MBA In A Day Chapter 10 docx

The most important parameters are topic and theme, time, program, preservation, audience, place, and ques-tions.. It is important shortly beforethe presentation to redefine the parameter

Communications

and Presentations

Presentations can range from a short talk before a small group of

acquaintances or colleagues to a lengthy speech to a group ofstrangers No matter the audience or the setting, formal or infor-mal, small or large, the best presentations leave the audience informedand interested They want to know more about the subject matter andoften have insightful comments and questions for the presenter A badpresentation, in contrast, leaves the audience confused or bored andoften makes them wonder why they wasted their time A poor presen-tation detracts from the importance of the subject matter and can bedetrimental to the reputation of the presenter

In addition to length and format, presentations can also vary instyle The main purpose of a presentation is to communicate ideas andinformation Effective means of communicating ideas and informationcan also vary and may include persuasion, instruction, inspiration, orentertainment

Regardless of length, format, or purpose, presentations are an portant and useful tool in all aspects of business Given their impor-tance, it is surprising that few classes are available on how to present

im-Chapter

more effectively All too often associates are assigned the task of “giving

a presentation” and then left to their own devices No wonder so many

individuals list public speaking as their greatest fear

This chapter will assist you in becoming a better presenter byproviding you with knowledge about the processes of developing an

effective presentation style and format This is accomplished by asking

important questions and providing useful tips that will help in

examin-ing the different stages of the presentation process

TO PRESENT OR NOT TO PRESENT

The first and most important question is whether this presentation is

a choice or a requirement If it is a choice you need to ask yourself

some important questions before agreeing to present Preparing for a

presentation takes time A rough estimate for an effective presentation

is that it takes 30 to 60 minutes of preparation for each minute of

de-livery Do you have enough focused time prior to the presentation to

properly prepare? In addition, are you interested, excited, and

suffi-ciently knowledgeable about the subject matter to deliver an effective

and enthusiastic presentation? If the answer to either of these

ques-tions is a clear “no,” you should seriously consider turning down the

offer to present

BEFORE THE PRESENTATION

Some time spent in planning will pay off Not only will the

presenta-tion be better prepared, the planning process will increase your

confi-dence and be reflected in a more convincing presentation performance

Define the Parameters

Knowing the parameters beforehand will limit uncertainties and

sur-prises and make you better prepared to deliver a targeted, informative,

and interesting presentation The most important parameters are topic

and theme, time, program, preservation, audience, place, and

ques-tions Some of these parameters can be determined prior to the

presen-tation More than likely one or two of the later ones will changeslightly by the day of the presentation It is important shortly beforethe presentation to redefine the parameters to make sure that none ofthe changes will dramatically affect your presentation.

Topic and Theme. What will you be talking about? Will you beproviding a general overview of this topic or highlights of recent activ-ities? Where do you want to go in your presentation of this material?

Time. How much time do you have to make your presentation? It is asimple question to ask, but all too often a presenter finds himself orherself a number on the agenda or a name on the program There may

be a general sense that the talk will take 10 minutes or an hour, but nospecifics are provided

Program. Will there be other speakers presenting? How will the formation in your presentation compare or contrast with the topicscovered by other speakers? What is the order of the presentations? Areyou expected to provide an exciting introduction to the program or acomprehensive summary?

in-Preservation. In the age of digital camcorders and cable television,presentations are often recorded or televised for future viewing or pub-lic consumption If you think this could be the case with your presen-tation, ask If your presentation is being taped, you should ask for acopy This will be a valuable resource for reviewing your presentationand your presentation style It will serve as a useful tool if you areasked to give a similar presentation at a later date

Audience. To whom will you be presenting? Giving a talk abouttrees to a group of executives in the lumber industry would be signifi-cantly different from giving the same talk to the members of an envi-ronmental group Research your audience beforehand What is theirbackground and how knowledgeable are they about your subject mat-ter? What are they expecting from the presentation and how can youadd value to their experience? Are they expecting to be informed,amused, or challenged? How many individuals are expected to attendyour presentation? If you are presenting to a group or an organization,

especially one with which you are unfamiliar, take a few moments to

find out more about it Simple and useful information can often be

found on the organization’s web site or in one of its recent newsletters

What issues are most important to the members? If the group often

hosts presenters, look for references to past presenters What did these

presenters talk about, and how were they received?

Place. Where is the presentation going to take place? How are the

acoustics of the space? What audio-video resources are available at this

location? Will you be able to connect your laptop to the audio-video

system at this location or will you need to load your program onto a

computer already at the site? Will there be someone there to assist you

with audio-video equipment? Will there be a stage, podium,

micro-phone, table, chairs? Will the audience be seated facing you, or will

they be seated around dinner tables? (If possible try to avoid big gaps

between you and the audience Make the setting as intimate as

possi-ble.) If you are using a screen for your presentation, where will this

screen be located? (Try to get the screen set off to the side rather than

in the center of the stage or on a back wall This will allow you to

ref-erence it more easily and move around the stage more comfortably.)

Question-and-Answer Component. Will there be questions at

the end of the presentation? Will there be a moderator to take

ques-tions or will you be expected to handle them yourself? If there are

sev-eral presenters, will questions be taken at the end of your presentation

or after all the presenters have spoken?

Purpose

Knowing your topic and theme is obviously important in delivering an

effective presentation Knowing why you are presenting, however, is

equally important After taking the time to analyze the audience and

assess their needs, decide how these needs can best be met Four

com-mon purposes for a presentation include persuasion, instruction,

in-spiration, and entertainment Persuasion is a method for bringing an

audience around to your point of view Instruction is used to share

ba-sic information about your topic Inspiration is effective when used

during a change of process, procedure, or direction Entertainment

lightens the mood Often these purposes are used to varying degrees in

a presentation The important point is that in preparing for your sentation you take a moment to think about what purpose is the mostimportant and effective for your presentation and your audience Tohelp determine the purpose of your presentation, ask yourself whatyou want people in the audience to do as a result of having heard yourpresentation What concepts do you want your audience to leave with?

pre-Preparing Your Presentation

As mentioned earlier, for an effective presentation you can expect tospend 30 to 60 minutes of preparation time for each minute of deliv-ery This means that to deliver a one-hour presentation, one can ex-pect 30 to 60 hours of preparation This is realistic given the research,preparation, and practice that must go into developing effective pre-sentation materials

In the current business environment it is often difficult to findtime to focus on any one particular project Interruptions are common,and it always takes a little extra time to mentally reengage and focus onwhat you were previously doing If you want to give an engrossing pre-sentation you need to dedicate your full attention to your presentation.Schedule an appointment with yourself well ahead of your presenta-tion date to make sure that time will be available Forward your calls,turn off your cell phone and pager, resist the urge to check your e-mail,and put a Do Not Disturb sign on your door Sometimes the best ap-proach is to find a location to work on your presentation outside ofyour normal office environment

Materials. After you have taken time to define the parameters andask some important questions about the topic and purpose, it is time

to begin assembling materials for your presentation This process volves several steps including collection, organization, writing an out-line and rough draft, editing and then reviewing the draft

in-1 Collection Pull together information that you think best suits

your topic while addressing the purpose of your presentation.What information do you have on hand? Is there any infor-mation that is out of date or needs to be supplemented with

additional materials? Is there anyone who may be able to vide you with further useful information?

pro-2 Organization Go through the materials you have collected and

sort them into groups based on themes and topics

3 Outline and rough draft Develop a rough outline of your

pre-sentation What topics and themes are appropriate for the beginning, middle, and end of your presentation? Expand onyour outline to develop a rough draft of your presentation

Remember, this is a rough draft Try to determine what are going to be the key points of your presentation Write severalsentences addressing each of the themes and topics contained

in your outline Try to identify at least five key points Morethan seven key points is an indication that you may be trying

to convey too much information in your presentation Doesstarting with these key points, in light of your overall themeand purpose, succinctly tell your audience what you are going

to say? Taken together do they successfully summarize yourpresentation?

4 Editing For many novice presenters, this part of the

presenta-tion process receives the least attenpresenta-tion Given time and ergy constraints, one may decide to wing it with a rough draft

en-in hand For most, however, taken-ing the time to edit the roughdraft will be well worth the time and effort It makes the dif-ference between a fair presentation and an excellent one Edit-ing the rough draft is best begun by letting a bit of time to passbetween the writing and the editing This allows for a freshapproach In the editing process think about how the presen-tation can move from the written to the spoken word Thiscan be done by simplifying and solidifying the text Cut un-necessary ideas and words, remove or clarify any jargon, andshorten sentences In addition, support your ideas with anec-dotes and examples At the end of this process you shouldhave a written copy of what you’d like to say in your presenta-tion and how you’d like to say it

5 Review Take the time to thoroughly review your edited draft.

Read though it out loud several times If possible do this infront of friends or colleagues Ask them for criticism and feed-

back on delivery, content, and style Is the length appropriatefor the time allotted? Are the ideas conveyed clearly? Are theoverall theme and purpose maintained?

Preparing for Delivery

Once the material has been pulled into a spoken format that stays true

to the theme and purpose of the presentation, it is time to refine thedelivery process This can be done through the identification of keywords and phrases, the selection of appropriate presentation aids, re-hearsal, and preparing for questions

Keys to an Effective Delivery. One of the most important keys

to a successful presentation is eye contact With a written draft inhand, some presenters will keep their eyes glued to the printed pageand neglect to make eye contact with their audience Unless you aredelivering a very formal address or speaking to the press, sticking tothe exact words of the draft can be unnecessary and stifling For amore spontaneous and original approach, which involves more eyecontact with the audience, it is useful to identify key words andphrases in the draft These prompts will be the basis of your draft oryour visual aids Stepping away from the script, rehearse your pre-sentation using these prompts What do these key words and phrasesconvey? How do they fit into the presentation as a whole? Transferthese prompts to index cards and practice giving your presentationusing these cards Work toward linking these prompts together inyour mind and using fewer and fewer of the cards Continue practic-ing this process

Presentation Aids. Even though the rough draft developed fromthe materials you collected is the main structure of your presentation,there are a variety of aids that can be used to support your topic,theme, and purpose These include computer-generated graphics, mul-timedia, and overhead transparencies There is nothing more discon-certing, however, than a presentation with poor presentation aids.Instead of supporting your presentation, they detract from it by draw-ing the audience’s attention away from what you are saying A Mi-crosoft PowerPoint slide with a solid paragraph of text will accomplish

one of two things: It will either put the audience immediately to sleep

or pull all eyes to the screen for the next five minutes as people

care-fully try to comprehend the meaning of the words before them Use

presentation aids to support the presentation and encourage

conversa-tion between the audience and the presenter Make sure to have a

printed copy of each of your visual presentation aids in case there are

problems with technology and you need to refer to an important

num-ber or point Regardless of which aids you use in your presentation, it

is important that all aids meet the following criteria:

✔ Fit with the script you have developed from your rough draft

They should either summarize or add value to what you aresaying at a particular point in your presentation

✔ Flow with the script Do the aids fit smoothly together withthe topic, theme, and purpose as they develop in your script?

✔ Are they appropriate for the size and type of audience and thevenue where the presentation is taking place? Does an infor-mal audience of five need a multimedia presentation?

✔ Look clear, readable, and consistent from all places in theroom where the presentation is to take place

✔ Display content simply and effectively Cluttered and complexslides take attention away from your presentation

✔ Use appropriate graphics such as drawings, charts, and ics to support a particular point or issue

graph-Remember that the main structure of the presentation is thescript, not the presentation aids The simpler, clearer, and more precise

you can make your presentation aids, the more effective they will be in

supporting your topic, theme, and purpose If you have questions

about the quality and clarity of any presentations aids, rehearse your

presentation for a trusted colleague, friend, or family member and ask

for constructive feedback and criticism

What’s the Point of PowerPoint? Advances in technology have

increased the percentage of information we receive visually This has

been especially true since Microsoft brought PowerPoint into our lives

and dramatically changed the nature of presentations Microsoft

re-leased PowerPoint in 1987 and since then over 400 million copies havebeen installed on computers worldwide Estimates are that it is used inapproximately 30 million presentations each day Some people are nowsurprised if they attend a presentation and PowerPoint is not part ofthe program Many of us, however, look forward to a PowerPoint pre-sentation with all the excitement of a root canal A dark room, a bluebackground with white lettering, and we struggle to stay awake andwonder what all that information was about that was flashed up on thescreen only minutes ago PowerPoint is not a required element of apresentation, but it can be a useful tool Remember, it’s not the slidesthemselves that are the problem so much as it is the content of theslides and how well the presenter uses them.

One of the biggest problems with PowerPoint is that althoughsome organizations encourage its use there is rarely any emphasis onteaching people how to use it effectively In addition, some companiesand organizations require the use of a particular template or insist thatthe organization’s logo be present on each slide This results in poorlydesigned and ineffective presentation aids that detract from a presen-ter’s ability to establish a personal relationship with the audience.Some of these problems can be dealt with, while others must beworked around

One way to counter these problems is to focus on PowerPoint sics rather than on text animation, clip art, video clips, and colorfulbackgrounds The more complex a presentation, the more likely it willupstage the presenter To keep slides visually simple, use a limit of sixwords to one line and five lines to a slide Also use no more than threecolors per slide

ba-PowerPoint should be used to provide a map of what you aretalking about and to help provide context for the rest of your presenta-tion Don’t use PowerPoint as a surrogate for your speech PowerPoint

is not a teleprompter In fact, putting less material on a slide can vide a unique opportunity for discussion, but make sure that youknow the material you are presenting so as to fill in the details Whenworking with the program make sure that you know the technologywell: What cable goes where? How do you advance a slide? Thesequestions should be answered before you enter the room Use the

pro-“Notes” view of PowerPoint to write out what you’d like to say in yourpresentation This will serve as a valuable check in making sure that

what is shown on the slide directly relates to what you are saying In

addition, it preserves a more detailed copy of your presentation to

share with others or to review at a later date Don’t spend too much

time on PowerPoint, though, especially if you are not an expert with

the program; time can be better spent working with the core materials

of your presentation and rehearsing your delivery Minimize the

num-ber of slides you use in a presentation The fewer slides the better If

there is additional material that needs to be shared, use handouts

Learn to use the “B” key, which will black out the screen, giving your

audience a chance to shift their focus away from the screen and back to

the most important part of the presentation: you

If you are comfortable with PowerPoint and feel that your tation of the basics is sufficiently covered, take a step or two away from

presen-the bullet point format presented in presen-the PowerPoint templates

Alter-natives do exist, and these can add meaning and depth to your

presen-tation Some examples of these are the use of PowerPoint’s text boxes,

diagramming tools, and AutoShapes If you want to use more graphics

in your presentation, PowerPoint makes it easy to add images—a

chart, table, or diagram Think about symbols and analogies that can

be used to emphasize your point

Rehearsal. Similar to the process of editing the rough draft

men-tioned before, rehearsal is another part of the presentation process that

is often skipped over With a script, a few prompts, and some clever

presentation aids, some presenters are ready to go Once again,

how-ever, taking the time to rehearse the presentation will prove

worth-while in the long run It will smooth over rough patches, reveal areas

that may need further attention, and make you more comfortable

about delivering the presentation Rehearsing in front of others can be

particularly beneficial and can bring up certain things that may have

been overlooked earlier, such as a lack of eye contact, forgetting to

smile, putting your hands in your pockets, or turning your back to the

audience If you want to make sure you are mindful of these issues

during your presentation, write them down on an index card and place

the card in front of you during your presentation

During the rehearsal process take a moment to reflect on the styleand content of your delivery Does your presentation stay focused and

avoid wandering off on tangents? Does it deliver a clear message to

your audience? Don’t be afraid to fine-tune your presentation in order

to address some of these issues This will help maintain the focus andattention of your audience

Preparing for Questions. Try to anticipate some of the questionsyour audience might ask How can these questions be answered refer-encing your presentation or your visual aids? Are there any questionsthat might require a bit more research on your part?

The Eleventh Hour

After defining the parameters, developing a script, and preparing thedelivery, the time will finally come to give the presentation Thereare several important things to think of in the hours before this mo-ment arrives To cover any last-minute problems, you should rede-fine the parameters, check yourself, double-check your materials,and arrive early

Revisit the Presentation Parameters. As mentioned earlier,some of the parameters can be determined prior to the presentation;others will change slightly by the day of the presentation It is impor-tant to take another look at the parameters to make sure that none ofthe changes will dramatically affect your presentation Review the pa-rameters and address any concerns or problems Have there been anychanges in the program or agenda? Has your presentation been moved

in the program? Will someone be introducing you? Who is that son, and does he or she need anything from you prior to your intro-duction? Will someone be asking audience members to turn off theircell phones and pagers? You should request this if possible

per-Another parameter that often changes the day of the tion is the size of the audience, which will have a lot to do with howyou choose to address the formality and style of your presentation.For small groups of 5 to 10, the presentation will often be informal.You can remain seated and work to develop a more personal relation-ship with your audience members For an audience containing between 10 and 30 individuals, it is still possible to develop relation-ships, but the style will probably be more formal With an audience

presenta-of this size, visual presentation aids become useful When the