Don’t let these three myths doom your next presentation
Delivering an effective presentation isn’t easy, especially when you need to convey complex information. As a public engagement professional and facilitator, I’ve witnessed countless presentations by subject matter experts. These individuals are highly knowledgeable, yet time and again, they often have difficulty communicating their ideas to audiences in a way that’s accessible. From what I’ve seen, it comes down to three myths that are so entrenched that I fear they will continue to doom presenters without a radical change.
MYTH #1 If I tell my audience everything I know about X, they’ll be equipped to make informed choices
FACT: People can only take in so much information, and once they reach their saturation point, you’ve lost them.
Taking your audience on a data-heavy deep dive into your subject is like trying to give them a drink of water with a fire hose. It won’t satisfy their thirst, and they’ll just want to turn it off.
What to do instead:
Know your goal - Be clear about what you want your audience to come away with from your presentation. Do they need to make a decision, offer input, or take some kind of action? Once you’re clear about your goal, figure out what information you need to convey to equip them and discard everything else. For example, if your stakeholders need to make a decision about the location of a cycling path, they could likely benefit from understanding traffic patterns for the area. Your discussion of the history of transportation in your city, on the other hand, is likely unnecessary.
Pick three messages - If your audience comes away with just three pieces of information after your presentation, what do you want them to be? Choosing three messages will help you become laser-sharp about the information you truly need to cover. The fact is, people can’t absorb more than three messages in a session, and if you give them more than that, they might not even absorb more than one. Don’t waste your audience’s brain capacity, it’s precious.
Show the way to more info - Your job in a presentation about a complex issue is to provide the scaffolding that allows your audience to learn more. If you’ve given them the basics to help them understand the topic at hand, they’ll be ready to go deeper. Provide them with options for further learning and discovery.
MYTH #2 My detailed presentation slides will improve clarity
FACT: The more detailed your slides are, the more harm you’re doing to your presentation.
The best speakers don’t need slides to deliver an effective presentation. More times than not, slides are a distraction and take away from our message. They can enhance a presentation, but they are NOT your presentation.
What to do instead:
Replace bullet points with images - Think of the most compelling speakers you’ve seen. Maybe it was Steve Jobs at those early Apple events or a dynamic TED talk that blew you away. If these star presenters use slides at all, they do so sparingly and for visual emphasis. If you’re talking about that proposed new bike path, a photo of the area might make sense. A slide containing a detailed traffic data chart doesn’t. Remember, you want to avoid information overload. Use slides to reinforce a message, not add to it.
Create your presentation first, slides later - Too often, slides become a crutch, and we depend on them to deliver our messages. If you find yourself looking to your slides to guide you through your presentation (or worse, reading from them), start again. Your audience should engage with you, not the slides.
If you do use words, no more than eight - Seriously. A series of bullet points on a slide that your audience has to read and that you are likely repeating is not reinforcing anything—it’s pulling your audience in two different directions.
Myth #3 If the subject really matters to people, they’ll be engaged and absorb everything I have to tell them
FACT: A bad presentation can make the most interesting topic a total bore.
People consume captivating content every day via their various digital devices. It’s a standard they’re used to. You need to make your information accessible and engaging to grab attention and keep it.
What to do instead:
Use stories- Humans have evolved telling stories—they are how we make sense of the world and each other. Find ways to incorporate anecdotes to illustrate your data, facts, and circumstances.
Pay attention to form - Vary your speaking tone, volume, and pace to punctuate your messages. Avoid lulling your audience to sleep with a monotone, unvarying delivery. Note how you stand, move and express emotion.
Involve your audience - Find ways to get your audience to actively process the information you’re giving them. I’m not talking about launching into a Q&A. Rather, get them to turn to a neighbour for a minute and share what they’ve learned so far or ask them to write the top three words that come to mind on a topic in the chatbox during a virtual presentation. Involving your audience in these ways will make your presentation more likely to stick.
Practice - Yes, you know your stuff, but please practice your presentation several times, ideally in front of a co-worker or friend, to make sure that you’re communicating effectively. Consider recording yourself on video. When your review it, ask yourself if you would want to sit through your presentation as an audience member. Watching yourself present can also reveal body tics and tendencies that might detract from your delivery, such as swaying, excessive hand movements, or repetitive throat clearing.
Myth #4 If people don’t know everything I know about a topic, they can’t provide useful input and feedback.
FACT: People are experts in their own lives.
This myth is specifically important to public engagement practitioners.
Effective and meaningful public engagement doesn’t require community members or stakeholders to become technical experts. More often than not, our organizations already have that expertise. Public engagement at its best is when we combine LIVED experience with technical expertise to form a new and different understanding of an issue or problem.
What to do instead:
Ask before you give: Find out from your participants or community members what information would be useful or helpful from their perspective.
Connect people to technical findings - When presenting information, share the information and then offer to connect it to people and their everyday experiences. For example, if you are talking about building a bridge and what’s needed, ALSO talk about how people would use the bridge and what might change in their lives as a result of its construction.
Share the good, bad and the ugly - Our participants don’t want a sales pitch or to hear the long listing of benefits a project will bring–that isn’t meaningful public engagement. When sharing information with stakeholders, be ready to tell the whole story, including the negative impacts.
Resources
There are so many resources available on public speaking and presenting. Some of my favourites include:
Using Stories to Rally Your Audiences to Action - The Speak Good Podcast
Talk Like Ted - The 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds by Carmine Gallo You can also watch the talk here.
How to speak so that people want to listen - Julian Treasure TedTalk
