This document discusses presentation skills and summarizes a book on telling stories through presentations. It provides guidance on brainstorming content, understanding audiences, and establishing flow structures. The key points are:
1. Effective presentations tell a story that benefits the audience rather than just listing features. This requires understanding the audience's perspective.
2. Brainstorming involves dumping all relevant ideas without judgment, then clustering related concepts into "Roman columns" to structure the presentation.
3. Choosing the right flow structure is important to guide the audience from their current knowledge to the desired objective.
This document discusses presentation skills and summarizes a book on telling stories through presentations. It provides guidance on brainstorming content, understanding audiences, and establishing flow structures. The key points are:
1. Effective presentations tell a story that benefits the audience rather than just listing features. This requires understanding the audience's perspective.
2. Brainstorming involves dumping all relevant ideas without judgment, then clustering related concepts into "Roman columns" to structure the presentation.
3. Choosing the right flow structure is important to guide the audience from their current knowledge to the desired objective.
This document discusses presentation skills and summarizes a book on telling stories through presentations. It provides guidance on brainstorming content, understanding audiences, and establishing flow structures. The key points are:
1. Effective presentations tell a story that benefits the audience rather than just listing features. This requires understanding the audience's perspective.
2. Brainstorming involves dumping all relevant ideas without judgment, then clustering related concepts into "Roman columns" to structure the presentation.
3. Choosing the right flow structure is important to guide the audience from their current knowledge to the desired objective.
This document discusses presentation skills and summarizes a book on telling stories through presentations. It provides guidance on brainstorming content, understanding audiences, and establishing flow structures. The key points are:
1. Effective presentations tell a story that benefits the audience rather than just listing features. This requires understanding the audience's perspective.
2. Brainstorming involves dumping all relevant ideas without judgment, then clustering related concepts into "Roman columns" to structure the presentation.
3. Choosing the right flow structure is important to guide the audience from their current knowledge to the desired objective.
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Presenting to Win The Art of Telling Your Story Jerry Weissman
Yusho KAGRAOKA
Jerry Weissman public affairs and news producer for CBS Initial Public Offering (IPO) road shows Initial Public Offering presentation
Begin with your story, not with your slides
contents 0. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. A. B. Introduction Wizard of Aaaahs You and Your Audience The Power of the WIIFY Getting Creative: The Expansive Art of Brainstorming Finding Your Flow Capturing Your Audience Immediately Communicating Visually Making the Text Talk Making the Numbers Sing Using Graphics to Help Your Story Flow Bringing Your Story to Life Customizing Your Presentation Pitching in the Majors Animating Your Graphics The Virtual Presentation Tools of the Trade Presentation Checklists
0. Introduction Wizard of Aaaahs
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 The Mission-Critical Presentation The Art of Telling Your Story A New Approach to Presentations The Psychological Sell
0.1 The Mission-Critical Presentation
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Persuasion is the classic challenge of sounding the clarion call to action, of getting your target audience to the experience known as Aha!
0.3 A New Approach to Presentations
When the story is right, the delivery itself tends to fall into place, almost magically so. Simply getting the story right helped to transform a hesitant and uncertain speaker into a dynamic and confident one.
A clear and concise story can give a presenter the clarity of mind to present with poise.
0.2 The Art of Telling Your Story
The problem is that nobody knows how to tell a story. And whats worse, nobody knows that they dont know how to tell a story!
0.4 The Psychological Sell
The good presenter grabs their minds at the beginning of the presentation, navigates them through all the various parts, themes, and ideas, never letting go, and then deposits them at the call to action. The person who is able to tell an effective business story is perceived as being in command, and deserves the confidence of others.
1. You and Your Audience
1.1 The Problem with Presentations 1.2 The Power Presentation 1.3 Persuasion: Getting from Point A to Point B 1.4 Audience Advocacy 1.5 Getting Aha!s
1.2 The Power Presentation
Most businesspeople mistakenly think that for the audience to understand anything, they have to be told everything. Give the audience only what they need to know.
1.1 The Problem with Presentations
the Five Cardinal Sins 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. No clear point No audience benefit No clear flow Too detailed Too long
1.3 Persuasion: Getting from Point A to Point B
Point A where the audience are at the start of your presentation
Point B your objective
an analogy to illustrate Let me tell you about what I had for dinner last night.
Starting with the Objective in Sight
1.4 Audience Advocacy
Audience Advocacy the audience must be brought into equal focus with presenters objectives. Mastering Audience Advocacy means learning to view yourself, your company, your story, and your presentation through the eyes of your audience.
1.5 Getting Aha!s
Persuasion is the art of moving your audience from Point A to Point B. Point A a place of ignorance, indifference, or even hostility toward your goal
Point B a place where they will act as your investors, customers, partners, or advocates.
2. The Power of the WIIFY
Shift the Focus from Features to Benefits Feature: a fact or quality about you or your company, the products you sell, or the idea youre advocating. Benefit: how that fact or quality will help your audience every Features must always be translated into a Benefit. Without Benefits, you have no Audience Advocacy.
2.1 Whats In It For You? 2.2 WIIFY Triggers 2.3 Danger of the Wrong You
Understand the Needs of Your Audience
2.1 Whats In It For You?
the essence of Audience Advocacy WIIFY (pronounced whiffy) Whats In It For You? on the needs of their audience (you), rather than on their own needs (me) Always find and state your WIIFY! example: Jim Bixby (CEO of Brooktree) This is our product catalog. No other company has as many products in its catalog as we do With this depth of product, we protect our revenue stream against cyclical variations
If there is a benefit, be sure you explain it, clearly, explicitly, and with emphasis. Theres an old adage: You can never be too thin or too rich. I amend that with: . . . or offer too many WIFFYs.
2.2 WIIFY Triggers
six phrases called WIIFY triggers 1. 2. 3. 4. This is important to you because ...? What does this mean to you? Why am I telling you this? Who cares? You should care, because ... 5. So what? Heres what ... 6. And ...? Heres the WIIFY ...
2.3 Danger of the Wrong You
a guideline for Audience Advocacy Make it easy for your audience to follow, and the audience will follow you lead. Dont make them think!
3. Getting Creative: The Expansive Art of Brainstorming
3.1 The Data Dump 3.2 Managing the Brainstorm: The Framework Form 3.3 Brainstorming: Doing the Data Dump Productively 3.4 Focus Before Flow
3.1.1 Left Brain Versus Right Brain
left brain control logical functions right brain control creative functions Let the right brain complete its stream-of-consciousness cycle before applying the left brains structure. Focus before Flow Starting the work of developing a presentation with leftbrain considerations such as logic, sequences, grammar, and word choice is simply not effective. Crafting a presentation is a creative task; it must start with the kind of creative resources that are available only on the right side of your brain. Use the right tool for the right job.
3.1 The Data Dump
a data dump a shapeless outpouring of everything the presenter knows about the topic
3.2 Managing the Brainstorm: The Framework Form
the Framework Form Point B start with the objective in sight and work toward it
Audience identity who will be in the audience? what are their roles?
the mistaken assumption
for their audience to understand anything, they have to be told everything.
knowledge level analyzing your audience and anticipating what they know and what they dont know the comprehension graph (Fig. 3.1) The specific shape of the line you draw should be constantly in your mind as you prepare and present your material
The secret: The Data Dump must be part of your preparation, not the presentation Brainstorm a proven system to incorporate a through Data Dump into the development of your story
The Wiffy
External Factors Setting
Who? When? Where? What? only presenter / many others
Do the distillation before organization: Focus before Flow.
To build a presentation tailored to one audience, on one occasion, presented by one set of presenters, covering one story, with one purpose. Consider each presentation by starting with the basic concepts of the Framework Form.
How to do productive brainstorming (contd) 5.
As each concept comes up, the entire group should help to explode the concept. Your scribe should jot these down, circle them, and link the circles to form a cluster of related ideas. Call the major idea in a cluster the parent and the subordinate ideas connected to it the children
6. 7.
Continue to do the same for other concepts As you work, be flexible! Dont be afraid to bounce from concept to concept as necessary. The ideas will shift, connect, disconnect, and duplicate as they seek relationships with other ideas. This is your right brain at work.
3.3 Brainstorming: Doing the Data Dump Productively
How to do productive brainstorming 1.
The Spirit of the Brainstorm
While your team is Brainstorming, the right brain must rule. Consider all ideas during the Brainstorm as candidates, not finalists. Avoid thinking about structure, sequence, or hierarchy. Give yourself enough time to do a thorough Data Dump.
Set up a large whiteboard and have on hand a supply of markers in several colors. Use different colors to indicate different groups or levels of ideas
2. 3.
Gather your brainstorming team. assign a scribe and facilitator
facilitator: assume a neutral point of view and take down all ideas, without judgment There are no bad ideas in Brainstorming
4.
Launch the Brainstorming session by having someone, anyone, call out an idea about something that might go into the presentation.
Roman Columns: The Technique of Clustering
Clustering is a necessary technique for organizing any complex material for presentation to an audience. Clustering lets you reduce the 40 or 50 ideas that fill your whiteboard to five or six Roman Columns (the key ideas that will organize all the rest). Examine the whiteboard and use a new colored marker to highlight the most significant ideas. Identify links and connections, and draw lines. If some ideas seem to have no connection to any of your Roman Columns, ask whether those ideas are truly relevant and necessary. Perhaps they dont deserve to survive the transition to the finished presentation.
3.4 Focus Before Flow
Having set the context with the Framework Form. Having poured out all the concepts that might be relevant to our presentation by Brainstorming. Having distilled those concepts and ideas by Clustering.
If you think of new ideas that ought to be inserted, add them.
Splat and Polish
Splat and Polish Start by unloading a Splat! of ideas. (classic Data Dump) Organizing them later, and later still polish them into words and sentences and paragraphs and, ultimately, into slides.
4. Finding Your Flow
4.1 The 16 Flow Structures 4.2 Which Flow Structure to Choose? 4.3 Guidelines for Selecting a Flow Structure 4.4 The Value of Flow Structures 4.5 The Four Critical Questions
Results-oriented businesspeople dont use the same process when creating a presentation.
Modular in the first chapters the first three steps in creating an effective presentation develop the Framework Form brainstorm potential ideas distill those ideas into clusters
A sequence of similar parts, units, or components in which the order of the units is interchangeable. instances Financial presentations fall into this category. the annual results, quarterly results, balance sheet, income statement, and other financial data
youre ready put your clusters into a sequence develop a logical flow
a product introduction presentation that consists mainly of new product features.
Flow Structure There are proven techniques for organizing ideas in a logical sequence to create a lucid and persuasive presentation.
advantages rearrange the items at will
disadvantages challenging for your audience to follow and for you to deliver theres no compelling logic to the clusters
Chronological Organizes clusters of ideas along a timeline, reflecting events in the order in which they occurred or might occur. suited for any presentation where telling a story that deals with change is most important objective. example a large company that has just purchased a smaller competitor
Physical Organizes clusters of ideas according to physical or geographic location. organizes your presentation according to the logic of place example suppose your company is a distribution operation whose points of presence around the world represents its major competitive advantage.
company example: Intel Corporation
develop Intels next-generation integrated circuit, the P6 Roman columns: Design Rationale for the P6 describe the technology at its highest level the concept behind the design
P6 Product Specifications Potential End-User Products System Architecture and Supporting Chips
Spatial Organizes ideas conceptually, according to a physical metaphor or analogy, providing a spatial arrangement of your topics. from the top down, from the bottom up, from the center out, or from the outside in
Problem/Solution Organizes the presentation around a problem and the solution offered by you or your company. example in the life science pharmaceuticals, genetic research, medical devices, health care
Fig. 4.1, Spatial Flow Structure: from the bottom up
create an effective presentation Story Development Graphics Design Delivery Skills Tools for the Presentation Trade Question-and-Answer Techniques
in education learning
pyramid
Be careful about getting the emphasis right. Many people in business spend too much time on the problem and not enough time on the solution.
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Issues/Actions Organize the presentation around one or more issues and the actions you propose to address them. frequently used for presentations by companies that are in turnaround mode.
Form/Function Organizes the presentation around a single central business concept, method, or technology, with multiple applications or functions emanating from that central core. It moves your companys business offering into the starring role, front and center. Use it when youre presenting a single central business concept, method or technology that has many applications or functions emanating from that central core. the first salesperson who brought 3Ms Post-It notes to market biotech companies (BioSurface Technology)
Opportunity/Leverage Organize the presentation around a business opportunity and the leverage you or your company will implement to take advantage of it. This structure directs the focus to your audiences interests and how you can meet them. Cisco start their presentation by demonstrating the enormous potential of networking before trying to explain the technology that did the networking
Features/Benefits Organize the presentation around a series of your product or service features and the concrete benefits provided by those features.
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Case Study A narrative recounting of how you or your company solved a particular problem or met the needs of a particular client, and in the telling, covers all the aspects of your business and its environment. The human interest angle is particularly applicable in medical business presentation.
Compare/Contrast Organizes the presentation around a series of comparisons that illustrate the differences between your company and other companies. Choose this option with caution. By bringing another company into even partial focus, you run the risk of sounding defensive, or worse yet, having your audience remember the other company rather than your own. When you attempt to throw a positive light on your own company by casting a negative light on another company, you may inadvertently offend someone in your audience who may have a direct connection with, or own shares in, the company you are criticizing.
Argument/Fallacy Raises arguments against your own case, and then rebuts them by pointing out the fallacies (or false beliefs) that underlie them. Consider using the Argument/fallacy Flow Structure. There may be times when you must make a presentation in the face of a highly skeptical or even downright hostile audience.
Matrix Uses a two-by-two or larger diagram to organize a complex set of concepts into an easy-to-digest, easy-to-follow, and easyto-remember form. Fig. 4.2 (two-by-two matrix)
This is a risky Flow Structure to use.
Reserve the use of this option for situations in which the negative ideas about you and your company are widespread, and therefore unavoidable.
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Parallel Tracks Drills down into a series of related ideas, with an identical set of subsets for each idea. It takes a matrix and drill down into each sector with identical subsets of information; or a series of related ideas and drills down into each idea with identical set of subsets
Numerical Enumerates a series of loosely connected ideas, facts, or arguments. There are five reasons why our company represents an attractive investment opportunity.
Rhetorical Questions Asks, the answers, questions that are likely to be foremost in the mind of your audience.
4.2 Which Flow Structure to Choose?
Choose one or two Flow Structures for the entire presentation. It is less important which Flow Structure you choose than that you make a choice.
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4.3 Guidelines for Selecting a Flow Structure
The presenters individual style. The audiences primary interest. Opportunity/Leverage works well for investor presentations and Form/function for industry peer groups.
4.5 The Four Critical Questions
everything youve learned so far: start with the Framework Form do your Brainstorming and Clustering sequence them into a logical path with a specific Flow Structure
the Four Critical Questions
What is your Point B? Who is your audience and what is their WIFFY? What are your Roman Columns? Why have you put the Roman Columns in a particular order? Which Flow Structure have you chosen?
Innate story factors. The established agenda. Esthetic sense.
4.4 The Value of Flow Structures
The Flow Structure approach provides an easy shorthand view of the logic and integrity of your ideas for both you and your audience. Your audience will be able to understand and follow any presentation. Theyll readily remember your ideas.
5. Capturing Your Audience Immediately
5.1 Seven Classic Opening Gambits 5.2 Compound Opening Gambits 5.3 Linking to Point B 5.4 Tell em What Youre Gonna Tell em 5.5 90 Seconds to Launch 5.6 Winning Over the Toughest Crowd
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The Opening Gambit
a short statement you use to seize the attention of your audience
The Question a question directed at the audience A well-chosen, relevant question evokes an immediate response, involves the audience, breaks down barrier, and gets the audience thinking about how your message applies to them. May I see a show of hands? hand go up / hand go down
Be careful with the call-for-a-show-of-hands question.
It can be considered invasive. What if you dont get the show of hands you expect?
An effective variation that avoids these dangers is to ask your audience a rhetorical question that is meaningful and relevant to them, and then to promptly provide them with an answer.
5.1 Seven Classic Opening Gambits
1.
The Factoid a simple, striking statistic or factual statement: a market growth figure, or a detail about an economic, demographic, or social trend with which your audience may not be familiar This Factoid must be closely related to the main themes of your presentation, and to your Point B. The more unusual, striking, and surprising your factoid, the better.
Question A question directed at the members of the audience
2.
Factoid A striking statistic or little-known fact
3.
Retrospective/Prospective A look backward or forward
4.
Anecdote A short human interest story
5.
Quotation An endorsement about your business from a respected source
6.
Aphorism A familiar saying
7.
Analogy A comparison between tow seemingly unrelated items that helps to illustrate a complex, arcane, or obscure topic
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The Retrospective/Prospective View
A retrospective (backward) or prospective (forward) look allows you to grab your audiences attention by moving them in one direction or another, away from their present, immediate concerns. You could refer to the way things used to be done, the way they are done now, and the way you project them being done in the future. The contrast can highlight the value of your companys product or service offerings, thereby framing an effective lead-in to your presentations main themes and your Point B. technology company,
The Quotation If you can provide an endorsement or positive comment about you, your products, or your services from The Wall Street journal of the industry press, then the quotation provides relevant value. An endorsing quotation can capture your audiences interest and give you credibility at the outset of your presentation.
The Anecdote a very short story, usually one with a human interest angle not a joke
The Aphorism Be sure to select one that relates naturally and credibly to your main theme, and to your Point B.
Its effectiveness as an Opening Gambit lies in our natural tendency to be interested in and care about other people.
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The Analogy An analogy is a comparison between two seemingly unrelated item. A well-devised analogy is an excellent way of explaining anything that is arcane, obscure, or complicated. The simpler and clearer the analogy, the better.
5.3 Linking to Point B
To make the opening of your presentation its most effective, you need to do more than capture the interest of your audience. The optimal Opening Gambit goes further by linking to your Point B. The presenter continues beyond the Opening Gambit, and the hops, skips, and jumps along a path that concludes with Point B. You need two additional stepping stones: the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and the Proof of Concept.
5.2 Compound Opening Gambits
You can actually combine some of the preceding options for your Opening Gambit.
USP a very succinct summary of your business, the basic premise that describes what you or your company does, makes, or offers. The USP should be one, or at most, two sentences long.
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Proof of Concept a single telling point that validates your USP. The Proof of Concept is optional: sometimes you can start with the Opening Gambit, link through the USP, and then go directly to Point B without the extra beat.
5.4 Tell em What Youre Gonna Tell em
First you take a moment to give your audience a preview of outline of your major ideas. the classic Tell em What Youre Gonna Tell em The technique for helping your audience become oriented and track the flow of your ideas.
In most business presentation, this preview is expressed in the Overview or Agenda slide. In an IPO road show, its in the Investment Highlights slide.
It summarizes the chief attractions of a companys offering. You and your audience can see all the major clusters and the Flow Structure that unifies them. You can extend your narrative string with two more dynamic inflection points: Linking forward from Point B Forecasting the running time of your presentation
Linking forward from Point B
Think of your Opening Gambit, your USP, your Proof of Concept, and your Point B as dynamic inflection points. By power-launching your presentation with your Opening Gambit, your USP, your Proof of Concept, and your Point B, your audience will have no doubt about what theyre going. Now its time for you to tell them how you intend to navigate them there.
The Anatomy of Persuasion: How to Persuade Others To Act on Your Ideas, Accept Your Proposals, Buy Your Products or Services, Hire You, Promote You, and More!
The Anatomy of Persuasion: How to Persuade Others To Act on Your Ideas, Accept Your Proposals, Buy Your Products or Services, Hire You, Promote You, and More!
