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Public Dynamics™
- Column #3
Public Speaking Coach
Milo Shapiro's column on the
art and business of public speaking
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As the author of
Public Speaking: Get A's, Not
ZZZZZZ's,
it was my privilege to create this series that has been picked
up by the Society of Human Resource Managers...and hopefully
others by the time you read this. Ideally, I would love
for it to run in newspapers where many more people could
benefit from it.
I've chosen to post all of the
columns written to date here on this site as well as on my
Public Dynamics blog, in hopes both of helping others and
finding organizations who might like to run the columns.
Currently, my only fee for using the columns is an agreed-upon
resource box so that people might know what I do and how to
reach me.
If you'd like to comment on the
columns or contact me about usage, please use the contact links
from this site.
If you reached this page through a
web search, please note that the first column
appears at this link:
FIRST COLUMN
You can then click "Next Column" to read each article.
(Note: Sorry to have
to start
each
column with this
header, but since I've no control of which
page a web surfer
might hit first, it is necessary.)
Public Dynamics
By Milo Shapiro, professional speaker and
speaking coach
Column #3: To PowerPoint or Not To
PowerPoint!
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Q: My admin
took me aside and confided that my PowerPoint usage is worse
than having no PowerPoint at all because all I'm doing is
reading to people.
I realized that she is right.
Should I just skip PowerPoint then?
- R.G., San Diego |
This is a common problem. As the
speaker, you feel that the written words back up your
speaking and provide support if an audience member’s mind
wanders. You may feel engaged, but you are probably
boring them because they can read faster than you can talk
and after they’ve read, your voice becomes superfluous.
The answer to your question isn’t a
simple Yes or No. The complete answer is that PowerPoint
done well is generally better than no PowerPoint at all.
Having something visual helps those audience members who are
visual learners (estimated at 60%!) stay with you during the
time you speak between changes in visual stimulus.
Think in terms of bullet points and let
your PowerPoint be your guide through the program
instead of an exact reflection of it. If you are going to
be speaking first about the quarterly imports from China,
display a map of China when you get to that topic. If your
three bullet points are going to be the importing of (1)
candles, (2) popsicles, and (3) telephones, that’s three
more screens. The first has a smaller picture of China (to
remind us that we’re still discussing their imports) and
another picture emphasizing candles. It could be anything
from a company image of the candles you import to a child
blowing out a birthday cake. But that’s all you get to put
on that screen. If you have less than about three minutes
of information about the Chinese candles, you just talk…and
they will listen. Nothing else goes up there until the
birthday cake is replaced by the second bullet’s picture: a
child eating a popsicle.
If you had too much to say about candles
to go that long without more slides, then (on slide three)
the candle picture gets made smaller next to (or instead
of) the China map and the rest of the screen is for the
bullet point pictures under candles.
Notice how none of this fills your
screen with words. Instead, it introduces a topic in an
appealing way so that your audience wants to hear what you
have to say about it.
Is this time consuming to produce? Yes.
So you have to decide how important this presentation is to
you. Going back to my “complete answer”, you’re better off
with no PowerPoint than doing it poorly. At least they
aren’t reading ahead then.
A final tip on not showing PowerPoint:
You can still use it for yourself. No one forces you to
project it on the screen…so long as it’s bullet points and
key phrases so that you’re not just reading to them!
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