Tips On Crafting A Winning Presentation
Have you ever heard about blind man and an elephant? The story goes that a group of blind men are individually touched by an elephant. One felt the leg and said it was a tree trunk. Another felt the tail and said it was rope. A third person felt the side of the animal and he said it was like a wall, rounded but with some bumps on it.
What is this story telling us? Is there any one way to know how something looks just by touching it or feeling its shape? Can someone tell for sure that an unknown object is round or square without knowing what its other dimensions are? Of course not: each person saw only one dimension of this elephant. But which one? If you asked them to tell you what the elephant looked like and each of those blind men would tell you one aspect, who would be right?
The common sense interpretation of this story is that there is not one right answer. All these different things are all 'things' that an elephant could be, but they are real features that determine something about an elephant, they do not represent the whole or the same thing. To 'see' an elephant is to see multiple features at once. The different features describe a number of properties, but they do not describe all possible properties.
Here's a more realistic example: A plane flies in the sky with its wings level. We all see that this plane is moving, it has wings, and its wings are at different levels. The way our mind works makes us believe that it is a plane, because we think that all planes have to have wings and they have to be level with each other.
But what if this was a helicopter? A helicopter can fly with its rotors in any direction: they can be straight up or even down. Our common sense understanding of the word 'plane' does not allow us to see a helicopter as a plane when its rotors are down. But why not? We know planes can fly with their wings tilted in any direction. If you can see a plane with its wings down, why can't you see that a helicopter is still a plane?
I was trying to tell this idea to people a number of times, but I never managed until I came across a quote by Alan Kay: "Simple things should be simple, complex things should be possible." That's the idea. It's not about what something is , but about what it does . For example, as long as we can recognize that airplanes can fly with their wings down we might think that helicopters are planes too.
My tip on making successful presentations is all about being able to focus on the important details and being able to ignore everything else. If your presentation is a part of a complex solution, then you can't always focus on the details. You have to be able to simplify it to a matter of few important details that you can easily see.
We all know somebody who tends to be too busy seeing everything around him. He sees everything as an opportunity for his ideas and he misses the detail. He's not able to focus on what is important and how he can simplify it. It's always about him, how he feels about his ideas and what seems relevant for him at that moment in time. But that's not what is relevant for others.
Besides focusing on the important details, you need to be flexible enough to easily shift your view in an instant. Focusing on what is important and how you can simplify it gives you a solid foundation that allows you to shift your focus at any moment. If you don't have one, then your presentation might seem confusing or hard to follow. You need to be able to do this easily and quickly.
Those two key ideas might seem easy if you're a seasoned speaker, but if they're new for you it might be difficult at first. You need to experiment with it, try new examples and different approaches.
Here is an example: We all understand that a low budget movie is designed to appeal to a smaller audience than a high budget one. The level of detail in each part of the movie must be less than in the other one. What if that's not necessarily true? If the director has high enough budget he can afford to create a bigger and more detailed background then he needs, while still keeping the same story telling focus on his main character.
What if you have been given a lot of money and you want to use it wisely? You could hire actors that are considered stars even though they don't fit your story very well. They will make your movie look good, but they won't really add to the story telling.
Or you can create a bigger and more detailed background for your main character, even though keeping all other elements as simple as possible and still tell a coherent story. This will give you a lot more flexibility in telling the same story from different points of view.
I hope you enjoyed reading this short article about crafting a presentation for success! I am looking forward to seeing your first presentation soon! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need any advice on speeches. I will be happy to help. Good luck!
You can find this article at: http://www.businessballs.com/top-10-tips-for-making-successful-presentations/
To know more about #1 in the list, you can read my blog post: http://www.businessballs.com/the-top-5-considerations-when-creating-astructuredwebsiterelevanceprofile/#article_1038
I would love to receive your feedback on this article - share your thoughts below!
Follow me on Twitter: @SangomaBusinessballs @BusinessBalls and @SangomaBusinessballs 's board on Pinterest!
For more great articles visit www.businessballs.com
contact: sa@sangoma.com
image credit: Rodion Kutsaev, Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 2.0 License
original article found here: http://www.businessballs.com/top-10-tips-for-making-successful-presentations/ Sangoma Business Balls (www.sangoma.com) is a web design and development company based in Australia which designs websites and custom software solutions for small to large businesses around the world. It gives advice on writing proposals and website copywriting to its clients who come from a wide range of different industries including health, technology, manufacturing and travel information sites among others.
Conclusion
Making a presentation is not as difficult as people think and doesn't require special skills. All you need is to be focused and solid in what you say, and relevant to your audience. That's pretty much it. Just be yourself, being natural is the most important thing when it comes to making a good presentation.
Having an effective slide design can also help you, but it shouldn't be the core of your focus since the content itself should speak for itself. Use visuals that support your spoken content, but don't use too many layers or effects that will distract people from your message.