When reviewing someone else’s presentation, use these lists to help.
Last night I coached a young woman who was being interviewed later this week for a $250,000 full ride scholarship to the college of her choice. She was tasked to give a 15 minute presentation and answer questions to an unknown panel. The challenge she faced is that the organizers from the admissions office gave her no guidance on what questions they wanted answered.
So she prepped a 12 minute demonstration of her robotic arm that won her all sorts of science olympiad awards and consequentially, admission into this prestigious engineering school (just the quarter-million-gulp-dollar-scholarship was on the line). The outcome of the review was that we worked hard to make her opening and closing about the college (not about her), to weave in her key message points about being creative and a problem solver, and found a few ways to interject an equally as impressive career in choir with a personal passion she had in rescuing cats. We walked away with a bit more humanism while not losing the intense technical jargon she believed they wanted to hear about her complicated robotic arm (all of which was way over my head, but I was not the intended audience, so I nodded and smiled during those minutes).
But as I listened to her talk, it brought me back to a training I did in content framing a few weeks ago for a large insurance company. My clients who sponsored the training are tasked daily with reviewing other people’s presentations and making giving them important feedback toward improvement.
But reviewing and giving feedback are hard to break down sometimes when you are busy. So I present here my definitive content review question guide – the critical questions you need to make sure are answered as you are reviewing any presentation.
As Atul Gwande taught us in the Checklist Manifesto, there are some checklists meant to be used before a task, and others, after. To that end, I have presented a “before” and “after” list for your use.
A jump start “before” list – top 5 questions to get a new presentation started:
Who is the audience you are presenting to?
What is the question on their mind?
What did they know about the topic beforehand? / What context do they need?
What is your bottom line answer?
What do you want them to do with the information after the presentation? (the goal!)
A review “after” list – what to look for after you’ve seen a presentation
Did I follow you? Did you tell me where you were headed in the first 2 minutes? Did you wander?
Do I know you / your story and why you have license to deliver the message (appropriate for new hires)?
Can I repeat your key challenge (problem) and answer to the challenge (solution)?
Did I know what you want me to do with the information?
Did each slide (if they were used) have a concluding idea, clearly stated in the header?
Did you give me anything to feel about the topic? Should I be scared? Excited? Moved to immediate action?
And lastly, do I see the intended audience inside the message? In other words, did you make the audience the central character of your story? (as opposed to the presenter being the central character).
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As I think about the student pitching for the scholarship, the most important improvement we made was in having her ask for the scholarship, “Choose me for this scholarship and I will bring my passion and creativity to four years of academic excellence on your campus.” In the “before” version, she never stated her goal. In the “after” there was no doubt – she was not just there to share her robotic arm. She was there to be chosen and most simply, to win.
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How Kit Kat led to TED, told ala Pecha Kucha.
So a few years ago I wrote this blog post on how I thought the Pecha Kucha (Japanese for Chit-Chat) was a fun format for an audience but a really tough one for a speaker. It dictates you deliver a talk with 20 slides on a timer for 20 seconds a slide.
So last summer when I was invited to give a PK talk, I told them I’d do it without slides. They said no : I had to use slides.
So I sent a black slide and asked them to play it 20 times. They said no : I had to show slide progression.
The dot that moved 20 times.
So I sent a slide that looked like this and had the dot rotate around the circle — one dot movement per each of the 20 slides. And they said yes: finally.
My motivation was that I wanted to tell a very personal story as the guidelines are pretty loose on what content you can bring forward as long as it shows your passion. I didn’t feel that slides would augment my story, in fact, I thought they would distract. And I didn’t ever want to turn my back to the audience to check if I was on the right slide (Rule #1 of public speaking) which is what happens when the slides are on a timer.
So now that I’m watching the video (posted below, don’t judge the quality!), I see that they may have had a confidence monitor (at my feet). A confidence monitor is what we call the screen facing a speaker to demonstrate the slides playing to the audience. True fact: I never saw the monitor as I am apt to look at the audience, not the floor. And it didn’t matter, since I timed my talk to be 6:40 (the time of 20 slides x 20 seconds) and just let it rip. It wasn’t until about 5 minutes in that I even remembered I had slides because I never practiced with them or needed them to prompt my story.
A good friend wrote on my Facebook page that he thought my slides were on the fritz…until the end. So watch for yourself and see how I gave a Pecha Kucha talk “without” slides. Which allowed me to focus on the thing that did matter: my passion and my story.
How I found my Kit Kat. from Articulation on Vimeo.
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The Talk of Your Life.
Which way do you read that?
The TALK of your life.
or
The talk of your LIFE.
I want to talk about both.
In coaching speakers toward a major talk – i.e. a Keynote address to 1000, a major presentation and of course, many TEDx talks – I have seen a recurring theme as one of the outcomes. Many, if not all, as a result of preparing the talk of their lives change the talk of their lives.
“I have not taught the same way since I delivered that TEDx talk in 2011,” reported Dr. Maryanna Klatt, a professor at The Ohio State University.
So what can be learned about how we prepare, organize, sequence and deliver our more casual deliveries of messages from the times that we have to stand at the podium with blaring lights in our faces, headsets taped to our cheeks and an audience of people expecting to be engaged. Even if you never have a chance to delivery that “platform” speech, you will more deeply understand what speakers like Maryanna experienced to apply to your own everyday deliveries.
In this series I hope to tease out many lessons I have learned over the last few years from my clients and TEDx speakers. I have read most (if not all) the books on presentation skills, public speaking, storytelling, but I have yet to find one that anchors from the point of view of the speaker him or herself. As I collaborate with dozens and dozens of individuals in helping them find their voice, their content and their story for the talks of their lives, I hope to reveal insight about mindset, organization, structure, story curation, practice and delivery that others can learn from.
I’m thrilled to have the collaboration of Rich Bowers who last year, during TEDxColumbus, built an archive of video footage for a documentary of a few speakers working their way through the TEDx pathway — from being selected to actually presenting. We expect to do the same again this year to compare with last year’s findings. We wanted to better understand what it took to prepare for this Talk of their Lives. Stay tuned for the findings. They may surprise you.
From the collaboration with Rich in addition to a host of data I’ve collected from my own ongoing clients, I hope to produce a useful series of posts that will help anyone prepare for any talk. Many of these topics I have blogged about for the last few years, but hope to sequence and relate to you, the speaker, in the order you need them. And the expectation is that it may change the way you change every talk you give in your life, not just the TALK of your life.
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The Keynote: One Pathway
While we have been involved in hundreds of keynote addresses over the years, I thought it was time to document the pathway of one from start to finish. Each is different of course based on the speaker, event and audience. We adapt for each and in this case, we’re working with the founder of a company who has been invited to give the keynote at an annual Chamber of Commerce Meeting.
We started planning yesterday by a reviewing previous talks she’d given to some smaller groups to build upon content with which she was comfortable. It was primarily a listening exercise to understand ‘her story’ and elements we can pull, twist and bend as we fashion a talk specifically for this event.
Then came the question that usually gets a pregnant pause response: “What question are you answering that’s on the audience’s mind?” ( I don’t insist on answering the question, I just want to define what it is.)
For an event like an annual meeting, that’s difficult. Very difficult. People come to hear updates on the state of the chamber (obligatory), to see and be seen (everyone’s a player), to generally support the chamber and the community (be a good servants). Do they come to hear the keynote? Well, they may not come if there wasn’t a keynote — but the million dollar question for a speaker preparing a talk: will the audience really listen? Do we really care?
For this event, it will be a morning breakfast. There will be combative fights for coffee, the eggs will be augmented by something sugary, and everyone will begin checking their blackberries about 20 minutes after they’ve taken a seat. Yep, we’ve all been there.
Motivations of attendees will range from networking to gossiping to gripping and grinning. Some will be interested in who is sitting across from them at that imposing white-linen tableclothed round table but….shoot, no time to scream across the bacon and OJ, the program is starting. Time to be quiet. At least with our mouths and ringers (never said anything about shutting down our brains).
So as a speaker, while it seems like a sedate, boring, professional crowd, in fact, there’s a melee going on. It will be her job to break through the clutter and tell a few stories that will wrap up a high-value idea with a take-away that will taste better than the week-old Chinese in my fridge.
We began by building with a hierarchy of messages that we spent 2 hours brainstorming. We asked “so what” about a dozen times and struggled, unexpectedly, to dig for the most resonating truth (’cause of course we don’t lie!). Next, I’ll help her to organize the ideas and then build an outline (but don’t mess those steps with each other).
We will proceed on the following assumption that the questions the audience wants answered are
A) Who are you and why are you worthy to be talking to me this early morning.
B) What will you tell me that makes me want to like and believe you?
C) What can you tell me that I can take away and apply, repeat or learn from?
D) When can I leave and get back to the mess happening at work?
Now, mind you, these are different questions than what’s on the organizer’s mind- which are :
A) How can you make sure our members feel they got value for buying a table today?
B) How can you tie your message with our latest campaign message for economic development? and
C) Can you make sure you don’t run long, we have a lot of other speakers and we have to clear this room by 9am!
After we establish the content structure and outline, we’re going to experiment with a different preparation pathway: no writing it out. She’ll take the outline and talk it out into her “voice memos” app and then transcribe, re-outline and take another stab at giving the talk. That’s right. Not write the talk but give the talk.
Why not initially write it out?
After working with several keynote events last year, I realized that many folks should not write out their talks – ever. That doesn’t mean you can’t transcribe the talk you’ve practiced and see how it’s flowing and use it as a guide. But the reality is, the process of writing words on a computer and thinking through words you are going to speak are very different. If you have a speechwriter working with you, that’s obviously a relationship you’ve built over the years of someone who knows your style and preference. But if you are starting this on your own, know that there are different pathways you can take. The point is that for someone who struggles to write, why bother? I like to walk around (the brain is more active when your body is moving) and talk through it. Sitting at a glowing screen being distracted by email, facebook posts, phone calls and text messages doesn’t cut it for me.
(Flashback: We helped one speaker last year who showed up to rehearsal seemingly prepared to give her 15 minute talk the next day. She got up on stage for the big event but was a mess. Her story line was confused, she had way to many ‘ums’ and the audience got lost. When I asked her later what happened since she said she was recording and listening back to her talk, she admitted, “I never put down the paper.” Meaning, she kept reading her talk into her recordings. But the event itself (in a TED style) didn’t allow for notes or a script. Bottom line: She never got the talk off the paper and into her head.)
The keynote we are building will max out at 15 minutes. We may plan for it to end at 12 minutes and give people more time to chug coffee before they head into work (and be grateful it didn’t run long). Regardless, the process begins now, a month in advance. That’s a blessing that we aren’t starting a week out. The curse? Cracking the code of what will answer their questions, keep them awake and also cheering, long after the linens have been washed.
Check back to see how it goes.
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Seek the question
A friend told me recently he was invited to speak to the Board of Trustees at his institution. We discussed that while he knew the topic well, he didn’t know the exact question he was answering.
“Does there need to be a question,” he asked?
So — You decide which pathway would bring him to a more resonating presentation:
#1 : Address the topic: The college’s role in commercialization. His likely talk: Broad, linear, maybe rambling, definitely programmatic.
#2 : Question focus (hypothetically): Why is our college’s commercialization role slipping against other universities and what can we do to regain our leading role, and furthermore, more revenue for the institution? His likely talk: audience attentive, result oriented, anecdote rich, recommendation specific, highly resonating.
So this month’s tip: seek the question, even if your audience hasn’t expressly stated it. You must reveal the primal issue tugging at their minds to assure they will listen. And not to mention, it helps to achieve some critical presentation goals:
– it forces you to be relevant today. (i.e. can’t use the old talk from last month)
– it assures your talk isn’t a conversation with yourself
– it gives your story (i.e. the answer) hope of being syndicated (i.e. repeated)
And if you don’t know the question, don’t give the talk! Your audience will thank you for it.
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Everyone has their pet peeves. I have my pet loves. Among them, really awesome opening hooks. As in, how do you grab your audience from the first words out of your mouth. That means, ‘Thank you for having me,” or,
“I’m here to discuss an idea…” are no where to be heard.
This week at TEDGlobal, among the 12 or so talks that I got to hear live (via our TEDxLive@Columbus livestream), two grabbed me:
Pamela Meyer’s talk on Lies. She opened by accusing essentially everyone in the audience of being a liar: “The person to the right of you is a liar. The person to the left of you is a liar. And the person sitting in your seat is a liar.” (paraphrased since the talk is not published yet. I’ll link it here when it is.)
Aside from an artfully chosen opening, her talk continued the same engaging cadence, weaving story and fact, detail and reason. Not to mention, she provided some great tips on how to spot a liar (hence the name of her book, Lie Spotting).
Now, if we believed in the rules of PERP (the sequence that helps audiences overcome the communication bias — Point, Example, Reason, Point), the next TEDTalk by Tim Harford, also a TEDGlobal speaker this week, violates them. We aren’t exactly sure what his point is since he starts with his example, and he risks losing the audience by not sharing where he’s headed at the start.
But it matters not.
His opening hook story and his engaging storytelling style keeps you rapt to want to know more. And in particular, how he’s going to weave it into a poignancy to which we’ll relate and want to hear more. Watch it here:
Lesson is: Make sure you have your opening hook planned carefully. Usually I suggest writing it last after the rest of your talk is complete. Those nervous jitters can lock you down for the first few minutes of any talk — which is when you need to be most engaged and captivating.
No CommentsFail Better, for sure!
This group of junior and high school students took over a big, open, colorful studio space filled with German-designed, state-of-the-art, learning-inspired furniture created within the confines of the convention hall / trade show, and were broken down into six teams and given a challenge: design a solution to any problem you want to solve. You’ll see the mantra that hovered over them daily: Fail, Fail Again. Fail Better!
Over the course of the three days, they are lightly guided by outstanding designers and educators organized from Be Playful, an collaborative consultancy working on re-designing learning environments to be more innovative and creative. It should be noted that this “Prototype” was a sample of more sustainable endeavor Be Playful is testing.The e-tech Ohio conference where they were being hosted was a great partner in helping them incubate it – and gave otherwise sullen attendees a live, interactive glimpse of how learning can be dynamic and well, playful.
Their assignment was to come up with a 15 minute presentation to unveil both their perceived problem (half the battle, right?) and recommended solution to a sophisticated jury of professionals from the design, arts, information technology, retail planning, media and more. My role was to address the 30+ students to prepare them for their juried presentation.
At the end of my short overview of a compelling pitch, which included using the five key questions on how to build a story (any story) from Save the Cat , I was then peppered with questions. Many questions. I found them to have a beautiful naiveté that we take for granted when we’re older, more sullen and feeling like giving a presentation is more a chore than an exploration and learning.
I thought I’d share a sampling of those queries, with a summary of my answer beneath each.
Q: We have 5 great ideas, how do you expect us to come up with one?
A: Then you aren’t ready to present. The jury wants to hear one great idea with some strong proof points. If you give them five, you haven’t found the right theme or connection between the ideas — OR you haven’t killed enough of your little darlings.
Q: What happens if you have a really good idea but not a great presentation? What if is is all over the map and sloppy? Do you think we’ll still have a chance of winning?
A: You may come in second, but rarely will you win. Because someone else will likely nail both the idea and the presentation and outshine you.
Q: Why shouldn’t we introduce ourselves at the beginning of our presentation? How will the jury know who we are?
A: Earlier I advocated for a strong opening hook, one that grabbed the jury from the first minute and made them want to follow the story. If you want your opening hook to be “My name is Kate, his name is Bill and that over there is Susan” feel free. But wouldn’t it be better for them to hear your great idea and why it matters at the top — since you should always give them the most important information first? There will always be time later in the presentation to explain who you are since that matters less than the idea you are presenting – at least for the first few minutes.
Q: How do you know who should be your team spokesperson?
A: As you look around at your team I can see the anxiety of group dynamics trying to decide, who should talk? This is a part of the leadership process you should embrace in this workshop! Here’s a few non-negotiables that I’d look for in choosing your spokesperson:
– Someone that can speak with limited notes (to assure to stay on message) but not someone who has to read.
– Someone who is not nervous and speaks too fast or with too many gesticulations (a clear sign of nervousness)
– Someone who is not afraid to engage with the jurors in a conversation – ie look them in the eye, talk to them one-on-one
Q: Then what should the rest of the team do if we aren’t speaking?
A: Have you ever seen a spouse on stage next to their politician wife or husband? They are supportive. They look engaged. They try to connect with the audience as well. The completeness of your team relies on your being present, too. Even if you aren’t uttering a word. Conversely, you can be the Q & A team – providing subject matter expertise or supporting your spokesperson to give him/her a break.
Q: What is better, a presentation with or without visuals?
A; If you can’t tell the story of your idea without visuals, then you don’t need any — yet. Visuals are used to SUPPORT your story / pitch – not to make it for you. The more compelling the story, the less visuals you need. I challenge the efficacy of slides in the Pecha Kucha model but know it’s helpful when a specially designed visual of a complex idea can be real aid in the oral delivery.
Q: How do we interact with the judges? They want us to “get to know them” but I’m not sure what to do with information we find out.
A: Wouldn’t it be helpful to know if all of your judges had PhDs in electrical engineering when your idea you are presenting has to do with dance therapy? Perhaps you’ll need to explain some more baseline information than if they were all advanced degree holders in dance therapy. It’s the first place you start in preparing your presentation: know they audience. And during the presentation, if you can call out someone that may have a relevance to your topic, which is one of the five rules of a good story: it’s relevant to me. That leaves only 4 more to go!
Q: How much time should we take for the presentation vs. allow for judges questions?
A: Since you were given 15 minutes total, factor in that you want them to be engaged — and be encouraged to ask questions. So make the pitch for half the time. But then again, if you have a complex idea to share, it may require most of the time. I’d suggest that, whatever you do, make sure you stop at 15. It’s the 16th minute that will cause you to be disqualified if all other teams stick to the basic rules. That’s when you know you have failed. Next time, fail better!