79. Graphics Synchronization: The Missing Link

Mark Twain’s nineteenth-century adage, “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it,” is applicable to twenty-first-century presentations. In business today, everybody talks about Microsoft PowerPoint, the medium of choice for presentations. Most of the talk is about design; how to avoid making a visual hindrance of what is supposed to be a visual aid; and how to avoid the all-too-common “Death by PowerPoint.” Multiple Amazon listings, abundant bookstore shelves, countless web sites, and numerous state-of-the-art graphics studios are all bursting at the seams with advice on how to design slides for presentations.

Yet nobody is doing anything about the other vital element meant to complement the graphics: the presenter. Oh, yes, advice about body language abounds, but there’s nothing about how to integrate body language with the slides and the narrative.

This missing link creates a distraction during presentations that is as disconcerting as watching a film with an out-of-sync soundtrack. The movie audience, irritated by even the slightest mismatch of picture and sound, is likely to call out to the projectionist or even to ask for a refund. The business audience, struggling to relate what they are seeing with what the presenter is saying, is likely to interrupt or simply tune out, rejecting both the presenter and the message.

Such negative reactions occur because asynchronous sights and sounds challenge the sensitive neurology of the human perception system. Audiences find it difficult to process multiple sensory inputs, a difficulty compounded when the images are in motion—thus the irritation caused by the slipped soundtrack.

The equivalent of motion in presentations is the animation feature in PowerPoint. We’ve all been victimized by the flying bullets and spinning pie charts that tumble helter-skelter onto the projection screen like circus acrobats. In Chapter 38, “Computer Animation,” you read how to exercise restraint when you use animation in your presentation. For now, let us accept that well-designed animation can help tell and propel a story, and turn our attention to how the presenter can incorporate animation into a presentation effectively.

At the instant the animation begins, the audience shifts attention to the screen and away from the presenter involuntarily—that sensitive neurology at work. The audience is so focused is on the animation, they do not hear the presenter’s words, nor do they see what the presenter is doing. Moreover, anything that the presenter does or says creates additional sensory data that conflicts with the projected activity on the screen.

There is a simple solution to all of this: Pause. Whenever you introduce animation, stop talking, stop moving, turn to the screen, and let the animation complete its full course of action. In fact, whenever you introduce any new graphical element, even a static image, pause and look at it. Look at the image as if you’ve never seen it, and give your audience time to see it. At that moment, you and your audience fall into step.

The pause is the centerpiece of Graphics Synchronization, a unique skill set that integrates the presenter’s delivery and narrative with both the design and the animation of the graphics. You can read more about this skill in The Power Presenter; for now, let’s focus on the value of the pause.

• You get to look at your slide to make sure that it’s correct.

• You get a prompt about what to say.

• You get to take a breath and keep living.

One more benefit is more important than all the others:

• Your audience gets time to absorb your slide and get a visual reinforcement of your message.

You get all these benefits for the price of doing absolutely nothing. Think about that: The key to integrating all the critical elements of a presentation is not what to do; it is what not to do.

Pause.