Do These Four Things To Make Your Boring Presentation Sound Interesting
Let’s be real for a second: You don’t have a monumental bit of
news to report every time you have to give a presentation. Maybe the third
Tuesday of the month has just rolled around, and it’s time to update your team
on the latest batch of figures. And whatever status report, project
review, or operational details you’re going to share with them, you know it’ll
be dull.
So how do you make those basic facts and figures more
than a form of ritualized torture? Here are a few pointers.
1. TURN DATA INTO IMAGES
If you’re worried your presentation is going to be boring because
it’s heavy on numbers, try using imagery to describe the data. Numbers can
become dull if you don’t give enough context about what they all mean
and amount to. Unless you make the data concrete, your audience will start to
zone out.
It’s simpler than you probably imagine. Think about the last
weather report you caught on TV. Maybe the meteorologist was
reporting on the size of hail. They didn’t list off the average
hailstone’s diameter or weight; they said “golf-ball sized” or
“softball-sized.” By using imagery, they become much more engaging and
memorable. What’s more, you don’t need to be a graphic designer to throw together effective visualizations; here are a few tips.
a. DISTILL YOUR KEY MESSAGE INTO A SIMPLE IMAGE
Don’t just illustrate. One of the best ways to make an
impact is by connecting an image to the core of whatever you’re trying to say.
The image should be something simple that’s easy to remember but has great
explanatory power. For example, here’s an image we use in a speaking bootcamp
my firm runs.
To be fair, this image looks like a PowerPoint image. Design critics
may have some suggestions to make, but that isn’t the point–it’s still
effective. This image translates the concept of interconnectivity at scale; we
go from dozens of discrete boxes to a completely connected whole. Businesses
tend to operate with so many different units that don’t always communicate with
each other. So if you’re pushing for a more holistic approach to your
organization’s communication, this type of concrete, straightforward image may
be more effective than something more abstract and evocative, like a spider web
or a group of cheerleaders getting in formation.
b. USE CONCEPTUAL IMAGES, NOT LITERAL ONES
Which brings us to Tip #2. Using conceptual images is
smarter than resorting to literal ones, but you don’t want to float into abstraction,
either. It’s important to strike a balance. You want to avoid literal imagery
for two reasons:
- It may not illustrate the nuances
of what you’re talking about.
- It can cause your audience to
immediately think about personal connections they may have to the image,
which may not be relevant to your story.
In the above examples, maybe your listeners hate spiders
or used to cheerlead in high school–and now, instead of thinking about
interconnectivity, they’re thinking about that.
That’s why, in order to discuss “flexibility,” we show a PowerPoint slide with
this image:
This conceptual image visualizes the idea that
you can make choices while maintaining your momentum. A more abstract depiction
of flexibility–something bending, like a corn stalk in the wind–wouldn’t have
expressed that. And a more literal one–like a photo of an actual highway
roundabout–would’ve prodded participants to start thinking about the last time
they were in traffic.
b. USE CONCEPTUAL IMAGES, NOT LITERAL ONES
Once you tie your message to an image, make sure you
introduce it image early in order to set the tone for the rest of your
presentation. Then reinforce your message by putting the image on multiple
slides throughout your presentation. You can even use the it as a highlight on
each slide, like your presentation’s own personal trademark.
Don’t be afraid of seeming
repetitive. It’s true that many people find PowerPoints dull already, so you
may hesitate to introduce any redundancy. But not only is repetition acceptable
in order to maintain your audience’s attention, it’s actually required. As
Winston Churchill said,
“If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use
a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it
a third time–a tremendous whack.” By repeating your big idea frequently–and
visually–you’ll ensure that your audience is never left asking, “What was the
point?”
No, these aren’t high-tech, aesthetically cutting-edge
strategies, and they were just as effective last year and the year before that
as they will be right now, in 2017. That’s the point, though. Some of the most
powerful communication strategies don’t
require bells and whistles and
are largely immune to changes in technology–they’re just about how our brains
absorb and process information.
That can be easy to lose sight of. When you design a
PowerPoint deck, you think about copy, backgrounds, font size, and maybe even
transitions–and that’s the limit of your aesthetic considerations. But don’t
get so caught up in the details that you forget what’s most important: Do your
slides help you tell your story, or are they just wallpaper? If it’s the
latter, get ready to put your audience to sleep. It doesn’t take a design
degree to wake them up.
2. MAKE SURE YOU’RE SELLING SOMETHING
The surest way to wreck an already boring presentation is to just
be the messenger, delivering data or giving an update. In reality, you’re always selling. As
the CEO of a Fortune 500 company told me, “Every time you present, you are
selling. You’re either selling your idea today or planting the seed for selling
your idea in the future.”
And to sell successfully, you need to position yourself as
your audience’s trusted advisor. As Mitch Little, VP of sales for
Microchip Technology, describes in his book Shiftability, that
means getting past “features” to talk about “benefits”—matching your ideas
to your listeners’ needs. They’ll trust you when they see you as a partner
whose opinion they value—who helps them see things they might’ve missed.
Yes, that might sound like a tall order when you’re giving a
quarterly update. But try stepping back for a moment and thinking about
the purpose of that update. Move away from, “I’m just
giving them information and telling them why it’s important” toward, “I want to
explore how we can move forward together more creatively.” This change in
mind-set will can help you position your data in a more “benefits”-oriented
way.
3. ADD MORE CONTEXT
Sometimes the reason your presentation is so dull is because
there’s not much numerical change since the last time you presented.
This is really common for leaders who are asked to report on market share,
for instance. If you’ve maintained the same market share since your last
presentation, how can you make that interesting?
The answer is to just add more context around the latest figures.
Let’s say your organization’s market share was the same from the first quarter
to the second quarter. To make your presentation more interesting, you could
discuss some of the outside factors that were at play. Obviously, you always
want growth. But perhaps a competitor introduced a new product—in that case,
maintaining the same level of market share was actually positive news.
You can also put information in context through comparison.
For example, if I tell you that Poland exported $1.6 billion of chocolate last
year, that’s not necessarily an interesting data point. But if I tell you that
it produced twice the amount of chocolate that Switzerland did,
that might surprise you. So if you’re having trouble making your facts and
figures sound interesting, look for comparisons.
4. SHARE SOMETHING THEY’VE NEVER HEARD BEFORE
Finally, if you’re struggling to spice up a dull presentation,
tell your audience something unfamiliar. Share a compelling conversation
you had or some insider information that few people know about yet. That can
create an “aha” moment for your audience to come away with.
Maybe you work in financial services and need to give a
status report. Unfortunately, not much has changed. But you did have an
interesting conversation with someone from the Federal Reserve, who told you
that a proposed regulation was going to be rolled out slowly. This would be
something you could tell your audience that would make your presentation more
intriguing.
You might feel like you work in a boring industry or department,
but that doesn’t mean you can’t engage your audience. These simple
strategies can help you leave more of an impact—even if the facts and figures,
all on their own, don’t.
All
that data needs to be in there—what can you do? Well, this.
BY ANETT GRANT
https://www.fastcompany.com/40430912/do-these-four-things-to-make-your-boring-presentation-sound-interesting
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