In the blog post “What Is an Effective Presentation?” we saw that an effective presentation is a presentation that changes the way your audience thinks, feels, and behaves. Before you get there, though, there are four things that need to happen with your audience during your presentation. This is an expanded version of something I learned from World Champion of Public Speaking Brett Ruttledge. If you understand these conditions, you will be in great shape to prepare effective presentations. Let’s go step by step. For your presentation to be effective first your audience has to:
- UNDERSTAND
This is self-explanatory and seems obvious. If the audience doesn’t understand what the speaker is talking about, the speaker will not make any impact. Why then are there so many speakers, technical speakers in particular, who seem to forget this obvious requirement? In scientific conferences most speakers speak as if the people in the audience were experts in the topic. Unless they are, I would suggest following the advice I read in the book “Scientists Must Speak” by D. Eric Walters and Gale C. Walters. They recommend scientists to give their presentations as if they were talking to high school students interested in the topic. Second, your audience needs to:
- AGREE
When I present this point in workshops some people do not agree. Not everyone has to agree, but if you want most people in your audience, or at least some people in your audience, to change in the way you want them to change, then those people will have to agree first. Third, they also have to:
- CARE
How do you make people care about what you have to say? Make sure you highlight the benefits of listening to you. If you are still reading this is probably because I highlighted the benefits above: “If you understand these requirements, you will be in great shape to prepare effective presentations”. Finally, your audience has to:
- REMEMBER
Someone who presents and is not remembered is no better off than someone who hasn’t presented. In a previous post we looked at how to be memorable. Next time you are preparing a presentation ask yourself this question: “Will my audience understand, agree, care, and remember my message?”. The answer must be yes to all four if you want to be effective.
Make an impact,
Pablo
This post was originally published in 2012.