Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, 2nd Edition (Ira Katz's Library) (3 page)

This book is not directly about software tools. Yet, by keeping principles such as restraint and simplicity in mind, you can use the lessons here to help you design better visuals that are appropriate to a given situation. When it comes to software functions, I don’t think the challenge is to learn more, but rather to ignore more so that you can focus on the principles and the few techniques that are important. Software techniques are simply not our chief concern.

Characterizing master swordsman Odagiri Ichiun’s ideas on technique, Zen scholar Daisetz T. Suzuki says, “The first principle of the art is not to rely on tricks of technique. Most swordsmen make too much of technique, sometimes making it their chief concern.” Most presenters, however, make the software their chief concern in the preparation process and delivery. This often produces cluttered visuals and talks that are neither engaging nor memorable.

Yes, the basics of software are important to know. Delivery techniques and “do’s and dont’s” are useful to understand. But it’s not about technique alone. The “art of presentation” transcends technique and enables an individual to remove walls and connect with an audience—to inform or persuade in a very meaningful, unique moment in time.

It seems that computer-generated slide presentations have been around forever, but in truth they’ve only been in common use for about 20 to 25 years. PowerPoint 1.0 was created in Silicon Valley in 1987 by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin as a way to display presentations on a Mac. It was cool. And it worked. They sold the application later that year to Microsoft. A version for Windows hit the market a couple years later, and (oy vey!) the world hasn’t been the same since. As popular author Seth Godin—who’s seen more bad presentations than any man should be subjected to—says in his 2001 e-book
Really Bad PowerPoint
(the best-selling e-book of that year): “PowerPoint could be the most powerful tool on your computer, but it’s not. It’s actually a dismal failure. Almost every PowerPoint presentation sucks rotten eggs.”

Over the years, a primary reason so many presentations given with the aid of slides or other multimedia have failed is that the visual displays served as nothing more than containers for reams of text. According to John Sweller, who developed the cognitive load theory in the 1980s, it is more difficult to process information if it is coming at us both verbally and in written form at the same time. Since people cannot read and listen well at the same time, displays filled with lots of text must be avoided. On the other hand, multimedia that displays visual information, including visualizations of quantitative information,
can
be processed while listening to someone speak about the visual content.

Most of us know intuitively that when given 20 minutes to present, using screens full of text does not work. Research supports the concept that it is indeed more difficult for audiences to process information when it is presented in spoken and written form at the same time. So perhaps it would be better to just remain silent and let people read the slides. But this raises the issue: Why are you there? A good oral presentation is different from a well-written document, and attempts to merge them result in poor presentations and poor documents, as I explain later in this book.

While presentation technology has evolved over the years, the presentations themselves have not necessarily evolved. Today, millions of presentations are given every day with the aid of desktop applications such as PowerPoint and Keynote, and cloud-based applications such as Google Docs and Prezi. Yet, most presentations remain mind-numbingly dull, something to be endured by both presenter and audience alike, or heavily decorated and animated affairs with excessive motion that distracts from even well-researched content. Presentations are still generally ineffective, not because presenters lack intelligence or creativity, but because they have learned bad habits and they lack awareness and knowledge about what makes for a great presentation.

Although presentation techniques have changed as digital technology has progressed, the fundamentals of what makes an effective presentation today are essentially the same as they ever were. The principles of restraint, simplicity, and naturalness are still key, regardless of what software you use—and even if you use no digital tools at all. And no matter how much we use software in a live presentation, as much as possible the tools and techniques must be used only to clarify, simplify, and support the personal connection that develops between an audience and a speaker. The latest tools and technology can be great enablers and amplifiers of our messages, but they must be used wisely and with restraint in a way that feels natural and real, otherwise they become barriers to communication.

No matter how impressive technology becomes in the future, no matter how many features and effects are added, the technology of the soul has not changed. Technologies such as PowerPoint and Keynote—and new tools such as Prezi—are only useful to the degree that they make things clearer and more memorable, and strengthen the human-to-human connection that is the basis of communication. Used well, multimedia has the power to do this.

The ability to stand and deliver a powerful presentation that engages each audience member’s whole mind has never been more important than today. Some have called our modern era the “presentation generation.” One reason that the ability to speak passionately, clearly, and visually is more important today than ever before is the fantastic reach our talks can have, largely thanks to the power of online video. What you say and what you present visually can now be captured easily and cheaply in HD video and broadcast around the world for anyone to see. The potential of your speech or presentation to change things—maybe even change the world—goes far beyond just the words spoken. Words are important; but if it was just about words, we could create a detailed document, disseminate it, and that would be that. An effective presentation allows us to amplify the meaning of our words.

While speaking about the power of online video to spread innovative ideas at the TED Global conference in Oxford, England, in 2010, TED Curator Chris Anderson spoke of the great power of face-to-face communication and presentations to influence change. Anderson underscored the fact that information usually can be taken in faster by reading—but a necessary depth and richness is often missing. Part of the effectiveness of a presentation is the visual impact and the show-and-tell aspect of it. The presentation visuals, the structure, and the story are compelling aspects of a presentation, even a recorded presentation that is put up on the Web. However, as Anderson says, there is much more to it than that:

“
There
’
s a lot more being transferred than just words. It is in that nonverbal portion that there
’
s some serious magic. Somewhere hidden in the physical gestures, the vocal cadence, the facial expressions, the eye contact, the passion.... There are hundreds of subconscious clues that go to how well you will understand and whether you are inspired.
”

We are wired for face-to-face communication, Anderson says. “Face-to-face communication has been fine tuned by millions of years of evolution. That’s what’s made it into this mysterious powerful thing it is. Someone speaks, and there is resonance in all these receiving brains. [Then] the whole group acts together. This is the connective tissue of the human super organism in action. It has driven our culture for millennia.”

Organizations such as TED have proven that well-crafted and engaging presentations can teach, persuade, and inspire. Progress is being made on the presentation front. However, on the whole, the majority of presentations in business and academia are still tedious affairs that fail to engage audiences, even though the content may be important.

The bar is still relatively low when it comes to the quality of presentations, especially those given with the aid of multimedia. But this is not necessarily bad news—in fact, it is an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for you to be different. You have important ideas that are worth sharing, so now is not the time to hesitate. If you look at the really successful and innovative companies and organizations around the world today, they are often the ones that celebrate individual and creative contributions. In that spirit, presenting your work and your great ideas is no time to be timid. Life is too short. If you want to change things—including the arc of your own career—then how you present yourself and your ideas matters a great deal. Why not be different?

TED and TEDx events demonstrate the power of clear, meaningful, and visual presentations.
(Photo: TEDxTokyo/Andy McGovern.)

One of my favorite books is Daniel Pink’s best-seller,
A Whole New Mind
(Riverhead Trade)
.
Tom Peters called the book “a miracle.” There’s a reason.
A Whole New Mind
gives context to the Presentation Zen approach to presenting in today’s world, an era that Pink and others have dubbed the “Conceptual Age,” where “high-touch” and “high-concept” aptitudes are first among equals. “The future belongs to a different kind of person,” Pink says. “Designers, inventors, teachers, storytellers—creative and empathetic right-brain thinkers whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn’t.”

In
A Whole New Mind,
Pink paints an accurate and vivid picture of the threats and opportunities facing professionals today. Pink claims we’re living in a different era, a different age. This is an age in which those who “think different” will be valued even more than ever. According to Pink, we’re living in an age that is “animated by a different form of thinking and a new approach to life—one that prizes aptitudes that I call ‘high concept’ and ‘high touch.’ High concept involves the capacity to detect patterns and opportunities, to create artistic and emotional beauty, to craft a satisfying narrative....”

Now, Pink is not saying that logic and analysis (“left-brain reasoning”), which are so important in the Information Age, are not important in the Conceptual Age of today. Indeed, logical thinking is as important as it ever has been. “Right-brain reasoning” alone is not going to keep a space shuttle up or cure disease. Logical reasoning is a necessary condition. However, it’s increasingly clear that logic alone is not a sufficient condition for success for individuals and organizations. Right-brain thinking is every bit as important now—in some cases, more important—than left-brain thinking. (The right-brain/left-brain distinction is a metaphor based on real differences between the two hemispheres; a healthy person uses both hemispheres for even simple tasks.)

Particularly valuable in
A Whole New Mind
are the “six senses” or the six “right-brain directed aptitudes,” which Pink says are necessary for successful professionals to possess in the more interdependent world we live in, a world of increased automation and outsourcing.