About every other course somebody asks me about how Visual Cognitive Dissonance (VCD) sits with Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). My tongue-in-cheek response is that VCD is based on science and, as far as I am aware, is consistent with all the major religions, and so almost certainly consistent with the minor ones such as NLP.

Why do I compare NLP to a religion? Looking at the research, it’s at best inconclusive and at worst labeled as pseudoscience. Linguistics isn’t my main calling, but I’m pretty convinced that the fundamental tenants of NLP may be suspect. In fact I love the following quote from the founders of NLP:

We have no idea about the “real” nature of things, and we’re not particularly interested in what’s “true”. The function of modelling is to arrive at descriptions which are useful

Bandler, R. and Grinder, J. (1979), Frogs into Princes: Neuro-linguistic Programming, Moab, Utah: Real People Press
I also love the publisher! Moab, Utah…makes me think of the brilliant musical for the non-pious, “The Book of Mormon” – also beautifully relevant for this observation.

An act of faith

NLP requires an act of faith, and most believers aren’t particularly interested in a debate about whether their belief system is true or not. And, some may be offended by people like me saying rude things about their belief system. Since I have some friends who are NLP practitioners, I am careful not to offend these people by blaspheming. I do, however, wonder what NLP hell looks, sounds or feels like…

Like all belief systems that have bright, intelligent followers, NLP has to be consistent with empirical evidence. It may fail the scientific method but much of the surrounding advice is basically sound. “See the world from the others point of view” is a pretty much a fundamental NLP concept, but I’m sure its one of Coveys 7 habits (Think Win Win) and it’s pretty much in line with Phase 1 of Killer Presentations, which makes it just plain common sense.

If you want to believe that modifying your language can help you communicate effectively, then I’m in agreement with you—if you need to call that NLP, well each to his own. I’m pretty sure that most religions include some degree of practical self-help. None of this should be thrown out just because the basic tenant seems unlikely.

Most courses I have seen based on NLP would be just as valuable without validating the content with the NLP philosophy. Given the lack of evidence, I would drop it and stick to actual science. There is a remarkable amount of research that can inform most of what I have seen passed off as NLP.

So if you’re interested in this debate, take a look at some NLP literature and ask yourself how similar it sounds and feels like an advertisement for a religion.  I would love to hear your thoughts on this one. If you have observations, I’d love to read and respond to them. If you have statements of belief, I really don’t want to offend anyone and probably won’t respond.

Should you produce handouts for your presentation?

The process for my company’s newsletter allows me to edit and vet before it is published. It’s a process that never quite works and this month pretty much failed, hence I get the uncomfortable job of publicly disagreeing with the team.

Their position in the article “PowerPoint Handouts” (in my opinion) is fundamentally wrong. The short answer to the lead question isn’t that there are pros and cons to the use of handouts at all. It’s a resounding NO NO NO.

In the last 10 years, I have presented (conservative estimate) about 1500 times – and on how many of those occasions have I printed off a set of slides and handed them out to the audience? NEVER. Not once or twice, not occasionally. NEVER.

Why print and hand out your slides to the audience?

Let’s ignore the real answers – habit, fulfilling someone else’s expectations, ignorance etc. – and let’s instead look at the possible intelligent responses.

• To help the audience follow the presentation
• To help the audience remember the presentation
• To help the audience pass the information on to others
• To save the audience from the effort of taking notes
• To allow them to consider the content ahead of the presentation

Now clearly, an effective presentation has to be engaging and memorable to achieve its objectives. Lets assume you have a presentation that has been designed to be both using Visual Cognitive Dissonance (VCD) and Passive Mnemonic Processing (PMP):

1. To help the audience follow the presentation: Handouts distract the audience and encourage them to jump ahead and ignore the flow of information you have carefully constructed. If an audience member has a question, I want them to ask me, not flip back or ahead to check out my slides. More importantly, if the slides use visual cognitive dissonance, they miss everything important if they’re not paying attention to the actual presentation.
2. To help the audience remember the presentation: Passive mnemonic processing is a technique used to lock ideas into the audiences’ memory. Unfortunately for the handouts, this technique requires a human to effectively synthesize the information for the audience. If they have the option to think about it later (when they read the notes in the bath that night… and other myths!) why would they bother?
3. To help the audience pass the information on to others: If you really want them to deliver your message for you (really!?) then you will need more than a printed copy of the slides. They need to be trained on the material and to rehearse the presentation. For me, I always look for the opportunity to deliver the message again to a different audience. Why would I undermine that by allowing someone to interpret my message and my material?
4. To save the audience from the effort of taking notes: No, the act of taking notes forces them to synthesis the information, preventing them from taking notes is presenter suicide. Believing that giving a copy of the slides will increase the chances of them making notes is stupid. Easy answer: give them note pads and pens!
5. To allow them to consider the content ahead of the presentation: This just defeats the purpose of the presentation doesn’t it? Might as well send a briefing document (which IMHO is what most PowerPoint files actually are) and facilitate a debate afterwards. This might be an effective meeting but it’s not a presentation.

Printed slides versus printed support material

What if the question was not about the use of handouts, but “printed support material” (e.g. brochures). Well that’s different. Now, the m62.net article makes more sense – but even here they miss the most important point that of using Information sequencing to promote synthesis and recall.

Teaching Presentations

m62 courses have a workbook, most of which is designed to encourage the delegate to write or draw copies of what they see and learn as a means to synthesize the material. This is one of the 5 passive mnemonic processes we teach – actively repeating a diagram by drawing it as a form of rehearsal. Pre-course material covers some of the syllabus, but it does so using different examples, diagrams and visuals. Post-course material is designed to improve recall, encourage transition and embed the learning. None of this contains printed copies of the slides.

Tools to encourage the use of information learned are essential, processes, tick sheets, forms, spread sheets are all exceptional ways of encouraging post-course synthesis. None are as useless or as pointless as printed versions of the presentation slides.

One final comment, on the “it can’t hurt” argument for handouts during training. Rubbish! It can and it does alter the students’ propensity to listen, engage and therefore synthesize the information. They can and will make effective teaching harder. The only advantage of printing a copy of your slides is that its easy, it doesn’t require the thought necessary for a proper solution, it is ineffective precisely because it doesn’t take effort or thought to do. It’s at best lazy and at worst criminal.

Sales Presentations

The single biggest reason for not having handouts in a sales situation is that the day you give it to a prospect is the day before they give it to your competitors.

True story: It is much easier working out how to position for a sale if you know what the competition is going to say. I helped a client bid on a $1B data center project against IBM, after reviewing one of IBM’s recent data center pitches courtesy of a friend of a friend. I am sure when the IBM salesperson gave his slides to his prospect it was with the best intentions of winning the deal, instead it cost them dearly.

The second reason is that more often than not, the biggest challenge in making a sale is finding the excuse to talk to the prospect on a regular basis. The more printed material he has the less likely he is to call or meet with you. Your chances of closing are best when you are seated in front of the decision maker. Getting there is the trick and printed versions of your pitch take away your value at best and at worst enable to pitch your wares for you. Not smart selling by any means.

I should stop here. To me, those reasons alone make the case. However, the m62.net article suggests an executive summary if you are going to leave something behind. Again, I disagree.

• Every piece should sell – any printed material should focus on the pain the client is experiencing while leaving an invitation and solid reason to contact you.
• It should pass the “3-second rule” – that is, glance at the page for 3 seconds, did you get you see a something that would leave you wanting more information? If not, then it is destined for the bin unread.

Handing out your slides is never a good idea

There is a case for some pre-presentation material and for some post-presentation material but it’s probably better as a rich media communication not a paper based, self-explanatory slide dump.

If you have a presentation that doesn’t use visual cognitive dissonance or passive mnemonic processing, and therefore is self-explanatory and poorly structured, then I suggest you don’t have a presentation. At best, you have a script; at worst you have a complete waste of everybody’s time. Have confidence in your message and your singular ability to deliver it effectively.

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.

Iconography in Presentations

An icon is a type of symbol—an age-old way of eliminating the confusion delivered from the imprecise nature of language. In a presentation we use iconography to do four things:

• Allow the simplification of complex ideas. (Build on simple ideas to create more complex ones)
• Avoid confusion
• Speed up information transmission
• Create Visual Cognitive Dissonance (causing the audience to question what the icon represents)

Presentation iconography, when done well, is part of developing a ‘Visual Lexicon’ which is a collection of non-language dependent symbols that convey concepts, ideas or consequences, between presenter and audience. At a basic level that includes:

• Tick marks
• Cross marks
• Company logos
• STOP signs etc

These all work because they reduce cognitive load (mental effort) by bypassing the phonological loop (phonetic rehearsal system inside your head) therefore passing information 100 times faster than text (or speech). Familiar icons like the above are good practice but must be graphically consistent (a series or green ticks followed by a red one will invoke dissonance).

Do You See What I See?

But there are issues, the biggest of which is the assumption that icon meanings are as clear to the audience as they are to the presenter. As with all lexicons, it needs to be shared if it’s to work.

The Ichthus example above started life as a secret symbol, a way of communicating only to the people who knew about it. Many icons are culturally or contextually dependent. For example, in the UK we often use the Lloyds quality logo to represent quality, but across the pond it doesn’t translate.

Some are references that require contextual interpretation. My favorite line in any song is Don Henley’s Boys of Summer,  “I saw a dead head sticker (symbol of 60’s hippy anti-establishment movement) on a Cadillac (symbolizing all that Capitalism has to offer.)” While I love everything that line says about life, growing up and the selfishness of age, I tried to explain it to some of my scouts the other day and completely failed, they didn’t get the complex ideas represented by the simple symbols.

The moral to the story is that every time you show an audience an icon or for that matter any kind of symbol, its worth commenting on what it is, what it stands for and how you are using it.

So my top 5 tips for icons are:

• Use as much as you can
• State what they are
• Be contextually consistent
• Be graphically consistent
• Be sensitive (Swastikas can be used to represent lots of ideas but they pretty much always going to offend somebody)

People speak at around 125 words a minute but think considerably faster. When listening to a presenter, hearing the words takes a relatively small toll of the mind of an audience member, leaving them plenty of cognitive capacity to think about other stuff. Depending on what they do or are thinking about will determine how much of the information they will recall later.

As a presenter, your job is to do everything possible to ensure that they don’t drift to grocery lists, carpool schedules and other work tasks – one of our greatest challenges.

Passive and Active Listening

Listening happens on both passive and active levels. Passive listening is where you hear the words but think about something unrelated to them. Your kids do this when you are imparting very important information to them, occasionally glancing at you but really watching TV. They can often repeat what you just said, but you know they haven’t processed it.

Active Listening is where the audience processes the information presented, triggering a thought or question. Let’s say you’re presenting about the benefits of telecommuting. Can you do so in a way that causes the audience to consider the financial benefits of a virtual workforce? Less need for office space and therefore lower utility costs? Will it impact the way that teams are managed or the ability for executives to interact with people on the front lines?

Creating Cognitive Dissonance. What’s Cognitive Dissonance?

Your audience will be actively engaged in your presentation if you create some gaps in the information you are discussing. Cognitive dissonance creates a conflict of two or more ideas, forcing the listener to essentially form an opinion or pick a side. We then rely on the basic human need to be right to keep the audience waiting for an answer or resolution. In the meantime, they are listening, engaged and picking up key information points that support their opinion. This is the stuff they will remember, ask questions about and discuss after you have left the podium.