For this reason, the more you know about what is required for an effective presentation, and the more practice you have had speaking to groups, the more comfortable you will feel when it comes time for you to deliver your first one to an audience of your professional colleagues. As is true for all communication, the two initial factors are your purpose and your audience: what do you need or want to say to whom. The third critical factor is the effectiveness of your delivery.
When you communicate in writing, you usually have ample opportunity to plan and revise documents to ensure their quality. Even when your oral presentation is well-planned and well-rehearsed, however, you still need to deliver the information one word at a time to an audience, and how well you do that may have a significant impact on your career advancement.
Presentations That Inform
Whether we recognize it or not, we all deliver informational messages on a regular basis. We run into trouble only when the information is fairly complex or when the situation is formal. Most informal presentations use a form of narration—storytelling—and chronological and descriptive patterns of organization that conform to the way most people observe and remember things. This is essentially the form we use when we answer such questions as “How was your weekend,” or “What did you do on your vacation?” For this reason, narration and description are what we do naturally and comfortably.
Effective use of the chronological pattern, however, requires that we keep the following guidelines in mind:
As the formality of the communication situation increases, the organizational structure of the presentation also becomes more formal; and, as it does so, its organizational pattern increasingly resembles that used for written messages.
When your audience will welcome what you have to say, use a direct form of presentation, stating your main point (which may be a conclusion or a recommendation) first, and then provide the supporting details:
When the audience is likely to object to your message, use an inductive order of presentation, stating your facts and reasons first and saving your conclusions and recommendations until you have made your case.
Presentations That Persuade
When the main purpose of your presentation is to persuade, use the same basic pattern that you would use in writing a persuasive message. The main difference between delivering a persuasive message orally and delivering it in writing is that your personal involvement and degree of conviction—your enthusiasm and congruence—are both more obvious and more important to your audience. It is far easier for most people to fake conviction when they write than when they speak.
Remember that persuading a group is different from persuading one person. In any group, the members are under internal and external pressure to conform. Zealots sometimes “plant” people in an audience so that when the appropriate time comes, they will encourage others to act. Although laugh-tracks on television comedy shows don’t work very well, they serve that same purpose: People are more likely to laugh when they hear others laughing.
Also, keep in mind that the setting and the circumstances are also important variables, so consider the size of the group in planning your presentation. The larger the group, the more formal you will have to be. With large groups, the presenter needs to assume the leadership role. Large groups also provide a special challenge in that, whatever the presentation topic, the presenter is more likely to encounter resistance to the message.
In any persuasive situation, end your message by asking for the most decisive action you can expect. If you cannot achieve full commitment in one message, strive for partial commitment, which frequently leads to full commitment with additional messages.
Presentations That Entertain
Speaking for the sole purposes of entertaining is not usually appropriate in business. Whether your purpose in speaking is to inform or persuade, however, a little “comic relief” almost always makes a presentation more enjoyable and therefore more effective.
Stories and jokes can help make the listener’s job easier. Humor is tricky, however. Not everyone can tell the same joke with the same success, and some people feel foolish telling stories. You will need to discover for yourself what works best for you, using the following hints as a starting point:
The Audience
The audience is an important variable in any communication situation; as a rule, however, analyzing an audience for an oral presentation is easier than analyzing an audience for a written message. You and your audience are in the same place at the same time, usually for a specific purpose. You have at least that one interest in common.
You also usually have some information about your audience’s other interests, as well as their range in ages, educational backgrounds, and occupations. Based on your analysis of that information, you should be able to make some predictions about how the audience will receive you and your message.
The attributes of your audience that will have the greatest influence on your presentation are size, attitude toward you and your subject, and their previous knowledge about the subject.
Audience Size. The size of the audience is an important influence on any presentation. In general, the larger the group, the more difficult it is to satisfy everyone. Sometimes, just gaining the attention of a large group can be a challenge. The three most important qualities of large audiences that cause problems for presenters are the following:
When you know beforehand that your audience has a negative attitude, make a special effort to be positive at the beginning of the message. If you have discovered the reason for the negative attitude, can you deal with it directly and eliminate it as an influence? Or can you overcome the negative attitude by focusing on the future rather than the past. The section on the Milton Model in Advanced Language Patterns provides suggestions for using language to help people change their minds and attitudes.
Audience Knowledge. What does your audience already know about your subject? What is the typical educational level of those in the audience? The answers to these questions determine what you will need to do to adapt your presentation to fit a specific audience. When the audience is unfamiliar with the subject, or when the subject is complex given their educational background, you will need to make a special effort to help your audience understand:
Planning
How much planning you must do before you speak depends on the complexity of the subject and the formality of the situation. Complex subjects require more planning than simple ones, and formal situations give you less margin for error than informal situations.
At its most basic level, planning means thinking before you speak. At one time or another, we have all suffered the consequences of speaking first and thinking later. In interpersonal situations, it is a good way to lose a friend or make an enemy. In presentations, it can cost your organization thousands—perhaps millions—of dollars and may cost you your job. Those who say too much without thinking are often called “blabbermouths” or worse.
On the other hand, those who are too careful about what they say earn a reputation for “never saying what they think,” which suggests that they have something to hide. Adequate planning includes the following steps:
Establishing Credibility
Your credibility as a message source will have an important influence on the reception the audience gives your message. You can establish long-term credibility only by becoming a recognized expert in a given area. Once you have established yourself as an authority, you carry this credibility with you into new situations calling for your expertise. Long-term credibility in one area has a halo effect or carry-over credibility that increases the perception of your credibility in other areas as well.
Audiences tend to assume that if you have always been truthful and knowledgeable in one area, you will probably be truthful and knowledgeable in other areas as well. Movie stars and athletes, for example, often become spokespersons for political causes, such as the National Rifle Association, and a variety of commercial products and services. The halo effect is not always rational—it is logical for a tennis player to recommend a brand of tennis racket, for example, but why would people expect a tennis player to make good recommendations about automobiles or soft drinks?
Even if you possess long-term credibility, you will still need to establish short-term credibility with your audience each time you speak. To help ensure high short-term credibility, make clear distinctions among facts, inferences, and value judgments (opinions) and by telling your audience how you know what the facts are. For more information about credibility, see the section on “Reader Resistance and Appeals” in Understanding Persuasion.
Delivering the Message
In addition to the structure and content of your message, the way you deliver it will also have an influence on its reception. Whatever the size of your audience, the skills you need to make an effective presentation are essentially the same as the conversational skills you have been using all your life. Anything that makes your communication effective in one-on-one situations will also make it effective with larger groups.
Unfortunately, the larger the size of the audience, the easier it is to forget the basic conversational skills. Most people find large audiences at least a little intimidating. The fundamental rules for delivering a message to a group are the following:
Use natural gestures and movements, but avoid pacing and other rhythmic movements and nervous mannerisms. See the section on stage fright later in this section for ways to overcome feeling nervous about a presentation.
Think in terms of speaking to individuals rather than to the group as a whole. When the situation permits it, encourage people to move in one way or another, by having them introduce themselves to those seated close to them whom they don’t already know each other or by having them applaud someone in the group or a recent organizational success. Ask questions. Ask them for a “show of hands” in response to a relevant question about the subject of your presentation (such as “How many of you own a digital camera?”). If appropriate, ask for a volunteer to take part in a demonstration. After the demonstration, have the audience applaud that person.
Even when you must convey bad news, your audience will appreciate it if you seem confident that you and your organization are doing everything possible to ensure the best possible outcome for everyone involved. See the section on “Nonverbal Communication” in Communication and Behavior for more information about the influence of nonverbal communication on the communication process.
Obtaining Feedback
You need to obtain feedback from your audience for two distinct reasons. First, you need feedback to make sure that your audience is hearing and understanding your message. Second, you need feedback to help you do a better job on your next presentation.
To ensure that everyone is hearing and understanding you, maintain eye contact with your audience and invite questions.
When someone has a question, others probably have the same question, which suggests a need for clarification. If a question anticipates a point that you will be addressing later in the presentation, you can ask the person to hold the question until that point by saying something like, “That’s a good question, and I will be addressing that issue in a few minutes. I’d appreciate it if you’d ask your question at that time.”
Remember that the feedback does you no good unless you act on what you have learned. Not every comment you receive will be valid, but if four or five people tell you that you need to speak more slowly or more quickly, you would do well to change the pace of your delivery.
Restricted oral feedback is a criterion of a formal presentation. Sometimes the medium used for the presentation, as would be the case with a televised presentation, may make feedback virtually impossible. Other formal presentations may permit questions and answers during the presentation itself, but even in such cases, feedback is restricted to help ensure the orderly presentation of ideas.
Formality and Expectations
Planned presentation and restricted feedback are among the characteristics that make formal presentations formal. Contributing to the formality are the serious intent of both the presenter and the audience, the distance maintained between the speaker and the audience, and the fact that the presentation will take place at a specific time and place.
The degree of formality can vary greatly, however. The most formal kind of presentation, the reading of a paper, is rarely used in business. Presenters at academic conferences and scientific gatherings may read papers to ensure that complex information is conveyed accurately. To help ensure the accurate transfer of the information, members of the audience are typically given copies of the paper, either before or following the reading. (Also, most academics and scientists are not known for their presentation skills and reading the paper precludes certain kinds of problems with delivery.)
In business, the following kinds of presentations—listed in order of decreasing formality—are most common:
Presentation Support
In formal presentations, the sender of the message is either trying to inform the audience or to persuade the audience to change an attitude, belief, or behavior. The presentation should be organized to meet its objective in the same way written messages are organized to meet their objectives. Because the message is delivered orally, however, the presenter needs to take additional precautions to help ensure that the audience receives and understands the message. Preparation is the key to success in attaining the objective of an oral presentation.
For most formal presentations, you will need two kinds of support: notes and visual aids, which typically depend on equipment of one type or another.
Notes. The kind of notes you will require will depend on the situation and your familiarity with the material. The audience will expect you to be sufficiently familiar with your topic that you can move from point to point without excessive reliance on notes, but they will expect you to need to check notes for certain specifics, such as the technical details of a complex product.
Students in high school and college speech classes are frequently taught to put their notes on note cards (3X5 or 5X7 inch, U.S.). This strategy, however, is rarely (if ever) used in business. It’s easy to drop note cards, and notes on small cards are often difficult to read. The audience will be aware that you are relying on notes anyway, so you are inviting a presentation disaster without gaining the advantage of having usable notes.
Experienced presenters typically prefer to put their notes on full-size (8.5X11 inch, U.S.) sheets or to speak from an outline shown by overhead projector or computer-based display. Although some presenters put their entire presentation on their notes pages, inexperienced speakers tend to rely on them too heavily and end up reading rather than presenting the material. Once a speaker begins reading, he or she tends to focus exclusively on the notes, losing eye contact with the audience. The other problem with having your notes contain the complete text of your presentation is the possibility of getting lost and having to take time to search through your notes for what you want to say next.
If you feel the need to have your complete text available, emphasize the outline (by using a large, bold font or highlighter). Know your material well enough that you can move about naturally, referring to the text only when you need to provide the audience with a specific detail or need to refresh your memory on a particular point. Your notes should give structure to your presentation and allow you sufficient flexibility to adapt to the needs and interests of a specific audience.
Paraphernalia. When a presentation contains complex information, speakers typically rely on communication aids to help an audience follow and understand the information being presented. The most common supplements to an oral presentation are chalk and white boards, display boards, flip charts, projectors, handouts, and models.
For effective use of the overhead, organize your transparencies in advance, and keep transparencies simple and easy to read. Use 18 point type or larger for anything printed on a transparency, and use landscape format. Talk about—rather than read—the transparency. Use a pointer on the projector rather than on the screen to draw attention to a specific point on the slide. Turn the projector off when you are not using it, and be sure to keep a spare bulb handy.
Computer-based presentations require special software (such as Microsoft’s PowerPoint), and learning to use it effectively will require some time. Also, setting up the equipment may prove difficult. Not every computer will work with every projection system, and special interface cables and cards may be required. Even when you are absolutely sure that your equipment is compatible and that everything will work, have a back-up plan. Take a set of printed transparencies and/or handout package containing the essential points of your message.
Nevertheless, once produced, videotapes may be reproduced at low cost and sent to a wide variety of locations for viewing by small numbers of people over an extended time. For this reason, video may prove an effective means of distributing certain kinds of information to well-defined audiences.
Use the handouts to supplement your presentation, to provide illustrations, or to remind the audience of the presentation. Distribute handouts in advance only when the audience will need to use the materials as you make your presentation.
When the day and time of your presentation arrives, arrive sufficiently early to check the room and equipment—or to set up, if you have that responsibility as well. In particular, check the following:
When your time to speak arrives, walk confidently to the lectern without speaking. Create your Circle of Excellence as you approach the lectern, and then step into it, and say your code word to yourself. Plant your feet firmly, with your left foot pointed straight ahead and your right foot with your toes pointed out at a 45-degree angle. This will help you avoid the common random movements that audiences find distracting.
Before you speak, look at the audience, starting by looking at the people seated in the front on your left. Let your eyes gaze down the left side of the audience, across the back row, and then back to the front along the right side. This will pull the audience into you before you begin.
If you have been introduced, be sure to thank the person who introduced you. Express appreciation for the opportunity to speak and, perhaps, the importance of the occasion. While you speak, watch the audience for signs that everyone can hear you and follow what you are saying. Move naturally, but until you are an accomplished speaker, avoid moving and talking at the same time. Use natural pauses in your presentation to move from one location to another, plant your feet, and begin speaking again. Gesture naturally, but remember that the larger your audience, the bigger your gestures need to be for everyone to see them.
A presentation, like all communication forms, requires a specific organizational pattern to be effective, and just as letters, memos, and reports follow certain conventions formats, presentations also follow certain conventions influencing the delivery of information. These include the following:
Transitions that appear artificial in written messages are beneficial in oral presentations: “Now that we have seen how X influences Y, let’s briefly consider how X influences Z.”
Whenever you have resistance to overcome, or when you wish to persuade an audience to change opinions or behavior, build your case slowly and carefully. If there are two sides to a subject, present both of them. Your audience will become aware of the other opinion sooner or later anyway, and if you neglect to mention the other side, they will hold that against you.
In an oral presentation, some redundancy is essential. Repeat important points. An oral message is not the same as a written message in this regard. Because your audience cannot “look back” to see what you said before, you will need to repeat important points to help them remember. Work your repetitions in naturally, however, so that the audience will not feel as though you are talking down to them.
Effective description has two principal characteristics. First, it is specific in ways the audience can appreciate. Second, it uses analogies to compare what will be unfamiliar to the audience to something the audience will know.
Your efforts have made our organization first in the industry this year, and your annual bonuses will reflect that....
The industry in general and our organization in particular have been feeling the pinch of the new economy for the past year. We have had to invest heavily to improve our Web presence, and we have increased our advertising budget by $200 million. In spite of these investments, sales have been flat. To ensure that we have sufficient capital to invest in developing new products and improving quality control, we are eliminating annual bonuses this year....
Audience Attitude. The attitude of the audience toward you and your subject can vary in several ways. The audience may
Previous experience is the usual explanation for audience attitudes other than neutrality. If the audience has a positive attitude toward either you or your subject, you are off to a good start. If your audience dislikes you or your subject, try to discover the source of the negative attitude. Have you made an unpopular decision? Is your audience known to oppose the subject you are advocating?
To obtain feedback for the second objective of doing a better job with your next presentation, do the following:
Note that, in general, as the formality of the presentation decreases, the responsibility of the presenter also decreases, while the responsibility of the audience increases. In a public speech or lecture, the audience is characteristically responsible only for listening; whereas in discussion sessions and for most informal oral reports, the audience is expected to participate by asking questions and making comments.
When you use handouts, remember that too much information frequently has the same effect as too little. If you distribute too many handouts, your audience will not separate the important from the inconsequential—it will all be thrown out together. When you are distributing several items, color-code them to help your audience keep track. Avoid the temptation to read handout material; your audience can read the information for themselves.
If you find that you are still nervous when you begin speaking (in spite of your rehearsal and Circle of Excellence), do not apologize for it or make any comment that suggests that you are inexperienced or poorly prepared. Concentrate on your message and your audience. If your throat gets dry, drink water rather than coffee or carbonated drinks, which may make your throat feel even drier.