BAM! Your Modern Presentation Method Cubicle Poster Has Arrived!

All right, people have been asking me all week, do you have a single slide that shows what the Modern Presentation Method is?  So here it.  The five steps are outlined (Visualize, Storyboard, Build, Rehearse, and Execute), if the method varies by presenter experience level (101, 201, 301) I call out how it is different, and best of all I show which problems each step fixes.

 

So quick, download it, print it out, and proudly display in your cubicle.  Take a pic of it with your smartphone and email it to me! 

Thanks for tuning in.

 DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com

Telling It Like It Is: Using Real World Stories in Your Presentation

There is an old saying I like that goes:

Nothing succeeds like success.

I love the notion that current success can help breed future success.  This idea is the underpinning of why a good presenter always uses real world examples in a presentation.  Good examples help convince people that you know what you are talking about and that what you are saying is relevant to the point at hand.   They are convincing and reassuring to the audience.

I use real world examples in all three presentation types:

1. Pitching:  “Don’t take my word for it, let me tell you the story about…”
2. Organizing:  “I know this doesn’t seem like a big problem now, but let me give you an example of how it affected Joe on the production line”
3. Teaching:  “Sic Isaac Newton discovered gravity when an apple fell….”

 

Good Case Study Characteristics

Whenever I start a presentation, I immediately begin looking for examples and case studies.  A good case study has the following characteristics.

1. It’s Relevant To The Point:  A good case study must illustrate the point you are getting after.  In a Pitch presentation, you might be trying to convince someone to buy your product and so you should include a real life example of how another customer found success using your product.  This is great.  If it’s not perfectly relevant, don’t use it as it will confuse your audience. 
2. It’s Believable:  Never use an example that is not true or is an outrageous example.  There are always outlier examples that are not believable. 
3. It’s Interesting:  No one wants to hear about some boring case study.  Make sure it’s an interesting story. 
4. It’s Available:  Get you case studies approved by legal before you use them in a presentation!

  

Sourcing Case Studies

Finding good case studies is time consuming, which is why you should be thinking about them right from the start.  So where can you get them from?

1. Marketing/PR/Public Affairs – Most marketing organizations maintain some system of case studies.  It’s usually the first place I start.  At Microsoft, we publish an external website of case studies highlighting solutions implemented using Microsoft products and technologies. 
2. “Voice Of …” Systems – Most companies today have some sort of Voice of the Customer feedback process or system.  I always hook into the department whose job is customer satisfaction and look at their reports on what customers are saying.  I often find a lead and when I follow up with the customer directly, I find some great stories just waiting to be told.
3. Reporting – A few years ago, when my National Guard unit was in Iraq, I found myself needing to understand and explain to my superiors why the local insurgents were acting a certain way.  I found that by reviewing after action reports from other units who were experiencing the same things I was able to source compelling examples that I could use to explain what we were seeing.  I could put a name, a face, and a story behind it using the examples that I found.
4. Head To The Shop Floor – All good managers know that if you want to know the truth, you go talk to the people doing the work.  Are you having production problems?  Go talk to the folks on the line and get concrete stories about what is going on.  Are your sales down?  Go talk to the sales people and get stories about why customers are not buying.  Take the stories and put them into your presentation.

 

Conclusion

Finding great real world examples is all about legwork.  From the very outset of every presentation I know generally what subject I will be talking about, so right from the get go I am out looking for those stories, validating whether they are relevant and I can legally use them, and writing them up in a compelling and interesting way.

Thanks for tuning in.  Tomorrow we are going to talk about how to do a great demonstration during a presentation.

 DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com

Get Some Meat In Your Presentation – Adding Content!

I had an executive I worked with for some time who used to tell me to never to do a content-free presentation.  This confused me, what could content-free mean?  After a little back and forth with the exec I finally figured out what she meant.  She meant to make sure to include real world, concrete proof that supported whatever points I was making in the presentation.

An example might be if I’m giving a sales pitch and I demonstrate the latest Features of the product.  Or maybe when I’m running a project team meeting and I use Data to back up my key points.

Regardless, whenever I make a point in a presentation, I always make sure I have content available to back it up.  In my experience, content falls into one of the following categories:

1. Case Studies And Real-World Examples: “Let me tell you a story about how this exact thing happened to John.  You see…”
2. Demonstrations:  “Here, let me show you how this product eliminates that problem by…”
3. Data:  “As you can see here, a possible cause for sales being down is that we cut the sales travel budget by X%.”
4. Picture Or Graphics:  “Here is an overview of the entire project workflow.  As you can see here, the reason Group A and Group B are not working well together is because of…”
5. Video:  “Here let me show you a little video of a customer telling us what they like and don’t like about our product.”
6. Handouts:  “Please open the document in front of you and on page X you will see…”
7. Props:  “Let’s hand this around so everyone can get a chance to see how this works.”

  

A good way to think about it is if you are going to make any kind of factual statement, make sure you can back it up with content.   At every step of the Modern Presentation Method you are sourcing, evaluating, and refining content. 

1. When you are Visualizing your presentation, you should be out gathering raw content and analyzing it to see how you can use it in your presentation. 
2. When you Storyboard, the content you have gathered often constrains what story you can tell.  For example, if the data only supports one outcome then that is the outcome you must present.  If the product does some things poorly, then that affects the story.  It goes on and on as you refine the content and incorporate it into your presentation.
3. When you Build & Refine, this researched and refined content then becomes the proof for whatever point you are trying to make. 

  

The cardinal rule is, if you are going to claim something to be true or factual, make sure you can prove it with concrete, bulletproof content.  You can bank on this best practice.

Thanks for tuning in.

 DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com

Visualization Checklist

Whew, I know that was a lot of content.  But, Visualization does not have to take much time to do.  To help you walk through it, here is a simple checklist that I fill out anytime I have a presentation to do.

 

It is simple and walks you through each of the Visualization steps.  It also includes a sample workback schedule.

Ping me back on email and let me know how well it works for you.

DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com

Visualization Checklist

How to Visualize a Great Presentation – Part Three

When we left off, with the presenter having by now figured out the background info on what the presentation is about, what the audience needs, what the presenter needs, and what type of presentation they are doing (Pitching, Organizing, or Teaching).

In Part Three today, we go through the remaining steps of Visualization.  The end result of Visualization is that the modern presenter has a great story frame to start building out their presentation AND a plan to get them the rest of the way.

 

Step #5 – Build the Frame

In this step, the presenter will build the story framework.  This critical step ensures that whatever story or pathway you take the audience down is well thought out and easy for them to follow.  I do a different process based on what type of presentation type I am using.

Pitching

In Pitching, great storytelling is the key.  You are trying to persuade an audience to adopt your point of view and nothing drives that home better than a well-crafted story.  First, I would encourage anyone who does this type of presentation (Marketers, Sales Professionals, Team Leaders Seeking to Inspire, etc..) to read the following three books.

1. Slide:ology – Nancy Duarte is the Grande Dame of visual storytelling as far as I’m concerned.  This book is a classic for anyone who wants to be an expert at great presentations. Read Chapter Two and you will get some great insights into how to build a frame for your story.   http://www.amazon.com/slide-ology-Science-Creating-Presentations/dp/0596522347  
2. Resonate – Nancy Duarte’s second book.  Read the whole book as it is a detailed study in how to create a great story.  http://www.amazon.com/Resonate-Present-Stories-Transform-Audiences/dp/0470632011/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1
3. Made to Stick – Again, I’m going to stand on the shoulders of giants here and in this case read this amazing book by the Heath brothers out of Stanford.  They give a very simple and easy to use process that helps presenters quickly build a winning story framework.  http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/1400064287/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1293311271&sr=1-1#_

 

 

My Hasty Framework Building Process For Pitching

OK, so now that I have introduced the classics let me lay out my own ideas about pitching.  This is what I call my hasty framework building process.  In a later post I’ll lay this out in more detail along with a more codified deliberate process.

Usually, I start off with a very simple brainstorming session.  I gather all of the presentation stakeholders in a room with a whiteboard and hand out all of the research gathered thus far.  (Presentation Background, Audience Needs, My Needs, and what Presentation Type, in this case Pitching). 

Usually I’ll put all of this information on the whiteboard perimeter, like this.

Then I’ll put down the purpose of the presentation in large text on the top of the whiteboard.  (Remember, we figured this out back in step one of Visualization)

Below that I’ll write a line called theme:

And below that I’ll write a line called door points. 

Now, along with the other people in the room I’ll run a simple brainstorming session using sticky notes.  I’ll usually ask the following 4 questions:

1. What do we want people to believe about our product?
2. What problem does our product solve or what need does it meet?
3. Why is our product better than anything else in the marketplace?
4. What is the market opportunity for those who adopt our product?  How does it open a door for them to something new?

Everyone in the room has to write at least one sticky for each question and no two sticky’s can be the same.

When we are done, the whiteboard looks like this.

I then ask the team a very simple question:

Pick the most important three to eight things that the audience must know when they leave?

We then go through and pick the most important points, with no less than three and no more than eight.  These are then added as the door points. 

Best Practice:  Door points are quite simply the only things I want the audience to remember and they serve as the frame for the speech.  I choose a number between eight and eight as a nod to the fact that most people can only keep that many key points in short-term memory.  This is called cognitive load.  Exceed it and the audience won’t remember any more and will be overloaded with often conflicting info.  p.s.  I know I’m going to take some heat from you cognitive scientists out there, but this is what I have learned from experience.

I then assign each of the remaining sticky’s to a particular door point as appropriate and they become sub points.

We usually spend some time talking about which sub points belong to which door point.  But very quickly we have our facts in a neat framework.  

We then take a step back and look at what we have framed up as a whole and look for a theme or underlying narrative structure to jump out at us.  This becomes our theme.

And from all of this I end up with a very organized whiteboard framework that I will be able to take to the Storyboard step in my build process.  Start to finish I have built a frame in as little as ten minutes.    Usually as a final step I’ll go find someone who has no deep knowledge in the area I am presenting on and walk them through the frame to see if they can easily understand it.  If not, I make adjustments. 

 

 

Organizing

So how does this change if this is an organizing presentation.  Not much.  The questions I ask are different.  For organizing the questions are:

1. Based on my presentation goal (Observe/Inform/Status; Orient; Decision; and Act/Mission) what specific action am I trying to drive in the audience?
2. What specific problems exist that must be overcome?
3. What facts do we know?
4. Where are their gaps in our knowledge?
5. What assumptions have we made?

Everyone gives their input and I end up with a wall full of sticky notes. 

I then don’t solve for door points, but rather I solve for which actions I want to drive by the audience.   In this world, we are not limited by 3 to 8 actions, but rather by how many problems we can solve in one sitting.  A good method is to prioritize the problems or actions and make sure you can cover all of the top priority ones and get to the next lower priority.

From this it is very easy to build a frame.

 

 

Teaching

So how does this change if this is a teaching presentation.  Not much.  The questions I ask are different.  For teaching the questions are:

1. What three to eight things must the students learn?
2. What underlying concepts must be taught for the students to learn these concepts?
3. What practical exercise must the students do to master these concepts?
4. What materials will they learn from and what materials will they take away from the class.

And then, bring the key points together in a framework. 

The end result in all three cases should be a solid narrative backed by a key set of points you are trying to drive along with supporting sub points for each.  Your whiteboard should look something like this:

Step #6 – Pick the Medium and Delivery Method

 Now that you have some idea what the presentation will be about, it is a good time to pick which medium(s) you will be using.  As I indicated in an earlier post you don’t have to always use PowerPoint for a presentation.  Generally speaking I will use a specific medium combination for the following presentation types.

 

 

Pitching

PowerPoint IS king when you are pitching.  I use it 100% of the time for any audience larger than 2 – 3 people.  For 1:1 and 1: very few audiences it is often better to print out a very simple 3-5 slide PowerPoint presentation and use it to guide the conversation.

Best Practice:  I like to limit a PowerPoint presentation to no more than 40 minutes and actually 20 minutes seems to be a more optimum length for Pitch presentations.  I feel that if you go longer without a Q&A break, the audience can become overwhelmed by the amount of information.

 

 

Organizing

For organizing presentations I almost always use a mix of mediums.

Observe/Inform/Status – I rarely use PowerPoint on-screen as the primary medium.  Most often, I will use PowerPoint or Excel to construct a comprehensive infographic on a single 11×17 inch piece of paper. 

The reason that I do this is that the purpose of this type of presentation is to inform the audience of the status of what is often a complex situation.  The question is very simple – “How did we do last quarter”, or “What is the status of the project”.  The answer is usually very complex and often requires that we look at lots and lots of data.  I have found that most people function better in this conversation if all of the data is on one page in front of them.  Again, a cognitive load problem. 

Orient – Again, I might use PowerPoint to create a complex infographic to help frame the subject for a rich discussion.  I am also likely to use Word to create an in-depth study of a particular subject. 

Decision – I almost never use PowerPoint as the primary medium.  Instead, I usually prepare a no-more than four page summary in Word and ask the audience members to pre-read it.  This summary details the problem, the proposed courses of action, the pros and cons of each, and my recommendation.  I will include often a more detailed explanation in an appendix in Word & Excel and I often create a single PowerPoint Infographic that outlines what is in the Word Summary.  This gives audience members something to doodle notes on as we discuss.

Best Practice:  In high tempo, real-time work environments it is often difficult for people to read ahead.  Or they are lazy.  In any case, I almost always reserve the first ten minutes of the meeting for the audience to read the four page summary. 

Act/Mission – I almost always use PowerPoint to drive team action.  This is because you are trying to do two things, inspire the audience and incite them to coordinated action.  A well-crafted PowerPoint presentation with appropriate supporting handouts is excellent for this.

Best Practice:  One best practice for all Organizing presentations is to use PowerPoint on-screen to keep the conversation moving.  The slides are simply there to keep everyone focused on where you are in the agenda.

 

 

Teaching

In teaching, PowerPoint is also king.  However, I use it sparingly to frame the conversation and drive home key points.  When I am lecturing and building to a point I almost always have a black screen  behind me so that the students are focused on what I am saying.  Then as I make the key point, I will often use a single, well designed slide to illustrate a key point.

Best Practice:  In teaching, I liberally use handouts in Word and Excel for practical exercises to drive home the key points.  I also use the whiteboard throughout the presentation.  Last, I always have something other than slideware every 10 minutes to break up the class into a more interactive experience.

More on medium when we get to the Build & Refine part of the Modern Presentation Method.

Step #7 – Build a Work back Schedule

This one is pretty simple.  Build a realistic schedule to get you to your presentation.  To understand how to break the time down into manageable chunks, check out my time management post.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/modernpresenter/archive/2010/12/20/time-management-and-mpm.aspx  

http://modernpresenter.com/2010/12/20/time-management-and-mpm/  

Step #8 – Logistics

Last, confirm the logistics surrounding the presentation.  Find out who owns audio/visual for the room.  See if you can get in early to set up and schedule that in your workback.  This little check is a killer if you don’t do it.  For example, have you ever seen someone come in all pumped up to do a presentation and the projector fails to work and then they lose confidence and stumble through the presentation?  Bummer.

Find out where you can rehearse.  Even if it’s for 15 minutes. 

Last, printers.  You need a reliable printer available to you to do last-minute printouts.  There are almost always last-minute changes and you don’t want to be scrambling to find a printer or even worse be trying to compete to use one that twenty other people are trying to print on.

  

Summary

So that’s Visualization.  Eight steps that can be done very quickly in the case of a hasty presentation or ones done more carefully in the case of a deliberate one. 

Remember to take 1/3 of your overall prep time and apply it to Visualization.  If you do, your presentation will be well constructed to meet both your needs and the audience’s needs. 

Over the next few days I will be turning to Storyboarding.  I will also drop a Visualization Checklist and a sample Visualization Workback schedule that you can use. 

Thanks for tuning in.

DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com

How to Visualize a Great Presentation – Part One

Let’s dive into the Modern Presentation Method (MPM) and cover how to Visualize a great presentation.  I’m going to do it in three posts.  This one, the first, introduces Visualization and covers the first three steps.  The second post will be about something I like to call the Presentation Spectrum, which are all of the core types of presentations that a person might have to give and what makes them different.  The third post wraps up our high level overview of Visualization.

Many people, as soon as they start on a presentation, sit down in front of a computer and start building PowerPoint slides or a Word document.  Don’t do this.  Take your time and follow the Visualization process.  It can be done in just a few minutes for a hasty version or you can do a much more detailed version. 

Why Does It Matter?

Visualization is the most important step in the Modern Presentation Method.  Done right, you will save time later in the process as you will reach that 80-90% complete draft much faster and will less effort.  You will also build a better story frame.

What is Visualization?

Visualization is the process where you, the presenter, craft an outline for your presentation that is well thought out and is relevant to your needs and the audience needs.

There are eight simple steps.

 

Let’s take a walk through the first three:

1 – Get the Background on the Presentation

  Right out of the gate, you need to get some background on the presentation. 

•  First, who is the meeting owner?  I am often asked by an intermediary to do a presentation.  So-and-So’s administrative assistant will come up and ask me to present to So-and-So’s team on some subject.  The administrative assistant isn’t the meeting owner, it is So-and-So.  Always find out who the real owner is.
• Next, how much time is allotted to your presentation?  This gates how much content you will need.  The average speaker talks at 2.5 – 3 words a second.  For example, for a 30 minute presentation you should not exceed 4,500 words if you are a slow speaker.  Time also gates how complicated your presentation structure is.  Are you going to do just PowerPoint slides?  Do you want to have Q&A or a dialogue session?  All of this takes time.
•  Next, who will be in the audience?  Get a list of all attendees.  It’s even better if the list details what their role is and which company/group they work for. 
•  Where will the presentation be held?  Get the actual room # & name.  How many people does it hold and how is it setup?
• What Audio Visual is available in the room?  Is there a projector and a presentation machine already in the room?  Can you hook up a laptop?  Is there a whiteboard?  What is the audio setup?
• What is the stated purpose of the presentation?  Get a precise purpose from whoever is asking you.  Oftentimes I find that I am asked to do a presentation that has a vague purpose.  Recently I was asked to put together a class on how to build great slides.  It turns out after I talked to the person who wanted me to put this together that they really wanted a class on how to present to executives effectively.  Again, get the precise purpose defined.
• What is the sequence of events?  Many times you will be able to skip this step because it really only applies to presentations that are part of a larger event.  In the case where your presentation is part of such an event, like a conference, it is always a good idea to see where your presentation is in the batting order.  Who comes before you and what will they cover?  Who comes after you and what will they cover?  Often times I will build on themes of previous speakers.  “You heard Jon talking earlier about Widget X, and I wanted to follow that up with some more detail…”.  Even better, when I speak after a competitor I might take the opportunity to good naturedly point out where their “pitch” wasn’t entirely truthful.  One good point is to never repeat content and audience has already heard.  Audiences quite rightly dislike hearing the same content over and over.  It’s ok to reuse some content to frame your discussion, but do it quickly and get to the new content. 
• When do they need the presentation complete?  What is the work back schedule with key dates that the meeting owner wants?  When do they want to see drafts and do reviews of those drafts?  Is there a rehearsal?  Getting the details now will save you from big miscommunications later. 
• Where should I upload the presentation?  Is there a file share or a SharePoint site that you need to upload to?  If not, create one and store your drafts there and send that information to all stakeholders.
• Who will be introducing you?  Someone should always introduce you.  Take a few minutes and write them a 5 sentence blurb that they can use.  You’d be surprised how important it is to establish your credibility to the audience with a solid introduction.  It should be a fresh and interesting statement about who you are.  Done right, you have immediate credibility.  Done wrong….you will not connect with the audience.
• Last, will there be press?  Most of the time you won’t have to worry about this, but it is a big deal so never lose track of whether this is true or false.  This is important for two reasons.  First, you need to carefully vet everything you say in front of the press, lest a misstep end up on the front page of a news website.  Second, I will often go up and talk with the reporters about the pieces they are writing and determine what content they would like to hear.  You’ll be surprised how much they appreciate a speaker who takes the time to cover content they are interested in and a good story can often be the result.

A little background research goes a long way in this very critical step.  Use your time wisely, get the details up front, and a better presentation will be the result.

2 – Define the Audience Needs/Wants

Your goal in this step is to figure out what the audience wants.  A good presenter knows what the audience needs and feeds that need during the presentation. 

 So how do you do that?  In the previous step I asked you to get a list of all attendees.  That list should be as detailed as possible. 

At the very least I like to know:

1. What their full name is.
2. What company they are from.
3. What team or division do they represent?
4. What their title is. 
5. Their contact information.
6. Why are they coming to the presentation?

Now, take that list, import it into an Excel spreadsheet, and let’s do some analytics on it.

Look for commonalities amongst the audience members.  One of the first things to do is determine which percentage of the audience is in which role.  So organize by title.  For example, at our yearly Worldwide Partner Conference, almost 70% of my audience is comprised of executives (CEO’s, C-Level, Presidents, VPs).  Figuring this out helps me determine the altitude of the content.  For executives I know I should be presenting strategic level content that helps them make good decisions about the direction of their organization.  If I’m talking to sales people I know they want to know how to get more sales, so my altitude will be much lower and my content will be more action based so they can have great takeaways that they can action to become better sales people.

Another cut is which companies are they from?  And what do those companies do?  If you are talking to a bunch of folks from consultancies, your message should feed what a consultant needs to do a better job.  You get the point.

Even more important than company is what they do for that company.  What their role is and which team or division do they work for. Are they in sales?  Do they actually produce their company’s product and are in R&D or engineering?  Are they an executive that runs the marketing organization?  Again, look for the commonality.  For example if seventy percent of the audience is in marketing, make sure your content speaks to marketers.

Next, how many people are in the audience?  Generally speaking, smaller audiences are easier to have “dialogue” with.  You can have robust Q&A for example.  I usually categorize with what I call 7-30-100.  Seven people is a great number to have a rich back and forth.  The number is small enough you don’t need a moderator and everyone can gather around a whiteboard and pass paper effectively.  Thirty is when I usually add a moderator to the mix.  Someone whose job it is to keep us on track and focused.  It is tough to have a really rich back and forth because just a few people can dominate the room if you let them.  This is still small enough that you can have a dialogue though.  And one hundred and above is when it gets real tricky to have good back and forth.  With crowds like this, you can use twitter and a host of other tools to get real-time feedback and you can also setup up microphones for Q&A but again it is really tough to get great back and forth.

Last, try to determine what topics are top of mind for the audience.  I always talk directly to a smattering of audience members beforehand.  If it’s an external audience, I’ll call them up introduce myself.  If it’s an internal presentation within my company, I’ll schedule a quick 15 minute face to face meeting.  I keep my initial question high level.  “What are you hoping to hear at this presentation?”  And then once I hear the three or four things that are top of mind I drill down deeper on each one and find out what their needs really are. 

I then take all of this information into account when I create the content.  Your audience is the primary reason you are there to give your presentation and they should feel like you have taken the time to understand what they want from the presentation.  I almost always point out that I have talked to audience members beforehand and then I include their questions into the actual presentation itself. 

3 – Define Your Needs/Wants

Your next step is to figure out what you want.  Generally you are trying to one or more of the following four things. 

1. Observe / Inform / Status – You are trying to present some information that you think the audience should know.  The most classic example is teaching.  You present the material with the intention that the students learn the knowledge.  Another example would be the ubiquitous staff meeting.  “Here is the status of our world”.
2. Orient – You are trying to gain consensus about what the “truth” of a situation is.  Often times an outcome of a status meeting is “we need more data” or “I don’t think this can be true”.  When you orient an audience you are most likely bringing the “truth” to light and looking for consensus.
3. Act / Mission – These are meetings in which you focus a team on a specific objective and send them off to work.  A project plan meeting is an example.
4. Decision – These are meetings in which you put one or more courses of action in front of an audience and ask them to make a decision.  An interesting special case here is a sales pitch which is just a Decision presentation with only one course of action, the one you are trying to sell.

 Many presentations do one or more of the above.  Here are some examples of meeting types in action:

• Sales Pitch – Let me tell you about what is happening in our marketplace (Observe / Inform / Status), here’s some facts that support what I just told you (Orient), I think you only have one course of action which is to buy my product (Decide), now here are your calls to action to do that (Act).
• Staff Meeting – Everyone gets together and goes over the latest quarters business results (Observe / Inform / Status).  This is usually followed up by:
• Project Meeting – Everyone gets together and shares what they learned about the problems (Orient) and then the group develops some courses of action and decides what to do (Act).
•  All Hands – Once a month we get the whole team together, share the state of the business (Observe / Inform / Status) and then tell the team what we are doing project wise over the next month (Mission / Act)

Take a few minutes and determine which of these tasks you are trying to accomplish with your presentation.  Be crisp and précises and write out the objective you are trying to drive with your presentation:

• Decision + Act:  I want the audience to go out and buy my product.
• Orient + Decision:  I need the team to be in agreement on what we are going to do about this problem.
• Act:  I need the team to do this task in a coordinated fashion.

 

Summary for Part One

So that’s the first three steps of Visualization. 

1. Get the Background on the Presentation – Get the who, what, where, when, why, and how and set the expectation with the meeting or presentation owner on when and how you will deliver the content.
2. Define Your Needs/Wants – The audience is king.  If you do a good job defining what they need/want and this is reflected in your presentation you will have them on the edge of their seats.
3. Define the Audience Needs/Wants – Know what you want to accomplish with this presentation.  Write out those objectives and use them to guide you as you build content.

 Tomorrow I will introduce step four of Visualization which is determining what type of presentation you are trying to give.  And Thursday, we’ll cover the remaining steps.

Have a good day. 

DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com