Presentation Tip: Don't Talk So Much

News flash for presenters...during your presentation, you don't have to do all the talking.

Most presenters have a difficult time accepting this concept. There are likely diverse reasons for a presenter's belief that except for a brief Q&A, he must be the one to deliver all the presentation content: it's always been done this way; the audience came to hear my expertise; I won't be able to get back on track if the audience starts talking; I'll lose too much time and won't be able to get through my presentation. But perhaps a paradigm shift might be in order.

In our world of constant and assorted stimuli, audiences often don't have the patience or the motivation to listen to a presenter speak continuously for 30, 45, 60 minutes in the same format. Add to this the increasing desire among audiences for participation and involvement to enhance their engagement and you begin to have a road map for that paradigm shift.

Dialogue and discussion are more beneficial to an audience than listening to a talking head. Structure your next presentation to include opportunities for the audience to share their perspective or discuss an issue or question you pose. This dialogue can be between you and the entire audience or you can have people turn to the person next to them for a brief discussion. Strive to create variety in your presentation by alternating between you talking and the audience participating. The benefit of this approach to you [besides a highly engaged audience] is that you can enlist the audience's assistance in answering questions and sharing their examples which takes some of the pressure off you to be the expert on every aspect of the topic.

Thankfully, this format won't allow for the typical information overload presentation so focus on the couple of key messages that are most relevant to your audience and provide additional material, if necessary, in a handout.

Using this approach will move you from the talking head presenter to a presenter who facilitates discovery and the sharing of ideas. Your presentation will be a richer experience for all concerned.

 

Comments

[jared]

Less is always more :) Thank you for the reminder