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How to easily improve an IgniteRaleigh talk

Alan Hoffler — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:17:59 +0000

I spent a few hours last night in a most peculiar haunt (for me) — downtown Raleigh at a jam-packed nightclub. The event was IgniteRaleigh. 19 speakers — 15 of them elected by Internet vote — had (exactly) five minutes and 20 PowerPoint slides (automatically moving forward every 15 seconds) to get some message across. While I left at intermission in an attempt to tuck the kids in bed, I did get to see 12 speakers. Some were good. Some were not as good. Kudos to all for standing in front of 700 strangers and giving it a whirl — they’re well on their way to success just for doing that.

But if the measure of success is completion — with no standards — then we miss a great opportunity to improve, educate ourselves, and really have a platform to influence people. Here are some easy things I noticed that most of the presenters could do to improve their talks.

Learn to stand with neutral posture

So many of the speakers stood with a slant, a wobble, or a lean. The interpretations of such posture is as varied as audience members (700+!), but typically a neutral posture gives you the best chance of being seen as confident, in control, and that you want to be there.

Eliminate non-words

This is easily done, but apparently no one really has learned how to do that. I watched 87 “ums” and 135 other non-words slip out in these five-minute, highly-scripted speeches. One person (who should know better) had fifty (50!) in 600 seconds. That’s a bit excessive, and it really detracts from a clear message.

Have a point

Most of the speakers were quite entertaining. Most had pretty creative graphics/slides. None seemed lost and surprised by the spotlight. And most really didn’t have anything to say. Make the audience walk away with a key point (or points) and a clear motivation to DO SOMETHING. A positive example was Miss North Carolina’s speech, whose title was “Live Life Like Jerry Maguire”. Great imagery, clear point, and now I can listen for HOW do I do that in her five minutes of fame (well, in her case, she’ll have quite a bit more than five minutes of fame).

Stand in the light

About half the speakers walked over to the left side of the stage and stood in the shadows. I presume this is because it was easier on the eyes (of the speaker). But when the audience cannot see you, we miss your expressions, your energy, and draw some negative conclusions about your confidence.

None of these is earth-shattering stuff. But they were so consistently NOT done that it seems worth reminding ourselves that improving any message really isn’t about the hard things, but doing the simple things well.

Follow the Twitter stream of audience comments (including mine) at #igniteraleigh.

Don’t get up in front of an audience without the skills to reach them.

photo by John Rees.

Simpler messaging

Alan Hoffler — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:35:59 +0000

While I was planning for a keynote I gave this past week, I made a quiz about product brands and catchy phrases. Here are some of them — see if you can name who they stand for:

Snap! Crackle! Pop!
We do chicken right
Quality is Job One
Don’t leave home without it
When ____ talks, people listen
Have it your way
Like a rock
Be all that you can be
We try harder
____ spells relief
Sometimes you feel like a nut; sometimes you don’t

If you get them all correct, you’re dating yourself, because many of these are a couple of decades old! I quit at 68 phrases — I thought that was enough.

The talking point of my keynote was “simpler“. As I looked at the quiz, something jumped off the page at me. In the 68 phrases, only three of them had a single word longer than two syllables! People who market products and need their message to be retained use short words. Short and simple. I think it works for those of us who speak as well.

Keep your message simple. Use short words.

P.S. Answers: Rice Krispies, KFC, Ford, American Express, E.F. Hutton (out of business in 1988!), Burger King, Chevy trucks, Army, Avis, Rolaids, Almond Joy/Mounds

P.S. #2 The only word (not name) in this post that has more than two syllables is the word syllable. I could not find a good word to replace it. It took twice as long to write — I expect it takes half as long to read.

#38

Alan Hoffler — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:57:08 +0000

Presenter with PowerPoint (common). Presenter wants to move around a bit (!) and wants to have a visual to support his/her point (!) and doesn’t want to be blinded (!). So far so good.

Only now we have an issue with how to transition through The Beam Of Light.

Best solution? Don’t. Stay out of the beam. There are a couple of reasons that we, the presenter, want to stay out of the projector’s beam. First, it is distracting. The extremely strong light of the projector contrasts mightily with the ambient light of the room, and we need nothing more than a photograph to tell us that the contrast makes for distracting viewing. Second, there is likely to be a “flash” as we cause an eclipse of the presentation, assuming we have anything bright in our slides. Most importantly, we are confusing our audience. They don’t know whether they should watch the presenter or the slides.

I saw a presenter a few weeks ago who was close to solving the problem. Since the room had an overhead projector and the presenter was not tall, there was just a few inches of intersection between the projected slides and the path that she took across the room. I couldn’t figure out why the slides so consistently displayed on her forehead. Most of the time any text missed the actual presenter, but once the number 38 was clearly emblazoned across her forehead. For about 90 seconds. Long enough that people noticed.

As I tried to see why the bright light seemed to accentuate her forehead, I realized that she was moving forward until the light was out of HER eyes. The bottom of the slide would usually be just above her eyebrows, and she felt that since she could see clearly, it must be OK for the audience as well. That clearly is a violation of Rule #1, but it takes a walk-through to know where in the room we can roam and still stay out of the PowerPoint slides. Make that walkthrough.

Stay out of your PowerPoint projection.

And then… be quiet

Alan Hoffler — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:01:51 +0000

I watch a lot of speakers use rhetorical questions to get the audience’s feedback, make them think, or try to engage them. I probably do it more than anyone I’ve ever watched. But it’s not easy to do well.

The hardest part about asking questions is..

well…

waiting.

And waiting some more.

Today I watched a speaker pause about two-thirds of the way through his presentation and give an understanding query that essentially intoned that there might be questions and he’d answer any right then. And he waited less than two seconds for an answer and said, “Well, good. Guess it’s all clear then.“

Last month I was on a web conference with a nationally known presenter. She teaches other people how to teach and lead. Since I consider web conferencing to be THE HARDEST medium for good presenting, I was curious how she would do. Overall, she was quite engaging. The she got to an ending point and brought up the “interactive review.” The way it worked was that “we will open up the phone lines so that you can answer these summary points as I ask them.“ She hit whatever button did that. We heard the beep. She asked the first review question. No one answered. She answered it for us. BUT SHE WAITED LESS THAN A SECOND. And guess how many of her other six questions were answered by the audience. Somehow I expect you know. Zipp-o. Nil. Nada. Nary a one. Nobody. So much for “interactive” reviews.

If you’re going to ask a question, you’ve got to learn to wait for an answer. And not speaking may be the hardest speaking skill of all to learn.

It takes me a second or two to hear the answer. It takes me another second or two to formulate an answer. It takes one second to decide if I’m going to answer, and another second to actually figure out how to phrase the answer. Then, if there are any distractions, I have to wait to find the moment to answer, and then finally to speak. Meanwhile, you the speaker have moved on with a “GREAT!” and I don’t think it’s so great.

Ask lots of questions. Wait a LONG time for the answers.

The point is…

Alan Hoffler — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:49:38 +0000

Watched about 30 minutes — and then the final 5 minutes — of the Final President Debate tonight. Once again, it is amazing to me that with so much on the line (it’s not even a remote stretch to say that the balance of power in the free world is at stake) we have individuals who have apparently failed to get coaching on some very basic communication skills.

Please understand this is an apolitical observation. This has nothing to do with what these men stand for, how it aligns with my beliefs, or what character they possess (or not). I’m just talking communication. To wit:

Neither man used eye contact to generate confidence. There were shifty eyes and a lot of looking down (you could tell they missed their teleprompters).
Both use an incredible amount of non-words, especially when using a defensive posture answering the other.
I didn’t feel either was particularly polite until the final comments. I realize it’s a dirty, mean, political campaign, but I also believe common courtesy is worth using.

But the thing that struck me the most was the incredible overuse of statements to announce “facts”, “points”, and “truth”. I’m scared to try to estimate, but it seemed that almost every statement, rebuff, or accusation was prefaced with “The truth is…” or “The point I want to make is…” or “The facts are…” And at no time did I feel that I was getting straight facts when either man said this (as evidenced by the ubiquitous grin and sarcastic head shake by the accusee during the tirade).

If points and facts stand alone, they needn’t be announced with lead-ins. Stories shouldn’t start with, “Let me tell you a story.” (Good) jokes don’t begin with “Let me tell you a joke.” And good political rhetoric shouldn’t have to put banners and headers on every statement. Make the points clear and definitely delineate the big ones, but every issue needn’t have such a title.

The more you state that there’s a point or fact or that things are true, the more cause I have to doubt you.

The fourth F

Alan Hoffler — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 02:33:42 +0000

Had a student suggest a fourth ‘F’ when we were discussing the question, “What do you do when something out of the ordinary or bad happens while you are speaking?” (see last post for the other three Fs answer).

He responded, “Freak out!”

Of course, I don’t advocate that course of action, but it helped to underscore just how important scripted responses and templates are to helping us convert high-pressure situations into wins for us personally and the organizations we represent. When you can respond with knowledge and close the gap between what we as speakers feel is proper and what our listeners think is proper, we have a great chance of connecting with them and getting the responses we desire.

Don’t have a cow, man! There are better ways to deal with the stress of speaking.

No risk, no reward

Alan Hoffler — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:20:51 +0000

Just got off the phone with my friend Jeff. We have about a weekly discussion about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to presentations. The theme was present at my lunch, as well. My meeting with a sales guy discussed why folks don’t do things that make them stand out (in a good way).

The question is simple: why do people continue to parrot bad habits and ineffective presentations? At first glance, the explanation is easy, as well:

If we’re new to a company, the last thing we’re going to do is rock the boat. We’re going to do what everyone else does, even if it stinks.
Once we do something and survive, we’re most likely to do the same something, even if it’s not great.
There are very few direct penalties for doing a bad presentation.

These observable truths lead to pure death in presenting. We have GOT to continue to refine our craft and do new things. Some (many?!) may not work. But we’ll never know if we don’t try. So why is that so hard?

That answer is a little more complex. No one likes to fail. Some do it more gracefully than others, of course, but few people posses the fortitude and drive to set out with high risk when a safer alternative exists (albeit more boring as well). And yet that is what is needed. The question becomes HOW we can force ourselves to risk. More on that later.

But for now, I firmly believe…
Facing great risk leads to the greatest rewards.

Try something different. It may even work.

My wireless computer

Alan Hoffler — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:22:07 +0000

Was teaching today and came to the instruction on PowerPoint. Had a pretty interested group and was going through some more advanced things like the presenter’s view on a second monitor and some cheap tricks on using blank slides. Was (not) surprised that most of the folks hadn’t seen an A/V Mute button on a projector, so I went to show it to them, showed them my laptop was still functional and then went to turn the projector back on and…

Nothing.

No display. “Searching for signal…” It was JUST working, for Pete’s sake!!! I did a pretty nifty segue and blanked the screen, but knew I had to come back. When I did, nothing seemed to work — Fn-F8, auto search, manual input selector — nothing.

I was about to quick and call a break when I happened to lift the computer again… and knocked the VGA cable to the project to the floor. Evidently the screw had come loose (in the laptop connection, not the instructor) and the cable came loose when I showed the screen to the class. It would have likely been the last place I’d have thought to look, but it sure seems now like the most obvious thing I should have seen.

Total time looking like a doofus was less than 30 seconds, but it reminds me to…

Check the easy stuff first. Have a checklist.