Why make presentations?

By and large, people dislike meetings and presentations. They frequently fail because the presenter neglects to ask the basic question: “Why am I doing this?”

If the answer is “to share information,” then you’re living in the pre-literate age. After all, why would you hold a meeting when you have all the resources of information technology in addition to paper-based media, telephones and even the notice board by the coffee machine? 

There is only one purpose behind any presentation or meeting, and that is to change the mindset of the audience. In simple terms, a presentation should be designed to make people think differently and either do things differently or do different things.

That’s why the issue must be presented in a way that the audience can relate to. They’re sitting at your presentation with critical thoughts in their minds: “Why am I here? How is this relevant? What’s in it for me?” Many speakers never respond to these unanswered questions. They make a presentation of facts and figures without adequate interpretation and with no clear directive about what needs to happen next. You want people to do things differently or at least think differently. Tell them!

If you answer these three questions you’ll have the framework of an effective presentation:

1.    What do you want to change, why and how?
2.    What information will support your proposition?
3.    What imagery will make the emotional connection to enhance the flow of your argument?

Good presentations are about the logic and relevance of what you have to say, and good PowerPoint is about creating the emotional connection between your message and your audience; - and bullets kill audiences!

This is a guest post by Bob Harvey, a specialist trainer and coach in interpersonal communication skills and author of related titles published by Marshall-Cavendish.