Question: What is shiny, colorful, ubiquitous (300 million copies sold worldwide), and can absolutely destroy your ability to deliver a persuasive presentation?
Answer: That set of PowerPoint slides you are probably working on right now.
In what surely is the best example of I can think of to prove the old adage, “Familiarity breeds contempt,” PowerPoint technology and its ilk have inundated the presentation and public speaking arena like a stifling outbreak of tribbles from an old Star Trek episode. Looking back now, I suppose it wasn’t such a bad idea. After all, visual enhancements are supposed to reinforce the mind’s natural learning processes and help audiences retain more of what you tell them. Of course, that presumes that they are paying attention, and therein lies the problem with the way PowerPoint-style presentations are used today.
Question: If a picture is worth a thousand words, what are a thousand pictures worth?
Answer: NOTHING!
Day after day, in classrooms, boardrooms and auditoriums around the world, people sit and stare at screens in semi-darkened rooms, daydreaming about trips to Fiji and scrolling through their Blackberry’s while some unfortunate soul stands at the front of the room and drones through slide after slide in an attempt to deliver information that someone believes to be important, though at the moment it is hard to understand why. He might as well be reading straight from an old-fashioned hand out, for all the good this modern technology is accomplishing.
Where did the PowerPoint revolution go wrong? There is nothing intrinsically wrong or evil about PowerPoint slides. They are just tools to enhance communication, like overhead projectors and flip charts and those old-fashioned mimeographed handouts that came before them. But somewhere along the way, people forgot that PowerPoint was a tool – a means to an end – and began to mistake it for the end itself. In other words, people began to assume that if they just strung together enough information in a glitzy, attractive way, making liberal use of colors and animation – even sound effects and special effects – the entertainment value and the high-tech ambience would imbue our presentation with the credibility necessary to create maximum impact on the audience.
Well, it doesn’t really work like that. Let me tell you why.
The persuasive power of your presentation doesn’t issue from your content, as important as it may be. If all people needed was the content, why even bring people together for a presentation? Why not just email them the PowerPoint file and they could watch it at home? The reason is that we humans are affected by our personal interaction with other humans. Our opinions and decisions are subject to influence in the presence of a persuasive person. That person may make use of PowerPoint slides to achieve a certain impact, but the PowerPoint is not what drives the presentation.
I am strongly convinced – and psychological research bears this out – that people are strongly influenced by body language, gestures, eye contact and tone of voice. In a very real sense, the messenger actually becomes the message. An effective presenter or public speaker takes the entire audience along for the ride, connecting with individuals one by one and eye to eye, inspiring them and cajoling them with compelling variations in tone of voice, and reinforcing the urgency and sincerity of the message through body language and gestures that mirror the scope of the content’s implications. Consciously or unconsciously, the audience resonates with these non-verbal cues and either accepts or rejects the speaker’s premise on that basis. At the very least, the personal energy the speaker invests into connecting with the audience sets the parameters for how much value the information will offer to the listener.
So, you tell me, when the attention of the audience is focused on the screen, reading along with the speaker (except they are reading silently at twice the rate he can read out loud) what happens to the impact of eye contact, body language, and tone of voice? Obviously, it is mostly lost, and the opportunity to effectively communicate the full impact your could have had message is gone with it.
This doesn’t mean you have to ditch the PowerPoint; just scale way back on the number of slides you use and change the way you use them. PowerPoint is a good tool to use when:
? Citing important statistics involving graphs and series of numbers
? Bridging from one outline topic to the next
? Introducing a KEY fact or point of emphasis
? Displaying a dramatic visual
Keep the lens covered until time to reveal your next slide. Even when you are showing the slide, LOOK AT THE AUDIENCE! Never break eye contact or turn your back on the people. Keep your energy up and allow your body language to flow naturally with the message your are speaking, not the slide you are showing.
Quit hiding behind the slides, and don’t expect them to do your work for you. Stand tall, speak clearly, be enthusiastic, maintain eye contact at all times, and show a slide only every once in a while when you need to make a big point. Your audience will thank you, and they are certainly much more likely to remember the crux of your message tomorrow.
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December Tip of the Month – Prepare in Advance for Questions
Some of the most valuable time you have comes during the Q and A after your formal presentation is finished. Make a list in advance of all the questions your audience might ask – even ones you would rather not answer – and develop solid, confident answers for each one. Open the Q and A with a smile and a warm invitation. Make eye contact with each questioner, restate the question for the audience, and address the entire audience. Don’t just focus on one person. A lot of other people are probably interested in the answer, too. This is a great way to enhance the power of your presentation. You can emphasize old points and even make new ones, without wearing on the patience of your audience. If you are well prepared, the Q and A can win you extra points with key decision makers.
