James Shepherd-Barron
Latest posts by James Shepherd-Barron (see all)
- HOT FROGS and the monetization of money - 3rd March 2021
- CoVid Lessons Un-Learned - 29th January 2021
- HOLE IN THE WALL (Book Extract) - 18th January 2021
REALITY CHECK: A short while ago I had to give a presentation to over 500 people at a conference in Bangkok entitled ‘Language Kills’. With such a provocative title, the opening had to be powerful. It was. The slides showed alright on my laptop monitor but that all-too-familiar ‘no signal’ sign was all the audience could read on the vast screen behind me. Once we sorted out the technical glitches, I started again. But not only was the opening – me speaking in Russian – ruined, but somehow the slides had reset themselves to advance every fifteen seconds regardless of what I was saying.
First, a bit about Powerpoint. Senior military commanders despair at the amount of time their junior officers spend preparing briefings using this tool. They argue that the medium, with its ability to move all manner of colours, shapes and sizes around the slide often tends to obscure the message. They also argue that the simplicity with which complex intellectual constructs can be reduced to a series of two-dimensional bullet points and multiple map overlays obscures the superficiality of the purported strategic thinking.
Others have spoken out against what they call “fuzzy” bullet points which say things like “Improve information management” but say nothing about who should do the improving, how, or indeed, why.
Civil servants in the UN can be accused of the same thing. How often have I sat through a mind numbing presentation consisting of fifty slides or more, to wake from my reverie during the polite applause not knowing or understanding what it was that the presenter wanted me to go away knowing about. How often did some eminent public health doctor during the Ebola crisis in DRC move on the next epidemiological graph when I had hardly had time to digest what the lines and columns on the first one were telling me.
As with other aspects of the information technology revolution, our human brains have not yet caught up with the potential of the medium. We appear to have forgotten how empirical data and emotional information is processed inside our heads, and so bombard us with more information than we can possibly process.
To prevent the sort of cock-up’s mentioned in the ‘reality check’ above — and we’ve all made them, right? — make sure you do the following every time before presenting:
- Practice and rehearse your presentation at home or where you can be at ease and comfortable, in front of a mirror, your family, friends or colleagues. Use a tape-recorder and listen to yourself. Time yourself. Do it again. And again. Makes sure the animations are set as you wanted i.e ‘advance on click’ (never use the ‘auto-advance’ function as presentations usually don’t go according to plan)
- Ctrl+F7 blanks the main screen while you can still see the slide on the monitor. Press it again and both go blank. Press it a third time, and the slide will show on both the monitor and the main screen. There can be a few seconds’ lag, so wait a bit before pressing the key again.
- Do not prop a book against the projector lens when you want to blank the main screen, especially a plastic covered book. There are over 150 people in Haiti who will tell you what happens when a plastic book cover explodes into flames just as the Coordinator is making his key point !
- Don’t copy and paste, or drag ‘n drop, images into a presentation. Instead, save them as a separate file and insert them as a jpg picture.
In terms of actually presenting, it is helpful to think through the following before you start:
- When you are presenting in front of an audience, you are performing as an actor on a stage. Look pleasant, enthusiastic, confident, and proud.
- Appear relaxed, even though you will feel nervous. Secretly, take ten really deep breaths before starting. Have a glass of water nearby. And chew gum right up until the moment you have to speak as it keeps the saliva flowing (but spit it out before standing up).
- Memorise your first few sentences having first written down a key ‘memory-jogging’ word for each.
- Speak slowly, enunciate clearly. Speak to the person farthest away from you to ensure your voice is loud enough to project to the back of the room. Vary the tone of your voice
- Standing or moving about is preferred to sitting down
- Know how to start and stop the presentation, maximise, how to scroll (arrow keys), and how to blank the main screen while still being able to see the slide on the computer screen (hit the letter ‘b’)
- Do not over-dazzle your audience with excessive use of animation, sound clips, or gaudy colours which are inappropriate for your topic. Do not torture your audience by putting a lengthy document in tiny print on the screen and then reading it out to them.
- Speak in a logical progression from introduction, through strong supporting arguments, to conclusion.
- If you make an error, correct it, and continue. No need to make excuses or apologise.
- Use eye contact to make everyone in your audience feel involved.Avoid humour in multi-cultural settings; not everyone will understand your joke, and some will be offended by it.
- Be sure all necessary equipment is set up and in good working order at least 15 minutes prior to the presentation.
- Check out the location ahead of time to ensure seating arrangements.
- Have handouts ready and give them out at the appropriate time. Tell your audience ahead of time that you will be giving out an outline of your presentation so that they will not waste time taking unnecessary notes while you’re speaking.
- To end your presentation, summarise your main points. Terminate your presentation with the single ‘bumper-sticker’ idea that you want your audience to remember.
- Then thank them for listening.