Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 39 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: 5 Theses of the power of a presentation
— From Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations by Nancy Duarte
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power[point].” –Abraham Lincoln
And with this fantastic quote [and its oh-so-funny addition] begins Slide:ology, a great, practical book by Nancy Duarte on how to craft great presentations and slides. We all have been at presentations where the slides are insufferable. (!) And if we are lucky, we have also been at (or watched on video) incredibly moving, beautiful, memorable presentations, such as TED Talks. What’s the difference, above and beyond the delivery? The visuals. You can have death by PowerPoint (very funny video), in which the slides act as a crutch for the presenter and are a true distraction for the audience. Or you can have slides that “act as a visual aid to reinforce the presenter’s message,” and help with recall of the main points afterwards.
“The audience will either read your slides or listen to you. They will not do both. So, ask yourself this: is it more important that they listen, or more effective if they read?” If they read, there’s no point in doing a presentation. “People will love you for respecting their time enough to use the media appropriately.”
“Communication is about getting others to adopt your point of view, to help them understand why you’re excited (or sad, or optimistic, or whatever else you are). If all you want to do is create a file of facts and figures, then cancel the meeting and send in a report.” – Seth Godin
Duarte created a manifesto with 5 theses that are the foundation on which powerful presentations stand. They may seem basic, but sometimes we need a reminder of the obvious, since we are so involved in the project that we don’t see it. I’m sharing the 5 points with you here verbatim as I think they have enormous merit.
- Treat your audience as king. “They didn’t come to your presentation to see you. They came to find out what you can do for them. Success means giving them a reason for taking their time, providing content that resonates, and ensuring it’s clear what they are to do.”
- Spread ideas and move people. “Creating great ideas is what we were born to do; getting people to feel like they have a stake in what we believe is the hard part. Communicate your ideas with strong visual grammar to engage all their senses and they will adopt the ideas as their own.”
- Help them see what you are saying. “Epiphanies and profoundly moving experiences come from moments of clarity. Think like a designer and guide your audience through ideas in a way that helps, not hinders, their comprehension. Appeal not only to their verbal senses, but to their visual senses as well.”
- Practice design, not decoration. “Orchestrating the aesthetic experience through well-known but oft-neglected design practices often transforms audiences into evangelists. Don’t just make pretty talking points. Instead, display information in a way that makes complex information clear.”
- Cultivate healthy relationships. A meaningful relationship between you, your slides, and your audience will connect people with content. Display information in the best way possible for comprehension rather than focusing on what you need as a visual crutch. Content carriers connect with people.”
Lastly, always remember the Golden Rule of presentations: “Never deliver a presentation you wouldn’t want to sit through.”
ACTION
TODAY: Watch one or more TED Talks and look at the visuals (here are one, two, and three presentations with slides from the 25 most popular TED Talks of all time). Notice how they help drive the point home. What made them memorable? How was the information displayed so that it delivered the idea/message and made it memorable?
FUTURE: Here are Seth Godin’s rules to avoid Really Bad PowerPoint. Go through them as well as through the 5 theses above every time you have to build a slide deck so that you can ensure that it will be successful and well received by your audience. And if you love design as much as I do and want to learn more about it to apply it to all aspects of your life, here’s an awesome free online course (one lesson per week, learn at your own pace).
Know someone who needs to improve their PowerPoint skills? Please share this post with them via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!