You must remember it as a child at school? One of the teachers had that magically ability to read a story to the class and hold you spell bound. You hung on every word, you almost felt too afraid to take a breath in case you missed something vital in the story.
Is it really that simple? Is it just about taking the clients problems away from them for a period of time? Well yes and no. Yes, the agency takes the problem on to their shoulders but ultimately it is still the client’s problem. So there must be more to it. Why do some clients build in house studios? Why do some clients go as far as creating their own communications agency?
So, what made that one, special teacher so good? Was it their voice, was it their ability to add extra detail beyond the written words or was it that they deliberately only picked the most exciting stories to read! Or was it just you so wanted to avoid the handwriting exercise that was due next lesson?
In reality, it was probably a mixture of all of the above.
So what can we learn from our special teacher? How can we bring that magic to presenting in the work place? Let’s face it, presenting is just story-telling to adults.
Assuming that your audience doesn’t have a hand writing lesson after break, you need a way to engage them everytime you stand up to tell your story.
Having spent the best part of the past 25 years telling stories to clients, colleagues, and my children, I have developed a list of 7 key magical ingredients.
Know your topic
If you want people to listen to you and take you seriously, you must know your topic. If you are just presenting facts that anyone in the audience could have Googled, how can you expect them to hang on your every word. Don’t insult your audience by just repeating what they may already know. Add value. Bring them some insights. Make sure that they leave the room better informed than they were then they entered.
Less is More
Ok, so if you know your topic, you should have the confidence to have minimal words on the screen. The words should just be prompts to lead you into the next chapter of your story. If you need the audience to take in key information include that data but don’t drown the page in text and bullet points.
Talk don’t read
If you do have include a lot of text, talk about it as opposed to just reading it. If you just read it then why are you there, your audience could read it for themselves? Did your teach just give you all copied of the book? No they held the book and brought it to life with their voice.
Hold back the exciting bits
Do you remember the kid who always went to the back page of the book to find out if the knight killed the dragon? He spoilt the story for all of you, the magic was broken and you probably had to do the handwriting exercise you so wanted to avoid. It’s the same with your presentation. If you have four killer facts on a slide, only show the first one. Talk about it, explain it, let it sink in and then and only then reveal the second bullet point. Use the technology to your advantage. Gone as the days when your school assemble used an OHP and your Headmaster covered the second verse of the song with a piece of paper!
Bring it to life
Most people are visual, they respond well to visual explanations and visual stimulus. So use images to tell stories. If you are talking about a challenge your team must face, use an image of a mountain climber. If it’s a story about future opportunities, a great image of the sky at night will help the message. Rather than having a small image next to the text, try a full bleed image with your brief text over the top. If you try this, make sure there is strong contrast between the image and your text colour.
If you don’t believe me, remember your most enjoyable storybook at school……get my point?
Break the presentation up
If the topic allows, end the presentation with a demonstration or a physical sample of the work of product. If the presentation is going to be long (over 40 minutes) think about breaking it up into two section and have the demonstration in the middle. This is a great way of ensuring your audience is not asleep. Remember how the class came to life for ‘show and tell’?
But remember don’t do this unless it is relevant. At Burrows, most of our recent presentations have been around VR and AR so it is very relevant to have a demonstration in our Lab, but if you are presenting an annual finance review or if the client relationship is very formal, you may not want to ask the CEO to don a Vive headset!
Passion
Lastly and for me, most important is Passion. If you want people to be engaged and to buy in to you and your story, you must have passion for what you are talking about. Remember that special teacher and the magic web they wove. I bet they were passionate about teaching, about the class and about you enjoying your year in their class.
So before you plan your next presentation, think about Mrs Callaghan in year 3 and cast your spell!
by Richard Wright
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