Presentations: Square One. Again.

The 13 year-old arrived in the living room last Sunday with a wild look in his eyes.

"Mom, I have to do a presentation on my Math Problem of the Week. Can you teach me Powerpoint?"

[NB: Once upon a time, I was, in fact, paid to teach people how to give presentations. So there's some precedent to the request.]

So we sat down at the table, fired up the computer, and I asked him what he wanted to present. In order, his answers were:

1. I need to show all of the content from my math assignment, because that's what the teacher is looking for.

2. I need to do something that will keep people awake, because this could be boring.

3. I want to do some cool transitions - do you have any with flames?

He's only 13, and already he's been taught that presentations should reflect all of your content, and creativity is limited to how you get from point to point.  On the plus side, the idea of "keeping people awake" had some merit - although I think it had more to do with him not liking math, than thinking about presentations.

45 minutes later, he had 19 slides - all text, with 1 thought per slide. As we were editing for font alignment, I decided to try again - "How are you going to keep people awake?"  We brainstormed, and he loved the idea of framing the problem around creating a new Olympic sport.  All the math calculations could be brought in as "supporting material" for presenting to the IOC on safety standards.  We started changing graphics, adding new images, and talking about the difference between the Story, and the Slide Content.  We finished by finalizing the math components, and agreed to practice the story on Monday.

Monday night. 8pm. "Mom, I know we had a good idea, but I watched the smartest person in class give her presentation today. She had all of her information on the slides, and just read them. So I'm going to do that, too."

Sadly, it'll be a while before the IOC gets to learn about para-skiing ... however, I now know where to find animated slide transitions.  Maybe I'll throw in some flames the next time I'm low on inspiration!


[Image from Chris and Laura Pawluk. Used under CC]   

Presentation Special Case: Going to Court

I spent Friday morning at Small Claims Court. I didn’t know if this would be more Judge Judy or Night Court. Not only was it both, it was a classic learning example for presentation skills.
Which story would you rather hear?

Option A: It was a Tuesday, and I went to have my nails done, because I always go on Tuesday. So I was there and there was a bunch of talk about the ants, and you know how those ants can be. So anyway, she came over and sprayed something, I think it was Raid, and I told her not to because that’s so irritating. So then I left, and I tripped – oh now I remember, it was that generic Costco ant spray – and I fell to the ground. So I left and went home, and I was at a family gathering the next week and my knee was so bad, but I couldn’t think what I had done to it. So I got an x-ray – that was at Kaiser. And then I had to get another type of medicine and that was also really expensive. And when I called the salon they said they hadn’t sprayed any ant spray and so I decided not to deal with them and come here to you.

Option B: Your honor, I was at the salon on June 23rd. When I left the salon I slipped on some liquid, and fell. As a result, I incurred $4K in medical bills, which I believe the defendant should pay.

Option A was quite entertaining. The judge did a great job balancing the person’s need to express with his need to get the actual facts of the case. However, after the 3rd case with similar organization problems, I started to get a bit frustrated. Appearing in court is a type of public speaking. The rules don’t go away just because the audience is different. In fact, some rules become even more important.

1. Organize your statement. Tell it from A-Z. Practice it before you get to the hearing.
2. Focus on the most important parts. No one cares if the salon uses Raid, Simple Green or just plain water – unless it affects the case.
3. Give detail where needed. If you need to describe multiple calls, or trace the history in detail, do it. But closely watch if the details enhance your story, or just make it longer.
4. Provide documentation – but make sure it’s organized and easy to follow. (HR people are always advising you to keep records, this is the time to use them.)
5. Brainstorm possible questions from the judge or from the defendant, and be prepared to answer them.

Appearing in court isn’t a time when you want to be memorable. It’s a time when you want to be focused and convincing. Invest in the preparation upfront so you can have the best chance of winning the case.

[Image courtesy of Joe Gratz]

In Defense of the Details

Presentation Zen has swept through the office, and we are all now working diligently on improving our slides. I'm a big fan of any concept that causes you to think more about your presentation, and the way to deliver content. However, I'm concerned that in focusing too much on this approach, we may miss a key concept: the audience's preferences for receiving content.

Consider: 1995ish. Our GM has a quarterly business review with his peers and the executive staff. In this meeting, they will review all aspects of the business (orders, ships, quality, plant performance, financials, hiring, expenses, etc.) In this environment we still refer to slides as "foils" and the deck is printed out onto transparencies before each business review meeting. Our assistant has mastered powerpoint, and puts all sorts of content onto those foils. She mixes charts and tables, and adds in every reference possible - often going to size 9-10 font to make the details fit. When completed, her decks have every piece of data you possibly could need for this review. Bind up the 40 foils, and you have the equivalent of a detailed briefing book. There isn't a piece of information you could ask about the business that can't be found in this deck.

Viewed through the tenets of Presentation Zen, this sounds like a nightmare. 10 pt font! How can you get across your main point? Why wouldn't you put all of this into a separate document, and have the slides be more focused on the message you want to send? The answer is that our assistant knows the audience. She has worked for the GM for 10 years, and knows all of the players who attend the meeting. They are all engineers by training, with an eye for detail, and each wants to review the data in his own way. If we had gone in with eye catching graphics and only highlighted the numbers we wanted to show, the assumption would have been that either we didn't know what we were doing, or we were trying to hide something. Neither were the case, and neither was the message we wanted to give to executive management. Instead, we led with the data, made it available to each person as a handout, and then raised the key points as we arrived at each slide.

Looking back on those decks, I wouldn't say they stand out as well designed. However, they do stand out as well-suited to their audience. I'm all for good design, and personally would have preferred to have a deck with better graphics, and less detail. But I wasn't the target audience. The people in that meeting wanted details, and these decks with the detailed slides were just what they needed to see.

Keep in mind that sending the message is not the same as receiving the message. While I encourage you to think about your graphics and making your presentation memorable, you also need to stay focused on your audience. Who you are presenting to, and why? How can you meet their needs? How can you use your slides/foils/videos/what-have-you to amplify your message, and make sure the audience receives the message you intend to give? Great graphics are a tool to add in to your presentation kit - but graphics alone do not make for a great presentation. In the end, the most important thing is to get your points across to the audience, and to do that, you might just have to make some really detailed slides.

[Image from the amazing photostream of ~BostonBill~]

Presentation Geek: The Inauguration Speech

The inaugural address is a signature moment for a president. While he has other significant addresses – the election night speech and state of the union, for example – the inauguration speech is the one that is most anticipated. How will a new president set the tone for his administration? Will he focus on history? Will he confidently predict the future? Will he have a phrase that will capture our imagination? All ears are turned toward Washington, and we hope to hear something great. On Monday, NPR ran a segment with highlights of inauguration speeches from 1925 to 2005. I was struck by the differences in tone and level of rhetoric. Of course, each president faced different challenges, and each had their own agenda to communicate. But all were trying to address the American public, and hopefully to inspire them.

Several media outlets have commented on the difference in styles between Obama and Bush. There have been comments about having an Author-President, and what that might mean for the content and clarity of the inaugural address. I found the speech to be an interesting blend between ideals and pragmatic considerations. I also thought that the word choice sounded different, and wondered if this meant Obama might be reaching for a different level of conversation. As one media person mentioned “maybe he expects us to come to his level.”

So I thought I’d try a little test. I took the inaugural addresses of Kennedy, Reagan (1st inauguration), Bush 43 (1st inauguration) and Obama, and ran the first 5000 characters through the assessment at Blue Centauri. This site includes word counts, and assesses against the more common writing indexes:

• Flesch Reading Ease. This measures the number of words per sentence, and number of syllables per word, and scales against 100 points. The higher the score, the easier the text is to read. Authors are encouraged to shoot for a score between 60-70. A number below 30 indicates an advanced college text.
  
• Gunning-Fog Scale. This is similar to the Flesch scale, however it focuses on “Foggy words” – those with more than 3 syllables. Scoring on this system is a scale of 1-20. This score is often used to show how print media target their content. Some comparisons: Fog score of 6 = TV Guides, 8=Reader’s Digest, 10= Time or Newsweek magazine, 11= Wall Street Journal, 15+=Academic papers.
  
• Flesch-Kincaid grade level. This algorithm sets expectations for what level of school would be most able to read and understand the content. (Assigned in years, 0-17).

Here are the results:

Of course, these speeches are more than 5000 characters long, but I do think this sample size leads to some interesting comparisons. Obama has the most dense sentences (almost 2x words/sentence compared to Bush). He also has the lowest Reading Ease, although he’s still just outside the target for most authors. Bush has the highest Reading Ease. I found it interesting that Kennedy and Reagan’s content were so close to each other, and fit right in between Bush and Obama. Most importantly, I think the results show the shift in approach between Bush and Obama. We’re moving from a President whose speech was accessible at the 5th grade level, with word choice targeted near Reader’s Digest to a President who set the bar at almost high school levels, and reaches the Wall Street Journal's level for word choice. I will be interested to see if this level of content stays, and how it impacts the public’s opinions of the President.

One side note. During the speech I started thinking about the speechwriters who toiled over those words, trying for the right turn of phrase, hoping the content would be there, and knowing that there would be many many edits before the final delivery. I’ve always wondered about speechwriters – I think it takes a special class of person to be able to write for presentation vs writing for print. It’s also a special class of person who is gratified to hear their words spoken, even though the credit will go to the President, and not to them. Kudos to the speechwriters, whoever you are. Thank you for once again delivering an address that inspires a nation.

[img: orangejack]

Presentations 101: Know Your Content

What makes a good presentation? There are hundreds of books on powerpoint styles, and engagement methods, and how to deliver a pitch. But the most crucial thing in any presentation is Your Content. What are you trying to communicate?

We've all seen dry, dull and boring presentations, where the presenter is overwhelming the audience with data. In my opinion though, a boring presentation is better than a clueless presentation. When listening to a boring presentation you have options. You can leave and get a copy of the presentation to review afterwards. You can salvage the session through Q&A to get the presenter to loosen up. You can probably still get something from the presentation...it's just more work than you'd like. At least with most boring presentations, the speaker knows what they are talking about. Their problem is in editing it for mass consumption.

A clueless presentation however, is a much harder prospect. The classic example is the presenter who is relying on their slides. In this case, the presenter has at least thought through the content enough to get it written down, but if the webconference crashes, or the projector bulb goes, they won't have any idea what to do -- they don't know what they are presenting. Similarly, there is the case of the expanding/contracting timeframe. It's very common when presenting to customers that the timing will get screwed up, and suddenly you have to fit 60 minutes worth of content into 30. Or worse, stretch 60 into 90-120. If you don't know your content, you won't be able to adjust to fit the new requirement.

So how do you know if you are prepared with your content? First, step away from your computer and presentation materials. Now ask yourself a few questions:

• What is the one message you want your audience to take away?


• If you were reporting your message on the evening news, what would be the headline? What 1-2 examples or facts would you use to back up the headline? (Remember, on the evening news, you only get 2 minutes to tell your story)


• If your manager asked for a summary of your presentation that he could send to his boss, what would you say?


• What actions do you want your audience to take after hearing your presentation?


• If they met you after your presentation, what questions do you think the audience would ask?

Congratulations - you can give the abbreviated version of your pitch, and you know your key message. Now for the other extreme...the part where you really show that you know your content. You'll have to pick up a pencil, or go to the whiteboard. Again, no looking at your material. Start by making a series of columns. Assign a key message in your presentation to each column. For each key message, list your supporting examples, facts or stories. If you have been following classic presentation training, you should now have a matrix with 3 columns (1 for each key message), each with 3 sub-bullets. Now take a minute and answer a few more questions:

• If you were asked, could you produce more examples for each key message?


• Do you have more content or depth to share on any of those supporting points?


• Are there any other points you are currently planning to cover that don't fit into this structure?


• Go back to your presentation materials - did you cover it all? What's missing?

What's the purpose of this exercise? It helps you see where you have depth of content, and where you don't. That way you can better assess the strength of your messages, and your level of content knowledge. If you can map out your entire presentation without looking at your materials, you know your content. If you have a few areas where you missed a point, or didn't get the data right, you may need to do some extra homework.

Why should you spend the time on these sorts of exercises - shouldn't you be focusing on better graphics? If you don't know what you are saying, the fanciest animations in the world won't save you. More importantly, if you know your content and have focused it, you are more than half-way to a great presentation. You can better follow the audience's interests by going deeper into some content, and lighter on others. Or you can adjust the timing of your presentation without missing the key messages. Most importantly, you can spend more time engaging with the audience because you know what you are talking about - and your audience will be happy to hear what you have to say.