The Art and Science of Creating and Delivering Effective Presentations

27 March 2018

Lisa Chung DDS, MPH

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Done well, the presentation is a powerful communication medium; done poorly, distracting, counterproductive, etc.

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By the end of today’s session, you’ll be able to build and deliver a presentation effectively

§ Content well-structured and well-planned§ Delivering your presentation like the

polished PRDS professional you are§ All while avoiding common traps

This is called The Desired Outcomes or Session Objectives, and each presentation requires it

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Content creation

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Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.

Blaise Pascal1623-1662

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Most people§ Grab a bunch of slides so

that they won’t realize their fear of running out of things to talk about

§ Structure/flow: “I’ll just see where the discussion takes us”

The Future You§ Your presentation is

organized with- Compelling opening / closing

- Desired outcome

- Horizontal + vertical logic

§ Content “time-boxed”

Developing and structuring content well in advance will keep you from having to throw in the kitchen sink

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At the beginning, rouse your lethargic audience from their daydream by conducting a “state change”

§ A “state change” switches on the brains of the audience through a question, survey, provocative statement, group calisthenics

E.g.: “According to surveys, what presentation faux pas most consistently annoys the greatest number of audience members?”

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§ Free of charge you will receive this very PowerPoint brand template (“theme”) so that our department will have visually consistent presentations- Once you receive it follow

these steps to save as your default presentation

Build your slides using the brand template so that the focus is not on design but rather on content and message

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§ The audience mentally processes your slide in ten seconds!

§ Okay, that’s a pretty high bar, but the point remains: the longer your audience is studying your slide, the longer they’re not paying attention to you, Speaker- Multi-tasking is a myth

When populating your slides, observe the “Ten-Second Rule”

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A week+ before your presentation, create a “storyboard” whose logical flow fits what you’re trying to accomplish

§ We humans respond to stories (beginning, middle, end)§ Example arc:

Frame problem

“What is”

Define an ideal (but realistic)

future state

“What could be”

Bridge the gap

Make a powerful ending –

call to action

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§ Your estimates don’t have to be perfect

§ Respect your audience by leaving ample time for Q&A

§ Allow buffer

Decide how much time you’ll need for each section and stick to it with a timer

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§ Don’t look at it for a few days§ Pass it to a helpful, intelligent, literate, candid

colleague for feedback if possible§ When you come back to it you’ll have a fresh pair of

eyes for edits and revisions§ You’ll anticipate certain questions and think of

tangential topics. Build “pocket” slides (appendices) and link to them in logical places with hyperlinks.

Now that your content is created—presentation fully made —let it marinate.

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§ Don’t use excessive animation

§ Avoid fancy fonts and other unrelated design elements- Just because your computer

can do it, doesn’t mean you should

Much of both the content- and design-related common mistakes involve distracting your audience

§ Don’t “content stuff” which is trying to cram too many words on a slide which you don’t need to do if you’ve prepared because you’ll deliver the detail and the examples and not require people to read everything on the slide

§ Be careful with hand-outs; you may be competing for attention

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Presentation delivery

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The first step of good delivery is a having a solid command of your content

§ You took the first steps with content: drafting slides early and let marinate

§ Now practice aloud- Flipping through and planning in your head isn’t the same- Also, allows you to dial in timing

§ Plan out—and even memorize—your compelling opening and closing statements

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§ Get to the physical/virtual room early to set up

§ Test equipment / technology- Hardware (phone, projector)- Software (webinar platform)

§ Be at ease so that you’re ready to start on time

Murphy’s Law applies, so ensure everything is in order well before beginning your presentation

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§ Determine how you’ll keep time (clock, colleague to signal you at various stages, etc.)

§ Establish up front that you’d like questions at end for sake of managing time

§ If timing is off or the presentation has gotten sidetracked/derailed, don’t get flustered; make a decision about how to deal with it and move on

§ It’s okay to end early—you don’t need to fill time!

You’ve planned out the timing; now you need to abide by it

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§ Ask them questions§ Make eye contact

- If you spend the presentation looking at the screen you’ll lose them—especially reading slides

§ Modulate voice, employ (tasteful) humor, etc. to keep engagement

Engage your audience so they’ll better understand and remember your message, and ask better questions

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Do’s§ Repeat the question and clarify

(helpful to audience, too)§ Say that you don’t know if you

don’t§ Smile and stay positive if

someone is trying to throw you off / challenge you

Don’ts§ Feel compelled to answer off-

topic questions (“can we chat about it afterward?”)

§ Say “great question”. You’ll be stuck making a value statement on everyone’s question. At most thank them.

Leave plenty of time for questions and answers—everyone’s been waiting—but maintain control through it

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As professionals we can drastically improve our effectiveness by building and delivering better presentations

§ By starting early, and structuring your content (storyboarding) you can have a tighter story and one that’s easier to follow

§ This brand template allows both the presenter and the audience to spend less time on design and more time on content

§ Timing is key to avoid the end-of-presentation crunch, and giving your audience the courtesy of a proper Q&A

§ Practice and plan for contingencies (distractions, technology woes, etc.) will help you keep calm and carry on

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Let’s experiment with these methods and see what kind of improvement we can make in PRDS

1. Look for an email from me to download this template and install the “theme” on your desktop

2. Let’s have a culture of self-improvement where we can use meetings and presentations as practice of this new method

3. In three to six months let’s collect feedback and improve this deck

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§ “Dress for success” may be a bit hackneyed; but your dress is worth consideration

Dress the part

Oh hey, this is a “pocket” slide so it’s sitting in the appendix. It was placed here anticipating that

someone might ask about it. Glad you did. Since we jumped here via hyperlink let’s allow a

hyperlink to jump back.