PowerPoint Really Sucks

I couldn't possibly say enough previously, so I'm back for more.

PowerPoint is a crutch. Perhaps you use it to convey the message and lead the presentation because you're afraid to stand up and make it on your own. Remember, any slide you show should add meaning, emotion, and impact to what you are presenting.

What's the number one complaint about PowerPoint? It's boring. How do you make it not so boring? Simple. Marry your data to emotion—feelings that are universal.

Your meeting attendees have two sides of the brain and two ways of thinking: facts and figures on one side, emotions on the other. It has been scientifically proven through functional MRIs and brain-based learning research that information tied to emotions has a far greater retention rate than that of bullet points listing analytical data. However, most of the billions of slides presented each year still focus heavily on the data—the facts and figures. What is there to appeal to the emotional side, to paint a mental image that people can relate to and recall?

If it's important to convey detailed facts and figures in your presentation, then do yours differently, and let your attendees sing your praises for giving them a break from the norm.

Involving emotions can be as simple as using image and media clips (while avoiding cutesy graphics, as you'll learn about). Yet so many people refrain from doing this, either because they lack knowledge of PowerPoint or because they think it's inappropriate. Whatever the case, in place of endless bullets of text on your slides, insert a single image—a photo, a cartoon, an illustration—that's related to the text. You've just taken charge of your presentation! Yes, you can still convey the facts and figures with the image on the screen. That way, you let the audience make the mental connection of how it applies to the business unit, team, or company. Remember, PowerPoint is there to enhance your presentation, not substitute for it.

Not sure how to do that? Let's address images that bring to mind an emotion or reaction—and I'm talking photos, not clip art. Check out iStock photo (www.iStockPhoto.com), Getty Images (www.GettyImages.com), Big Stock (www.BigStockPhoto.com), and other royalty-free-image web sites. You'll find lots of quality images available at a reasonable cost.

How do you find what you can use? On the home page of any one of these sites, type in key words of the message you're are trying to convey, and you will be provided with a plethora of image choices.

Better yet, capture your own images from your work, industry, or community. With today's high-tech digital cameras, you can become an amateur photographer and capture the right moment with the right people, and the image makes the mental connection clearly. That allows attendees to instantly relate to your photo and thus get more out of your presentation. Feel free to keep the visuals fun and upbeat to help you Bore No More!

When you're confident about how to select photo images, step up to audio and video samples. PowerPoint now makes it easier than ever to embed media and play videos seamlessly on cue. You can stay away from the audio or video samples included with the software and add your own music, sound effects, and recordings to the presentation. Novelty works! People love new things, because they're engaging and fun. Always remember this: People who are laughing are people who are listening.

Want additional reading and examples of great presentations? I suggest reading Garr Reynolds's blog, at www.PresentationZen.com, for a continually updated dialogue on this topic.

Presenter SRDs

• Work to reduce text, and try to implement multimedia (video and audio) into your presentation. Remember, your PowerPoint should add to your meaning or encourage additional dialogue, not become the center point for the presentation.
• You don't need to spend thousands of dollars on graphic designers and custom images when you can access millions of images online at a reasonable cost.
• Including a title or a few key words of text with a photo is great; including a whole paragraph is not.
• Share your presentation with a few peers before you present it, especially the first time. Ask whether the images or media deter from the message or create a connection with your content. If the answer is, “Yes, they add connection,” then go back and determine your main point, desired outcome, or key words for each slide, and search for images or media that relate.
• All movies have soundtracks that bubble up emotions in their scenes. Why not add a little background music for effect? Is doesn't have to be serious music. Try this one: As you recap your final points and share the grand plan to move forward, play something like the theme to the classic film Rocky. People may giggle and you can as well, but I bet they'll remember what you said.
• Refrain from using images you don't have permission to use or audio/video material that's copyrighted and not your legal property.
• Fade (gradually lower) your audio when possible; a hard cut (abrupt change) in music sounds jerky and unprofessional. How can you soften it? Get some basic audio-editing software. You can find several options on the Internet, including Audacity (free, open-source software for recording and editing that is easy to use and works on all computing platforms).
• Be certain all images are appropriate for your audience.
• Instead of continual bullet points, insert a photograph of what those points represent. Save the majority of your bullets for the handout and your dialogue. Bullets visually dull the senses and can put a bullet through the attention span of your attendees. (I couldn't resist.)

If you want to make a quick connection with even more emotional appeal, then add media samples. If you merely want to get analytical data out to the masses, then post it to the company's server, for gosh sakes, and get on with your day.

Monotone Speeches and Movements Suck

Bueller … Bueller … Bueller?

If you're up on your 1980s classic films, you can't get by this without being taken back to the economics class in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Paramount Pictures, 1986). The teacher has a class full of sleeping, drooling students bored by his tedious monotone, his ongoing babble with no inflection or vibe whatsoever. Who could blame Ferris for skipping out? Wouldn't you do everything you could to get out?

I do need to preface this part by saying I understand it's hard to get up in front of a bunch of people, especially people you know, and give a presentation. You might be nervous or scared and have a dry throat. You might just want to get it over with. What do you do? You present with a dry, unenthusiastic, monotone voice that instantly dulls even the brightest of senses that may be tuned in. To make matters worse, you read your slides and never move a muscle. You stay put behind the lectern or in your corner of the conference room and don't add a single shred of body language to your effort. God forbid you look at Sue, your cubicle mate, and see her staring at you, her eyes pleading with you to get it over with.

So you drone on. And on. And on.

Your voice and your body are your most valuable tools when you present, but they are also the most underused. The result? No emotion, no feeling, no eye contact, no movement, no life whatsoever—like Bueller's teacher. You are so much in the zone of drone that you don't even know whether your audience is asleep—that is, until you realize those sounds behind you are elongated snores from the audience.

Again, I totally understand why you might be tempted to seek the shelter of the large wooden pedestal of protection in front of you and read right through your notes without once looking up. You're nervous and anxious. These feelings are the true enemies of a presentation, and they can cause you, the presenter, to look for a way to get off the stage in the fastest possible way.

In a casual conversation, if you speak in monotone and don't move, you may have an insurmountable problem. But since I've only met two people like that in my entire life, I'll assume that when you talk to others in casual conversations, you're relaxed, even animated. That's exactly what you're going for in front of a group of people. I'm here to tell you that you can do this easily and effectively, but it will take practice.

You've seen celebrities and political figures on television make emphatic points in appearances or speeches. I suspect you're in awe of their natural flow, charisma, and ease in front of audiences. What no one sees are the hours upon hours of training and rehearsal that went into their presentations or appearances.

I'm not saying you need to run out and take a ton of classes on how to be a better public speaker (although one or two certainly won't hurt). But I do suggest you look at your own presentation style and understand what natural characteristics you have that can make your presentation style most effective if you emphasize them more.

Audiences want to relate to presenters, to connect with them. Hiding behind the lectern and speaking with no inflection doesn't help make that bond. To change this habit could be a hefty step outside your comfort zone.

Here are some tricks I teach. Use them to help bring forth the Bore No More! movement in your workplace so your organization can have fewer meetings that suck.

1. The “Run and Drag” Technique. If your speaking style is all drag, then change the tempo. With this pacing technique, you hurry up a group of words to share your excitement of them. You follow up that spurt with a short pause, then deliver the next group of words at a slower, drawn-out rate. Here's an example.

   Spoken at an accelerated rate: “When I asked him how he feels this could impact his bottom line and how his customers could benefit from it …” [pause]

   Spoken at a slow rate: “…he said… ‘I think I like it.’”

   Do this to make a key point more forceful, to illustrate a story, or to enhance the punch line of a joke. You'll find it alters your pace of speech and keeps it lively and interesting.

2. The Effective Pause. It feels uncomfortable to be onstage with nothing happening. But while nothing is happening onstage, something is happening in the minds of your attendees. If you want them to think twice about what you just said, use this drama-based tip—the pause. I don't mean take a breath; I mean make it an actual pause to a slow count of “one, one thousand” or even more.

   Why do this? Because it signals that what you've just said or are about to say is important, so listeners pay more attention. Here's an example.

   Without the pause: “Today, we are going to talk about technology, texting, and using Twitter in meetings.”

   With several pauses: “Today, we are going to talk
   about
   Technology … [short pause]
   Texting … [short pause]
   and … [a little longer pause] using Twitter … in meetings.”

   If you were sitting in a class taking notes, which example makes it easier and encouraging for you to write down what was just said?

   Effectively using a pause also breaks up the monotony of any speech and gives it audible breathing space. Think of it as having white space in a printed advertisement. It's just as important to have open space on parts of the page as it is to have the writing and graphics. White space makes the words and pictures stand out more.

3. Stories. As a professional speaker, I know that telling stories is paramount to engaging audience members. Stories can be used to kick off or close the presentation in an entertaining way, or they can be used in the middle if they have a message that relates to your content material.

   Stories also allow you to talk from your own voice. It's much easier to talk in a conversational tone and share some emotion and verbal inflection when relating a funny story that happened to you. Storytelling puts you at ease, thus releases tension, which is especially important at the beginning to get you in a groove. This not only puts you in a happy, place but audience members, too.

   Do yourself a favor. Whenever possible, use personal stories instead of searching the Internet for them and claiming they happened to you.

4. Humor. Comedy doesn't come naturally to every presenter. But don't think for a minute you have to be a comedian, great joke teller, or entertainer to pull off a funny bit. Humor can be subtle, and it can be in verbal form, printed form, or visual form. Laughter not only allows the brain to revitalize with oxygen and wake up the body, it also enables listeners to go deeper in the topic they are learning about.

   Look for ways to kick off your presentation with a funny YouTube video, or play one in the middle to break up the session. Humor can help people remember who you are, illustrate a point, and create a bond with your audience. It allows your audience to recognize that you are human, especially when you make fun of yourself.

   Here's a funny, yet accurate, one-liner I hear all the time at my National Speakers Association professional organization meetings:

   • “Do I need humor in my talk?”
   • “Only if you want to get paid.”
5. Movement and Eye Contact. I've said it before and I'm saying it again because it's so important. You're guaranteed a death sentence if you stand behind a lectern and never once attempt to release yourself from its safety grip. Same holds true if you never attempt to acknowledge anyone in the audience.

   First, let's talk about eye contact. And I don't mean a random glance up from your notes for a mere second. Eye contact is a planned action of speaking directly with a person or a group of people. You want to address groups of people for five seconds at a time before moving on to the next group or person. Let them know you're talking to them, not just glancing in their direction.

   Now about that lectern. Take baby steps and gradually distance yourself from its iron grip. The audience needs visual movement, even if that means stepping to either side of it at different times. You can do this and still see your notes if you need to. Once you've mastered stepping aside, you then gradually feel comfortable working the room. Your goal is to walk around and interact directly with individuals or groups.

6. Body Language. Body language during your presentation can be as important as your words. Your physical actions and movements can tell a story, build rapport, and share emotion. Start simply—with just a smile—and people will quickly feel more comfortable with you. If you want the audience to be uncomfortable, then let them see you hiding behind the lectern, fidgeting with microphone cable, tapping pencils, or worse yet, looking down at your phone to check the Twitter feed about this meeting—how boring it is and how badly people want out!

   Move, please move. Do anything except just stand in one place. If you have to make personal notes to yourself to “move stage left” or “gesture here,” then do it. Just don't read those parts out loud, okay? Presidents and political leaders are always analyzed for their gestures and hand movements, which drive home their promises and the points they are trying to make. Learn a few arm and hand movements that seem natural to you. If you need to put your hands in your pockets, that's okay, too, because it helps you look comfortable onstage. But don't start and end that way. Use it as one form of gesture mixed with others. Beware. If your hands stay in your pockets at all times, it's just as bad as standing still the whole time.

There's more! As I said, I could (and will) write a whole book just on this subject of monotony. For now, I leave you with these SRDs you can use immediately.

Presenter SRDs

• Start and end with distinct eye contact. Memorize your opening and closing, directing the words straight at your audience members without looking down at your notes.
• Start with a personal story. Allow attendees to get to know your personality. Give them a chance to connect and relate to you as a person before launching into your detailed content.
• Enunciate and practice changing your vocal patterns. Vary your pitch and tempo, and your content will come across as more interesting.
• Know your material. The more comfortable you are with the content, the more you can focus on the audience. It doesn't have to be memorized word for word, but know where it's going. Be ready to speak off the cuff when needed. That way, it looks and feels as if you're on the improvisation stage and talking freely—as experts do.
• Uncomfortable with taking a pause? Place a drink of water near by and use the time it takes to grab a quick sip to pause a moment.
• The worst gestures are those that look rehearsed. For example, you emphatically claim, “And I believe this to be the best solution for our team right now!” Then you look down at your notes and realize … uh-oh…you forgot something. You look back at your audience, then strongly point your index finger to the ceiling in triumph. What just happened? You look foolish doing this gesture after delivering your big point. This may cause attendees to point at the ceiling or at you, except they might not use their pointer finger.
• When using humor or comedy, self-effacing humor is okay; making fun of others and embarrassing them is not. Don't do it.
• Look for ways to add humor every seven minutes, which is a natural learning cycle of the brain. Even a three-second mental break allows attendees to disengage enough for their brains to take a break, then reconnect.
• If you want to hold something in your hands when you present, ask for a hand microphone (wireless) or a remote mouse. That will force you to stop fidgeting with other things. If you look nervous, you lose credibility.
• Do you want attendees to write something down? Then build in dramatic pauses … [pause].
• Stay away from long technical words as much as you possibly can.
• If you look up after reading for five full minutes and no one is looking at you, something needs to change.

For a truly excellent resource to help you become a better presenter, join a Toastmasters chapter in your area. This group has helped millions of people become better presenters—and each and every one of their coworkers are eternally grateful. Visit www.Toastmasters.org to find a Toastmasters chapter near you.