Leaders/Public Speaking/Power Point: A Powerful Combination when used correctly

I was cruising the aisles of the business section at Barnes and Noble yesterday in search of new alluring book titles and came across a book on leadership and presentations that looked interesting. I opened it up to the table of contents and noticed a section on PowerPoint so I turned to the page indicated where I read "how many of you have ever left a presentation and said 'Wow he/she has a great PowerPoint!'? No one right?" The writer went on to suggest that great leaders don't need Power Point for a great presentation. That may be true in some cases. But to then make the assumption that no one has ever been moved by a great Power Point? Well, I respectfully disagree.

Slides in a presentation have the ability to create a visual experience that a stand alone speaker could never achieve no matter how amazing her language choices might be. That is just the truth of the matter. Millie and I recognize the place of our slides--to provide visual impact to our message--and we design them accordingly. On many occasions our workshop and presentation attendees have commented on how great our slides were and well, I humbly agree. We work HARD at it. Millie has spent an hour on one slide before trying to strike just the right tone with the slide and I can't count the endless hours we have spent looking for just the right image. Why?

Because seeing is powerful.

Because the research is conclusive: people are more likely to remember a message when all their senses are employed.

Because audiences want a multi sensory experience.

Because audiences have a shorter attention span and are more likely to zone out without something to look at.

Because Because Because

Slides are not bad.

The people who design them are usually bad at designing slides.

If you have never left a presentation and said "Her Power Point rocked" you would certainly know it when one did in fact, well, rock. It would make an impact. You would sit up and take notice.

Slides are not going to go away.

People are going to keep using Power Point.

And we are glad for it, because it allows us to work with our clients to help them design slides that, well Rock.

I have a few slides here to illustrate my point. Could you do a better job with words to tell the story that the image so nicely tells on it's own? Take the toy soldiers for example. It is just the perfect representation of the idea we wanted to communicate and for our audience the image is a throwback to their days as kids playing in the backyard with their little toy soldiers. Without it, we might have said "You know it's like when you had all those little toy soldiers you used to play with when you were little..." and it might have gotten a few smiles but the IMAGE is way more powerful isn't it?

I shall not throw the book under the bus I read because I did not read the whole thing and I suspect there is probably some great advice inside the book. But suggesting that great leaders who are great speakers don't use Power Point or Slides in their presentations is just flat out wrong.

Just ask Steve Jobs.....

Read The Book!

For me, one of the primary ways I stay smart is through reading books.  I thought I would start off Oh Nine! with some recommendations of books I read and throughly enjoyed in 2008 as well as share my list of books to read in the first ninety days of the new year.  

This year I read some GREAT books.  Here are a few recommendations for your bookshelf.

Brain Rules is a fascinating read about how our brains work and why we do the things we do.  For us, it has informed us in our workshops when we talk 

about what audiences pay attention to, what they remember and how that   impacts presentation design.  

For me, this was the best book I read in 2008.  The information is relevant, interesting and applicable to what we do everyday--teaching people to communicate their ideas in a way that it sticks to people.  The writers are two brothers and the sense of humor they bring to each and every page of the book is what held my interest.  There are a number of memorable anecdotes which is a good thing--their book "Made to Stick" is sticky indeed.

 What does it mean for a book to revolutionize a field?  Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds has done just that by changing the way people think about slide design.  For years we have gotten closer and closer to the principles that Reynolds teaches in this bible of slide design but this book was what really sent us into a  new league.  If you want your slides to stand out from

the rest, use this as your starting point.  

Earlier this year Millie and I found a company called

Duarte Design on the Internet and loved the site.  Later in the year, company co-founder, Nancy Duarte published her first book on slide and presentation design, Slide:ology, that has been a great add on to Presentation Zen.  We like it so much that we are traveling to California in March for a dynamic duo workshop with her and Garr Reynolds to learn first                          hand how they approach slide design.  We will be sure and follow up on our                          trip with you about what we learn.  

The Next Ninety Days of Reading:

So in my quest to get smarter at what I do, I have made my list for the next ninety days.  Here is what I am going to be reading:   

 

This book has been on my list for quite a while now.  I am

going to embrace my inner artist-doodler-sketcher person and embrace the principles in this book.

Why do people act irrationally?  Good question.  Sway examines this very question and poses some interesting ways of thinking about this idea.  Using

modern day examples of people who have acted well... irrationally we learn the deep psychological influences that drive these very behaviors.

My final read for the next 90 days is going to be Outliers. By---Yep! 

Malcolm Gladwell.  I have had a lot of fun watching him show up on my favorite shows like The Colbert Report and reading articles about his new book Outliers.  In Outliers Galdwell examines the question why is that some people have exceptional success?  Are they themselves exceptional? Or is it simply right place, right time?  

What are you reading in the next ninety days?  Let us know and we will add it to our list!