Reflection Shorts - "Win that Communication" - episode #10

Is your audience getting the most out of your presentation?

Often our presentations have knowledge bias. We assume people would naturally understand what we are trying to convey. But this is not the case always..

People present from slides having complex bullet points, graphs, visuals and say: “As you can clearly see…”. Well, they might not be seeing or understanding anything at all.

Use these subtle tips to enhance how you deliver your content to your audience so they can get the most out of it:

When presenting complex graphs and visuals:

Use RIDE

1. Read the heading - “I am showing you sales numbers”

2. Identify the type of graph: “ This bar graph/this chart/this pie chart shows..”,

3. Define parameters like “ The X axis shows..”

4. Explain what it means:" “This conveys that sales are increasing because..”

When presenting complex scenarios using sentences on slide:

First tell people what they are looking at before you tell them why they’re looking at.

1. When you move to a new slide, read its whole content "word-by-word." This seems counter-intuitive. Why read something already on the screen?

2. Well, the issue is that most humans can process only one thing at a time.

3. If you move a slide and then start speaking more information about it, your audience might still be reading the slide while you talk and no one hears you.

4. They will get lost if you don’t read what’s on slide first.

When explaining concepts:

Leave-Behind your authoritative key message beyond slides

1. Think of your slides as a "delivery tool" to engage your audience. After shifting the slide, and reading it verbatim, most of the valuable content that follows must come from you.

2. It should sound like you are the authority over the topic. This means you need to prepare details about each topic beyond just reiterating the slide content.

3. Possibly tell a story and use graphics that your audience will remember after the session ends, because no one remembers words on the slides.

That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here.

References

• Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond

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