternative message approach restricted to just two or three words and/or generic words and/or leaving the figure out
- And finally, they determine in advance what to cut out if they get short on time and have to skip during their session.
Skill #2 - delivering the messages
On stage, the performance is determined by your ability to deliver the message. It is all about confidence and putting you in the center for the attention, and bring it back there whenever you have caused the audience attention to move somewhere else
The greatest presenters on stage are normally characterized by the following
- They know the topic they will present by heart - to come across as knowledgeable
- They "guide" the audience through their storyline - in a pace that suits the audience
- They plant clear discussion topics in the messages - to trigger questions
- They throw in a few jokes and examples here and there - that make the audience feeling part of the flow.
- They make their biggest point by being silent just around them - to allow the audience to reflect
And when they get the graveyard shifts after lunch and the last slot during the day, they normally break away from the planned slide-show and move into a pure talk-show or limit the visual support to a pen and the whiteboard. Why? Just to put the audience in a different mood!
Skill #3 - responding to upcoming questions
Good presenters pay a lof of attention to selecting their slides and memorizing the messages. Their assistance in terms of pre-prepared slides are often down this alley as well as the required information as speakers notes. But 9 out of 10 do not prepare for the questions that will come
The greatest presnters on stage have realized that the result of their stage performance is judged by their ability to respond to the questions raised. The following is a common preparation path
- Guestimate what 2-3 key questions each of your slides/messages could provoke
- Learn a short respons to each question
- Learn the Broader context for the question you identified so that you could move the response to a broader question if needed
- Set as a key objective to never leave a question in the room when you have left
- Have a supporter in the room, and a specialist stand-by outside so that you have a life-line if needed that could be activated through SMS
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment