#14 The Art of the Presentation – Part 1: Your Audience and Yourself
Presentations are a key part of facilitation. In this issue we cover some key techniques to enhance your presentation skills and knowing your audience.
Presentation is a crucial part of facilitation. You'll present potential approaches and the materials you've created for your collaboration. At a collaborative event, you'll present the agenda and the context, and you're highly likely also to be called on to present related material and support others in doing the same, and you'll likely present outcomes and outputs to various audiences later.
Nailing your presentation technique will help you sell the value and the outcomes of the collaborations you enable.
In this two-part mini-series we'll cover:
Why you should present your own work
Knowing your audience
Giving an engaging performance
Using slides effectively
Presentation structures
Practice
Telling your audience why they should care
Let's get started!
Why You Should Present Your Own Work
Whether you're a designer, a researcher, a facilitator, a founder or any other creator of knowledge, you should always present your own work. It's crucial because, contrary to what you might have heard, good work doesn't speak for itself.
You might have the best idea or the most insightful research, but it will get lost if you can't communicate it effectively to the right people. Your ability to convey your ideas in a way that prompts action is as important as the ideas themselves.
Rather than having someone else present your work, say a senior or "more confident" colleague, you should do it yourself because a good presentation is more about listening and engaging with the audience than sharing information as a monologue. You possess the in-depth knowledge necessary to handle questions and discussions that might bubble to the surface and give your audience more value than they could ever get from a one-way flow of information.
Also, almost more importantly, you did the work, and you deserve to be seen and to be able to celebrate what you've created.
Know your audience
Every presentation will be different. Even when presenting the same material, you'll use a different tone or focus, depending on the people you’re speaking to.
Things to think about when you’re considering your audience:
How much oxygen is in the room: Some rooms contain less "oxygen" for your presentation than others. This is a combination of altitude - which is closely linked to seniority but could also be the distance from the subject, and investment, which could be linked to an audience’s interest in the subject matter or their dependence on the information being shared. As oxygen decreases, so does the number of points you can make and the time you can spend doing it. This is where the old "If I had more time, I'd have written a shorter letter" comes to mind. Spend more time planning high-value, low-oxygen meetings to ensure you use every breath.
Level of contextual knowledge: Depending on your audience's starting point, the same information will need different levels of context and be couched with different terminology.
What do you want your audience to do? Every presentation should serve a purpose (which can be overt or covert). This will shape the key points you choose to include in your presentation. Each should drive your audience closer to taking the action you're aiming for.
Giving an Engaging Presentation
A presentation is more than just a set of PowerPoint slides. The slides are there to support you, not to replace you. To ensure your audience focuses on you rather than the deck, you need to give them something to focus on.
Be Present: Engage with your audience, whether they’re in person or on a digital platform.
Make eye contact, take note of facial reactions and body language and respond accordingly.
Indicate that you see the people listening to you.
Use more than just your voice; gesture and take up space on that stage.
If you're on a digital platform, you can reinforce your presence by dropping your screen share whenever possible or superimposing yourself over your slides (you can do that through the advanced share tab in Zoom or using another tool like mmhmm).
Use “Share as Virtual Background” to put yourself in front of your slides
Speak Clearly: Know your talking points and be confident in addressing them, whether you use a script or bullet points. Pay constant attention to intonation and vary your tone to keep your audience engaged.
Pacing: Maintain a pace that allows your audience to follow along. This includes the speed of your speech but, almost more importantly, the pauses you take. You might have poured your soul into this presentation. You know all of the material inside and out. But it's the first time your audience is hearing it. You need to give them time to absorb and consider each point as you deliver it. Think of it as a respectful moment for the point you made. Likewise, when someone throws a question at you, let it sit in your mind for a beat before answering. We all need to process new thoughts, and as an audience member, it's nice to have your words considered.
Wrapping up
I wanted this first article to focus on the key message that your presentation is not your slides. Before you start thinking about what’s going to be appearing behind you, you need to focus in on why you’re speaking, and how you’re going to be present yourself.
That's everything for this issue! Next time we'll cover:
Using slides effectively
Presentation structures
Practice
Telling your audience why they should care
Until then, happy facilitating!