Project Junction

I live in an IBM world enamored by pointless presentations. PowerPoint decks choke our mailboxes with pointless data. Meetings present these decks in a variety of formats delivered by emotionless wonks.

My personal growth mission over the last six months has been to improve my own presentation skills so that I don’t contribute to the wasted air on conference calls. This is the sum total of presentation wisdom that I’ve gleaned from formal classes, searches on the internet and tips from people I consider to be effective communicators.

PowerPoint mechanics

• Blank the screen whenever the discussion drifts off the slide by pressing the “B” key in slide show mode.
• To go directly to a slide, just type the slide # followed by the Enter key in slide show mode.
  • If you print out a cheat sheet in slide sorter view, you’ll be able to quickly find the slide number and go to it during a meeting.
  • You’ll never need to create hyperlinks again.
• Don’t use transitions. If you can’t overcome your addiction to special effects, then use Fade smoothly with a fast speed.
• Use a san serif font.
• Use no more than 3-5 bullets per slide.
• Text should be 20 point font size or larger.
• Watch this Death by PowerPoint slide show.
• Use pictures not silly clip art for impact.
  • The eye is naturally drawn to the bottom right quadrant of your slide. Place smaller pictures there.
  • Remember to compress the picture to web/screen resolution before you choke the network with a massive file. The picture toolbar gives you a convenient icon to compress pictures with an option to compress every every picture in the presentation at once.

Presentation mechanics

• Target no more than 3 takeaway concepts. The human mind seem to like collections of threes.
• Keep your arms at your side (not in your pockets or covering your jewels).
• Balance on both feet without rocking back and forth. Sound simple? It’s not. Watch yourself in the mirror.
• Look people in the eye when you speak. If you must look at the slide to find your place, stop talking.
• Pause after every sentence.
• You only get two minutes to score. Net out your presentation with the problem, your recommendations, benefits and requested action before you even show your agenda slide.
• Write titles for each page that tell a story.
  • Use full sentences.
  • Don’t use boxes anywhere on the slide to “summarize” the key points; a well written title should cover the key point(s).
• Prepare your responses to tough questions, but never jump to your response without first acknowledging the facts and empathizing with the emotions.
  • This can be as simple as saying, “I understand your concern …” or “I can appreciate your point of view. Here’s mine.”
  • Don’t say “Great question” unless you plan to say it after every question … or someone is going to feel stupid.

Illustrations, metaphors and hyperbole will be remembered long after a pretty slide has faded away. In fact, there are many times when discussions and debates can be vetted properly without any slides. See the chapter of my book titled, “Fireside Chat” to pull yourself out of the presentation salt mine.

Do you agree with everything on this list? Do you have any more useful tips and techniques to add to my toolkit? I’d love to hear from you.