One aspect of bad communication that frustrates me SO MUCH is a confused audience. For me, talking ‘blind’ with no context or structure lacks common sense, empathy and respect, which I believe are pretty important if you’re going to give an effective presentation. You need some top notch material of course, but without a decent
Presentation Fails and How to Fix Them #7: Structure Read More »
Check out this video, also on stories! Let Me Tell You a Story Everyone loves a good story. It can be the best way to start a presentation, because stories go straight into our brains, unimpeded by the usual barriers to understanding information. Quite simply, we’re hard-wired to absorb stories. Our curiosity about the experiences
Presentation Fails and How to Fix Them #6: Stories Read More »
Check out this video, also on the theme of Emotion! Beeeeeep! I see a lot of presentations that have effectively flat-lined: the speaker has zero enthusiasm for their subject, and guess what? As a consequence, the audience finds the experience tedious and are desperately looking for ways to escape. It’s a presentation crime which many speakers are
Presentation Fails and How to Fix Them #5: Emotion Read More »
Check out this one minute video, also on the theme of your presentation’s objective! Problems, Problems What’s the point of the whole thing? I find it frustrating when people give a presentation that just starts, continues and then just… stops. I’m a selfish audience member – I want to know what I’m going to get
Presentation Fails and How to Fix Them #4: Objective Read More »
Check out this video, also on surprises! Right. Let’s go! Bad communication is predictable and therefore boring. It sometimes contains bad surprises (no-one likes those). Examples: The email/presentation/phone call is negative You try to impress with 100 words of eloquence when 10 conversational ones would do a better job in less timeIt features over-used phrases and
Presentation Fails and How to Fix Them #3: Surprises Read More »
