The Most Overlooked Step in Creating Great Presentations
So you have to give a presentation? What is the first thing you do? Fire up the laptop, open PowerPoint and start putting text to slides?
Step away from the PowerPoint…slowly.
The first question you need to ask yourself is, what type of presentation is this? Is there something I want my audience to know something, to do something immediately after your presentation or to feel something?
If you don't know what type of presentation you're giving, you're not going to be effective in creating a presentation your audience loves.
To Know
When you want to your audience to know something, you give an Informative speech. (I know at this point I sound like your 12th grade public speaking class, but bear with me). These could be how-to speeches or explaining the latest research. Do you give workshops that teach people something? Those are informative as well.
Use the blogging test to determine if your presentation is in the know category.
If your main point sounds like a how-to or is meant to give out information, then this is your category.
The purpose of a blog is to give information away for free. Here are some examples:
- Top 5 Tricks for Using Google+
- 5 Strategies for Building Relationships Through Public Speaking
- SEO Mistakes Every Blogger Makes and How You Can Fix Them
- How to Make your Twitter Profile Stand Out
Very informative topics. Blogs give information that can be used immediately. The goal is to have the audience know something. If your speech allows your audience to learn a new skill or upgrade their current knowledge, then you are giving an informative presentation.
To Do
If you want your audience to do something immediately after your presentation, then you need to persuade. What you want them to do can vary based on the goals of your presentation.
Some examples:
- Donate money to my charity to help children
- Buy my spiffy new product that solves all your problems
- Sign-up for my newsletter so they can be 3 times the speaker in half the time
Many persuasive presentations can start off as informative, but by the end there is a pitch. This is especially true if you are selling from the stage. Don’t fool yourself and say that you want your audience to know when really your ultimate goal is to have them buy. Providing value and great content is key in a persuasive speech that has an offer, but everything in that speech should build to that offer.
To Feel
Feelings…nothing but feelings…the goal of an entertaining/inspirational speech is to have the audience feel. You can make them laugh or make them cry or take them on a roller coaster ride.
Comedians – although a different type of presenters – their goal is to entertain. They want you to laugh (sometimes to think) but always to have fun. Think about the keynote speaker at the yearly correspondents dinner
For some speeches, the only intent is to make the audience feel something. TED talks are great examples of this. Brene Brown wants us to embrace our vulnerability and lead better lives. Amanda Palmer encourages us to ask. I’ve encouraged people to feel to heal in order to overcome grief.
Clarity is key in having a successful presentation that connects with the hearts and minds of your audience. What type of speech are you giving? Start with the answer to that question before you write a single world. Tell me in the comments below what kind of presentation you are giving next.
Hi Michelle,
I liked this post very much. Clear and to the point, with great examples. (I like your photo too, by the way!) Sarah
Thank you Sarah! I appreciate a good compliment too!
[…] her excellent public-speaking blog, Dr Michelle Mazur published a post this week called The Most Overlooked Step in Creating Great Presentations. In it, she says (if you’re like most prople) you’re likely to start preparing for a talk by […]
Hi Michelle, I must say I disagree with you on the 3 types of talks.
I started to write about it in a comment, but it morphed into a whole post! So please see:
http://remotepossibilities.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/why-present-jfk-said-it-all/
Interesting perspective. I believe that was Aristotle’s argument ages ago – all communication is persuasion. I don’t really subscribe to that notion personally. I thinking knowing your ultimate goal of what you want to achieve (educating an audience, change beliefs or actions or making them feel) is a far more nuanced way to look at speaking. Taking action is great but if you just wanting them to take action to know more about how to bake a chocolate chip cookie – you are still informing. You’re not telling them to go out and bake chocolate chip cookies immediately after the speech. This would be a different speech entirely. Now, I am hungry for chocolate chip cookies!
I’m pretty new at this studying presenting stuff. I like your distinction here, but it seems like all of your examples actually are trying for action of some kind. Both Brene Brown and Amanda Palmer are trying for an action. Most TED talks I can think of offhand – Jill Bolte Taylor, Banjamin Zander, and Leslie Morgan Steiner are three that come to mind – really do have an underlying imperative. Your blog pos examples all have some sort of action behind them. Even the comedians often want us to think!
Also, I may be new at studying presentation, but I’ve been presenting engineering material for thirty years and preaching sermons for five, and I know that you can present a ton of great information, but without an imperative, people end up leaving much the same as they went in. I’ve been to far too many presentations (and given far too many, I am afraid) where people left asking “so… What do I do with this new information?”
So, I think your distinction is a worthwhile one, and there may indeed be the rare talk that has no imperative. But both my personal experience and recent TED talk study leads me to believe that the vast majority of the time, there is an underlying action, and it seems to me like recognizing that has to help both us and our audience. Thanks for listening.
Sorry for piling on here, but this is a very interesting topic to me. Please permit me to make two tentative observations. First, I think part of the problem was we are assuming certain kinds of imperatives – like the only possible imperative behind a talk on chocolate cookies was that you should go bake some cookies. However, I am coming to believe that the range of imperatives is much wider.
Second, I can’t help notice that in all the real-life example talks and blog postings, there IS an imperative there; it’s only in the made-up (I don’t mean this pejoratively) examples – the cookies, the anonymous keynoter – that there is not. I would tentatively suggest that, if these were real presentations, an imperative would present itself. Why are you being asked to talk about chocolate chip cookies? I’d bet it was something like you wanted to show somebody they were not as unhealthy as they thought (and this because you wanted them to enjoy them as you do). As for the keynote speaker, it sure seems possible to me that there is an action implied, even if it’s just to have the people pay more attention to the rest of the speakers.
Even the comedians always want you to tip your wait staff. 🙂
I’m struggling with your use of the word “imperative.” An imperative is a command or something crucial or urgent. I think you are arguing that all communication is persuasion. Is that what you mean by an imperative? Persuasion is something different.
You could be talking about how to make chocolate chip cookies simply because you’re the expert and you were asked to impart knowledge on that topic. As a professor, along with communication I also taught statistics. Now none of my students were there because they wanted to be persuaded. They needed the knowledge to do their thesis.
For persuasion to happen, it can’t be implied. People don’t act unless they are asked. Call-to-actions are critical step. It’s a the strategy. The intention of the speaker.
Let’s take the comedian example. Does she think before the gig – this set is a success if they tip the wait staff? The goal of a comedian’s evening is not to get you to tip anyone but to enjoy and be entertained. The act of tipping the wait staff is not the purpose of his comedy act.
Anyway, we could debate examples all day (which I would love to do). The point of the article is that you as the speaker need to be clear on your primary goal for your presentation. Many times speakers are not!
[…] what you want your audience to leave the presentation with. What is the one thing you want them to know, feel or do after hearing your speech. This BIG IDEA guides everything in your presentation because everything […]