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Designing
Your Presentation Backwards Makes
Sense by David
W. Richardson CSP Designing
a presentation backwards makes sense.
Just because a presentation has a beginning, middle, and an
end, that does not necessarily mean you should start the design of
your presentation at the beginning. A
strong presentation design begins at the end and works backwards.
Carefully examine these seven steps to powerful presentation
design, and see if you don't find them useful for your next
presentation. 1.
Plan
your presentation objective around the end result of listener
acceptance. This is perhaps the most critical part of the presentation
and yet the most overlooked. During my presentation skills
workshops I typically ask the participants, "What is the
objective of your presentation?".
The answers are very interesting: "I want them to know
about this product line we have." . . . "I want them to
better understand the six-sigma processes."
There is no question that these are important events in the
presentation, but in finding your objectives you should ask some of
these questions: Ø
Why
are you speaking to these people? Ø
How
are they going to be different at the conclusion of your
presentation? Ø
What
will they remember? Ø
What
action will they take? The last thing we want our listeners to say is,
"So what", so the first thing we need to do is
determine what is going to happen in their minds and how they will
be different. 2.
Plan
your ending. This is the part of the presentation in which you make your
final statements, draw a conclusion, and suggest a next action step.
Examine the logic of developing
the ending first: Ø
People
tend to remember first that which they heard last. Ø
The
ending ties directly into your objective (which you have already
developed). Ø
You
are providing your listeners with an organized, logical next step. Ø
You
are challenging them to take action. The
ending consists of one paragraph which recaps the essence of your
entire presentation. This
is not a summary of your presentation because that will have already
occurred prior to the ending. The
ending is not the conclusion of your presentation.
It is the beginning of the process for which you designed
this presentation in the first place. 3.
Set
up your key points. These are the three or four major points which will serve as
an outline to your presentation. The design of this process will
enable you to : Ø
Deliver
a logical presentation to your listeners. Ø
Keep
them on track every step of the way Ø
Keep
you on track every step of the way 4.
Establish
your examples. Here's where you establish your rationale for the key points
stated in your presentation. These
become the examples, stories, case studies, and testimonies to
clarify and validate the concepts you are discussing. By doing this, you will help your listeners fully
understand all elements of the message you're delivering.
You will provide truth and testimony to the points you are
delivering and will
cause them to continue listening to you. 5.
Develop
your opening. The opening is critical because it provides your listeners
with their second impression of you (the first impression is your
appearance). Here they
will begin to form some early judgements in their mind about you and
what you are going to say. This
is really where they make the decision as to whether or not you are
worth listening to or not. It is important that you take time
to create a unique opening to your presentation.
Here's an example of a tired, boring, standard openings that
is frequently used: "Thank you for inviting me to
be here today." ("Hey we didn't invite you to be
here; we've got better things to do than listen to your
speech.") The benefits of developing a
strong opening are: Ø
You
get your listeners involved quickly. Ø
You've
developed that immediate interest in yourself and what you might say
next. Ø
You
immediately "look different" from those who still continue
to use the traditional, boring openings. Openings don't necessarily have to be hilarious,
outrageous, or monumental. A
simple opening that grabs the attention of your listeners is
sufficient. 6.
Prepare
your visual aids. What type of visual aids will you use to convey your message
to your listeners? How
will they coordinate with your presentation?
Will they look consistently professional?
And, most importantly, will you be able to effectively
manipulate these visuals during your program? By preparing effective visual aids
you will:
Ø
help
your audience follow the logical flow of your presentation.
Ø
help
them understand your key points more thoroughly.
Ø
save
valuable time. 7.
Assemble
your final notes. This is where you put together any final notes that you wish
to use in your presentation. If you choose to type your final
notes, use different fonts to help prompt you during your
presentation. Do not make the
mistake of writing your entire presentation out and trying to
memorize or read it. If you have established a significant
objective, the results of which are important to you and your
business, then don't make the serious mistake of trying to read it.
Now
you know why designing your presentation backwards makes good sense.
Every element of your presentation is tied to your objective
. . . what action your audience will take. Would
you like to receive Dave's free Presentation Planning Guide?
Fax a copy of your business card with the word
"guide" and your fax number to 480-451-9372
or
send an e-mail with the subject line "guide" and including
your name, telephone number and company information to speaking@richspeaking.com. To
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