Archive for the ‘ Planning ’ Category

Information overload

We often think we have to fill our presentations with data and lists in an effort to give our audiences all the information available. This forgets a very important change in the way we get our information. When we are interested in something, we go away and Google it – or in Korea, we Naver it.

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With this in mind as presenters we do not need to cover as much detail as we used to do in a presentation. What we need to do now is to give enough information to spark enough interest to get our audience to want to learn more.

The way I see presentations today is that they are an opportunity to create a ‘buzz’. Whether that is to stimulate interest in your product or service or to explain a new plan for your company. What your goal should be is to induce a spark that gets your audience wanting more. Fill your presentation with a the facts and data and you not only bore your audience, you lose their interest in whatever you are talking about.

Company reports, SOPs and other detailed explanations are, and if they are not -should be, available for your audience members. So you do not necessarily concern yourself with every single little piece of information.

Of course presenters need to give some details, the overview if you like, but the boring nitty gritty can be left for the audience members to look up if they have enough interest following you presentation. And this presents a unique challenge to a modern day presenter – how to spark the interest.

To do this you need to be able to show that audience that by taking an interest in what you are saying, it will improve their lives in one way or another. For example, if you are presenting your company to a group of potential new clients, you need to show them that your company can improve the way they do business. Your potential clients do not want to listen to you spend five minutes talking about the history of your company since its foundation – that is information that can easily be found doing a simple search in a search engine. They want to know what you have achieved and how you can use that achievement to help you become a better company. You potential clients do not want to know how your management is structured. They want to know which manager will be looking after them and how he or she will help their company become a better company.

Think about it. When you are sat in a presentation, are you really interested in how a company structures its management? Even worse, why are you talking about your CEO / Chairman / woman when they haven’t even bothered to turn up to the meeting?

The way it works in the twenty-first century is you give three or four key pieces of information and allow your audience time to ask questions on the parts that they want more information. That way you are presenting to your audience needs and not your need to squeeze in as much boring, irrelevant information as possible – in an effort to keep your antiquated boss happy.

Keeping it simple, relevant and short is the way to present in the twenty-first century.

2011 Top 10 Best/ Worst Communcatiors

Decker Communications have released their 2011 top ten best / worst communicators list, and I could not agree more with their list.

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However, there was one omission that I would include in the list and that would be the Pyeongchang Olympic bid team who presented in Durban, South Africa last July.

These guys were outstanding and their communication was brilliant. It would be great to see more Korean people effectively communicating globally in 2012, and I hope that I will be able to help this wonderful country (South Korea) to be a nation of global communicators.

요점이 무엇입니까?

한국에서 프레젠테이션 세미나를 할 때면, 질의 응답 시간에 항시 논쟁거리가 되는 이슈가 하나 있습니다. 비로 프레젠테이션 안에서 발표자가 다루는 정보의 양입니다.

 

 

먼저 문제가 무엇인지 짚어보도록 합시다. 현재 우리는 무수히 쏟아지는 정보들 속을 살아가고 있습니다. 이처럼 넘쳐나는 정보들 속에서 허우적거리면서도, 발표자들은 여전히 엄청난 양의 정보를 자신들의 프레젠테이션 안에 집어넣고 있습니다. 하지만 이런 발표자들에게도 (청중의 입장이 되어) 오늘날 프레젠테이션의 문제가 무엇이냐 물으면, 내용이 너무 길고 지루하다고 이야기 합니다. 참, 말이 안 되는 이야기 입니다. 청중의 입장일 때는 프레젠테이션에서 너무 많은 내용을 다룬다고 불평하면서도 (프레젠테이션이 너무 길다고 느끼는 이유), 정작 자신이 발표자가 되었을 때는 프레젠테이션 안에 엄청난 정보를 집어 넣고 있으니 말입니다.

이런 문제점을 지적할 때면 제가 항상 듣는 이야기가 있습니다. 바로, “한국에서는 무조건 내용을 많이 집어 넣어야 해요” 라는 말입니다. 매번 모두가 이렇게 똑같이 이야기 합니다.

흠~~~ 앞으로 제가 하게 되는 거친 표현에 놀라지 마시기 바랍니다.

제발 말도 되는 소리 집어 치우시죠!!!”

 

여러분이 어느 나라에 살고 있건, 정신을 멍하게 만드는 데이터와 (회사나 제품 등의) 특징 및 좋은 점들을 죽죽 나열한 리스트로 청중을 지루하게 만드는 것은 어떠한 변명도 통하지 않습니다. 우리가 사용하는 높임말 (격식체)과 낮춤말 (비격식체) 같은 경우 다른 나라에서 온 청중이 약간의 문화적 차이는 느낄 수 있지만, 쉽게 지루함을 느끼는 데는 전 세계 어느 곳에서 온 청중이건 모든 이들이 마찬가지입니다.

 (즉, 나라별로 서로 문화가 다르다고 해서 청중이 지루함을 느끼는 것은 아닙니다. 청중이 지루함을 느끼는 요소는 만국공통입니다. 슬라이드를 꽉꽉 메우는 자료들, 줄줄이 나열한 리스트들이야 말로 전 세계 어느 나라를 가도 똑같이 지루하게 느껴지는 것들입니다.)

 

사람들은 더 많은 정보를 원하지 않습니다. 이들은 이미 너무 많은 정보에 빠져 있습니다. (정보가 다리 끝부터 눈까지 쌓여 올라와 있다는 뜻) 그들이 원하는 것은 신뢰와 믿음입니다. 당신에 대한 믿음, 당신이 이루고자 하는 목표, 그리고 당신의 성공에 대한 믿음과 신뢰 입니다. 바로 당신이 이야기 하고 있는 그 스토리 속에서 말이죠.

MS오피스는 3개의 프로그램이 주를 이룹니다. 바로 워드, 파워포인트 그리고 엑셀입니다. 애플의 iWorks는 Pages, Keynote, Numbers 로, 여기에는 이유가 있습니다. MS 워드와 애플의 Pages는 세부적인 것들을 위한 것으로, 파워포인트와 키노트는 요점과 스토리를 위한 것입니다. 그러니, 프레젠테이션 소프트 웨어로 자세한 정보를 다루는 일은 제발 멈춰주시기 바랍니다. 이는 너무나 지루하고 청중에게 혼란만 줄 뿐입니다.

이제는, 여러분의 요점을 피력하기 위해 프레젠테이션을 사용하십시오. 그리고 요점을 강조했다면, 거기서 멈추셔야 합니다. 여러분이 해야 할 이야기에 청중이 관심을 가진다면, 이야기가 끝나고 난 후 자세한 사항을 물어 볼 것입니다. 하지만 관심이 없다면, 여러분이 프레젠테이션 안에 얼마나 많은 양의 내용을 다루든 여러분은 이미 청중을 지루하게 만든 것 입니다. 판매 수치, 생산 데이터 그리고 여러분의 회사가 얼마나 좋은지에 관해 계속 늘어놓는 것은 이미 지루해져 버린 프레젠테이션을 결코 흥미롭게 만들 수 없을 것입니다.

What’s Your Point

Whenever I do a presentation seminar here in Korea there is always one issue that is raised every time. That issue is the amount of information a presenter puts into their presentation.

First let me explain what the problem is. Today, in a world of information overload presenters are still putting in far too much information into their presentation. Yet, when you ask those same presenters, they will tell you that the problem with today’s presentations is they are too long and too boring. It does not make any sense. On the one hand presenters complain there is too much information in a presentation (the reason they feel a presentation is too long) and then on the other hand they present with too much information in their own presentations.

The excuse I always get – 100% of the time! – is that “in Korea we have to put in a lot of information” Please forgive me for the following expletive – Bull Sh*t!

There is never any excuse for boring your audience with mind numbing data and lists of features and benefits whatever country you live in. Audiences may have a few cultural differences in the way that we use formal language and informal language, but audiences around the world are as easily bored as the person from the next country.


Microsoft Office comes with three programmes: Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Apple’s iWorks comes with three programmes: Pages, Keynote and Numbers. There is a reason for this. MS Word and Apple’s Pages are for details, PowerPoint and Keynote are for the main points and stories. Stop using your presentation software for the details. It is boring and it only confuses your audience.

Use your presentation to get to your point. Emphsise your point and then stop. If your audience are interested in what you have to say they will ask for more details when you finish. If they are not interested in what you have to say then it does not matter how much information you put into your presentation, you have bored your audience already – going on and on about sales figures, product data and how fantastic your company is is not going to make a boring presentation any more interesting.


KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!

I am getting a little worried. Now the book is finished and is with the publishers, I have had time to read posts in many other blogs on presenting. Most are very good, and offer great advice. However, there are quite a lot of blogs out there that appear – to me anyway – to be over complicating what should be a simple, business communication tool – ie the presentation.

Presenting is a very common business communication method. We use it to tell potential customers about our products, to give our staff details about new initiatives and we can use them for training our staff. Yet, many well intentioned bloggers are posting more and more complicated ways of presenting.

Lets get real for a moment. The average business executive does not have a spare 60 hours to prepare for a presentation. Perhaps Steve Jobs has that time available, but your average salary man / woman is being paid to do a job, and that job is not spending two weeks preparing for a presentation to a staff meeting.

So, here’s my suggestion for a four hour preparation time presentation:

1. Spend 30 minutes brainstorming ideas – I know some presentation coaches think brainstorming is not a great idea, but I think it is still the best way to get your ideas out and onto something you can organise.

2. Spend another 30 minutes organising your ideas into the points and stories you want to tell your audience.

3. Spend one hour designing and preparing your presentation slides – remember images beat text every time – so keep the text to a minimum and the images to a maximum.

4. Practice, practice and practice again for the next two hours.

Now, this is not a method I would follow if I was preparing a presentation that would be career changing, but for a regular staff meeting / training session or a product update presentation, then really there is no need to spend any longer on this.

Presentations should be simple and easy to understand. Our audiences have a very short attention span, so complicated, long winded presentations do not work today, So keep it simple, keep to the point and go out there and enjoy yourself. After all, you are only doing what comes naturally to humans – communicating.

Learning From My Own Mistakes

Well, I may have told all those of you who read this blog regularly that you should always back up your presentations – just in case things go wrong, I discovered something else you should also do. Check your back up copy!

Yesterday, I was doing a class. I had prepared my presentation file the night before. I saved it and went to bed. I did not check that the file had saved correctly, because I had never had a problem with a backup file.

When I tried to open the file I got an error message “The file you are trying to open is not in a recognised format”

No matter what I did I could not open the file. I had to do the class without my presentation file. Not a complete disaster, but certainly an inconvenience.

Remember!!!! Always check that your back up file works. Do not make my mistake.

Overcoming Stage Fright

Stage fright or “podium fear” is probably the one reason people hate doing presentations. It is the reason for all those sleepless nights, loss of appetite and hatred for your boss and or job. But stage fright is nothing new, you are not alone when you experience it. Every presenter, actor, TV star and musician face it every day. Stage fright is what makes your performance brilliant. Stage fright should be embraced and worked with.

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However, stage fright in its extreme form can cause you to ‘freeze up’, and when that happens it is not good. So how can you overcome this extreme form of stage fright? Here are a list of strategies that have always helped me and I hope can help you:

1. Arrive early and claim the room

By arriving early, setting up your computer / whiteboard / OHP etc you are becoming familiar with the room. After setting up your computer walk around the room, get a real feel for its dimensions and layout. Part of the problem we have when we present is that we are not familiar with the room in which we are presenting and therefore we naturally feel uncomfortable. By arriving early, and before your audience arrives, you allow yourself time to become familiar with the room and to ‘own’ it. Once you ‘own’ the room it becomes your territory and then you will feel much more comfortable. Imagine how you feel talking to a stranger at your desk or in your office – you do not feel nervous then do you? That is because it is your territory.

2. Prepare and practice

If you do not practice and prepare before hand then you are going to be very nervous. By practicing your presentation, going through it with your slides and not just reading and reading a paper script you will gradually feel more confident. By being confident you will overcome to worst of the nerves. Again, you need to do this with your slides as this gives your practice and rehearsal a more realistic feel and it also prevents you from losing your place in the middle of your presentation.

3. Greet your audience when they arrive

There is a subconscious factor working when you are standing at the door of the presentation room greeting your audience when they arrive. It gives you an air of power and control. It also gives you the chance to see that your audience are not angry monsters wanting to kill you, but nice, friendly people interesting in what you have to say. Hiding away at the back of the room is going to intensify your nerves. Being out there at the door greeting your audience is going to help you forget that you are nervous – after all what is more natural than meeting people?

4. Don’t change your presentation last minute

I still cannot believe that people do this – they spend weeks preparing for a big presentation, they practice many hours and then on the night before or even the morning before they change their presentation. Never do this! Changing your presentation hours before delivering it is going to intensify your fears. Set a cut off of one week before your presentation and then do not change it. You will be tempted to do it, but do not. Once you have your boss’s OK then stick with what you have got and then practice it. If you have practiced the presentation well enough, made no changes you will be confident and your fear will be less intense.

5. Visualise

Olympic athletes, stage actors and musicians all use this trick to enhance their performance. They visualise performing fantastically and winning the gold medal or receiving loud applause. As you are practicing your presentation visualise everything going well – visualise looking at the audience, clicking through your slides seamlessly and answering questions effectively. While most people find it difficult to see how this can work, trust me when I tell you that it really does. It prepares your body and mind and it helps you to perform brilliantly.

I hope these little tips help you when you next do your presentation – try them, they have be tried and tested by many great speakers over the years and they have been proven to work.

발표자 모드 사용하기

때때로 발표자들은 프레젠테이션 도중 자신이 할 말을 잊어버리게 될까 두려워 프레젠테이션 슬라이드 안에 말할 내용을 전부 입력하는 경우가 있습니다. 발표자는 이렇게 하는 것이 청중들에게 도움이 될 것이라 희망하지만, 애석하게도 청중들 중 어느 누구도 이런 작업이 그들에게 도움이 될 것이라고 생각하지 않습니다. 이런 프레젠테이션을 보게 되는 청중들은, 발표자가 너무 준비없이 진행한다고 생각하거나 금새 흥미를 잃어버리게 될 것입니다.

하지만 너무 상심하지 마시기 바랍니다. 파워포인트와 키노트에는 이런 문제점을 해결해 줄 수 있는 프로그램이 있습니다. 방법은 아주 간단합니다. 바로 “ 발표자 모니터 사용자화” 나 “발표자 도구 사용” 을 이용하면 됩니다.

이 모드를 사용하게 되면, 청중들이 보는 메인 컴퓨터에는 프레젠테이션 슬라이드만을 보여주고, 발표자의 컴퓨터에서는 발표자 개인의 슬라이드 노트나 다음 슬라이드 보기 등 다양한 정보를 한눈에 볼 수 있습니다. 이 모드를 사용함으로써, 여러분은 스크립트를 일일이 타이핑해서 핸드카피로 가지고 있거나, 또는 청중에게 보여지는 슬라이드를 보면서 내용을 죽죽 읽는 문제에서 해방 될 수 있습니다.

아래는 키노트에서 “발표자 모니터 사용자화”를 활성화했을 시 발표자 컴퓨터에 나타나는 화면을 캡처한 이미지 입니다. 파워포인트의 “발표자 도구 사용” 모드를 사용할 시의 화면은 이창현의 쪽집게 블로그나 (http://cafe.naver.com/proppt.cafe?iframe_url=/ArticleRead.nhn%3Farticleid=158)

느림의 자유 블로그를 (http://blog.paran.com/respite/31251113)  참조하시기 바랍니다.

대체 요점이 뭡니까?

최근 참석했던 세미나에서 도통 요점을 알 수 없는 프레젠테이션들이 몇몇 있었습니다. 발표자가 말하고자 하는 의도를 모르겠고, 무엇 하나 배울 점도 없어 제 소중한 시간을 빼앗긴것 같은 기분이 들었습니다.

문제의 원인은 발표자가 너무 많은 정보들을 프레젠테이션에 담아내려다 보니 생긴것이었습니다. 이로 인해 청중들은 혼란스러워 지게 되고, 전체 프레젠테이션은 길고 지루하게 느껴져 요점을 잃어버리게 되었던 것입니다.

많은 세부설명이 필요한 프레젠테이션은 실제로 극히 드뭅니다. 예를 들어, 여러분의 잠재 고객에게 자신의 회사를 소개해야 할 때에는, 회사에서 판매하고 있는 상품 하나하나가 어떻게 만들어지고 통계수치는 어떠한지 등을 자세하게 설명할 필요가 없습니다. 이런 세부사항들은 나중에 고객과의 개별적 미팅시 다루어져야 하는 내용입니다. 여러분이 잠재고객에게 드려야 할 정보는 간단한 회사 연혁 ( 언제 회사가 설립되고, 몇명의 직원들로 구성이 되어 있는지, 회사의 위치 등등)과, 또 고객에게 도움이 될 상품과 서비스는 무엇이 있는지, 향후 어느 분야에 주력할 기획인지 등만으로도 충분합니다. 회사를 소개하는 자리라면, 이 모든것들을 10분에서 20분 소요의 프레젠테이션으로 마치는 것이 이상적입니다.

하지만 애석하게도, 많은 회사들이 아직도 회사소개 프레젠테이션에만 1시간 이상을 진행합니다. 부디 제 말을 믿어주시기 바랍니다. 만약 여러분이 1시간씩 회사 소개를 하신다면, 여러분의 잠재 고객은 정말 지루해 미치게 될 것입니다. 프레젠테이션을 이렇게 길게 할 필요가 전혀 없습니다. 행여 이런 분들이 계시면 도시락 싸들고 말리고 싶은게 저의 심정입니다, 제발 부탁드리오니, 이렇게 진행하지 마시기 바랍니다.

프레젠테이션을 기획하실 때에는, 반드시 핵심 요점을 찾으시기 바랍니다. 핵심 포인트를 정하셨다면, 그것을 위주로 프레젠테이션을 만드십시요. 청중이 여러분의 프레젠테이션으로부터 배웠으면 하는 부분이 무엇입니까?.  프레젠테이션에서 이 질문에 대해 간단하게, 그리고 너무 많은 기술적 설명이 필요하지 않게 답하시기 바랍니다.

상세한 기술적 부연 설명이나 자료들을 꼭 첨부하고자 하신다면, 프레젠테이션이 끝난 후 청중들에게 나누어 줄 수 있는 핸드카피를 고려해 보시기 바랍니다. (절대 프레젠테이션 시작 부분에 나누어 주지는 마시구요. ^^ 시작 부분에 나누어 주시면, 청중분들은 여러분의 프레젠테이션 내내 핸드카피만 뒤적거리실 겁니다). 이렇게 하시면 여러분의 섬세한 배려에 청중분들도 고마워하게 될 것입니다.

What’s Your Point?

Recently I have seen a few presentations that do not appear to have a point. The purpose was missing and I felt that I had learned nothing new and that I had completely wasted my time.

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The problem was caused by the presenter putting in far too much information, which caused the audience to become confused and the whole presentation feel long, boring and pointless.

Very few presentations require a lot of detail. For example, if you are introducing your company to a potential new client you do not need to go into fine detail about each individual product your sell, how they are made and what the statistics are. These details can be given when you sit down with the client to discuss the details later. All you need to do is to give a brief history (when the company was established, how many employees you have and where you have offices etc), what your product or service can do to help your potential customer and where you company plans to go in the future. All in all if you are just introducing your company, then a 10 to 20 minute presentation should be sufficient.

Sadly, a lot of of these company introduction presentations last for an hour! Trust me when I tell you this. If your company introduction presentation lasts for one hour, your potential customers are going to be bored rigid. There really is no need for it. So please, I beg you do not do it.

When you plan your presentation find the main point. What do you want your audience to learn? Once you have established that, build you presentation around that main point. Answer that question in your presentation – do it simply and without too much technical detail.

If you feel the need to include a lot of data and technical detail, consider using a handout sheet that you can give you audience at the end of your presentation. Never give a hand out at the beginning. Your audience will appreciate your kind consideration.