Career
Designing Your Presentation Backwards Makes Senseby David Richardson CSP
Designing a presentation backwards makes sense. Just because a presentation has a beginning, middle, and an end, that does not necessarily mean you should start the design of your presentation at the beginning.
A strong presentation design begins at the end and works backwards. Carefully examine these seven steps to powerful presentation design, and see if you don't find them useful for your next presentation.
1. Plan your presentation objective around the end result of listener acceptance. This is perhaps the most critical part of the presentation and yet the most overlooked.
During my presentation skills workshops I typically ask the participants, "What is the objective of your presentation?". The answers are very interesting: "I want them to know about this product line we have." . . . "I want them to better understand the six-sigma processes." There is no question that these are important events in the presentation, but in finding your objectives you should ask some of these questions:
Why are you speaking to these people?
How are they going to be different at the conclusion of your presentation?
What will they remember?
What action will they take?
The last thing we want our listeners to say is, "So what", so the first thing we need to do is determine what is going to happen in their minds and how they will be different.
2. Plan your ending. This is the part of the presentation in which you make your final statements, draw a conclusion, and suggest a next action step.
Examine the logic of developing the ending first:
People tend to remember first that which they heard last.
The ending ties directly into your objective (which you have already developed).
You are providing your listeners with an organized, logical next step.
You are challenging them to take action.
The ending consists of one paragraph which recaps the essence of your entire presentation. This is not a summary of your presentation because that will have already occurred prior to the ending.
The ending is not the conclusion of your presentation. It is the beginning of the process for which you designed this presentation in the first place.
3. Set up your key points. These are the three or four major points which will serve as an outline to your presentation.
The design of this process will enable you to :
Deliver a logical presentation to your listeners.
Keep them on track every step of the way
Keep you on track every step of the way
4. Establish your examples. Here's where you establish your rationale for the key points stated in your presentation. These become the examples, stories, case studies, and testimonies to clarify and validate the concepts you are discussing.
By doing this, you will help your listeners fully understand all elements of the message you're delivering. You will provide truth and testimony to the points you are delivering and will cause them to continue listening to you.
5. Develop your opening. The opening is critical because it provides your listeners with their second impression of you (the first impression is your appearance). Here they will begin to form some early judgements in their mind about you and what you are going to say. This is really where they make the decision as to whether or not you are worth listening to or not.
It is important that you take time to create a unique opening to your presentation. Here's an example of a tired, boring, standard openings that is frequently used:
"Thank you for inviting me to be here today." ("Hey we didn't invite you to be here; we've got better things to do than listen to your speech.")
The benefits of developing a strong opening are:
You get your listeners involved quickly.
You've developed that immediate interest in yourself and what you might say next.
You immediately "look different" from those who still continue to use the traditional, boring openings.
Openings don't necessarily have to be hilarious, outrageous, or monumental. A simple opening that grabs the attention of your listeners is sufficient.
6. Prepare your visual aids. What type of visual aids will you use to convey your message to your listeners? How will they coordinate with your presentation? Will they look consistently professional? And, most importantly, will you be able to effectively manipulate these visuals during your program?
By preparing effective visual aids you will:
help your audience follow the logical flow of your presentation.
help them understand your key points more thoroughly.
save valuable time.
7. Assemble your final notes. This is where you put together any final notes that you wish to use in your presentation.
If you choose to type your final notes, use different fonts to help prompt you during your presentation.
Do not make the mistake of writing your entire presentation out and trying to memorize or read it. If you have established a significant objective, the results of which are important to you and your business, then don't make the serious mistake of trying to read it.
Now you know why designing your presentation backwards makes good sense. Every element of your presentation is tied to your objective . . . what action your audience will take.
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David W. Richardson CSP.
Would you like to receive Dave's free Presentation Planning Guide? Fax a copy of your business card with the word "guide" and your fax number to 480-451-9372.
