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Another Boring Microsoft Presentation

by R. L. Howser on March 22, 2011 · 0 comments

Apple’s Steve Jobs gets a lot of attention for his presentations, as he should. He’s a masterful showman and he understands far better than most how to grab and hold the audience’s attention through a spare visual style, focused writing and deliberate pacing, full of dramatic vocal pauses.

Microsoft executives, on the other hand, are generally mocked for their visually overproduced presentation slides and artless speaking style. So when I stumbled across this video of Steve Balmer opening a Microsoft gathering, my first instinct was to laugh at how ridiculous Balmer was, especially as I had just finished watching the ever cool Jobs.

The point of the presentation was to fire up the troops at Microsoft. If the purpose of a presentation opening is to get the attention of the audience and set the tone for the presentation to follow, then didn’t Balmer do just that? We can still laugh at Balmer, just on principle, and I can’t say I’d ever open a presentation like that, but you have to give him credit for getting the job done.

Not bad for a multi-billionaire.

 

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The Point of PowerPoint

by R. L. Howser on March 7, 2011 · 0 comments

A friend of mine asked me a pointed question the other night. I mentioned that I had just finished a big project that had involved more than 1,000 PowerPoint slides, when she smirked and said, “And this from the guy who says we should all speak naked?”

She thought she had nailed me in a contradiction, but I’m not anti-PowerPoint at all.  I think it is a tremendously useful tool, but like any other tool it can be used well or badly. A hammer can be used to build houses for the homeless or to hit people on the head (I seem to be using a lot of hammer analogies lately).

What I am is anti audience abuse. Far too often, speakers abuse their audiences with PowerPoint by directly presenting reams of complex data. They abuse their audiences by using it, and other tools, to cover for their own laziness and lack of preparation; by presenting their notes instead of learning their material.

PowerPoint can’t give your presentation for you. It’s a poor substitute for a dynamic speaker with a clear point to make and the skills to get that point across, but it is brilliant at reinforcing your point.

Our thoughts are made up of cascading waves of neurons firings in our brains. These waves spread along a virtually infinite number and combination of connections triggering fragmentary sensations, sounds and images that our brains then piece together into coherent thoughts. Each time such a cascade occurs in a specific way, those connections are made a bit stronger.

I’m no neuroscientist, so I’ll go no deeper than that into the biology, but what it tells us as speakers is that we have an opportunity to use biology to our advantage. We can make our message more understandable, more powerful and more memorable by giving our brains as many connections as possible to the ideas we are presenting.

One of the great triumphs of human evolution is the ability to think abstractly, but it’s a tenuous beachhead. The older parts of our brains that process our sensory impressions of the tangible world and the primitive emotions they trigger are far more robust and reliable. They are able to handle more data, with better recall.

That’s why you can perhaps recall quite clearly how hot your high school Spanish teacher looked in her yellow sweater and the way her thick, glossy, black hair bobbed and danced as she wrote on the blackboard, yet you can’t recall more than about 1% of the verb conjugations she repeatedly, and patiently, explained. Or maybe that’s just me.

We just are better at remembering the real, the concrete, the tangible than we are the abstract. To the extent that we can link our abstract ideas to the tangible, we make it easier for our audiences to understand and remember our abstract messages. In practical terms, this means linking our abstract ideas to images, stories, analogies, acronyms and actions that our brains are designed to more easily recall.

PowerPoint gives us the ability to present pictures, graphics and the visual representations of our key words and ideas as we say them. Each new mode of presentation triggers new and different neural cascades that create new connections to the information and strengthens the connections that already exist.

That’s what PowerPoint does well. It reinforces our words, deepens the connection to the message and makes it easier to understand and remember. And that’s what I hope I was doing in my project.

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Give me hammers hammering

by R. L. Howser on February 16, 2011 · 3 comments

I recently completed a massive project, an on-line video course on dynamic presentation skills for an MBA program in international business.

I used hundreds of images, mostly from stock photo banks to reinforce the points I was trying to get across. It’s a method I often use, linking abstract concepts to concrete images in order to make them easier to understand and remember.

In the process of searching for appropriate images, I kept stumbling across the same problem; a disconnect between the way most stock photographers and presentation designers think.

While there are others, such as publishers and advertisers, that use stock photography, I would think that presentation designers are a major and growing market for such images. So perhaps it’s time for the photographers to consider how we use images.

To illustrate the problem, if you’ll pardon the pun, let me give you a concrete example. I was looking for an image to visually reinforce the point that the purpose of the conclusion in any presentation is to drive the message home. We use restatement and a call to action to drive our message deep into the audiences’ minds, just as a carpenter uses a final powerful hammer blow to drive a nail all the way into the wood.

I needed a vibrant, dynamic image of a hammer slamming in a nail so hard that it shook the whole frame, with a diagonal composition to convey energy and movement and a bit of blur to show movement. When it popped up on the screen, I wanted to be able to hear steel slamming into wood in my mind.

Unfortunately, the best I could find is the image above. When I put the word “hammer” into the stock photo banks’ search boxes, I got thousands of images of hammers, guys holding hammers, hammers laying on tables, yet very few images of the hammer actually doing anything.

It seems the photographer thought I needed pictures of hammers, when what I really need when I am presenting is images of concepts; hammers in action. I need hammers hammering and smashing, pounding and prying; not looking like hammers, but being hammers.

Don’t just give me images of things. Illustrate ideas, convey emotions and visualize idioms. Give me images of the top of the line and the bottom line, of pride and prejudice, profit and productivity. I don’t need yet another of the hundreds of examples of pretty, slack-jawed models in business suits shaking hands. Give me an image that screams, “It’s a deal”. Don’t give me a picture of a cash register, give me an image of the “Ka-ching.” Give me a way of making the intangible tangible.

Do that, and you’ll be amazed at how fast your images will move.

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The Subtle Approach

by R. L. Howser on February 2, 2011 · 0 comments

I’m rarely accused of being too subtle in my presentations. I return often to the same basic theme or message. I repeat myself several times to make sure the key points are clear. I use pause and vocal pyrotechnics to highlight and isolate my message. I reinforce the message, where appropriate, with PowerPoint or other visual aides. I do everything I can to make my message clear and compelling and then drive it home with every trick and technique I can muster.

Yet, like hunting chipmunks with a shotgun, there’s a downside to throwing everything you’ve got at your target. If you’re not careful, the natural human backlash against being told what to believe, feel, think or do can work powerfully against your cause. Some people will be suspicious of your intentions or doubtful of your claims. Some will let their ego prevent them from hearing what you’re saying, even if you have their best interests at heart. Some people are just plain contrary.

At times, your long-term purpose is better served by using a more subtle and indirect approach to your message. Rather than hammering the message in, you can sometimes guide listeners towards discovering your message. The fact that they came to your conclusion on their own makes it far more persuasive and compelling than it would be if you have force fed it to them.

Make no mistake; it is easy to be far too clever for your own good; to outsmart yourself, instead of your audience. Direct, clear and simple is almost always a good approach, but it’s not the only approach and, at times, not even the best approach.

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The Almost Right Image

by R. L. Howser on January 13, 2011 · 2 comments

“The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter–it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.“
-Mark Twain

It’s the same with images. When you have limited time or resources to prepare your presentation slides, there is always pressure to accept an image as “almost right”. But close enough isn’t always close enough. Images that seem on the surface to illustrate a point you are trying to make, can subtly undermine your message.

I was looking for an image, recently, to illustrate the idea of carrying the audience along with the force of your argument and delivery. The visual metaphor I wanted to use was of the way a surfer is carried by a wave. I went to iStockphoto.com to search for a suitable image and found hundreds of photos of surfers.  Many of them were beautiful images and would have made attention grabbing visuals, but they just didn’t feel right. It took me a minute to figure out why.

I realized that there were several visual metaphors in them that were working against the argument I was trying to make. In some of the photos, the surfer was doing some kind of cutback or active maneuver that negated the idea of being carried effortlessly along with the message.

Some implied a sort of lateral movement, rather than forward progress. In others, the top of the wave looked like it was about to crash down on the surfer. That was not the image I wanted. Obviously, wipeouts were bad. I’ve given enough of that kind of presentation.

In some of the photos, the wave was very choppy or irregular, which worked against the idea of a well-organized and compelling argument, or the wind was driving spray from the top of it, indicating some kind of resistance. In some, the wave was just too small to illustrate the idea of a powerful argument. Even too big was a problem. I didn’t want the surfer, or by extension, those in the audience, to seem overwhelmed.

All of this is only logical in hindsight. Initially, it was just the feeling that I got from the photos that set off alarm bells. That’s the reaction your audience is going to have if you undercut your own argument with poorly selected visuals. Instead of being carried along by the force of your presentation, half of their brains are going to be going in a different direction.

It’s tough enough to get your message across without working against yourself.

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Always the Season for Giving

by R. L. Howser on December 25, 2010 · 0 comments

The presents have been unwrapped and the packages ripped open, all too often to polite smiles, rather than joyous peals of laughter

Looking back, we know we should have gotten to our shopping earlier, but we didn’t. Instead, we rushed around at the last minute, looking frantically for gift ideas, grabbing anything that seemed the least bit appropriate, dressing it up with shiny paper and hoping the person we gave it to didn’t think to deeply about it.

Doesn’t that sound a lot like the way we all too often approach speaking. We cobble together a few ideas cribbed from other presentations, steal marginally relevant slides from various slide decks and try to wing it on enthusiasm and false confidence, hoping our audiences don’t realize that we really have nothing of import to say.

It’s possible, mind you, to go a long way with confidence and razzle-dazzle. In the end though, we will succeed or fail to the extent that we are giving our audience something of value; the information they need to feel comfortable with their decision, a solution to the problems that keep them up at night or the motivation to keep on fighting for the goal. The truest essence of effective public speaking is not in what we say. It is in what the audience receives.

So next year, take the time to figure out what the right Christmas gifts are for the people on your list. And make the time to get them what they really need and will enjoy.

Take the time, also, to figure out what the people in your audience would most benefit from hearing. And make the time to prepare and to deliver that message with clarity and impact.

After all, ’tis always the season for giving.

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Simple

by R. L. Howser on December 12, 2010 · 1 comment

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.“
-Jack Kerouac

Delivering speeches and presentations, used to be a simple task for me. My goals were as modest as my skills. I just wanted to get myself up in front of the audience and back again to my seat without doing anything terribly embarrassing. Speaking was a thing to be survived; if possible with most of my dignity intact.

In time, however, and with a lot of practice, the terror passed. I began to focus my energy on my message, rather than my own discomfort. I learned to structure my thoughts for clarity, to enunciate my words and project my voice and to calm my body and use it to reinforce my words. Clearly delivering the message became the goal of my speaking.

But soon, my aspirations went beyond that. Just saying the words became as unsatisfying as a Hollywood air kiss. I wanted my words to be remembered. I wanted them to have a lasting impact. So I studied how great speakers used the pitch, pace and volume of their voices to emphasize the key elements of their message, how they used rhythm and pause to isolate a single word or idea. I watched how great stage actors use their bodies and the stage space to deepen the impact of the message and their facial expressions and gestures to add layers of meaning. I scrutinized ad copy and commercial jingles to deduce the secrets of crafting a message that would catch people’s interest and attention and burn itself deep into their memories. Speaking became a matter of skill and stagecraft for me.

Technical speaking skills are something I will never master completely. There is always something more to learn, some new technique to explore. But much like reaching the top of a mountain ridge, only to discover that there is yet another, higher ridge beyond it, achieving a certain level of technical competence at the podium has merely shown me that a higher level awaits me.

The most powerful speeches I have heard have not been the ones that were technically the best. They were the ones that tapped into my own experiences and values to reveal truths that moved me emotionally, caused me to reconsider my most fundamental beliefs or revealed profound spiritual or intellectual lessons to me. They were the ones that had not just a clear message, but a meaning that mattered.

They were the ones that had me nodding my head, saying “Wow, that’s true”, not because the speaker had convinced me, but because he or she had put into clear and simple words the thoughts and feelings that were already lurking in my own head or conclusions that I hadn’t yet codified.

The skills and techniques of effective speaking are important, but they are merely the tools we use. It’s the meaning of our words and the simple purpose to which we put them, that matters.

I’m still searching for those right words to express the simple truths I have within me, and one day I will find them.

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It’s Just Not Me

by R. L. Howser on November 27, 2010 · 0 comments

People come to me to improve their speech or presentation skills for one reason only; what they’re doing isn’t working. They want to make their presentations more interesting, more compelling and, above all, more effective.

Yet quite often, when I make suggestions for things they could do differently, they resist. They tell me they’re too shy to speak up clearly or make eye contact, or presentation just isn’t done that way in Japan. Invariably, the resistance is some variation of, “That’s just not me”, but that, to put it bluntly, is the point. You are the problem.

One of my first clients came to me because she felt she wasn’t being given the proper attention and respect, when she spoke at meetings or gave presentations. She was Japanese, and wanted me to help her punch up her English skills, so she could speak more crisply and articulately.

It was obvious to me, just from our initial conversation, what the problem was, and it wasn’t her English. Though far from perfect, she spoke well enough to communicate clearly with any native English speaker. The problem was that she had a rigid posture, a pinched, tight face that showed little expression and she spoke in a soft monotone. She was clearly a smart, capable woman, but everything about her screamed, “Don’t look at me,” so apparently they didn’t; didn’t look at her, didn’t listen to her, didn’t take her opinions seriously.

I suggested some aspects of her voice, posture and attitude that we could work on, but she brusquely dismissed them as irrelevant. She was adamant that she didn’t want to do anything in her presentation to draw attention to herself. She was sure that her ideas would be treated with the respect they deserved if she could state them more concisely and powerfully.

In the end, much to our mutual frustration, I was unable to help her. We couldn’t agree on the problem, so there was no way for us to work towards a solution.

If you want to get a different, better result, then something about you, or how you do things, has to change. It’s an uncomfortable realization for most people, and some never get past it. They simply want to learn a few tricks, polish their writing or figure out where they should put their hands, not to challenge their entire view of themselves

If you are willing, however, to take that leap, to accept that you need to make some fundamental changes in yourself, in your beliefs and your attitude, as well as in your actions, you can become a more skilled and effective speaker.

It may not be you. It may be better than you.

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The Reason They Came

by R. L. Howser on November 13, 2010 · 0 comments

The purpose of almost every presentation is to change, or at least influence, what our audience does, thinks, believes or feels. There’s no other reason to speak.

It an obvious point to me, but many speakers seem to be uncomfortable with the thought. Some feel it is manipulative or underhanded. Some lack the courage of their convictions. Some just don’t want to rock the boat or draw undue attention to themselves.

So they stick to the safe, pre-approved message. They qualify every position they take. They make sure to present both sides of the issue. They avoid doing anything that might cause dissension, conflict or ill-feeling. And in their caution, the only thing their presentation accomplishes is to waste everyone’s time.

That’s not why your audience is there.

They’re there for a fresh perspective, a contrary conclusion or an alternate viewpoint. They’re there to be challenged, provoked or unsettled. They’re there to hear why your product is better, why your approach will be more effective or why your data demands their attention.

That means you’re going to have to step on the toes of those with a vested interest in the status quo; the bosses, the experts and the old hands. There’s really no way around it.

So the issue isn’t whether you’re going to irk, anger or alienate some people. You are. That’s your job.

The issue is whether you’re going to present a strong enough case, and present it with enough conviction and skill, to overcome the objections, silence the detractors and bring a working majority of the people that matter over to your way of seeing things.

They came to hear you make your case for change, so do it.

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Canine Accountants and Technical Presentations

by R. L. Howser on November 2, 2010 · 1 comment

I’m often asked about the best way to present dense technical information in a PowerPoint presentation. The basic principles of visual presentation, of using visual images with just a few words or simple graphics, seem at odds with the need to communicate detailed data when presenting a technical subject. But those who ask the question are missing the point.

Asking how to better present technical data in a presentation is like asking which breed of dog would do the best job preparing your income taxes for you. There is an answer to the question – Border Collies tend to be smarter than most other breeds and would probably do a better job than Cocker Spaniels – but it begs the question of whether a dog is the best choice of financial adviser in the first place.

PowerPoint style presentation simply isn’t the best means of communicating detailed technical information. In fact, it can be counterproductive to the point of damaging your interests.

I’m far from the first to realize that. Edward Tufte, in The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within, Second Edition, and the Nobel Prize winning physicist, Richard Feynman, in What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character, among others, have demonstrated this with far greater distinction and authority than I can. But the message doesn’t seem to be getting through. Dense screens of text, numbers and complex flow charts and graphics are still far too common in the conferences rooms and lecture halls of the world.

A far better approach is to present your data in a high-resolution, time-independent venue, such as a good old fashioned Word or Excel document, either digitally or on paper, and forgo the presentation altogether. Your audience will then have the time to delve into your data as deeply as they like, at their own pace.

If you must give a PowerPoint style presentation, use it to do what it does well – tell the story.

Talk to any good accountant, engineer or mathematician and they’ll tell you that there is always a story in the numbers, a story that tells you what is really going on. That story, not the numbers, is what presentation is good at getting across.

Highlight key points and use them to pull the story out of the data. Then back up the presentation, after you finish, with paper or digital handouts that give the full range of the data.

Trying to work around inherent limitations of presentation and presentation software, in order to convey detailed data, is a recipe for frustration and failure. Let presentation do what it does best.

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