Do Your Presentations Tell A Story?

When Words Lose Their Impact prompted a barrage of "favorites" from readers. I'm going to publish them in the next post.

Since the real issue is connecting effectively, the Mile High Pixie out in Denver added:

"This isn't words, per se, but I'm weary of presenters just reading their slides. I'm an adult with a Master's degree, bub; I can read fine. You need to tell me things that aren't on the slide, or take more off the slide so you can tell it to me yourself. Your words mean nothing if they're really just your notes that we're reading at the same time."

She's right. If you're going to read your visuals, then why not simply hand them out and leave the room?  All you are doing is competing with yourself if you read the same thing that is on the screen.  (Check out Jackie Cameron's article).

Too many, if not most, presentation visuals look like this:

• 1. Bullet points with noun-verb-object. In other words, the slide makes the point before you do. People can read faster than you can speak.

• 2. There are plenty of situations where "the numbers" need to be up there. It would be nice if they were large enough for people to see them.

• 3. Are the numbers all of equal importance? What do you want us to focus on?

• 4. Thank you for killing us with what may be the most over-used Powerpoint template of all time.

• 5. I'll offer that (design aside) the last slide contains the right questions on which to focus if this were a decision-making meeting. Tip: If that was the purpose of the meeting, I'd use those slides up front as well to set the context for how the content should be processed.

 

Gross Receipts Tax Power Point

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Here Is a Model You Can Model

I'm guessing that about 70% of the meetings that used to require me to make a trip to the airport are now done via teleconference or some online collaboration tool. This also means that more people are sending their "presentations" in advance so that a discussion can take place. The problem? Most of them look like the one above.

Here is a primo example of what you can do with the right visuals and a mindset that tells a story:

You Can

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: humanity justice)

Comments

[Frode H]

Hi Steve.
Great timing, great inspiration. I am currently planning a presentation with images and a few words, to use on a motivation speech. I think I might try the Pecha Kucha format for the first time. And the second ppt gave me a few ideas. :) Telling a story is much more effective than just telling :)

Frode

[Steve Roesler]

Frode,

As they say, "Timing is everything." Glad to know that this showed up at a time that would be helpful. If you use the Pecha Kucha format would you please tell us how it went? I haven't stuck to that exact format yet for a "business" presentation but I don't know why one would not, depending on the intent of the presentation.

[Wally Bock]

I'd finding that I'm being asked for three different uses of PowerPoint.

There is the standard use, where I'm speaking and the PowerPoint supplements me and the exercises. For those I use blank slides for parts of the program we're I'm talking or where we are discussing an issue. Exercise instructions are bullet points that stay up during the exercise. Graphics and quotes w/graphics are the only other slides except for the occasional summary slide.

That format doesn't work for online presentations. Blank slides lose attention in that format. So graphics, especially with builds are needed for the parts where I'm speaking or we're discussing.

I'm also being asked to create slidesets for "briefings" that will be used by individuals. No blank slides there and few graphics. But animations and links to resources work well.

[Steve Roesler]

Wally,

The fact that you've delineated three distinct uses reflects a thoughtfulness frequently absent in the use of presentation platforms. The lack of thoughtfulness, to me, is a big contributor to the poor presentations permeating the communication landscape.

I'm curious about the slidesets used for briefings by others. Is this something that you coach them on first?

[David Brazeal]

Steve,
Thanks for this. I assume you probably read Seth Godin's recent post on PowerPoint -- it's full of similar advice. Of course, his #1 advice is to ditch your slides altogether, if possible. Here's the link:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/10/nine-steps-to-p.html

[Steve Roesler]

David,

Thanks for the heads-up; I had not seen it but will have a look.

I'd ditch the slides as well except in those cases where a group of people need to be looking at the same data at the same time in order to make a decision. I've never found a way to get past that in the case of corporate financial decisions. There are, however, more effective ways to lay out the data for better understanding.

Off to the reference. . .

[Wally Bock]

I'd love to tell you that those briefings were my idea or that I got it right the first time. Alas, the answer to both of those is, "No."

I did the first one at the request of a client who needed material on his web site to explain key points to visitors. He has seen some short PowerPoint presentations on the web that seemed to do that.

We experimented with format and the "Visitor's Panel" gave us feedback. We found that people are comfortable downloading and reviewing PowerPoint presentations. We found that if they're reading them alone, they prefer that, like web page, there be links to mentioned resources.

We also found that our respondents liked the PP format over pdf or html. I have no explanation for that that has any real support but my gut tells me two things. PP is easier and quicker to fire up than Adobe Acrobat. PP gives the individual reader the ability to look at single slides, to see a "show" or to scan all the slides.

[Get Applause Now]

Awesome advice. Spot on.

Too may individuals use their slides as a reminder of what to say rather than images that compliment the presentation.

Andrew

[Steve Roesler]

Right, Andrew.

I often wonder how many of us have to continue emphasizing that point until we see a critical mass of change in presentations.

[Get Applause Now!]

Millions! :)

Andrew