Saturday, January 11, 2014

On engaging presentations...

I was recently invited to contribute to a LinkedIn discussion on the AHRI (Australian Human Resources Institution) Group, in response to the question..."What are some strategies to create an engaging presentation?"

As anyone who reads anything I write will know, I have an amazing ablity to write around and over-complicate a topic, and have probably just driven everyone witless with my response. However, in my quest to increase my writing and blogging in 2014, I thought this might be worthy of a piece here.

All the previous contributors made excellent points about what goes into an engaging presentation... I'm not sure if you can access the discussion without group membership (just request if you want to join); if you can, it is here AHRI Group

Having read the comments, a selection of words stood out for me and rather than a direct response to the question, I decided to respond to these words...engaging, presentations, keynotes, PowerPoint, audience, facilitators, training.


Here's a slightly edited version of what I wrote;

Presentations - for me this means the presentation of something and that is that.

Keynotes - a presentation with a specific label. For me a "keynote" is a presentation that has been deemed significant enough not to have to compete with other presentations; one that it's been decided everyone present would benefit from hearing.

PowerPoint - a tool. One of many in the bag which also contains voice, non-verbals, other resources. PowerPoint is a vehicle for "presenting" some other tools - video, images...keywords... Over-reliance and starting to prepare a presentation by opening PowerPoint are well documented errors in "presentations 101".

Audience - is it ever possible to really know the audience? In addition to the cynics etc mentioned, time of day, venue, what was for lunch, who came before; are a few variables that can impact audience reactions.

Facilitator - anyone who delivers in a didactic, automaton manner is not a facilitator.

Training - for me and in my less than humble opinion, should never rely on presentations of information alone. I have been on the receiving end of too many "training" sessions that were really presentations of corporate policy and information. Whilst the presentation of some information and key points may be required, all of the comments so far indicate the additional components required to increase the learning opportunity. There is also a difference between training and educating, but let's leave that one for another day.

Eventually, and probably to the relief of the readers, I returned to the keyword in the original question; "engaging".


The discussion triggered further thoughts. There was mention of the use of humour, knowledge of the content of the presentation and delivery style. My comment was


"A few thoughts...energy, appropriately light-hearted, stories...whatever, but please remember style over substance. Too often I hear conference participants rave over a shallow "song and dance" routine. Really "knowing your stuff" has already been identified as critical. I'd combine this with rehearsing - if you really know your content, rehearsal is easy...you know when you need to brush up on your content when you find rehearsal a slog!

It IS harder to engage and focus on a presenter who's voice lacks light and shade, energy and a degree of animation. Sadly, those not blessed with performance skills (either innate or acquired) struggle, however significant the content, to share this with their audience.

As audiences, we have to learn to engage ourselves and not sit passively waiting for it all to happen. Those of us "in the know" should do what we can to encourage, from the floor, those presenters who have great content but lack in an engaging delivery style...we know what makes it hard for us, let's not make it hard for someone who deserves a fair go - everyone else in the room will do that!"


As I mentioned at the beginning, I had totally digressed from the original question...and in response to all the other participants contributions, I decided to share a mash up of personal thoughts, triggered by what had been said.

It's also timely for me to reflect on this whole topic as I'm taking on the teaching of an undergrad unit in Change Management and have received the presentation documents. Making this an engaging and meaningful learning opportunity is up to me!

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Write something...what? Just something...


I got an email from Dan Pink today... I'm a bit of a fan and like the fact that his emails are erratically occasional. Actually my inbox is in love with anyone like this.

Towards the end, he put forward 3 alternatives to New Year resolutions (Life hacks) that he'd gleaned from others...
  1. Start the new year with an empty jar and every time something good happens, write it on a piece of paper and pop it into the jar. Should make for some interesting reading at the end of the year! IDoneThis
  2. "Come hell or high water, write 20 minutes a day in January" CopyBlogger
  3. Video one second of your life every single day 1SED
Anyway, point 2 made me put fingers to the keyboard...and reminded me of Atul Gawande's "Five Rules" and I reckon they are also worth considering as a new year begins.
  1. Ask an unscripted question. Get interested, really interested in the person you are speaking with and learn something from them that you didn't already know. For those of us with two mouths and one ear, this may be the only thing to focus on in 2014
  2. Don't whine. Yep, we might love to do it, and we also dislike having to listen to someone else doing it. Spit it out, and move on. Don't ruminate and depress yourself and all those around you
  3. Count something. We might have to think carefully about this as I am not sure he meant CircleCount, +1s, mentions, likes, connections, followers etc.But then, as he said, "If you count something interesting to you, I tell you: you will find something interesting."
  4. Write something. (The connection with Dan Pink's 3 alternatives)  "It makes no difference whether you write a paper for a medical journal, five paragraphs for a website, or a collection of poetry. Try to put your name in print at least once a year. What you write does not need to achieve perfection. It only needs to add some small observation about our world. 
  5. Change. Gawande says this is his final rule for a good life in medicine. I think we all know it is a final rule for all of us...it is one of life's great certainties. All things change. He recommends becoming an early adopter and looking for opportunities for change
Gawande's final words are:

"Don’t let yourself be. Find something new to try, something to change. Count how often it succeeds and how often it doesn’t. Write about it. Ask...a colleague what they think about it. See if you can keep the conversation going."

So, coming back to Dan's list... aiming to write for 20 minutes really shouldn't be so hard, and if I can't manage that, something good can be recorded and popped into the jar - at some point I'll be able to count them and also "count" what's on them and I am sure I'll find something interesting! And there is a whole world of family, friends and people to be met who have so many interesting things to share - just got to ask the question and listen!