You’re up in front of your audience.  You broke the ice and you have the attention of your audience.  Now it’s time to orient them, both intellectually and psychologically.

Direct your audience and focus your subject so your listeners are with you every step of the way.  As you move toward your central idea, create a road map for your audience to follow.

There are three strategies you can use to orient your audience. These strategies can be used alone or in conjunction with each other, depending on the audience’s previous knowledge of your subject:

Preview your major points. State your central idea and the major points that will support it.  If appropriate, be blunt about your objectives and goals (e.g.,” I hope to convince you today that…“ or, “I want to leave you with one, overriding thought…”).   This preview strategy indicates you are not going to waste your audience’s time.

Give background information.  Here you can define your terms, explain the situation, head off objections by indicating the boundaries of your subject, and clarify your position.

Stress the importance of the topic.  This strategy allows you to offer a fresh approach, establish your credentials, and/or acknowledge the experience of your audience members.  For example, “Every one of you recognizes the critical nature of this “ or, “This is too important a subject on which to remain ignorant.”

Getting your audience on board with you from the beginning or your presentation means they will be and psychologically engaged in your presentation. What more could a speaker ask for?

Let’s begin our discussion with a quiz. How well you fare will in large part depend on your age. Listed below are text messaging symbols. See how many of them you can decipher.

WOMBAT
WDALYIC
TTFN
FOMCL
PRW
AYTMTB
@TEOTD

(Answers listed below)

These text messaging symbols are second nature to what I call the “opposable thumb” generation—that generation that grew up using their thumbs to play video games, dial cell phone numbers, and text message their friends.

Every generation has its own language, whether Millennials (1980- 2002—Sometimes called Generation Y), or Generation X (1960-1980), my generation (The Boomers: 1943-1960), or The Veterans, as some demographers call them (1922-1943). These different generations also have different ways of communicating, listening, interacting, interpreting, and responding to the way a presentation is delivered.

First The Big Picture:

The Internet, CNN, YouTube, USA Today (check out the 1986 front page of The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal if you doubt me) have changed everything—the way we buy our Xmas presents, the legibility of cursive penmanship, even the way religious leaders communicate with their congregations.

For instance, some new generation rabbis in Israel are communicating with their followers via text messages. They receive as many as 3,000 messages a month, with such words as “faith,” “doubt,” and “sin” typed in requesting a theological reply.

An Internet story this week discussed parents who obsess with their mobile messaging and ignore their children. Mental health professionals say the intrusion of mobile email gadgets into family life is a growing topic of discussion in therapy.

And don’t even bring up cell phone rudeness. Everyone has a horror story.

How does all this relate to giving business presentations? It means we need to rethink how we present, adapt to our audience’s needs with more precision, and strategize our message not only for its purpose— but also for the generation receiving it.

Here are some practical Do’s and Don’t’s for the different generations. For simplicity’s sake, I have divided the generations into 3 basic technical categories: Young and Savvy (under 40), Middle-aged and Capable (between 40 and 60); Older and Trying (over 60). There will be many inherent generalities stated here, but most observations will be on target.

1. First, we ALL hate to be read to, but the Younger generation hates it even more. So do NOT have Power Point slides filled with words and sentences, as if you were writing a novel on a Power Point. And most importantly, do NOT read them off the slide.

If this is your style, just hand out the slide copies at the door, go stand in a corner, let people read your slides at their pace (it will be quick, I promise you), and see if they have any questions (they won’t).

2. For all generations use the old IBM Power Point rule of thumb: 5 x 5: No more than 5 bullets per page and no more than 5 words per bullet. It is essential to include pictures to capture the essence of the point. The bullets are nothing more than “brain prompts” for you. They are not the presentation.

3. Which brings us to our third point: YOU are the interpreter of the message, not the reader of the message.  You may have a handout or leave-behind—to be given at the close of the program—which contains all the verbal elaboration and additional graphs, etc., but this is not on the Power Point slide.

4. The Older Generation (of which I am a part) can tolerate more words on the slide, and we are more comfortable “reading” along with you, IF the text is animated so that only one main point appears at a time, not all five. Otherwise, we skip to point #5 while you are giving your powerful analysis of point #1.

Boomers and Veterans have a low tolerance for Flashy Power Points. Remember, Special Effects are an option—not a requirement. Choose wisely.

5. For all generations: Know your equipment! Have it all set up long before the audience arrives. Can you imagine still having the stage crew setting up the props in a stage play during Act 1? Keep your “stage” clear: no laptop bags, no sloppy wires, no purses, no bottled water.

6. For all generations: “OWN” your equipment (even if it’s rented!). Never—even if you are the President of the company—have a secretary or “secondary” person in the company pressing the laptop forward button for you. For the younger generations, it looks extremely autocratic and removed. And having to say “Next” 52 times is awkward and distracting for any generation.

7. Make sure you use a remote. Even if your company has one, I can promise you it will be “missing” when you need it, so buy your own. For all generations, but particularly the younger ones, presenter credibility is immediately built up when the presenter seems “with it”—prepared, comfortable with all the equipment, including the remote (do not aim the remote at the screen and point and click and then look amazed when it actually works!)

8. We all have shorter attention spans now, but the younger audiences have even shorter ones. Prepare your presentations carefully and make them focused, clear, and engaging. Younger generations do not like to be lectured “at,” resenting it even more than their older counterparts.

Why? Because they have been on interactive video games since they were 18 months old; they are used to being in control of how quickly their information flows and what information they choose to take in. Capture them with engaging material and an engaged and conversational presenter.

Here, then, are the most important points about presenting to different generations:

1. No one likes to be bored.
2. We all want to feel respected by the speaker.
3. We all enjoy an energetic, passionate, engaged speaker, even if the subject is technical
4. We all want the session to begin and end on time
5. We all want to feel the presenter is prepared and in control of the technical equipment

Yes, there are many differences among the generations, but we have much more in common than we have differences. And, yes, it makes our job as presenter even more of a challenge because we have another strategy to consider: what is the best way to present this message to this audience?

But isn’t this, after all, the question we should ask ourselves as we prepare a presentation for every generation?

SIDEBAR—Just for Fun

Text Chat Emotions
:-X Kiss on the lips
“-# Kiss with Braces
{:-) Toupee Smile
I—0 Yawn
:——-) Long Nose (Liar!)
: - )~ I’m Drooling

Answers to opening quiz:
Waste of Money, Brains and Time
Who died and Left You In Charge
Ta Ta For Now
Falling Off My Chair Laughing
Parents Are Watching
And You’re Telling Me this Because…
At The End Of The Day

In my last message, I talked about  the importance of using an icebreaker in the beginning of a presentation to establish a feeling of informality and intimacy between yourself and your audience.

The next step is is to move into your more formal introduction and get the attention of the audience.

Your choice of an attention-getting method should be based on your audience, topic, purpose, and personality.  You should also make sure your attention-getter is something you can do comfortably.

The word ”rapport” in French means “relationship”.  How do you build a relationship with your audience?  One of the ways to build rapport is to ask your audience questions immediately.  Simple things – i.e. “How many of you have gone to the Riverwalk in the last month?”    If you can become a listener at the beginning of the presentation, you begin to develop an exchange.   Get them to raise their hands.   Or get them to shout out where they are from.  It is trite but true: know your audience.  Know what they are interested in.  Know what their values are.  Consistently show them you are “at one” with them.

The most important part of building rapport is to see yourself as being in a conversation with your audience.  Presidential candidates 40 years ago were oratorical…but today we live in a conversational age.  If you see yourself as someone who is conversing with the audience – and you are indeed the expert - then your demeanor changes.

The audience needs to see you as a human being, as well as the expert.

Consider the following attention-getting options:

• Ask a question. Your question can be rhetorical (“Is bigger better?”  Or,  “Can having more mean having less?”) Or one requiring audience participation (“I would like a show of hands – How many of you have experienced a major change in your lifestyle in the last year?”).  Do not ask embarrassing or personal questions, and always clarify – either verbally or nonverbally – whether the question is rhetorical or actual.
• Refer to audience members. For example, “I consider it a privilege to speak to the members of the Institute of Small Business.  I celebrate with you as you recognize your fifth anniversary of successful minority recruiting efforts.”
• Tell a story.  Make this an anecdote or dramatic story, but NOT a joke (unless you are one of those rare individuals who can do so successfully).
• Open with a startling, but true, statement. You could say something like,  “According to a recent Pennsylvania State University study, the earth is destined to dry up, burn up or freeze.  Don’t worry about making final plans just yet.  Those catastrophic scenarios are at least 500 million years in the future.”
• Cite a quotation. Just remember:  if you do use a quote, remember to keep your eyes up when you read your quotation and make it brief.
• Refer to recent happenings. For example, “Following Wall Street’s notoriety of the early 90’s, the New York Stock Exchange and Chicago Mercantile Exchange have both -implemented their latest stringent safety measures . . . the decade of greed taught us some lessons.”

Once you get the attention of your audience, the next step is to orient them.  I’ll cover that in my next blog.

To help reduce your nervousness when you begin a presentation, and to allow your audience to relax and listen more intently, you may want to begin by creating an informal atmosphere before moving into your formal presentation.

Starting with an “icebreaker,” (a polite prologue that creates a connection between audience and speaker) is one way to create this feeling of informality and intimacy.

The icebreaker should achieve three purposes:

1. Express your pleasure of speaking to this group
2. Compliment the audience
3. Connect the audience to you and the subject (that rapport concept again!)

The late comedian Minnie Pearl used one of the best icebreakers and she did in one second. Every appearance, in person or on television during the broadcasts of the Grand Old Opry show, Minnie began with her trademark opener,“I’m just so proud to be here!”   Then, if she were making a personal appearance, her next line referred to something about the town or city – a person, landmark or event.

Then, of course, there was President John F. Kennedy’s famous statement at the Berlin Wall.  In German he said,“Ich bin ein Berliner”  (which translates to “I am a Berliner”).  In four simple words, he bonded with his audience, and the audience roared its approval.

We are not world leaders or world-class comics, but we can learn from them.  “I’m just so proud to be here” can become “Speaking to a group such as this is a privilege,” followed by who they are: risk takers, community leaders,movers and shakers, or tomorrow’s leaders.  Describe the audience and connect with them, just like Minnie Pearl and JFK did. These two had very disparate presentation personas, but both were world-class rapport builders—whether at the Grand Old Opry or in the theatre of global politics.

Key points to remember about icebreakers:

• Be honest and sincere.  Flattery for the sake of flattery insults and alienates an audience.
• Make your icebreaker brief and to the point.  You do not want to open with a rambling monologue that loses the attention of your audience and drains your presentation of its energy and forcefulness.

Never underestimate the importance of the first few sentences of your presentation.

You have only about 30 seconds to “hook” an audience. Within those 30 seconds you must send what Dorothy Sarnoff, the famous actress and speech coach, calls “vibes” … that is,  messages of competence, enthusiasm, and sincerity.  This is a lot to pack into 30 seconds, but it can be done.

Your “delivery” actually begins the moment you enter the building or the room where you will be delivering your presentation. Emit an attitude of, “Hello, you lucky people!” Your facial expressions and posture speak worlds about your eagerness to share information.  Give a positive impression by:

• Putting on an active, energetic, confident face.  Say “MONEY” to get those cheekbones up.
• Striding confidently to your speaking position.
• Grounding yourself (feeling a solid and secure speaking posture).
• Making eye contact with at least one member of the audience, pausing, and then confidently beginning your well-planned and well-prepared introduction.

You have now set the stage for TRUST.  Soon your audience will relax and listen because they connect with you, and they trust your competence.  You are obviously in charge.

Next topic:  icebreakers.  They’ll relax you AND your audience.

We’re ready for the fun part of preparing your presentation!  We’ve talked about the first eight steps of my 12-step “formula” for putting together a presentation.   We’ve addressed coming up with ideas and formulating the  content of your presentations.  Now, let’s talk about the fun stuff:  preparing your visuals, rehearsing your questions and answers, and practicing your delivery.  The final four steps are:

(9)    Prepare your visuals
Plan and create your visuals and integrate them into your presentation. Like the development of your introduction and conclusion, notice how late in the process this step is taken.

(10)    Brainstorm questions and answers
Brainstorm potential questions that may arise in your question and answer session.  Think of every possible question (and prepare every possible answer).   Plan your responses, and speak them out loud.

(11)    Practice and rehearse your delivery
Sit and read through your presentation.  Then sit and speak through your presentation.  Listen for glitches (pronunciation stumbles, “mouthy” sentences/phrases, etc.) and change your presentation accordingly for speaker/listener ease.  Reduce your speech outline to phrases, words, and visual images. Stand and practice, with heavy reliance on notes. Tape further reduced notes on wall, then practice gestures and posture. Turn to your living room/office and then practice eye contact. Practice with your “speaking voice” (practice inflection, pauses, pace, and volume).

Get into the real space in which you will be making your presentation (or one similar). Practice all of the above, plus “staging” (movement as visual punctuation to content, walking to visuals, standing next to visuals, etc.).   Actors and directors call this “blocking.”  Videotape yourself. Bring in someone with objectivity and good coaching skills to give you feedback (friend, peer, or presentation consultant – depending on the stakes).

(12)    Practice the question and answer session
Rehearse the possible questions and answers one more time!

Next:
We’ll talk about hooking your audience in 30 seconds.  In my next blog musing, we’ll address how you can send messages of competence, enthusiasm, and sincerity…in 30 seconds.

When you give a presentation, you don’t have a big window of opportunity in which to impress your audience.  The rule of thumb is: if you don’t engage your audience physically, emotionally, or intellectually within the first 30 seconds of your presentation, you will lose your audience.   They’ll use an internal remote control to turn you off.   So, you really need to be organized.

I use a 12-step formula, and it works every time!  In my last blog, I talked about the first four steps:  (1) Determining your purpose (2) Brainstorming ideas and strategies, (3) Writing down – but not judging—lots of ideas, and (4) Clumping your ideas and material into manageable groups.

The next four steps in my formula are:

(5)    Determine a theme
Circle key words/phrases in idea clumps.   Compare these key words with the purpose you identified in the first step. Create a simple, clear, emphatic, memorable phrase or sentence that encompasses your purpose/audience/main ideas (e.g. “Chart your course while in safe harbors.”).  Weave this theme throughout text, visuals, your introduction and conclusion, and your question and answer period.

(6)    Spice up your organized material
Use analogies, stories, acronyms, music, visuals, audience interaction, and otherwise surprising, unusual, colorful, and unforgettable content elements.

(7)     Create your introduction and conclusion
Write your introduction and conclusion to match, support, and fuse your purpose, points, theme, and memorable moments. Repeat your purpose and theme in the introduction and again in the conclusion. (Notice how late in the process you create your introduction and conclusion.)

(8)    Create transitions among the “parts” of your presentation
Put your transitions in places where your audience needs organizational guidance. Vary your transitions:  use rhetorical questions, summary sentences, etc.  (By the way, this is typically the most neglected step in professional presentations.)

I’ll go through the last four steps in my next blog.  Next time, we’ll talk more about visuals, questions-and-answers, and practicing both your delivery and the question-and-answer portion of your presentation.

Believe it or not, being a persuasive, fearless presenter is really quite simple:

• Know who you are
• Know what you believe
• Say what you really mean (Speak the truth)
• Speak from your heart
• Respect yourself and your audience
• Prepare and practice your presentation

I typically use a 12-step formula for putting together a presentation.   Today, I’ll talk about the first four steps, and I’ll cover the other eight steps in future blog postings.  Here goes:

Step 1

Determine your purpose
Write down or speak out loud the conclusion of these sentences:

• I want to ___________________.
• I want my audience to be able to _______________.

Commit to these two completed sentences as you collect data and information, and as you shape your material and select persuasive examples, stories, and statistics.   Be flexible enough to change when circumstances and audiences change.

Step 2

Brainstorm possible ideas, strategies, and selections.

Step 3
Come up with lots of ideas but don’t judge them.  Just write them down (preferably on flip charts that you stick on the wall), or use any other brainstorming formats that suit you and your thinking style.

Step 4
Clump ideas/material into manageable groups.   Triads work best to begin with when you start to put the ideas and material into groups.   Be realistic about your time constraints, audience endurance, and persuasive power.  Refine and label the main points of your presentation, and refine and label the secondary points

I’ll talk about steps #5 through #8 in my next blog.   In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a little food for thought about composing speeches, from William Gladstone, Prime Minister of the UnitedKingdon four times in the late 1800s:  ” A speech need not be eternal to be immortal“.

One of my favorite topics is The Zone.   The Zone is made up of all the non-verbal, psychological, emotional, and physical parts of your presentation.  Your gestures, eye contact, and voice are all important parts of The Zone. When you make the mental shift from talking to presenting, you are entering The Zone.

Everybody has a different way of getting into The Zone, such as:

• Moving in slow motion.
• Focusing on direct eye contact
• Extending gestures so that they’re large
• Uncrossing arms
• Allowing oneself to smile
• Unlocking eyebrows

For every person, there is a key to The Zone. It often involves looking at the hobbies or professional skills in which you are most comfortable and happy, and mimicking those feelings of confidence and control. For example:

• A fisherman who needs to get into The Zone can think of it like the act of fishing: Be patient, watch the water, change the bait when necessary, and be flexible. He remembers he can’t force a fish onto a hook – he has to coax, wait, and strategize.
• A nurse compares getting into The Zone to talking with the family of a critically ill patient. She positions herself before she walks into the room, plans her message carefully, opens and closes with a positive message, and nurtures with strength all the way through the conversation.
• A golf pro can get into The Zone through solid golf techniques: balanced stance, soft knees, focusing on the ball, extending as she hits the ball, allowing the golf club to lead her.

In summarizing The Zone, here are some of the known facts:

• You can’t be in a “pure” Zone until you care more about your audience and your message than you do about yourself.
• Before you can get into The Zone, you have to be prepared on your speech, bullet points, topic, and presentation with a rock-solid foundation.You, like an actor, must always know why you’re on stage, where you are on that stage, and the goals and purpose of your performance.
• We never apologize to an audience for a mistake. We correct it, but do not draw attention to it.
• The material you will present to your audience must be practiced and rehearsed for weeks until the material is second nature to you.

“Four times and you own it.”  This is the rule of thumb I give my clients when they ask me:  “How can I own my material?  How can know I will be able to remember my central points?  How will I achieve CONTROL over my material?”

Simple:  Four times and you own it. 

First, what does “ownership” mean?  It is a “feeling” of being at one with the message, of feeling comfortable with the FLOW of the message, of knowing you can recover if you get off message, because you have neuropathically grooved the message in your brain.

There is something “magical” about using your brain, your vocal mechanism–teeth, jaw, tongue, throat–your gestures, and your words–all together–in order to create a complete package of CONTROL.

So what practice is not:  it is not whispering the presentation while driving, mouthing it while showering, thinking it right before you go to bed.  It is SPEAKING it, as you will be doing in front of your audience.  You do not whisper your message in front of your audience members; therefore, you will not practice in a way that you will not use in the actual circumstance of your presentation….or meeting…or project update…or high stakes conversation with your boss.

That is the “practice” part of your preparation.  Saying the message aloud and gaining “ownership” of the intricacies of using all your tools:  voice, verbal message, and nonverbal message.

The “rehearsal” part is different in that here you try to find a similar “space”–or stage–as the actual environment you will be speaking in.  If you are lucky, you can actually rehearse in the “real” space of your presentation–to test the sound level, to see the space you will be delivering in, to “own” the environment of your presentation and to visualize for our brain what you will be “facing.”  Create as few surprises for your eyes, ears, and brain as possible.

In “rehearsal” you do not stop for for mistakes.  If possible, bring someone with you to take notes as you present, with a feedback/analysis briefing afterwards.  If this is not possible, remind yourself as you go along and then try again.  Four times and you own it.

When practicing, you may start and stop, self correct, and continue.  In rehearsal, wear the clothes you will be wearing for the presentation to see if you are comfortable, to feel if the shoes are the right height, to catch the movement of the clothing as you make your expansive gestures.

In rehearsal, go through from start to finish without dropping out of your “Zone” (see previous blog entries).  Do not react to mistakes:  press on (an old theatre term.  If the audience doesn’t notice it, it didn’t happen.) 

Most presenters do not take the time (not “have the time” but “take the time”) to rehearse.  In fact, most presenters do not take the time to “practice.”  They throw their Power Points together and then read them–the ultimate insult to an audience.

So I suggest you have the self discipline and commitment to do both practice and rehearse.  You will feel more confident, and your audience will be able to tell the difference!