Friday, June 13, 2008
Whose World Could You Change?
I believe it was Todd Defren who "tweeted" about this video earlier in the week. How appropriate ;-) Have a great weekend!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
The Stamp Out Bad PowerPoint Toolkit
Yesterday, CSI unveiled The PowerPoint Patch in an effort to address the most severe cases of PowerPoint addiction. We're talking about people who cling to it for ALL human interaction. For people who if they were quitting their job would systematically make their case using bullet points and charts to explain why the relationship had to end. While such an approach clearly wouldn't be well received by the audience; PowerPoint addicts don't care about their audience. They need help and The PPT Patch can provide it. If you're an addict, please don't open the toolkit until you've gotten some help.
The Toolkit
The Instructional Video - Because we can learn as much or more from bad examples as good ones, please watch Don McMillan's video presentation titled: Life After Death By PowerPoint. While you'll soon realize that while you may have sat through similar such presentations, and maybe even delivered a few yourself, it offers you the opportunity to laugh, learn some key don'ts, and move forward.
The Hammer - As SHU professor Karl Soehnlein says, make it BIG, BOLD & BRIEF. You're under no obligation to bore your audience. Presumably, you're trying to present information or make a case in a way that's impactful. Most people don't give enough thought to the fact that while you may have been working on your presentation for weeks, you'll likely have about 10-15 minutes to present your idea AND make sure your audience actually receives it. You're there to influence. Make sure you bring your hammer.
Your Mind - Craft your story. Make your case. Ask for what you want. Consider the outcome. Understand what you want your audience to do.
Your Heart - There are many ways to convey your story and the factual nature of it. Use your mind to predict what you want your audience to do. Use your heart to guide you as to how you want them to feel.
Your Audience - Your most powerful tool is actually sitting across from you. Your audience didn't come to look at slides, they came to be persuaded and often entertained. Understand their likes, dislikes, hot buttons, and emotional triggers. If you're speaking to a group you've never met, learn what you can and try to meet people as they're getting settled into the room; ask questions, gain insights, and integrate them into your presentation.
Your Colleagues - Rehearse your presentation in front of your colleagues. Try to gather people who may understand the content well along with those who may know it less well. Ask for feedback, not about your performance, but about whether they got the message you intended. What did they think? How did they feel?
A Big Note Pad & Multi-Colored Markers - Create an experience where you and the audience are sharing in the visual depiction of the content, whether it's words or images. You don't have to have great penmanship or be a great artist. (A little marginal artwork can often humanize what might otherwise be an overly slick presentation).
A Metaphor - It can be in the form of a physical object that is left on the seat of each of the audience members or simply the expression of an idea. Use it to illustrate your point and bring your audience into the frame of mind you believe will be most advantageous to their receiving your message. Presentation training guru Toni Louw once told me, "illustrate, don't explain!"
Web Sites - Whether it's your own web site or those of others, live internet connections create the opportunity to take people to content that is relevant to the audience at any given moment. One of the traps of PowerPoint can be its linear nature and lack of flexibility. The whole "we're going to take you through these 85 slides whether you like it or not" dynamic is not a small problem. Using web content and web video can offer great flexibility and visual interest.
Some Variety - Even if PowerPoint is your tool of choice, that doesn't mean it has to be your only tool. Engage your audience by accompanying your PPT Presentation with handouts or presentation boards (not of the PowerPoint presentation) that give your audience something to hold. Or grab that Note Pad & Marker and offer a splash of "planned spontaneity." Using video and audio, and just mixing mediums in general can be very powerful ways to keep a presentation dynamic, particularly if it runs any longer than 15-20 minutes.
PowerPoint - I list PowerPoint last somewhat symbolically. Not that it should be your last resort, but it shouldn't always be your default choice either. If you use it, think of it more in terms of outdoor advertising than a print ad. Imagine that your audience is driving by your slide at 70 miles an hour. Its purpose is to support your message not to BE the message. Whenever possible, use simple visuals rather than words. To crawl inside the particulars of better PowerPoint, consider reading Cliff Atkinson's, Beyond Bullet Points.
A big thanks to Rich Teplitsky for recommending the book and to everyone at Linkedin who responded to my question this week! While this post only scratches the surface, I hope you found it helpful and that it encourages you to explore more effective ways to inspire your audience in the future.
The Toolkit
The Instructional Video - Because we can learn as much or more from bad examples as good ones, please watch Don McMillan's video presentation titled: Life After Death By PowerPoint. While you'll soon realize that while you may have sat through similar such presentations, and maybe even delivered a few yourself, it offers you the opportunity to laugh, learn some key don'ts, and move forward.
The Hammer - As SHU professor Karl Soehnlein says, make it BIG, BOLD & BRIEF. You're under no obligation to bore your audience. Presumably, you're trying to present information or make a case in a way that's impactful. Most people don't give enough thought to the fact that while you may have been working on your presentation for weeks, you'll likely have about 10-15 minutes to present your idea AND make sure your audience actually receives it. You're there to influence. Make sure you bring your hammer.
Your Mind - Craft your story. Make your case. Ask for what you want. Consider the outcome. Understand what you want your audience to do.
Your Heart - There are many ways to convey your story and the factual nature of it. Use your mind to predict what you want your audience to do. Use your heart to guide you as to how you want them to feel.
Your Audience - Your most powerful tool is actually sitting across from you. Your audience didn't come to look at slides, they came to be persuaded and often entertained. Understand their likes, dislikes, hot buttons, and emotional triggers. If you're speaking to a group you've never met, learn what you can and try to meet people as they're getting settled into the room; ask questions, gain insights, and integrate them into your presentation.
Your Colleagues - Rehearse your presentation in front of your colleagues. Try to gather people who may understand the content well along with those who may know it less well. Ask for feedback, not about your performance, but about whether they got the message you intended. What did they think? How did they feel?
A Big Note Pad & Multi-Colored Markers - Create an experience where you and the audience are sharing in the visual depiction of the content, whether it's words or images. You don't have to have great penmanship or be a great artist. (A little marginal artwork can often humanize what might otherwise be an overly slick presentation).
A Metaphor - It can be in the form of a physical object that is left on the seat of each of the audience members or simply the expression of an idea. Use it to illustrate your point and bring your audience into the frame of mind you believe will be most advantageous to their receiving your message. Presentation training guru Toni Louw once told me, "illustrate, don't explain!"
Web Sites - Whether it's your own web site or those of others, live internet connections create the opportunity to take people to content that is relevant to the audience at any given moment. One of the traps of PowerPoint can be its linear nature and lack of flexibility. The whole "we're going to take you through these 85 slides whether you like it or not" dynamic is not a small problem. Using web content and web video can offer great flexibility and visual interest.
Some Variety - Even if PowerPoint is your tool of choice, that doesn't mean it has to be your only tool. Engage your audience by accompanying your PPT Presentation with handouts or presentation boards (not of the PowerPoint presentation) that give your audience something to hold. Or grab that Note Pad & Marker and offer a splash of "planned spontaneity." Using video and audio, and just mixing mediums in general can be very powerful ways to keep a presentation dynamic, particularly if it runs any longer than 15-20 minutes.
PowerPoint - I list PowerPoint last somewhat symbolically. Not that it should be your last resort, but it shouldn't always be your default choice either. If you use it, think of it more in terms of outdoor advertising than a print ad. Imagine that your audience is driving by your slide at 70 miles an hour. Its purpose is to support your message not to BE the message. Whenever possible, use simple visuals rather than words. To crawl inside the particulars of better PowerPoint, consider reading Cliff Atkinson's, Beyond Bullet Points.
A big thanks to Rich Teplitsky for recommending the book and to everyone at Linkedin who responded to my question this week! While this post only scratches the surface, I hope you found it helpful and that it encourages you to explore more effective ways to inspire your audience in the future.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Introducing The PowerPoint Patch
Before unveiling the Stamp Out Bad PowerPoint Toolkit, I thought it would be timely to introduce CSI's new invention to combat the most severe cases of PowerPoint addiction - The PPT Patch. Employing similar technology as the well known Nicotine Patch, The PPT Patch can be affixed anywhere on the body, but its effectiveness is directly proportional to how publicly it's displayed. Therefore, for maximum impact, which means you can be completely weaned off your PPT addiction in 21 days, we recommend taping the patch to your forehead! Try to hide the patch in any way, and your recovery may take months.The PPT Patch is reserved for those people who can't help themselves but rely on Powerpoint for every type of communication. You know who you are. For those of you with sensitive skin, PPT Gum will hit the market soon; although I have to tell you, it doesn't taste very good! Still working on that.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
PowerPoint - Presentation Tool or Leave Behind?
So do you use PowerPoint as a presentation tool, a leave behind, both, or neither?
Presentation Tool - As a presentation tool, used properly, PowerPoint can lend powerful visual and emotional enhancements to a well told story. That means using impactful visuals and very few words. You want your audience to pay attention to you, not simply read your remarks on a screen (as if you don't even need to be in the room).
Leave Behind - I recall when PowerPoint was first introduced into the workplace, people used it for the live presentation, but always drafted a complete narrative in the form of a Word document as a leave behind. Over time, people quickly surmised that if they're going to bullet point everything they're going to say anyway, then the PowerPoint presentation can double as the leave behind, saving lots of work by not having to create a separate Word document.
Consider of course that the purpose of the leave behind is so that later (whether having previously seen the presentation or not) someone can read the document in an unassisted environment and unequivocally grasp its purpose. Well, if you use PowerPoint as stated above, then it's going to fail miserably as a leave behind. What to do...
Both - The only way to use PowerPoint for both the presentation and the leave behind is to create two documents - the first designed as a presentation document and the second as a self explanatory leave behind. While I wouldn't go so far as to say this never works very well, I'm almost there. I just don't believe it competes with the difference in mindset one has when using Powerpoint versus Word. (BTW, if you do use PPT for both, just don't pass out your leave behind during the presentation. There's a reason it's referred to as the "leave behind.")
Neither - For those of you who are addicted to PowerPoint as if it's nicotine, consider trying other creative ways to make your case or tell your story. After delivering your presentation, try an alternative means of making your presentation stick with your audience. There's more to life than the PowerPoint leave behind.
Tomorrow, I thought I'd end the week with a Stamp Out Bad PowerPoint Toolkit including the all new "PowerPoint Patch" which works just like the nicotine patch. (PPT Gum waiting FDA Approval)
See you then!
Presentation Tool - As a presentation tool, used properly, PowerPoint can lend powerful visual and emotional enhancements to a well told story. That means using impactful visuals and very few words. You want your audience to pay attention to you, not simply read your remarks on a screen (as if you don't even need to be in the room).
Leave Behind - I recall when PowerPoint was first introduced into the workplace, people used it for the live presentation, but always drafted a complete narrative in the form of a Word document as a leave behind. Over time, people quickly surmised that if they're going to bullet point everything they're going to say anyway, then the PowerPoint presentation can double as the leave behind, saving lots of work by not having to create a separate Word document.
Consider of course that the purpose of the leave behind is so that later (whether having previously seen the presentation or not) someone can read the document in an unassisted environment and unequivocally grasp its purpose. Well, if you use PowerPoint as stated above, then it's going to fail miserably as a leave behind. What to do...
Both - The only way to use PowerPoint for both the presentation and the leave behind is to create two documents - the first designed as a presentation document and the second as a self explanatory leave behind. While I wouldn't go so far as to say this never works very well, I'm almost there. I just don't believe it competes with the difference in mindset one has when using Powerpoint versus Word. (BTW, if you do use PPT for both, just don't pass out your leave behind during the presentation. There's a reason it's referred to as the "leave behind.")
Neither - For those of you who are addicted to PowerPoint as if it's nicotine, consider trying other creative ways to make your case or tell your story. After delivering your presentation, try an alternative means of making your presentation stick with your audience. There's more to life than the PowerPoint leave behind.
Tomorrow, I thought I'd end the week with a Stamp Out Bad PowerPoint Toolkit including the all new "PowerPoint Patch" which works just like the nicotine patch. (PPT Gum waiting FDA Approval)
See you then!
The Kitchen Table Approach To Presenting
As part of one man's effort to stamp out bad PowerPoint, I've obtained some terrific input from the community at Linkedin, who have graciously offer their thoughtful suggestions that include alternatives to using PowerPoint and ways of employing it more effectively.
I look forward to sharing many of those insights later in the week. In the meantime, let me offer what I typically call the kitchen table approach to presenting. Consider all the conversations you've ever had with family and friends sitting across the kitchen table. I would guess that 99% of the time you're neither nervous, nor do you have difficulty succinctly making your point. You don't memorize what you're going to say, your just know what you want to say and you say it, free from worry about whether you forgot a small detail that most often matters more to you than to the effective delivery of the content.
Rehearse your next presentation at the kitchen table over coffee or your favorite beverage. Look the person in the eye, make your case, and do it from your heart. No slides, no memorized bullet points, no laptop on the table. This rehearsal technique works even if you plan to use PowerPoint in the actual presentation. The key is to create slides that bring your kitchen table speak to life, not to make your case in a manner that fits the slides.
Give it a try! My guess is that you'll be less nervous, your audience will be more engaged, and in the future, you may still use PowerPoint; you just won't have to rely on it.
I look forward to sharing many of those insights later in the week. In the meantime, let me offer what I typically call the kitchen table approach to presenting. Consider all the conversations you've ever had with family and friends sitting across the kitchen table. I would guess that 99% of the time you're neither nervous, nor do you have difficulty succinctly making your point. You don't memorize what you're going to say, your just know what you want to say and you say it, free from worry about whether you forgot a small detail that most often matters more to you than to the effective delivery of the content.
Rehearse your next presentation at the kitchen table over coffee or your favorite beverage. Look the person in the eye, make your case, and do it from your heart. No slides, no memorized bullet points, no laptop on the table. This rehearsal technique works even if you plan to use PowerPoint in the actual presentation. The key is to create slides that bring your kitchen table speak to life, not to make your case in a manner that fits the slides.
Give it a try! My guess is that you'll be less nervous, your audience will be more engaged, and in the future, you may still use PowerPoint; you just won't have to rely on it.
Monday, June 9, 2008
CSI Launches Discussion Group At PR Open Mic
PR Open Mic brings together students, faculty, and PR practitioners in what I've found to be a terrific social networking and educational experience. What better place to engage in a dialogue about client service excellence than in a forum that offers such a global confluence of perspectives. So over the weekend, I started the Client Service Insights group. Here's our reason for being:
Client Service is something we all do, and we all know how to do - or do we? To illustrate the point, running is something we're nearly born doing, but if we want to run faster or longer, we need to learn specific techniques to improve our performance.
To complicate matters, great client service is in the eye of the beholder. Every client has his/her own set of expectations. Delivering a consistent, high level of client service in a global marketplace across hundreds of industries to thousands of clients is no small task, but it's a worthy one.
Client service excellence can mean the difference between keeping a client and losing one; growing the business or allowing it to atrophy; and motivating a prospect to work with you or not. Let's talk about it. Share your insights.
PR Open Mic is directed by Auburn faculty member and PR practitioner Robert French. The membership is up to nearly to 1,200 people from more than 45 countries and 130 universities worldwide. And it's growing quickly. As for the CSI group, we're just a day or two old and while few in number, we're mighty in spirit. I invite you to join! So when you get a minute, check out PR Open Mic for yourself, sign up, make some friends, and join a group - or join a group to make some friends. Either way just dive in, the water's fine!
Client Service is something we all do, and we all know how to do - or do we? To illustrate the point, running is something we're nearly born doing, but if we want to run faster or longer, we need to learn specific techniques to improve our performance.
To complicate matters, great client service is in the eye of the beholder. Every client has his/her own set of expectations. Delivering a consistent, high level of client service in a global marketplace across hundreds of industries to thousands of clients is no small task, but it's a worthy one.
Client service excellence can mean the difference between keeping a client and losing one; growing the business or allowing it to atrophy; and motivating a prospect to work with you or not. Let's talk about it. Share your insights.
PR Open Mic is directed by Auburn faculty member and PR practitioner Robert French. The membership is up to nearly to 1,200 people from more than 45 countries and 130 universities worldwide. And it's growing quickly. As for the CSI group, we're just a day or two old and while few in number, we're mighty in spirit. I invite you to join! So when you get a minute, check out PR Open Mic for yourself, sign up, make some friends, and join a group - or join a group to make some friends. Either way just dive in, the water's fine!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Choose Visuals Over Bullet Points
As I continue to gather insights from a number of different forums about how to stamp out bad Powerpoint, I discovered a terrific video at Presentation Zen that talks about Dan Roam's book, The Back Of The Napkin. Next time you try PowerPoint, consider how you can use simple visuals to enhance your presentation rather than post bullet points that simply serve to repeat what you're saying. It's more fun for the presenter and will be greatly appreciated by your audience.
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