I recently facilitated a discussion with a group of trainers on
the Do’s and Don’ts of PowerPoint presentations. The purpose of our discussion was to make
sure we not only gave better presentations but that we also put more thought
into creating appropriate slides. Therefore
the discussion revolved around the 4 P’s of presentations: Plan and Prepare as
keys to Creating Presentations, followed by
Practice and Perform for Delivering Presentations.
The following questions were presented as part of the discussion of the plan step:
• Who will be there?
• What will appeal to this audience?
• What supporting visual aids are needed?
• How much presentation time
• Where is presentation?
• When is presentation?
2. With someone observing
3. In presentation setting
The discussion on how to better perform was kicked off with an exercise on what your body language and gestures can communicate during a presentation. In other words, are tones of voice, facial expressions, or movements confirming what you are saying in the presentation or are they distracting or worse delivering a different message? Also discussed were a few things to remember regarding Podium Use by Presenters.
The following questions were presented as part of the discussion of the plan step:
• Who will be there?
• What will appeal to this audience?
• What supporting visual aids are needed?
• How much presentation time
• Where is presentation?
• When is presentation?
During the
discussion on prepare step, the Rules of 6 for creating the
best text and graphic slides were presented.
A bad example was presented for the group to pick-apart what made the
slide a hindrance to learning rather than a good visual aid. Use of other visual aids such as flip charts,
handouts, note-taking, and activities were also discussed as alternatives or
additions to slides to increase learning.
Technical tips for using PowerPoint and Word to create and deliver
training and presentations were also shared.
A 3-phase practice model was offered for making
sure the skills of the presentation delivery would be excellent.
1. Out
loud to self2. With someone observing
3. In presentation setting
The discussion on how to better perform was kicked off with an exercise on what your body language and gestures can communicate during a presentation. In other words, are tones of voice, facial expressions, or movements confirming what you are saying in the presentation or are they distracting or worse delivering a different message? Also discussed were a few things to remember regarding Podium Use by Presenters.
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1 comment:
Thank you for sharing the great information. On delivering the presentation, it's important to also understand the culture and environment you are presenting it in.
Some people believe that a slide should only have topic headers and visual cues to what you will say and that you freely share the information from there. In some environments this does not work. The presentation must stand on it's own because others will take it with them for reference later. So it's important to understand the difference.
I think you are spot on when you say that you should not read directly from the slide, but at least have all the information there for someone to look at later and understand what you were talking about.
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