Presentation Tweet: 140 Ways to Present with Impact

by  Wayne Turmel THINKaha © 2011 (115 pages) Citation ISBN:9781616990503

Based on interviews with technical managers at the engineering giant, Cisco, this concise book brings you practical, solid presentation advice from people who sell, persuade and teach successfully every single day - so your next presentation gets you the attention and results you want.

Table of Contents #Presentation Tweet — 140 Ways to Present with Impact Why Did I Write This Book? Foreword by Bette Daoust, Ph.D. Introduction Section I Section II Section III

Accessed today Section IV

#Presentation Tweet — 140 Ways to Present with Impact

By Wayne Turmel

Foreword by Bette Daoust, Ph.D.

Copyright © 2011 by Wayne Turmel

All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher.

Published by THiNKaha®, a Happy About® imprint20660 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 210, Cupertino, CA 95014 http://thinkaha.com

Crowdsourced at Cisco® for the THiNK Continuity program (http://thinkcontinuity.com).

First Printing: April 2011Paperback ISBN: 978-1-61699-050-3 (1-61699-050-3)eBook ISBN: 978-1-61699-051-0 (1-61699-051-1) Place of Publication: Silicon Valley, California, USA Paperback Library of Congress Number: 2011926215

Trademarks

All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be trademarks or service marks have been appropriately capitalized. Neither Happy About®, nor any of its imprints, can attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.

Warning and Disclaimer

Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accurate as possible. The information provided is on an “as is” basis. The author(s), publisher, and their agents assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Nor do they assume liability or responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising from the use of information contained herein.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to everyone at Cisco® who contributed their thoughts to this book. This is proof that you can be a good presenter and know your stuff—it’s not one or the other. Some days we need to remember that.

Acknowledgments

The list of people I should thank would be longer than this book, but still I say my thank yous in no particular order:

The team at THiNKaha Books: Mitchell Levy, Rajesh Setty, Sharyn Fitzpatrick Skudneski, and Liz Tadman for being persistent in helping me deliver excellence and a book that makes an impact on how people communicate.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D. and the collective brilliance of the people at Cisco®.

The Turmel support system: Joan, Nora, and Byron, the world’s loudest office mate.

Contributors

Steve Acheson

Arun Augustine @arunaugustine

Sumit Bansal

Lina Barry

Akhil Behl

Luke Bennett

Kaushal Bhandankar @kaushalgoa

Sameer Bhiwani @sambert

Alice Bratt

Jeff Bullard

Manuela Burg

Norm Charity @ncharity

Nimish Danani

Anderson dela Torre

BJ Favaro

Giri Fox @girifox

Suma G

Gaurav Garg @mailerg

Saish Gersappa

Jim Gilheany

Michael Green @mulgar

Haleh Haririan

Edward Heng

Ian Honmyo

Dennis Jaramillo

Dipti Joshi

Jackie Kirby

Jeff Klaas

Julie Kodama @julieako

Monali Korba

Candice Kramer @CandiceCPLP

Mark Krischer

Prabhanjan Kulkarni @prabhanjan

Preethi Kumaresan

Shubha Lakshmi

Tom Lamberty

Vidhyasri M

Veena Makal

Nahum Meadowsong

Jagadeesa Veerabahu Muthusamy

Srikanth Natarajan @sriknata

Glenn Nomi

Steve Nunamaker

Piu Ong

Jyoti Pahadsingh

Neha Parashar

Rajan Parmar

Chris Pattberg

Deepak Patwardhan

Jessica Pedraza

Liz Perez

Vengadesan Rajamanickam

Gopalan Rajkumar

Selvakumar Ramasamy

Nikunj Rathi @rathinikunj

Wayne Rauser

Arthur Rosling

Stine Schult Nore

Anil Sequeira

Abhishek Sharma

Scott Sherratt

Brad Simmons

Gaurav Sisodia

Christopher Spain

Ida Tan

Rebekah Thayer

Abhijit Tongaonkar

Jon Trapse

Pramida Tumma @pramidatumma

Chethana V P

Rishi Varanth

Vikas Vats

Randall Venn

Jose Vigano

Nagendra Viswanath

Tom Warneke

Bob Zompa

About the Author

Wayne Turmel is an author, speaker, and the president of GreatWebMeetings.com. His podcast, “TheCranky Middle Manager Show” is heard by thousands around the world and he’s the “Connected Manager” Blogger for BNET. Mostly he’s obsessed with helping people communicate effectively, whether at the front of the room or across the planet.

He lives in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, with his wife The Duchess, his daughter, Her Serene Highness, and Byron, the world’s neediest cockatiel.

Why Did I Write This Book?

In third grade, I learned something I’ve carried with me throughout my life. (Well, two things if you include the multiplication tables.)

I worked on a science project with two other people. They stayed up late, gluing plastic dinosaurs to the shoe box while I did nothing much at all. But when it came time to giving the presentation, I stood up and proudly told everyone about our diorama. Not only did we get an A, but I got most of the credit, and it was referred to as “Wayne’s Team.” The lesson stuck.

Here’s the point: No matter how hard you work, no matter how smart you are, people will give you more credit and reward your efforts if you’re an effective communicator.

Unfair? Certainly. True? Undeniably. I have made a career out of helping people smarter than me get their messages across, and this book is part of that.

Oh, one more thing I learned. It helps if you’re the only person in your group who can pronounce diplodochus.

Wayne Turmel

Twitter@greatwebmeeting

wayne@GreatWebMeetings.com

Foreword by Bette Daoust, Ph.D.

Presentation skills always come to mind when you work at any corporation. We spend a great deal of our time presenting information, gathering facts, delivering successes, and so on. I know for my days there are at least four hours of presentations each day and sometimes even more. Often keeping my attention is difficult as managing other priorities at the same time happens (so many of us multi-task). If the presenter is not skilled at creating a presentation or even speaking at the right level to the audience, then the attention paid to the information becomes minimal and the message gets quickly lost.

When a presentation is crucial for moving the business forward, it is important to have good skills—both from a design and a delivery perspective. Making an impact on your audience is often critical to getting the information understood and delivering the outcome you need for success.

As a result #PRESENTATION tweet came into being. A group of business professionals were polled for their thoughts on what made a good presentation as well as a look into the best practices from their point of view. You will find that this book offers insights to being a presentation guru thanks to those who contributed their expertise.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D., Learning & Development Manager, Cisco®

Introduction

Here’s the hardest lesson many of us will have to learn: Your work doesn’t speak for itself.

Your ideas need to be transmitted from your brain into the brains—and hearts—of your audience. Those who do it well succeed. Those who don’t can struggle mightily, despite how smart they are or how hard they work.

Nowhere is this seen more clearly than at Cisco®. Very smart people from around the world compete for project funding, scarce resources, and the limited attention span of the senior leadership. We asked hundreds of people throughout the company for their best thinking. What do they do on a regular basis to help their hard work, their ideas, and themselves stand out from the crowd? I’m honored to learn from this outstanding group, and happy to share their best ideas with you. Here’s to getting smarter together, one Tweet at a time.

Section I

Define and Hone Your Message Before you open PowerPoint, let alone your mouth, you need to understand what your message is. What’s your purpose for giving the presentation and what should the audience do with the information? When you can answer that, you’ll be focused, clear, and on target. Let’s face it, most people don’t like to present, so if you’re going to do it, get it right the first time.

1

The purpose of a presentation is rarely just to inform the audience. They need to know “so what?”

2

A good case can be made best by proposing a solution with just enough data/examples presented in a way the audience can relate to.

3

If the audience has to ask, “what’s our next step?” you haven’t done your job.

4

Information without context and interpretation is just data. Take responsibility to give them information.

5

You have to understand both sides of the argument to ensure you respond and react to any direction the conversation might go.

6

Make sure you’ve considered the issue from all angles the audience would approach it from. Then turn their focus on your outcome.

7

Always remember that your presentation shouldn’t be about explaining the slide deck—the slide deck should help explain your presentation.

8

Never design slides to read from. Use them to help the audience understand the structure of your talk and illustrate your points.

9

Use PowerPoint as “a” medium to communicate and not “the” medium to communicate.

10

Presenters: A heavy deck is likely to kill the audience.

11

Audience: Give feedback to the presenter if you don’t want to be killed again.

12

Keep the main presentation short and focused, but use handouts to give the detail chasers something to go look at instead of sidetracking.

13

When you’ve finished your presentation, what do you want your audience to do? That’s your goal.

14

Add extra, detailed, or optional slides at the end of the presentation and call it Appendix or Extra Slides. Use them during Q & A.

15

Plan your presentation before you open PowerPoint. What’s the goal and what do you want to tell the audience?

16

The sooner your audience can answer, “what does this have to do with me?” the better.

17

Be ruthless with what you put into back-up.

18

You can avoid “death by slide deck” by only including key words as prompts for you as the presenter.

19

I have a rule: “If the audience can read the information from the slide, why do they need me?”

20

Decide the key points your audience needs to get. Introduce them, make each point clear and concise, then summarize them with action items.

21

Avoid copy and paste screen shots that usually result in an “eye chart.” Provide just the key info in a visually pleasing way.

22

We need to present to share and spark discussions and mature our ideas; to find collaborators in taking a plan forward.

23

Presentation goals vary, but usually they try to achieve three things: Convey something important, gather feedback, or drive a result.

24

There’d be no need to present if your audience could imagine the exact thing you have in mind—but that’s your job, to paint that picture.

25

If your job is just to inform people, the question is “why?” What do you want them to do once they know?

26

The difference between change and innovation: When it’s your idea it’s innovation. Help them understand why they need to change.

27

Sometimes we present to impress. We use a flamboyant PowerPoint to convey something that could easily have been done on a whiteboard.

28

You’re not ready to build your presentation until you can state in a single sentence your objective and what you want the audience to do.

29

Illustrations always help to convey technical ideas in a language everyone can understand easily.

30

The plan is to get the idea in my head into others’ with the same intensity and pave the way for further discussion.

31

A complicated chart can be worse than no chart at all. Ask yourself: “What’s this chart trying to say?” and eliminate distractions.

32

Without context and application, it’s not knowledge. It’s just data transfer.

33

Data transfer can be done by email. You add value through interpretation, application, and context in the presentation.

34

Most people are very visually oriented. A good presentater can take advantage of this by supporting what you say with visual reminders.

35

Try not to define your presentation by what it’s “about”, but by what it will help the audience do.

36

Acknowledge both sides of an argument. It shows you did your homework.

37

Your presentation matters because the idea you presented in a 10-page document often loses its impact if you just sent an email.

38

The audience doesn’t care how you reached your conclusion unless they know what it is: Get to the point fast and then support it with facts.

39

Take the audience on a journey and tell them a story. Have them believe they arrived at the conclusion on their own.

40

Words are good. Pictures are better. Words and pictures together get remembered.

41

Present your information assertively. You don’t want audience to “hopefully see” your point. You want them to understand and take action.

42

Treat a recommendation like a court trial on television—only introduce enough evidence necessary to create a conviction.

Section II

Deliver Your Message Like a Pro

What people see and hear when you speak either adds support for your words or creates barriers to understanding. Here are some great, simple tips for helping the audience see and hear you as competent, professional, and worth listening to (which you are).

43

Know your subject (and audience) inside and out. Be clear and concise. Enunciate to sound confident.

44

Practice doesn’t mean flipping through your slides talking to yourself. Practice out loud with the equipment you’ll use.

45

Don’t drink caffeine before giving presentations. Caffeine tightens the vocal chords and tires you faster.

46

As you look into the audience, stop on a person, focus on them for 10 sec. Finish a sentence, pause, breathe, and move on to someone else.

47

Learn to be comfortable with silence. Don’t feel you have to fill every moment with talking. Silence enhances or emphasizes.

48

SMILE! If you’re having a terrible time of it, so will they.

49

You should look into the eyes of the audience and keep interacting with them.

50

Gestures should be away from your body and above the waist.

51

When at rest, try to keep your hands down at your sides, not clasped like you’re praying for mercy.

53

Each slide should tell one story. If you can’t say “the point of this slide is…” in one sentence, it’s too much.

52

Don’t hold the remote in your hand for a long time. Pick it up, click, and put it down.

54

No Laser Pointers Ever. Well, you’d better have a really good reason.

55

Follow this simple rule: I am the “star,” the slides are my “co-star.”

56

To start: Breathe, find a friendly face, and start by looking him/her in the eyes.

57

Pause for effect when you come to the important point—let it soak in before continuing.

58

If the knowledge builds, stop and check if the audience understand before moving on. You don’t want to lose them.

59

How can you be comfortable and confident with something you put together thirty minutes before the meeting?

Just asking.

60

Speak with a few audience members one-on-one before you begin to build familiarity and get their mood.

61

Don’t check too often with your boss or your buyer. You look uncertain or needy. And it’s creepy.

62

If they’re in the room, they matter. Make eye contact with everyone eventually.

63

If you’re going to move around, know where you’re going. Move for a reason.

64

Most people move around to burn off energy, not because it’s useful. Don’t pace unnecessarily.

65

Use your hand to point and gesture. It gives you something to do and it’s not a bouncy little red dot.

66

There’s a fine line between making eye contact and stalking.

67

Those pauses sound much longer to you than they do to your audience.

Relax and enjoy them.

68

Nail your feet to the floor during Q & A and look at the questioner in the eye.

69

Try to avoid using a podium. If you must use it, don’t clutch the sides of it ‘til your fingers turn white.

70

Picture “volume” and “speed” dials. Volume should be one notch higher than you think, speed one notch slower.

71

Don’t move to change your slides until you’ve finished speaking. You’ll end up looking down at the keyboard or screen instead of to the crowd.

72

Take everything out of your pockets and remove swinging ID badges. They distract you and the audience.

73

Forget what you’ve been told. Don’t picture the audience in their underwear. Seriously.

74

Don’t make the microphone do the work. Speak loudly and lower the mic volume.

Section III

Presenting in a Virtual World

More and more the people we’re speaking to aren’t even in the same time zone, let alone the same room.

This section will show you how to take what you know about good communication and apply it to web meetings and virtual presentations. If anyone knows how to do this, it’s people at the company who brought us WebEx®.

75

Use the webcam to introduce yourself.

If you can’t, use a picture.

76

While you’re at it, use pictures of the participants if the group is small enough.

77

Provide materials in advance and distribute contact information (so they can reach one another in case of technical issues.)

78

What does your audience know about your topic? If they know a lot, don’t bore them. If they don’t, don’t overwhelm them.

79

Tell the audience closing IM and email will save bandwidth and present screen freeze. It’s true enough.

80

Ask them to close email and IM during the web meeting. Some will actually do it.

81

The longer you go without involving the audience, the faster you’ll lose them.

82

Audiences start to lose interest faster online than in a room. Get to the point.

83

Get on the web presentation before your audience and test everything before they get there.

84

Take the time to make sure everyone knows how to send a chat message or ask a question. Don’t assume they know how.

85

People like to hear other voices. Allow others to comment throughout.

86

Don’t talk and move the mouse.

Pause, click, speak.

87

When using a webcam: Talk to the light on the camera, not the picture on the screen.

88

People with English as a second language often prefer to chat rather than speak up.

89

Use the white board feature just as you would a whiteboard or flip chart in a live presentation.

90

Test the colors of your annotation tools on your presentation to make sure they show up.

91

Visuals should change every one to two minutes to keep audience interest.

92

If you’re on the same visual for a long time, use animation or highlighter to add movement and interest.

93

Be more worried about your audience than the person at the next desk.

Present online at presentation volume.

94

Use a headset, not a speaker phone if you can.

95

Don’t hold questions ‘til the end. Get them engaged early on.

96

Use the Notes section of PowerPoint to bullet point your script so that you don’t forget key points or repeat yourself.

97

Build pauses and questions into your presentation. You’ll forget them if you don’t.

98

Pause and breathe between visuals. You and your audience both need the break.

99

Always tell a virtual audience how long they’ll be online so they can set expectations and stay engaged.

100

Open all applications you need to share and practice toggling between them. Share only required applications.

101

Imagine how you would run the meeting if you were face to face. Now imagine how to duplicate that online.

Section IV

Present Up, Down, and Across the Organization

Presenting to the CEO is different from presenting to colleagues or people who work for you. One of the career-defining (and limiting) skills is the ability to tailor your presentation appropriately for each audience. Want that project funded? Want people to adopt your idea? Want people to change behavior? You’d better understand who they are, how they think, and “what’s in it for them (WIIFM)”.

102

Always set realistic expectations for the audience, including time and outcomes.

103

Send an agenda out in advance.

A real agenda. Stick to it.

104

If you have multiple agenda items, start with the most pressing first while they’re paying attention.

105

Check in with people you haven’t heard from. Keep them engaged.

106

Don’t just ask for volunteers. You’ll always get the same people speaking.

107

Let someone else run the meeting’s technical details so that you can focus on content or leading the discussion.

108

You know all the stuff you hate about web meetings? Don’t do that stuff.

109

Pause and listen for signs of inattention like keyboard pounding and email notifications.

110

There’s nothing more annoying than delaying a meeting due to technical issues. Do a dry run beforehand.

111

Record the presentation and post it so those who missed it can catch up.

112

Check the participant list and see who’s paying attention, or from whom you haven’t heard for a while. Mention their name or ask a question.

113

Check in with your audience periodically to make sure they’re seeing what you’re talking about.

114

Make your peers realize it is a “TEAM” effort. Always use “We” not “I.”

115

Don’t try to BS anyone about anything! If you don’t know say so.

Don’t waste people’s time!

116

Be specific if giving directions (don’t overload them by giving too many options.)

117

Focus on the tactical issues, and how it will make life better for them.

118

Two-way communication is critical. Allow time for Q & A in the presentation.

119

Understand the expectations of peers prior to presenting.

Start with common pain points, how a proposal or solution can help address them.

120

Senior management has three questions: What’s your recommendation? What’s it gonna cost? What’s the return? Answer them first.

121

Being right is no defense against self-interest. Understand why people will or won’t agree with you.

122

The higher the level, the less detail they’ll want.

123

The longer they wait to hear what’s in it for them, the faster they’ll fade on you.

124

Most of us put off getting to the point for our comfort, not the audience’s.

125

Never confuse how much time they give you to present with how much time you have to get to the point. You don’t really have an hour.

126

“Because the company says so” doesn’t qualify as WIIFM. How it impacts your audience determines whether they take action or not.

127

Don’t attempt to preempt every question senior leaders will have. Put the big ones in your presentation, then sparkle in Q & A.

128

The tone for most oral presentations is relaxed but serious, especially when presenting to peers and colleagues.

129

Prepare by running the content past someone who knows that audience.

Anticipate the response.

130

Don’t let fear win. Few people have actually died from presenting. A very few wish they had.

131

We come to our recommendations deductively. We should make them inductively.

132

Use the audience’s vocabulary. If they call them associates, don’t call them employees.

133

Senior audiences won’t wait ‘til the end for questions. Don’t take it personally.

134

Before going too far, state your objectives and get an agreement that they’re appropriate for the audience.

135

When you have multiple items on the agenda, use color coding to highlight the severity for quick recognition by management.

136

Most execs want to understand the problem statement, the recommended solutions, next steps, and how they can help you succeed.

137

A reason they call the short piece at the front of a report the “Executive Summary.” Present the same way.

138

If you can’t explain in a single sentence why a piece of data is important, it’s not.

139

Even if you’re not in sales, you’re selling your idea. Treat your audience like customers and focus on them.

140

Those tough questions aren’t personal. Stay focused on the end result you want to achieve.