The YouBlog

Something Bigger Than Expected

SETH GODIN HAS AN INTRIGUING NEW POST today, entitled "Thinking Bigger". He covers a lot of territory in a few words, but what I like about it for presenters is this: What are you doing to go beyond the expectations of your audience?
        Given that the vast majority of presentations are stale, boring, bullet-laden dirges, it doesn't take a lot. Even simplifying your visual presentation, as so well defined by Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte, is a major leap forward for most.
        But what about changing the conversation — or, rather, making your presentation into a conversation? What about starting with the end of your presentation and then working backwards? Or closing your laptop after you've shown the first slide, moving closer to your audience, and saying, "Here's what's really important for us to talk about."
        What are you doing to engage their minds? That's where "Bigger" grows.

The Blink of an Eye

THAT'S HOW LONG IT TAKES most people to make very sophisticated judgements. I've written about this before (in "Snap Judgements"), but there's new scientific evidence that further substantiates it. I came across this in a New York Times article, "Gut Instinct's Surprising Role in Math". And while it's written from a perspective of mathematics, the underlying lesson applies quite strongly to how people make decisions — a subject that every sales person, marketer, or presenter should care a lot about.
        To drive their point home, they created a quick test that you've got to try. It's fast and fun and quite compelling. It also shows, in a visual, visceral way, that people know a lot in very little time. Most people will get your point long before you fully deliver it, and they'll decide how they feel about it — yea or nea — long before you get to your "money slide" (i.e. the big payoff). In fact, they'll probably make their judgement before you leave your first slide and, most of the time, they'll stick with that assessment.
        So take the test — and then remember it the next time you're preparing a presentation.

(NB: I got 8 out of 10 right. How about you?)

The Metronome Effect

IT'S EASY TO MISS THIS when you're putting together your presentation. You've got so much to say or so much that you want/need to cover. So you start bashing it into PowerPoint, thinking about all the important points you're going to make. And you look at it when you've finalized your slide deck and, yep, you've got it all there.
        But lost in all that deep thinking and planning and preparing is this: the effect that your presentation has on the people who will be experiencing it. If you have lots of bullet points, spanning several slides, all that text and all those bullets become like a metronome.
        Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
        Pretty soon, your audience has even stopped reading the text on your slides, because it's too daunting to try to figure it all out.
        And then all that deep thinking and all that preparation you did is pretty much lost (as is maybe your opportunity?).
        Sure, you can throw some graphics in there, but those become part of the metronomic rhythm if there's not a compelling story told by the graphics.

So what do you do?
Have no more than one slide with bullet points on it, and put that near the end, when you want them to remember the most important ideas or items (which are what you put on that one bullet slide).
        For everything else, use a picture, use a single word or two in a big graphic fashion — or don't use anything and have a slide deck with only one slide.
        Wouldn't that be memorable? Absolutely.