The purpose of this section is to give you an understanding of the importance and value of effective research and planning when producing and delivering a professional presentation. This section asks you to produce an outline presentation plan that demonstrates your understanding of the features and benefits of People-Centred Change and shows that you have clearly researched your topic and your audience when preparing content and supportive materials. As you work through the section content you will be able to gather the information you need to create a convincing argument for People Centred Change. Use the suggested beginning, middle and end structure to organise your material. You will be able to record your work in the Learning Log question and Reflection Note at the end of this section, but you may find it useful to write down the key points as you work through the content.
You may have heard the phrase, “Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance” and of course this applies to many situations, none more so than preparing and delivering a presentation. The more you plan and prepare the structure and content of your presentations, the more successful you will be in achieving the outcome you were looking for.
No presentation will achieve its desired level of success unless we can get our audience to:
HEAR what we have to say (or what we have to show them)
UNDERSTAND what we mean and the relevance to them
ACCEPT what they have heard and know why it is important
TAKE ACTION, if appropriate, in line with the initial aims and objectives of the presentation.
If we want to make our presentation last in the minds of our audience, it is worth bearing in mind that, on average, people will forget:
So, anything we can do to make our presentations more memorable and our communication more effective will be worth the investment of our time in planning, preparation and delivery.
To communicate effectively, we need to be clear in our own mind about the purpose of our presentation. If we are not clear about what we want our presentation to achieve (our Aim), then it is unlikely that we will be able to convince our audience of the actions needed to achieve the desired outcomes (our objectives).
Whether the overall aim is to raise our audience’s awareness; add to their knowledge; ask for their help/involvement/commitment; persuade them to take action, or a combination of any of those – there are some basic principles that apply.
Why? – should the audience listen to us and take note of what we say? This is about our credibility and the reasons why we have “earned the right” to talk with authority on the subject.
What? – will they gain from the experience? This is about the relevance to them and how it might impact on them either directly or indirectly. When preparing any communication, we need to keep our intended audience in mind. It will be much more effective when we can see it from the audience’s point of view.
Why? – are we making the presentation? Having clear aims and objectives will help answer this question. We should be aware of making assumptions about the level of knowledge our audience might have. We need to be clear about the key messages we want to get over as they will form the basis of the presentation.
Knowing our audience and making an assessment of their needs will help us to connect with them. This principle applies whether our audience is small, large or consists of just one person. Dale Carnegie wrote in his book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” of the need to talk in terms of the other person’s interests, if we want them to listen to what we have to say. When thinking about our audience we should consider:
Having decided on the aims and objectives of our presentation and considered the needs of our audience, it is now necessary to research and evaluate our topic and select the information that is correct and appropriate for our intended audience. This is extremely important in establishing our credibility to talk with knowledge and authority about the topic.
The more we know about our subject, the more confident we will be in not only delivering the information, but also handling any questions that may arise. We should aim to know far more about the subject than we will use in the presentation. This helps us to have a reserve of knowledge that will serve us well in any question and answer session.
When we have completed our research and collected our information, we can then select what is most relevant to our aims and objectives and to the needs of our audience. We need to be careful at this stage that we don’t overload our presentation with too much information. Our audience can only take in so much!
Now we are ready to move to the next stage and put the presentation together.
Having carried out our research and assembled all our information we now face the challenge of what we should leave out. It is a bit like editing a film. A lot of the footage is left on the “cutting floor”. How do we decide what to use and what to leave out?
To help us we already have our defined aims and objectives and we have considered our intended audience and their needs, so this will dictate what information is essential to include and what might be desirable. Resist the temptation to flood the presentation with information. We don’t want the audience to be overwhelmed, because as soon as they feel that they are, they will switch off and stop listening!
Having decided on the content, we now need to consider how the information will be presented. How can we make the information interesting, easy to remember and absorb? Audience members will have different levels of attention span. A search online revealed that over the past 18 years, the average human attention span has reduced from 12 seconds to 8 seconds. According to a study conducted by Microsoft, the rising popularity of smartphones, mobile data, messaging apps, and social media is the cause behind falling attention rates. Some state that the average human attention span is approximately 5 minutes; others state that most healthy teenagers and adults are unable to sustain attention on one thing for more than about 20 minutes at a time. Whatever the reality might be, one thing is certain – no matter how committed and attentive our audience may look, they will definitely not give 100% attention, 100% of the time. Not even close! That means that we must work creatively to find ways to maintain their attention and engagement. What we say, how we say it and how we present the key messages in our communication will determine whether we achieve our aims and objectives. Our Posture, Body Language, the Visual Aids we use all have a significant impact on our audience. There is no one way that guarantees success, but there are some tips and techniques that can help:
Limit your subject (there is only so much we can take in at one time)
Have reserve power (Know far more about your subject than you will use in the presentation)
Fill your presentation with illustrations and examples.
Humanise your presentation
Be specific, use detail
Use concrete familiar words that create pictures in the audience’s mind.
Be enthusiastic about your subject.
Talk in terms of your listeners interests?
Identify with the audience.
Include your audience. Bridge the gap between you and your audience.
Keep your goal in mind.
Think positively – predetermine your mind to success. “Whether you think you can, or whether you think you can’t – you’re right.”
Practice, practice, practice at every opportunity.
To be nervous is natural. Most people suffer from “stage fright” even the most accomplished actors.
Nervousness is nature’s way of preparing us to meet unusual challenges. Increased heart rate, butterflies in the stomach etc. is the body developing the additional energy that it needs to face the challenge.
Many professional presenters say that they never completely lose all stage fright.
The main cause of the fear is that you are unaccustomed to speaking in public. The more you do it, the easier it becomes and the more enjoyable it becomes.
Preparation is the key to an excellent presentation. Don’t skimp on this time and spend as much as you need to ensure that you have identified and addressed the objectives. Begin with the end in mind. Think about the few key messages you want to get across to your audience and then assemble all the facts and evidence to back them up. Think creatively about what you could do to get your audience’s attention from the start? Bearing in mind what was said earlier about attention span, what can you do to keep your audience engaged? How will you summarise your presentation at the end? Think again about your key messages and what you want your audience to do as a result of listening to your presentation and leave them with those messages. Here are a few more points to consider:
When first and last impressions are both positive and favourable, they will also be more memorable.
Points made that are of special interest to your audience will get their attention.
Giving an overview before moving on to the points of detail will tell your audience why they should continue to listen to what you have to say.
Individuals learn in different ways so vary your content to appeal to different learning styles.
Feedback is important to evaluating the success of your presentation and to your own development. Think about how you will capture the audience’s thoughts and opinions about the presentation.
An effective and successful presentation will have a clearly defined structure and, if followed can allow anyone to present in a relaxed, clear and interesting way.
Effective presentations will generally follow this structure:
The Beginning – Tell them what you’re going to tell them.
This stage involves, getting the audience’s attention from the start. People will have their mind on other things before the presentation begins. Our challenge is to get them to focus their attention on us. Assuming that you have done your research and are clear about the key messages you want to get across, this is the point where you can capture their attention because you are going to talk about something that is important to them. You are already starting to build rapport and showing them that you recognise a need that they have. At the end of this stage you, should have their attention and their interest.
The Middle – Tell them.
The objective now is to build upon their interest and present the content. Here you will present facts backed up by evidence and reinforced by highlighting the benefits to your audience. Through the facts presented and the examples given, your audience will begin to pick out the information that is relevant to their own situation and will begin to think about how they might be able to transfer the learning to their own situation.
Questions will start to grow in their mind about how they might do this. The more you can stimulate the positive thoughts they now have and reduce any concerns (objections) that they might be thinking of, the more you will begin to build the desire in them to take action as a result of what they are experiencing.
The support material that you use should be designed to reinforce your key messages and help to build this desire. This could be through emotive words, videos, pictures, examples, statistics (don’t overload), quotes, testimonials, anything that creates positive images in their mind and emphasises the key messages.
We must also be realistic and recognize that members of the audience will have doubts and concerns and it is better to address any concerns they may have, while we have their attention. An effective way to deal with them is to bring them out in the open and raise them ourselves. At the planning stage we can anticipate some questions that people may have and then, at the appropriate time raise it and answer it.
For example, imagine you have just finished a part of your presentation and you have already anticipated that some people could have doubts about what you have just said. You could say something like ……. “At this point you may be thinking that this wouldn’t work in our business. I perfectly understand why you may be thinking that way and you would not be the first person to think that. Here’s what Jo Wilson of ABC Ltd. had to say ……….” You could then use a video clip, a picture, a testimonial quote, or even the person themselves to back up what you have said.
When you naturally build the “handling of objections” into your presentation, your audience will have less doubts by the time you come to your question and answer session at the end, because you will have addressed them along the way.
At this stage you could also introduce a question and answer session to pick up any other issues that the audience may have. You also have the opportunity to go back into the body of your presentation and revisit parts that are of particular interest to your audience.
The End – “Tell them what you’ve told them”
This is when to summarise the key messages from your presentation and underline their importance. It is a repetition of the beginning but with added emphasis, having now delivered all the information, evidence and benefits. This should consist of short bullet point statements resisting the temptation to repeat the body of the presentation. The statements should be the key messages that you want the audience to go away with and what action you would want them to take as a result of what they have heard. The audience can also be informed how you can be contacted, should they have any further questions.
The deciding factor in any presentation is the answer to the following questions:
Were my aims and objectives achieved?
Did I get the audience to do/think/feel what I wanted them to do?
Here we are asking you to describe how you have planned your People-Centred Change Presentation using the following headings:
– Aims and Objectives
– Intended Audience
– Research, evaluate and select the topic
– Structure and content
– Identify equipment needed
The purpose of this section is to give you an understanding of the importance and value of effective research and planning when producing and delivering a professional presentation. This section asks you to produce an outline presentation plan that demonstrates your understanding of the features and benefits of People-Centred Change and shows that you have clearly researched your topic and your audience when preparing content and supportive materials. As you work through the section content you will be able to gather the information you need to create a convincing argument for People Centred Change. Use the suggested beginning, middle and end structure to organise your material. You will be able to record your work in the Learning Log question and Reflection Note at the end of this section, but you may find it useful to write down the key points as you work through the content.
You may have heard the phrase, “Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance” and of course this applies to many situations, none more so than preparing and delivering a presentation. The more you plan and prepare the structure and content of your presentations, the more successful you will be in achieving the outcome you were looking for.
To communicate effectively, we need to be clear in our own mind about the purpose of our presentation. If we are not clear about what we want our presentation to achieve (our Aim), then it is unlikely that we will be able to convince our audience of the actions needed to achieve the desired outcomes (our objectives).
Having decided on the aims and objectives of our presentation and considered the needs of our audience, it is now necessary to research and evaluate our topic and select the information that is correct and appropriate for our intended audience. This is extremely important in establishing our credibility to talk with knowledge and authority about the topic.
Having carried out our research and assembled all our information we now face the challenge of what we should leave out. It is a bit like editing a film. A lot of the footage is left on the “cutting floor”. How do we decide what to use and what to leave out?
Preparation is the key to an excellent presentation. Don’t skimp on this time and spend as much as you need to ensure that you have identified and addressed the objectives. Begin with the end in mind. Think about the few key messages you want to get across to your audience and then assemble all the facts and evidence to back them up. Think creatively about what you could do to get your audience’s attention from the start? Bearing in mind what was said earlier about attention span, what can you do to keep your audience engaged? How will you summarise your presentation at the end? Think again about your key messages and what you want your audience to do as a result of listening to your presentation and leave them with those messages. Here are a few more points to consider: