Today was presentation day in class.
We came dressed, prepped and stood in direct competition with Facebook & fervent browsing for the attention of our classmates. Being first up we did our thing, our group felt satisfied and I went back to my seat to listen to the others. Presentations in any form puts me in the place of actually having to successfully communicate and get peoples attention, I enjoy it.
One habit that I have learnt is crucial to learning is reflection. So I took out my pad and as the others presented I jotted down my reflections on reasons for good and bad presentations. This is more for me than anything else, because I know that I fail in many of the points below also.
So I present to you my list of Reflections on In-class Presentations:
- What is the problem…really?
The problem with many problem statements is that they aren’t…well…problem statements. A five point list of words and talking in complex sentence structures just makes me more confused. I have observed that the best presentations communicate very clearly what the problem is. I know it and I know that they know it.
. - “Hi, I am only my words!”
How you dress is important, how you stand is important and also your tone and the volume of your voice. As most of us know our message is communicated more through our body language than anything else. It is fun to see that many came dressed well and were generally also good at ‘taking their space’ and being aware of how to present. But not everyone realizes that everything is part of your communication. For the risk of sounding negative, sometimes I only heard “bla bla bla complex words…bla bla…I am boring myself…bla bla.”
. - After all is said and done.
What people remember after any talk is mostly composed of what you said in the beginning and in the end. So it is important to spend time on making that count. My rhetorics teacher often told us to start talking about the 2nd most important point, then the least important and lastly the most important point. Has helped me immensely.
. - “Rather nude than stripped from my PPT”
I am honestly trying to understand why PowerPoints still have to look like PowerPoints and why deviations are treated with such contempt. This made me realize that those slide that actually to need a lot of text and points need some more help for people to know where to focus and what of all the 8 points is currently being talked about.
. - Setting the playing field
Another thing that is important to understand is that as presenter I have the stage and the right, even the obligation I would say to set the stage. So if I want all laptop screens to be down I can ask that. And an audience generally accepts this type of control, at least if we should believe Scott Berkun and the experience he outlines in his book.
. - Why is that picture there?
Adding visuals for the sake of visuals is the reason why a lot of design is bad – it gets cluttered. But less is more. Even the simplest hand-drawing is engaging when used well and for the right reasons.
In the end most presentation were good and these are as I said something I do for myself to remember next time I present.
So what are your thoughts on in-class presentations?