Presentation skills training with BJ Bartlett

Posted by Monik, 23 January 2016.

Presentation

Table of contents

• When giving a presentation to executives
• During the presentation
• Command presence
• Organisational Flow Chart
• Pareto principle
• Levels of communication
• Types of context
• Leadership presentation
• Some further advice after exercises
• Types of employees

When giving a presentation to executives

• Execute agreements - if you only present some cool topic, people will say “cool”, leave and forget about it. Ask questions, give “Takeaway”, ask for concrete commitment at the end.
• Executives like data, they want to know what the business value is, but you should not overload them; be careful with facts, as they are binding; better say “truths”, i.e. things that imply from those facts; don’t focus on results, focus on their value;
• When asked a question be careful not to look away when thinking of the answer; if you really need to think longer say before “Excuse me, I need to think a bit about it”, otherwise you will give impression that you are not competent; Short answers are perfectly fine.

During the presentation

• Stay organised
• Don’t try to give an answer to a question you don’t know an answer to; better say “I don’t know”
• Include an opening, a link from the current situation of the audience to your topic; tell a story; say “Good morning” and pause - people will have a moment to get used to you;
• Include linking phrases between different topics
• Use pauses - before or after something important; don’t be afraid of silence
• Align your body with the direction where you are looking; speak to concrete people, make a step forward in their direction;
• Have your attention out to the listener
• Include a summary at the end; you may also call it a recap, revisit, recommendations, agreements
• Include a conclusion - think of what is the most important message you want the people to take from your presentation; optionally you can also have “Next steps” part
• Don’t speak and show simultaneously, first walk, align, then speak
• Newer apologize, don’t use expressions like “I hope”, “I guess”, “I try”
• Agenta should be top level, no details
• Stay in the present moment; if you feel you are slipping out of it stop, take a break, drink water
• Use this advice in everyday life, where possible

Command presence

How to show intention, which will result in respect from the audience

1. comfort - being at easy with the situation - both with a negative and and a positive one; you need to have full attention on the audience; when you lose control (e.g. people start discussing), you need to take it back
2. confidence - believe in yourself and in your belief system - never let anyone disturb your belief system, ever!; this is about not feeling sorry but also not being arrogant;
3. control - keep control of the situation; e.g. she was a consultant visiting a client, and client started a meeting saying “I hate consultancy”, and what she answered was “me too”
4. certainty - know what you know and know what you don’t know
5. conviction
6. consideration - caring about the audience
7. credibility - we build on trust
8. character - be yourself, keep good morals, be honest, don’t be distracted by politics
9. voice - use modulation, use pacing, use pausing, use emphasising
10. risk

It is the speaker’s responsibility to shorten the communication distance line - the beween the speaker and the audience.

If you keep your attention out, if you give your energy to the audience, as the effect they will return it back. As soon as you drop your intention, the audience will immediately dicsonnect.

Organisational Flow Chart

1. Opening

2. Introduction

3. Agenda (top level), max 3 topics

4. Topic by topic

5. Summary of each topic (after all topics have been presented)

6. Conclusion

7. (Next steps)

Remember that everyone processes information differently. Your task is not to give it as you would like to receive it, but in a way that will be easy for everyone. E.g. people who have children know the phenomenon that you start speaking to each child in a different way.

Apple is a good place to work, Microsoft is difficult, Oracle is tough;

Don’t just transfer the data, share the data.

The amount of data on your slides is inversely proportional to your perceived credibility.

Pareto principle

• 20% of our capability results in 80% of the results
• the remaining 80% of our capability results in 20% of the results

The 80% capability can be the details, organisational stuff, administrative stuff.

Focus on the 20% capability; ask yourself “what is really the reason they asked this question?”; think of how much value will this provide.

Microsoft did not apply that advice and now they have a lot of outdated ways of doing things; they did not take into account that world is changing and didn’t ask themselves “are we still providing value?”. Apple was always doing better except recently they are not lucky with their iPhones. But so now they have to adjust. SAP is in the transition phase.

Levels of communication

Read bottom-top:

1. Everyone likes to work with each other
2. Everyone likes the agreement
3. Reach on an agreement
4. Two way of information exchange -————– after that line don’t stay too long ——–
5. One way of information exchange -————– after that line it is hopeless —————
6. Two way of information exchange but without being understood
7. One way of information exchange but without being understood
8. No communication

You can start from point 4, and then gradually, with baby steps, work your way towards the top. When the communication happens like on level 5 and more, then the company will not survive.

Types of context

1. Champion context - for example brainstorming session; people have freedom of ideas; you task is to frame those ideas, and abort the ones that do not show good prognosis (according to the people), if there was no results achieved schedule another meeting, do not leave meeting without agreeing on another or having concrete action items. Better choose less people than more, pick them carefully; if you need to talk because of your ego, keep your mouth shut;
2. Classic simple - one person speak, others listen; there is no feedback, it’s relatively easy, don’t get stuck there as it feels convenient for you; another name for that is macromanagement, so delegating all your work to someone else
3. Complicated context - when you are surrounded by both stakeholders and experts; your task is to bring them together; give recommendations to both, but keep the choices open; stay neutral and objective;
4. Complex context - you give away the context and let it grow; let the customers evolve it;
5. Chaos context - you are part of this chaos so you cannot control it; solution is to get a small team who can observe the chaos, as in chaos a possibility will emerge;

Leadership presentation

Every event or situation has a purpose (why?) and results, impact. Remember to communicate the impact. There are two sides of every presentation:

1. Emotional side - influence feelings, motivation, opinons, attitudes, habits, resistance, prejudice
2. Functional side - improvement, actions, direction, strategy, goals, focus, implmenetation, executions, process, procedures

You need to know where to start with each person.

Some further advice after exercises

• I thought to myself to think that “it’s not about me, I am just a tool”
• Remember to square off - keep your body directed to the listener
• Say 1-3 ideas per person, i.e. looking at this person
• I should have less slides and less content there
• Focus out to the audience
• When you start presenting a slide, make sure you are not standing in front of it, so that ppl see it
• Don’t point at your laptop
• Interact with the slides too
• Don’t be afraid to say at the end “In my opinion..”, “I suggest..”
• Practice Introduction and Conclusion the most
• Don’t put Conclusion and Q&A on the agenda slide
• “When I’m balancing out I try to be.. charming”

Types of employees

(TODO, I lost the sheet of paper)

1. Warrior *
   • when out of control, bring your
   • Visionary
   • Mentor
   • Magus
   • focused on details
   • perfectionist

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