PowerPoint Abuse

Megan Hustad has a good article at Fortune.com about PowerPoint abuse.   In the article, Warren Berger, design expert and author of Glimmer, argues that speakers use Powerpoint as a crutch.  It deflects the audience's attention away from the speaker, which is something many presenters actually prefer.  Berger argues that PowerPoint isn't the problem; the way people use it is the issue.  Speakers talk to the slides, rather than engaging interactively with the audience.  That lack of audience engagement harms a speaker's ability to persuade, influence, and impact.

Terri Sjodin,  author of Small Message, Big Impact, makes the argument that bullet points don't help the audience understand cause and effect.  A persuasive argument draws connections; it explains how and why one factor influences another.  Hustad ends the article with a story from the creators of South Park.  The story reinforces the notion that we have to draw connections when making a presentation.   The creators explain how they put "story beats" together: "We can take these beats, which are basically the beats of your outline, and if the words 'and then' belong between those beats, you're fucked, basically. You've got something pretty boring. What should happen between every beat that you've written down is either the word 'therefore' or 'but.' So it's not this happens and then this happens. Instead, it's this happens therefore this happens. Or this happens but this happens also, therefore something else happens."

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Speakers, Have a Conversation With Your Audience

Nick Morgan at Forbes points us to a terrific TEDx Houston talk by Professor Brené Brown.  As Morgan writes, "Audiences long for presenters to be real with them, and just have a conversation.  Sure, they want a focused, smart conversation, not a rambling, pointless one like so many real conversations.  But they want an authentic connection with their speakers, and the way to achieve that is with a conversation."

Morgan goes on to explain that many presenters fear a conversation with their audience.  They want to control the situation.  Professors suffer from this same desire for control.  As a result, they sometimes shy away from interactive learning processes, because they are not sure how they will handle unexpected conversations and questions. 

I encourage you to read Morgan's article and watch Professor Brown's terrific talk:

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Common Public Speaking Mistakes

Kathy Caprino has written a good column for Forbes regarding public speaking.  In this article, she highlights five common errors that people make when speaking to an audience.  I found one of her points particularly compelling.  Here is the excerpt:

Show Respect for the Listener

Again, I’ve seen scores of speakers alienate an audience by expressing disdain or criticism for some common behavior or thinking. For example, if you’re speaking to social media novices about what they need to do to get up to speed in the social media arena, you must understand that many folks are afraid and insecure about taking the plunge, and you need to be gentle with them, not judgmental, critical or flip. In the end, If you hate or disrespect your listeners for their lack of savvy in your area of expertise, they’ll hate you back. And if you leave your audience feeling that they are losers, failures or unworthy of your respect, then you’ll achieve the opposite of your desired effect – you’ll bruise their sense of self-worth and create a huge rift between you and your audience.You’ll lose them forever.

I agree wholeheartedly with Caprino's point. Too many speakers forget what it feels like to be a novice in a particular domain. They fail to put themselves in the shoes of someone who knows little about a particular subject, or might even be a bit stressed about trying something new or different.  Putting yourself in their shoes proves critical if you wish to be a successful public speaker.

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Public Speaking in the Social Media Age

Fast Company's Drew Neisser has a good column on public speaking in the social media age.  I thought two of his points are worth emphasizing here, though I recommend reading the whole column.  

First, he argues: "Don’t Panic if They Aren’t Looking at You."   They might be on a portable device, such as an iPad or iPhone.  However, it doesn't mean they are reading email necessarily.  They might be taking notes, or tweeting about your presentation in real-time.  Both of those behaviors could be very productive and useful for you.  If they tweet your message, you could be reaching a much broader audience.  Telling them to put away their devices is NOT the answer, according to Neisser.

Second, he explains: "If You Don’t Speak Twitterese, It’s Time to Learn It."  In other words, you need to share your Twitter handle up-front. In that way, people can share their thoughts about your presentation, and you will be able to see those statements. Moreover, you need to provide some concise phrases and sound bites that will be amenable to tweeting. Think of capturing your message in a few phrases of 140 characters or less.

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