Show vs. Tell - Part 1
Avoiding the three Deadly Sins using presentation aids.
Classically most people use PowerPoint™ or Keynote™ as their presentation aid medium.
Nothing wrong with either. When done wrong, the moniker “death by…” is well deserved.
Fellow Presenter
Imagine whatever visual/audio aid you are using as a fellow presenter.
If you and it are speaking concurrently, who’s the audience listening to?
Try shaking the hand of two people at once. Get the point!
When the speaker is presenting what the visuals are also saying, a now frustrated audience typically reads ahead, for one of you – the less interesting - becomes immediately redundant especially if presenting virtually.
Coincidentally!
Who’s the smart one?
If a presenter’s reading from their slides or if the slides contain all the information required by the audience, who then owns the information?
Leaders own – followers recite.
The presenter just lost their value to the audience and much of their hard-earned stature, charisma and most importantly credibility.
Leave off your critical points from the aid. You own these. State them only when you want the audience to first hear them. Never let them see these points ahead of time.
You can always build them onto the slide once stated and/or provide them in the leave behind.
And once more coincidentally!
Condescension. Explaining things that people already know.
Francis Dodds, Features Director for Entrepreneur.co said it best.
“We’ve all been in a conversation that’s moving along just fine, when suddenly you find yourself whisked off on an unexpected detour, riding out someone’s impassioned explanation of something that you already know.
They’re talking at you, wide-eyed, offering each key point like a gift — “so after almost 30 years in prison, he won the Nobel Peace Prize” — and you hardly have the heart to derail their monologue and say, “Uh yeah, I know who Nelson Mandela is.”
Ask this question for every data point you know the audience already knows. “What’s the value to the audience hearing it again?”
In sum the three deadly sins of using presentation aids are:
Showing what you are saying – you become redundant!
Showing that which makes you valuable – you become irrelevant!
Showing what the audience already knows – it’s condescending!
More to come in Part 2….Show vs. Tell - Tune in on May 9th.
