PRESENTATIONZEN

Introduction[1] Presenting in Today’s World

Preparation[2] Creativity, Limitations, and Constraints[3] Planning Analog[4] Crafting the Story

Design[5] Simplicity: Why It Matters[6] Presentation Design: Principles and Techniques[7] Sample Slides

Delivery[8] The Art of Being Completely Present[9] Connecting With an Audience

The Next Step . . . [10] The Journey Begins

Preparation

Creativity, Limitations, and Constraints

Developing presentation content—especially content to be delivered with the aid of multimedia—is a creative act

Students can become better business leaders tomorrow by learning how to become better design thinkers today

Valuable aptitudes for all professionals, regardless of their discipline or their particular task

• Design Thinking• Design Mindfulness• Creative Thinking

Once you realize that the preparation of a presentation is an act requiring creativity, not merely the assembling of facts and data in a linear fashion, you’ll see that preparing a presentation is a “whole-minded” activity that requires as much right-brain thinking as it does left-brain thinking

Left-Brain Thinking• Your research and

background work requires logical analysis, calculation, & careful evidence gathering

Right-Brain Thinking• The transformation of your

content into presentation form

Start with the Beginner’s Mind

• When you approach a new challenge as a true beginner (even if you are a seasoned adult), you need not be saddled with fear of failure or of making mistakes– You are not afraid of being wrong– If you are not willing to make mistakes, then it is

impossible to be truly creative• If you approach problems with the “expert’s

mind,” you are often blind to the possibilities

You Are Creative

• Being creative means using your whole mind to find solutions

• Creativity means not being paralyzed by your methods & knowledge, but being able to think outside the box to find solutions to unforeseen problems– This kind of situation requires logic & analysis (left-

brain), but also big-picture thinking(right-brain) thinking

• A presentation is an opportunity to differentiate yourself, your cause, or your organization

• It’s your chance to tell the story of why your content is important & why it matters

It can be an opportunity to make a difference!

The Big Lie: “I am not creative”

Failing is fine – necessary in factDon’t avoid failure or risk—take a chanceA failure is in the past—it’s done & overTake chances—stretch yourself

“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original”

Sir Ken Robinson

Be a PirateInspiration—where to find it?

When you teach someone something important to you, you are reminded of why it matters, & the enthusiasm of the student—child or adult—is infectious & can energize you

Do Not Force It• Idling or doing nothing is important• Most of us are obsessed with getting things

done• We’re afraid to be unproductive• The big ideas usually come when you are

“lazy”—when you are “wasting time”

• Sometimes you need solitude & a break for slowing down so that you may see things differently

• Managers who understand this & give their staff the time they need (which they can only do by genuinely trusting them) are the secure managers, & the best managers

Enthusiasm• Put your love, passion, imagination, & spirit

behind it• Without enthusiasm, there is no creativity

The Art of Working with Restrictions

• Restrictive conditions put on creative projects can lead to inventive solutions

How do you develop concepts & implement them under such constraints as:– Limited time– Space– Budget

Constraints & limitations are a powerful ally,not an enemy

Creating your own self-imposed constraints, limitations, & parameters is often fundamental to good, creative work

Self-imposed constraints can help you formulate clearer messages, including visual messages

As daily life becomes even more complex,& the options & choices continue to mount, crafting messages & making designs that are

clear, simple, & concise becomes all the more important

Summary

• Preparing, designing, & delivering a presentation is a creative act

• Creativity requires an open mind & a willingness to be wrong

• Restrictions & limitations are not the enemy; they are a great ally

• As you prepare a presentation, exercise restraint & keep these 3 words in mind:Simplicity – Clarity - Brevity

Preparation

Planning Analog

• Get away from your computer

• Before you design your presentation, you need to see the big picture & identify your core messages—or the single core message

• Using pen & paper & sketching out rough ideas in the early stages seems to lead to more clarity & better, more creative results

It’s important to understand principles of presentation creation, & design, not merely software application rules to be obediently

followed or the tips & tricks of the day

Paper, Whiteboard, or a Stick in the Sand?

If you have the ideas,you can do a lot without machinery.

Once you have those ideas,the machinery starts working for you . . . Most ideas you can do pretty darn well

with a stick in the sand.--Alan Kay

Slowing Down to See

• Leads to greater clarity• Time constraints can be a great motivator,

bringing a sense of urgency that stimulates creative thinking & the discovery of solutions to problems

• “Busyness” is that uncomfortable feeling you have when you are feeling rushed, distracted, & a bit unfocused & preoccupied

• Although you may be accomplishing tasks, you wished you could do better

• In spite of your best intentions, you find it difficult to create a state of mind that is contemplative rather than reactionary

Busyness kills creativity

Communication suffers . . . The audience suffers

• To do something different takes a different mindset, & it takes time & space away from “busyness”

• This special insight & knowledge can usually only come about when slowing down, stopping, & seeing all sides of the issue

• One reason why so many people are ineffective is that people today do not take enough time to step back & really assess what is important & what is not

• They often fail to bring anything, unique, creative, or new to the presentation

• Solitude helps achieve greater focus & clarity, while also allowing you to see the big picture

• Clarity & the big picture are the fundamental elements that are missing from most presentations

Asking the Right Questions

The current state of business & academic presentations bring about a fair amount of “suffering” in the form of ineffectiveness, wasted time, & general dissatisfaction, both for the presenter & the audience

Many of us spend too much time fidgeting with & worrying about bullets & images on slides during the preparation stage instead of thinking about how to craft a story which is the most effective, memorable, & appropriate for our particular audience

The Wrong Questions

• Obsessing on technique & tricks & effects• How many slides?

???

Questions We Should Be Asking

• How much time do I have?• What’s the venue like?• What time of the day?• Who is the audience?• What’s their background?• What do they expect of me?• Why was I asked to speak?

• What do I want them to do?• What visual medium is most appropriate for

this particular situation & audience?• What is the fundamental purpose of my talk?• What’s the story here?

• What is my absolutely central point???

Two Questions:

• What’s Your Point?

• Why Does It Matter?

Audience ViewpointWhy should we care?

• Use persuasion, emotion, & empathy in addition to logical argument to persuade your audience– Empathy in the sense that the presenter

understands that not everyone will see what to him is obvious, or that others may understand well but not see why it should matter to them

When preparing material for a talk, good presenters try to put themselves in the shoes of their audience members & ask “So What?”

Presentation opportunities are about contributing something & leaving something important behind for the audience

The Elevator Test

• Check the clarity of your presentation’s core message– “sell” your message in 30-45 seconds

Practicing what you would do forces you to get your message down & make your overall content tighter & clearer

Handouts Can Set You Free

• If you create a proper handout as a leave-behind for your presentation during the preparation phase, then you will not feel compelled to say everything about your topic in your talk

• Preparing a proper talk—with as much detail as you think necessary—frees you to focus on what is most important for your audience

Prepare a detailed document for a handout& keep the slides simple

Three Parts of a Presentation

• The slidesonly the audience will see

• The notesonly you will see

• The handoutto be taken away

Create a Document Not a Slideument

• Projected slides should be as visual as possible & support your points quickly, efficiently, & powerfully– Guy Kawasaki: “10-20-30 Rule” [1:52]– The verbal content, the verbal proof, evidence, &

appeal/emotion come mostly from your spoken word

• Your handouts should provide at least as much depth & scope as your live presentation

• Attempting to have slides serve both as projected visuals & as stand-along handouts makes for bad visuals & bad documentation

• PowerPoint is a tool for displaying visual information, information that helps you tell your story, make your case, prove your point, & engage your audience

To be different & effective, use a well-written, detailed document for your handout & well-designed, simple, intelligent graphics for your visuals

The Benefit of Planning Well

• Presentation preparation is about organizing thoughts & focusing the storytelling so it’s all clear to your audience

• If you prepare well, the preparation process itself should help you really know your story

Summary

• Slow down your busy mind to see your problem & goals more clearly

• Find time alone to see the big picture• For greater focus, try turning off the computer

& going analog• Use paper & pens or a whiteboard first to

record & sketch out your ideas

• Key Questions:– What’s your main (core) point?– Why does it matter?

• If your audience remembers only 1 thing, what should it be?

• Preparing a detailed handout keeps you from feeling compelled to cram everything into your visuals

Preparation

Craftingthe Story

• During your time “off the grid,” you brainstormed alone or with a small group of people

• You stepped back to get the big picture• You identified your core message Clearer picture of the presentation content & focus—even if you don’t have all the details worked out

• The next step is to give your core message & supporting messages a logical structure

• Structure will help bring order to your presentation & make it easier for you to deliver it smoothly, & for your audience to understand your message easily

• Before you “go digital,” it is important to remember– What makes your ideas resonate with people?– What makes some presentations absolutely

brilliant & others forgettable?

• If your goals is to create a presentation that is memorable, then you need to consider at all times how to craft messages that stick!

What Makes Messages Stick?

“Sticky” ideas have 6 key principles in common:• Simplicity• Unexpectedness• Concreteness• Credibility• Emotion• Stories

Made to Stick

• Most people fail to craft effective or “sticky” messages is because of the“Curse of Knowledge”– The deliverer of the message can’t imagine what

it’s like to not possess his level of background knowledge on the topic

Same Idea?

“Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry through maximum team-centered innovation and strategically targeted aerospace initiatives”

or“. . . put a man on the moon and return him safely by the end of the decade.”

Simplicity

• If everything is important, then nothing is important

• Simplify—don’t dummy down—your message to the absolute core– What’s the key point?– What’s the core?– Why does (or should) it matter?

Unexpectedness

• Surprise people—it will get their interest• To sustain interest, you have to stimulate their

curiosity– Pose questions– Open holes in their knowledge– Fill those holes

• Take people on a journey

Concreteness

• Use natural speech• Give real examples• Speak of concrete images—not vague notions• Use proverbs—visualize

“Kill two birds with one stone”

or

“Let’s work toward maximizing our productivity by increasing efficiency across many departments”

Credibility

• If you are famous in your field, you probably have built-in credibility

• Otherwise, we tend to support our claims with data and statistics– Statistics aren’t inherently helpful– Depends on the context & the meaning

• Quotes from clients or the press help vs. your company’s history

“Five hours of battery life”

or

“Enough battery life to watch your favorite TV shows nonstop on your iPod during the next flight from San Francisco to New York”

Emotions

• Make your audience feel something– Images are one way to have audiences understand

your point better—they also feel & have a more visceral & emotional connection to your idea

– Humans make emotional connections with people—not abstractions

100 grams of fat

Stories

• We tell stories with words, art & music• We express ourselves through stories• We teach, we learn, & we grow through stories• Stories get our attention & are easier to

remember than lists of rules

Great ideas & great presentationshave an element of story to them

Hurricane Katrina

vs.

Story and Storytelling

• The easiest way to share a complicated idea is through examples or by sharing a story that underscores the point

• Stories are easier to recall for your audience– Make it more relevant & memorable– Reality, not fiction• Documentaries “tell a story”

• Good stories have:– Interesting, clear beginnings– Provocative, engaging content in the middle– A clear conclusion

Stories and Authenticity• Audiences need to see (& hear) your points

illustrated in a real language• Internalize your story—but don’t memorize it

line by line

If you don’t believe it, do not know it to be true, how can you connect & convince others with your words in story form?

It’s Not Just About Information• Facts used to be difficult to possess– Just possessing the facts used to differentiate you

• What is more important today is the ability to synthesize the facts & give them context & perspective

• What we want from people who present isn’t data & information alone – we need meaning

What we want is someone who teaches us, inspires us, or who stimulates us with knowledge plus meaning, context, & emotion in a way that is memorable

Information plus emotion & visualization plus anecdotes = Story!

Tell them “the story” of your facts

Finding Your Voice• We pay attention to well-spoken narratives that

sound human, that are spoken in a conversational “human voice”– Our brain—not our conscious mind—doesn’t know the

difference between listening to a conversational narrative & actually being in a conversation with a person

– When you are in a conversation with someone you are naturally more engaged because you have an obligation to participate—you are involved

The Process

If you take the time in this part of the preparation stage & set your ideas up in a logical fashion in storyboard format, you can then visualize the sequential movement of your content narrative & the overall flow & “feel” of the presentation

Storyboards have their origins in the movie industry, but are used often in business, particularly in the field of marketing & advertising

• Using Slide Sorter view, you can take your notes and sketches & create a storyboard directly in PowerPoint, or you can remain “analog” a while longer & draft a storyboard on paper or by using Post-Its or a whiteboard

Step 1: Brainstorming– Step back, go analog, get away from the computer,

tap into the right brain & brainstorm ideas(get “off the grid”)

– See the issue from all sides; see the big picture– Listening to your client is the important part– If clear themes are emerging, group items as you

go

Step 2: Grouping and Identifying the Core– Identify the one key idea that is central (& memorable) from the

point of view of the audience– Use “chunking” to group similar ideas while looking for a unifying

theme– The presentation may be organized into 3 parts, so first look for

the central theme that will be the thread running through the presentation—support the key message—the supporting structure (the 3 parts) is there to back up the core message & the story

– The core “takeaway” & theme are identified & the talk is organized into 3 concrete sections

•

Step 3: Storyboarding Off the Computer– Lay out your ideas using Post-It Notes or a

whiteboard– Use Slide View Mode in PowerPoint—print out blank

slides (12 slides/sheet), which gives you essentially a larger version of a Moleskine Storyboard—sketch out your visuals & write down your key points in a printed version of slideware notes

– Create a title slide, the “hook,” & the roadmap (outline) of the talk

Step 4: Storyboarding in Slide Sorter View– Create a blank slide using a template of your choosing– The section slides (bumper slides) should be a different color with

enough contrast that they stand out when you see them in the slide sorter view—these slides will serve to give visual closure to one section & open the next section

– Add visuals that support your narrative– Have an introduction where you introduce the issue or “the pain” &

introduce the core message– Use the next 3 sections to support your assertions or “solve the pain” in

a way that is interesting & informative but that never loses sight of the simple core message

– Create a simple structure first before slides are added to the appropriate sections

Nancy Duarte—Duarte DesignStoryboards & the process of presentation design

Editing & Restraint

• Always keep the audience in mind by first keeping your talk as short as you can & still doing an effective job telling your story

• After you have prepared your presentation, go back & edit—eliminate parts that are not absolutely crucial to your overall point or purpose of the talk

When in doubt—cut it out!

Summary

• Make your ideas sticky by keeping things simple, using examples & stories, looking for the unexpected, & tapping into people’s emotions

• A presentation is never just about the facts• Brainstorm your topic away from the computer,

group the most important bits—identify the underlying theme & be true to that theme (core message) throughout the creation of the presentation

• Make a storyboard of your ideas on paper—software to lay out a solid structure that you can see

• Show restraint at all times & bring everything back to the core mesage

Formula for success:1. Know your material2. Stand front & center—talk in a real, down-to-earth

language that is conversational, yet passionate3. Don’t let technical glitches get in your way4. Use real, sometimes humorous, anecdotes to

illustrate your points—stories should be authentic, relevant & support your core message