How do you know whether you have given an effective presentation? When the audience gives you a standing ovation? When you manage to convey all the information you wanted to convey in the amount of time you were given? When you entertained your audience and made them laugh a few times? Unfortunately, none of these are signs that you have given an effective presentation. If you have been following my previous blogs, it won’t come as a surprise to you that a presentation is effective when you change the way in which the audience thinks, feels, and behaves. Let me illustrate this with a story.
A couple of years ago I listened to a presentation by Jaki George-Tunnicliffe where she told a story with the following take-home message: “Things happen when you put yourself out there”. This take-home message made an impact on me and I remembered it. Several months later I was thinking about approaching someone with a business proposition. I was walking towards their office but then I stopped and thought “No, this is crazy! He is probably going to think it’s a silly idea”. At that moment, when I was going to turn around and leave, I heard Jaki’s voice “Things happen when you put yourself out there”. I continued with the plan to tell my idea which was well accepted and led to business later on. I have to thank Jaki for that. She changed my behaviour with her presentation.
When you care about your audience, get to know them, address their wants and needs, make your objective to change them, and have a memorable take-home message, your presentation is highly likely to make an impact and achieve your objective: give something of value to your audience that will help them later on. When you achieve that, then you can be confident that your presentation has been effective. In the next blog we are going to look more specifically at what needs to happen for your presentation to be effective. Until then, reflect on this: what is an effective presentation?
Make an impact,
Pablo
This post was originally published in 2012.