presentation slides

presentation slides

The Power of Persuasive Presentation Slides

1. Introduction

Creating slides, which are nothing more than a projected form of your message, is often the first major mistake a presenter will make. This mistake occurs when the presenter fails to realize that he or she is not the presenter of the slides. Think back to the last average to poor lecture or speech you attended. The speaker probably had very attractive slides, which he or she flew through, reading directly from them. As he or she did this, you may have zoned out to look at the pictures or read ahead what the slide said. It’s ok, everyone has done it. Meanwhile, the speaker has lost his audience and has failed to deliver his intended message. This is not an effective use of the speaker’s time or the listeners. The speaker would have been better off printing the slides and mailing them to listeners, as it would have taken the same amount of his time and it would have been no less effective. In this case, the speaker was the presenter of the slides. His message was not delivered because he had lost his audience. He failed to focus their attention on what he was saying. The effective presenter will understand that his slides are a visual aid for the message he is delivering. He will strive to be the presenter of the message, not the presenter of the slides. This is a key concept to grasp when building slides, and it will greatly affect the method by which you create them.

Individuals and firms rely more and more on presentation software today to conduct training and to get a message to others. PowerPoint is installed on an estimated 250 million computers, and 30 million presentations are built with it every day. Concern about the proficiency of presenters in using the software has given birth to a multi-million dollar industry in PowerPoint training. While much of the training focuses on how to use the software, training to be an effective presenter is also delivered, an acknowledgment that simply building slides does not guarantee that a message will be delivered in an effective manner. From this, a too often overlooked topic is born: the methods that presenters are using today with the most popular form of conveying a message, presentation slides.

At this very moment, there are thousands of presenters preparing to give a talk on a subject that could have a massive impact on the world. There are community leaders explaining their plans for the year, and executives trying to trade funds for their latest IPO. These speakers are the presenters. They have taken on the task of trying to persuade an audience to take a desired course of action. Their success will depend on the methods by which they attempt to reach their audience. In most situations today, their presentation will be done using PowerPoint from a computer.

2. Crafting Compelling Visuals

If I were to stand at the head of our dining room table and recite those same words from a script, hunched over a piece of paper, my message would have been lost. Stepping out from behind the table and gesturing as I spoke, my tone and my visual aids matched my message better, and our conversations afterward are a good indication that my point was made. With the dramatic rise of the availability of presentation software and the continual acceleration of computer processing speed, presenters today are faced with the desire to present too much information in an inefficient manner. Information bears little value in and of itself. How information tells a story and how it is received determines its worth to a given individual or set of individuals. As said before, there are certainly some great slide show presentations that use the technology to its fullest, displaying intricate visuals that convey an exact message. However, this ideal is rarely met and in most cases the efficiency and effectiveness of the spoken word or words is drastically reduced by lengthy slide descriptions. Unfortunately, a general reliance on the written word to convey information has led to information over-consumption and direct translation of data by many presenters today. Many presenters believe that a good presentation is simply the transfer of written report or verbal monologue into a slide show with the addition of some flashy graphics. This, however, is not a presentation. Think back to a splendid recount of imaginative story from your childhood. Chances are the story was engaging, satisfying, and it was received well. Compare this to a time when you wrote an essay that was later handed back with a grade and adequate verbal comment. Which was more of a presentation? The presentation of the story. Any good story will paint a mental picture that will be re-visualized each time the story is shared. An effective story can be easily presented to a listener without the enablement of a written word. In the same manner, any effective presentation will utilize visuals/slides to complement, emphasize, and describe the spoken word, enabling an idea to be retained and a mental picture to be formed. A visual aid’s purpose then is to enhance the audience’s mental picture of the idea being conveyed and to help the audience retain that mental picture. This is the fundamental purpose of a visual aid and the key notion that has been lost in the continuous shuffling of slide show software and automatic generation of charts.

3. Structuring Your Presentation

1.3 The end Your presentation should conclude by returning to the original objective and summary of the main points. A concluding statement is a powerful way to end the presentation. For example, ‘if these methods are followed, then it will lead to…’. This lets the audience know that you have finished and gives a good ending to your presentation. It is important to make sure none of your ending is open-ended – this will suggest to the audience that there is more to come and will leave them in two minds. A good structure is essential, so make sure you regularly ask yourself where this information is taking me and where does it fit into the presentation.

1.2 The middle The main body of the presentation should contain the key points, backed up by evidence. Each point should be introduced, then explained as necessary, and re-stated. It is here where the audience will be taking in most of the information, so it is important that you keep their attention – use of visual aids will help significantly, but these must not detract from what you are saying. Make sure that the audience knows why this information is relevant and how it is to be used – this will help them to understand and remember it.

Question 1: What is the topic of the presentation? Question 2: What is the point of the presentation? (to inform, to persuade, to entertain) Question 3: Why should I listen to you? (This is where you establish credibility)

1.1 The beginning The beginning is absolutely crucial. It should provide a brief overview of the presentation, so that the audience has an idea of what to expect. The audience will be asking three questions throughout the opening: your presentation must answer these three questions within the first two minutes. It will be beneficial to actually write these three questions on the first draft of your presentation and tick them off as they are answered – this exercise will ensure that you stick to the point and do not waste time.

4. Delivering with Impact

Your job as a presenter begins after the creation of the presentation. It all comes down to you, not the slides. Your duty is to the audience. There are several fundamental keys to delivering a presentation with impact. This list is by no means comprehensive. I’ve pulled pieces from a variety of sources for their conciseness, applicability, and direct impact on presentation delivery. When asked to cut the workforce by 10%, most people will go through and just cut 10% from every department which may or may not be effective. People might be left with tasks they can no longer accomplish, work may be duplicated, and fewer resources may be available to more important areas. Another (rarely followed) approach is to take a look at what each department actually accomplishes and cut 10% from their least productive activities. In the end, a combination of these approaches is generally the most effective. As you go through and rehearse the presentation (you are rehearsing right?), make a note of the most important bits. You might even want to highlight your notes pages. Determine how much time you want to spend on each area and mark it on your notes/slides. This is crucial. Putting time markers directly on the slide sorter view will give you a clear guide of your timing as you present. During the actual presentation, you should turn off the automatic advancement feature. This will allow you to spend extra time on a slide if necessary. In this case, just press the right arrow key to advance the slide. Make sure to take note of your finishing time. It’s unprofessional to either finish late or rush through the end of your presentation. Check your watch against the presentation computer clock during the presentation.

5. Conclusion

Try to make your slides not about your information but about your audience’s needs and desires. Maybe when you present budgets to the management team, the actual numbers are not what the accountants want to hear! They won’t be satisfied until they know what the numbers mean for them, specifically if they will get the go ahead to utilize more resources within their departments, or whether money is still too tight to hire more people. This is where you need to delve deeper into the implications of your data; it’s more important to make the meaning of the slide clear than to stick slavishly to the numbers printed on it. We’ve reached the Conclusion slides now, which might consist of a few simple statements or restating your title in a different way which still resonates with your audience. For example, a presentation on land mines might have a title “Clearing the Path to a Safer Tomorrow”. Your conclusion statement might be “Let’s make the world a safer place”, which is short and sweet yet encompasses everything you have been trying to persuade people to do throughout your presentation. To further ensure the meaning of your slides is understood, you can add in a few back up slides providing evidence of your conclusions, or showing the possible outcomes if your ideas are either implemented or ignored.