Humour and Presentations: Yes or No?

Sometimes, I feel like all of us professional presentation coaches are either a bit hypocritical or bit egotistical. We all collectively seem to have the opinion that humour is really beneficial if done well, but disastrous if not.

Since the telling of jokes is a black art that none of us understand, and in the absence of a set of codified rules about it, we usually resort to advice that says:

“Unless your really good at it (CAVEAT) don’t try, the risk is too great” and then we take to the stage ourselves and start off or end with a joke.

Well, I want a set of rules. When can I tell a joke? What can I tell a joke about? Enough of this avoiding the issue, lets given the clients the rules (even if complicated and needing practice) and then let them decide to try it or not.

I have some ideas, some great blogs and resources and a few good books and so far some pretty clear ideas on what may be a set of rules but what do you think? Where have you seen it work? Seen it fail?

In short, please respond, with a joke if possible? And maybe I can pull it all together into something better than “Be careful” cop out…

Presentation Iconography

If a picture paints a thousand words, why do we use thousands of words and one picture (pie chart!) in our presentations?

When, how and why should we use icons in a visual presentation?

Iconography is often associated with art or religion (Cross, Star of David, Ichthus  (little fish shape used by Christians during times of religious persecution now seen on the back of cars) but the idea of using a small image as a symbol has a long tradition.

Modern usage can be blamed on Apple, the mass of computer graphic interfaces needing icons for every application and function at your fingertips. But, in essence the benefit of using icons is that they bypass the language centers of the brain. They speed up information transmission and reduce the amount of cognitive load needed to assimilate information, and idea or concept. Think about using a computer that displays text in a foreign language—on the whole you’d still be able to do quite a bit because the program and function icons all transcend the language barrier. Continue reading →

PowerPointless: Presenting Without a Point

So here is my most used quote, from Lewis Carroll:

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.

Why? Because most people begin a presentation focused on content and design rather than purpose and objectives.

I’m not sure why people attempt to write presentations without this crucial step but they do—all the time. Today I sat with some sales guys bidding on a £350m project for which they have spent 6 months developing the solution, 6 months in dialogue with the prospect and 6 months getting ready for the big day.

And when I ask what’s the objective, they laugh and say “to win!”

Well, that would be the objective of the entire process–the months of work that led to the invitation to present. Today is the day they figure out what they hope to accomplish in the 45 minutes they have in front of the prospect. Continue reading →

The Power of Positive Reinforcement

Friendly Assassins

Last year at the ISSM, I gave a presentation called “Friendly Assassins and Enemy Plants.” This refers to fact that many presenters often face their biggest hurdle when they are rehearsing in front of a critical leader/boss/coach. There to help and encourage, the presenter’s team often winds up breaking their spirit by nit-picking too much and failing to mention what was done well. Most people couch the feedback with, “Great (insert positive qualifier), but…” and then a list of mistakes.
Continue reading →

Interaction Throughout the Presentation

Moving from Monologue to Dialogue to encourage audience interaction and involvement.

A couple of weeks ago I was preparing a sales team for a two-day presentation session. The prospect is outsourcing a $1 billion IT project and scheduled 14 different sessions, 30-90 minutes each with 25 presenters and contributors in total.

In a sales situation like this, the more the prospect talks the better. So as the presenter, how do you encourage participation, control the debate and build on the relationship? Continue reading →