Bored Presentations

We've all been there: a darkened conference room, a boring speaker, a lengthy slide deck. No amount of coffee can stimulate our interest. We think dark thoughts about the presenter and if there was a gong in the corner of the room we'd line up to bang it and end the drudgery.

I once knew a technical evangelist at a major software company who was excited to have "trimmed" his presentation down to 45 slides. Problem was he only had 20 minutes to deliver his message. Disaster doesn't even begin to describe what happened.

The evangelist isn't alone. Many business executives have a frightening inability to get to the point - some of them could bore for America. And that's a damn shame because they probably have something useful to say. Combining bad slides with a boring delivery kills communications quicker than you can say "George W. Bush."

Never has such an important skill been so widely neglected. Surveys consistently show communications is the most important factor in being a successful executive. And in the next few years everyone will get their 15 minutes of fame; communications will be increasingly instant and continually compressed into bite-sized chunks for our consumption - think CNN on your cell phone or ESPN on your Palm Pilot. It might not be effective communications, but it will be ubiquitous.

But as technology enables broader communications the potential for ineffective presentations also increases. So on behalf of bored audiences everywhere here are two suggestions to help everyone communicate more clearly: Rule 3-12 and Rule 5-2

Rule 3-12 (3 bullets, 12 words per slide)

While it's a useful product, Microsoft PowerPoint has become a crutch for crappy presenters. In many presentations there is simply too much information crammed onto each slide and too many slides by far - leading to the dreaded "Death by PowerPoint" syndrome for which there is no known cure. But chances are everyone in your audience can read. So keep the bullets short. You talk. The slides support your key points.

How does that look? Instead of a bullet that reads "- Company experienced 2002 net revenue growth of 34 percent in Asia/Pacific, 25 percent in Europe, 14 percent in North America" the bullet is, simply, "- Growth" or "- 34, 25, 14" or better yet a world map with the numbers superimposed. And if you combine a clear slide with a compelling delivery and an engaging anecdote on why growth in Asia was so high you'll get the point across.

For a 30-minute presentation 10-12 slides is plenty. The gory details can be put online or on handouts. The benefit to such brevity includes an engaged audience and clearly communicated messages - and, after all, isn't that the point? Encyclopedic knowledge of a subject is impressive, but no one likes having an encyclopedia put on slides and read to them. But even kicking away the PowerPoint crutch doesn't result in a fabulous presentation. For that, we need humans. And that's where the second rule comes in.

Rule 5-2 (5 out loud rehearsals, two on tape)

Any audience judges any presenter on the first 30-60 seconds of a speech or presentation - a mental "So what? Who cares?" test that we all apply. That 30-minute speech should be rehearsed out loud 5 times and two of those rehearsals should be taped. Most people have a strong aversion to seeing themselves on videotape, but it's the absolute best way to hone delivery of a presentation. As one of my clients once put it, "videotaping is ugly, but it works."

And that's no surprise. Did you ever wonder why actors deliver their lines with such panache and passion? You think they roll out of their trailers and just wing it when the director yells "action?" No, they rehearse - and you should, too. If video is simply too daunting or impractical use a micro-cassette tape recorder to capture your presentation as you drive to work.

One useful - and private - trick is to use the bathroom. With your slides and speaker notes close by, talk to that person in the mirror, notice his gestures, check out her pauses and cadence, listen for his "ums" and "ahs," observe her posture. It's free, private and it's somewhere most of us already visit at least few times each day. Once you've mastered the bathroom delivery, tape your presentation and review it. If you can stand it have a trusted friend or colleague critique your performance.

Your presentation is so much more than words. In fact, studies show up to 93 percent of speaking impact is non verbal, so while you may feel like a dork rehearsing in the bathroom mirror, and hate seeing yourself on videotape, it can pay off in a major way come presentation time.

Ultimately effective communications is up to you - and other business executives. But it takes preparation - combined with a judicious, restrained use of PowerPoint - to avoid snoozing audiences. Following a few simple rules can't hurt, either.

Do you have a confidential nominee for the worst PowerPoint deck ever? If so, send it to dave@dashconsultinginc.com and we'll publish samples of the worst offenders in a future Grok (let us know if we should change the names to protect the guilty).