Advanced Presentation Skills One Day Workshop Why Attend? Having - - PDF document

Advanced Presentation Skills

One Day Workshop Why Attend?

Having attended the two-day Presentation Skills workshop, this day will take your skills to another level. It is an opportunity for you to refresh and consolidate your learning as well as experiencing more advanced techniques. You may have found that sometimes you are too reliant on a script of bullet points? Perhaps you want to really connect with a more human touch? Have you ever wished you could really think on your feet? This programme will enable you to start developing the flexibility that is the hallmark of top presenters.

What Will You Learn?

Objectives: By the end of the two days you will be able to:

• Connect with every audience member right from the start of your presentation
• Use a range of advanced presenting styles to achieve the required impact
• Think even more quickly on your feet in the face of difficult people and objections
• Adopt a much more flexible style in getting your message across

Specifically you will learn:

• How to identify ‘problem people’ in an audience and how to get them on board
• How to get your presentation off to a winning start
• How to get yourself into a confident state for presenting
• How to use advanced techniques in voice and body language to create impact
• How to accelerate the process of gaining rapport with an audience
• How to have presence with an audience and put across the real ‘you’
• How to develop charisma in your presentation style
• How to bring presentations to life – creating entertainment and fun
• How to think quickly on your feet
• How to deal with tricky questions or objections
• How use a planning and presenting structure that keeps you in control

How Will You Learn?

By actually putting the skills into action and receiving immediate coaching and feedback. PRE-COURSE PREPARATION: Please bring 10 minutes worth of material to present. This could be extracts from an existing business presentation, in which case please include your first 3 minutes, a piece from the middle and also your final 3 minutes. Alternatively, bring a complete 10-minute presentation on a business

• topic. Bring your visuals in the form of overhead transparencies. A flipchart will also be available.

What If? What will I be able to do once I have learned these skills?

You will be putting these advanced skills straight onto practice on your next business presentation. You will feel even more confident when talking to large or small groups.

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Contents

1. Some basic rules for presentations. (3) 2. Understanding your audience worksheet. (4) 3. Introduction, exposition and conclusion. (5) 4. Audio-visual aids. (8) 5. A note about notes. (9) 6. Body language. (10) 7. Coping with anxiety. (11) 8. Presentation-tips posters. (12) 9. Presentation observation sheet. (13)

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1. Some basic rules for presentations.

Communication is a skill that can be learned. You do not need talent: you need to practise and know some basic rules. The First Rule: You must understand your audience. Your audience will be academic or academically trained. They expect you to obey the same presentation rules that they follow. They expect you to acknowledge the work of

• thers where appropriate. They are tolerant of young, inexperienced presenters (as

most of the audience will also have teaching roles of some kind). If a mixed academic/professional audience, you must think carefully about the needs of the two types of audience in the room. The Second Rule: You must tailor the content of your talk to fit your audience’s needs and the time available. Your audience does not need to hear everything you know about your PhD topic. Do not swamp them in detail. Edit your talk to convey the essentials well and make sure they understand the key information, rather than rush a huge volume of facts past their ears and eyes. The Third Rule: You must know why you are presenting your work. “Why am I presenting my work to this audience? So that they will see the significance of (…fill in the blank…).” When you fill in the blank, you have worked out the aim of your talk. You can then design your talk to fulfil the aim. Aimless talks are very dull and fizzle out at the end. The Fourth Rule: You must have an introduction, exposition and conclusion. These are otherwise known as the beginning, middle and end, but each of them has their own rules (which we have set out on the pages following). Obey the rules, and the talk almost writes itself. Then you only have to worry about presenting it well. The Fifth Rule: You must plan and control your visual aids and speaking aids. Many people now automatically create a PowerPoint presentation and then bore their audience silly. You must work out whether you need visual aids, if so what type. Never put your “speech” onto the slides and then just read them out. Your audience reads much faster than you can speak and then will be bored, waiting for you to catch up. Slides should illustrate what you say, not replace what you say. The Sixth Rule: You must practise. Practise your talk as realistically as possible (same type of room, same type of clothes as for the real event) so that you can identify and correct any nervous mannerisms or distracting behaviours. You should also look at whether your body language conveys fear, boredom, uncertainty, hesitance. You should check whether you are audible and

• clear. With experience, practise may involve simple visualisation rather than a detailed

rehearsal.

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2. Understanding your audience worksheet.

As a PhD student, there are several different audiences to whom you may have to present your work. These include:

• 1. Your research group e.g. PI, postdocs and PhDs
• 2. A departmental seminar, e.g. academic staff, PhDs and guests.
• 3. Your professional body, e.g. a scientific or research council meeting
• 4. Final year undergraduate students, e.g. as part of a open day for potential PhD

students

• 5. To schools and other lay audiences, e.g. A-level students; Outreach
• 6. Job Interviewers
• 7. Your PhD examiner, e.g. as part of your viva

Audiences will vary in:

• a. Professional experience
• b. Familiarity with the subject matter (i.e. prior knowledge)
• c. Understanding of technical language
• d. Experience of attending scientific meetings

We could rank the audiences as low, high or mixed in these characteristics. Fill in the table below for each audience, ranking them in each characteristic as low, high or mixed in relative terms. How does this affect the way you construct your presentation? You also need to think about the motivation of your audience for being interested in your talk. Try considering theirs views, i.e. put yourself in their “shoes”. characteristic audience professional experience familiarity with subject matter understanding

• f technical

language experience of scientific meetings your research group departmental seminar professional body final year undergraduates A-Level students your PhD examiner

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3. Introduction, exposition and conclusion.

Introductions and how to construct them. Scientific academic presentations have 3 elements to their introduction:

• 1. An introduction of the speaker, his/her affiliation and his/her authority.

(e.g. “Good afternoon, I am Edgar Wilberts of Imperial College London and I am doing PhD research under the supervision of Professor Nice of the Department of Marine Engineering.”) Note: you get an advantage as the audience takes the immediate impression that you are of Imperial College standard which means you are good.

• 2. An introduction to the who, what, when, where, why and how of your topic.

(e.g. “Although my PhD is on the effects of chloride attack on hulls of Royal Navy battleships, my presentation today concentrates on describing the results of a novel experiment that I carried out with Dr Smith of our research group and which yielded unexpected results. The experiment replicated tidal wetting and drying of the hulls at 25 times real time.”)

• 3. An introduction to the format / structure of the talk (i.e. who what when where

why and how of the structure of the talk). (e.g. “To show you why this experiment surprised us so much, I am going to start by showing you some photographs of the ships we are studying, then a sequence of images showing our approach to the experiment with some highlights of the data

• btained. The surprise element came when we ran our computer model using this data

and, since that is too detailed to show you today, I have created some schematic diagrams that show the logic of how the model worked. I will then discuss the significance of how this has encouraged us to redesign the next phase of the project and will conclude with some ideas about how this work might be useful to others interested in durability issues generally.”) Note: putting more effort into letting the audience know the shape of the talk will make the audience more confident and more attentive. They know the scope of what they are about to hear, they already know that you have a clear structure and they know that you intend to tell them how this talk is relevant to them. Therefore, t hey are in a better position to start listening to your scientific content.

6 Basic rules for the exposition. Exposition comes from the word “expound”. Academic writing is “expository writing” and academic presentations are “expository talks” which systematically explain ideas and

• knowledge. The exposition is where you go through the substantive content of your talk.

It is conventional to break an exposition into three main subheadings, which can be further subdivided. Normal advice is to have no more than 3 sub-sections per heading (i.e. a total of 9 points being m ade in the exposition overall). This is so the audience might have a hope of remembering the key points. For our imaginary talk by Edgar on chloride attack on navy ships, the headings for the exposition are going to be:

• 1. Background:

Edgar gives general information about the overall aim of the PhD project (show images

• f the ships and mention the environmental problems) This sets the scene so that the

audience is not totally lost as to the big picture of the PhD.

• 2. Experimental work:

2.1 The experimental method (show sequence of images from the lab and explain what makes it all interesting) 2.2 The results (give a sample that indicates the kind of data generated) 2.3 The computer model (show schematic diagram of what it was for) 2.4 The surprise (talk about the unexpected outcome and how we checked that it was valid)

• 3. Discussion:

3.1 The consequence of the surprise (mention briefly how we have adjusted the overall project) 3.2 The range of possibilities we discussed as to the significance of the surprise. (materials durability better measured; better prediction of decay; much cheaper than expected; more data available quicker) Note: the discussion sets up Edgar’s conclusion. He has set out the range of ideas that might be important as a result of the work. In his conclusion, he will make a judgement about which one is most important. Edgar now needs to work out the exact detail of what to say under each heading, what visual aids to use, how long to speak on each point, what metaphor, imagery, analogy, examples, anecdotes or other rhetorical device to use, what technical jargon can be used and what must be explained, whether any information is too confidential for disclosure, whether work of others (ideas, diagrams, words) is used and how to acknowledge/cite their work. Edgar needs to put all of this detail together early so that the introduction and conclusion can be checked as matching the exposition.

7 Conclusions. The general format for designing a conclusion is: SUM UP the talk, MAKE A JUDGEMENT, tell us the SIGNIFICANCE OF THE JUDGEMENT and PREDICT future work. A conclusion is not merely a summary and it is not a single “finishing sentence”. After your exposition your conclusion must remind the audience of where this talk started and get them to lift their eyes from the detail so that they again see the overall picture. You then tell them the most important thing about the picture (tell them the judgement you have arrived at, “draw the conclusion”) and tell them what is significant about that

• judgement. You then tell them where this work is heading next. You must not introduce

new factual material in the conclusion. That confuses the audience because it puts you back into exposition mode. Sometimes people have a summary slide before going onto the other aspects of the conclusion. Edgar’s conclusion might look like this:

• 1. Sum up: (puts up a slide with some “reminder images” of the ships, experiment,

computer model schematic diagram) “So, in this talk we have looked at some work on durability in metal ships via an experiment that started off looking quite normal but quickly became a surprise once we ran the data through our computer model. This led to some rethinking about the project as a whole and raised a whole range of issues as to what the meaning of our work will be for others, which I have just discussed.”

• 2. Judge:

“The chloride attack problem for metal in water is not new, of course, but we are confident that we have found a reliable way to replicate the decay in the laboratory and then model it to enable a prediction quicker and more accurately than ever before.”

• 3. State significance of the judgement:

“This means that have developed something that will interest a much wider range of researchers than would previously have considered our work. We are keen to check whether our model can be used on non-metal materials and might apply not only to groups interested in durability but also groups interested in environmental protection.”

• 4. Predict future work (puts up a slide with Imperial College London logo plus contact

details for the professor and a reminder of Edgar’s name). “With an eye on that collaboration, my supervisor, Prof N ice has been looking at the forthcoming European Commission invitation to bid for projects in marine environmental rehabilitation and he is available after this session for discussion with anyone interested.“ Note: talks to professional / commercial audiences may focus more on how that audience should adopt and apply your work rather than relate what you will be doing next.

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4. Audio-visual aids.

“Tell me, and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will understand.” Confucius, circa 450 BC Audio-visual aids are there to aid and abet your material and not the other way round. If you can, check your venue in advance. See if all the equipment works such as video, sound, OHP, computer and microphone. Make sure you can operate it all. Check to see that your visual material can be seen from the back. Don’t hide behind slides. Don’t spend your time facing the screen with your back to the

• audience. Face them and deliver your talk to them.

Use communication aids with care; make sure each one is genuinely helpful. Keep them simple and clear. Don’t try to put too much into an overhead or PowerPoint slide. Overheads and PowerPoint are good for graphs and images, but are not good for crowded, dense text. Do not have your verbal presentation in written form on the slides! Extensive data, if essential, is better provided as a handout. Use heading and key points to prompt you and signpost to the audience where the presentation is going next. Use colour, graphics, and animation to enhance your audio-visual presentation, but be careful not to overdo it. Some colour combinations just do not work, and remember 5%

• f males are red/green colour blind.

TIP: Don’t build your presentation around your slides etc. Let you audio-visual aids support (not dominate) your presentation. PowerPoint: There are some “top tips” about PowerPoint that will help you avoid the really disastrous mistakes (see: K Bellamy and D McLean (2002). Using PowerPoint. Journal Audiovisual Media in Medicine, 25(4) 162-164). Two websites you might like to consult are: www.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/using/default.asp www.presentationhelper.co.uk/microsoft-powerpoint.htm http://library.humboldt.edu/~chadwick/pptintro.htm

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5. A note about notes.

Most people new to presentations like to have notes, even so as to act as a source of re-assurance. It is, however, generally a big mistake to stand in front of your audience and read them. They should be there just to remind you of your key points, so to put you straight if you suddenly forget what it was you intended to say next. Here are a few points to consider when preparing notes:

• Let your notes develop from you as y
• u draft the presentation. They should be in

spoken English rather than written English.

• Use a large size font
• Number the pages (in case you drop them on the way to the podium!)
• Break the pages up with BOLD font, different size fonts and spaces so as to

make it quick and easy to distinguish sections

• Use symbols to help you see what is coming next. Include cues to advance to

your next slide.

• Include realistic timings, developed as you rehearse your talk.
• Put aside each page when you have finished with it (so do not staple them

together).

• Have a duplicate copy and put it somewhere else (e.g. coat pocket) in case you

mislay the original. TIP: Learn to personalise your notes so that they are user friendly to you.

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6. Body language.

Our body language has considerable impact on communication. Everyone has their own unique mannerisms and gestures; they are linked to our personal styles of

• communication. In addressing body language there is not a single model for all to
• follow. However there are two aspects that you need to be aware of:

Does your body language distract the audience so it pays less attention to your message? Does your body language detract from your confidence? Think about what you do and test them against these questions. Key areas are:

• Waving papers around, or using them to give your hands something to do.
• Voice projection.
• Pace of delivery – too fast or too slow.
• Cadence of voice – does it fall at the end of sentences so your last words

are lost.

• Awkwardness with arms and legs. Folded arms are defensive and a barrier to
• communication. Wringing hands makes you appear very nervous. Naturally using

arm and hand gestures can help you seem more interesting, but can also be

• verdone when it becomes a distraction.
• Eye contact. Avoiding eye contact makes you appear “shifty” but just

picking out one person from the audience and staring at them will make them

• uncomfortable. You need to “sweep” the audience and generate eye contact with

a number of people in turn.

• Verbal ticks – excessive use of ummm, hmm, OK, you know etc.
• Physical ticks – do not click pens, jangle coins in your pocket, adjust

clothing, run hands through hair etc. There is a balance between normal conversational speech, and habits that can become irritating for members of your

• audience. Many people are unaware of their personal

ticks.

• Uncertain movements – such as strange contortions of the limbs.

Confidence develops with experience. But beginners can help themselves by trying to appear confident. Take your place without hesitation, stand straight, look at your audience and tell your audience what you came to say. Try not to appear apologetic. Make sure that you distinguish between confidence and arrogance. Feedback from a trusted friend or colleague will help (as part of your rehearsing the presentation). You can also learn a lot from looking at a video of yourself giving a talk. TIP: If you act confidently, you will feel more confident.

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7. Coping with anxiety.

It is normal to be nervous. It is good to be nervous as it forces you to concentrate. You can handle excessive nervousness best by being well prepared. This means you must prepare your talk and visual aids well ahead of deadline and practise the presentation. Equip yourself for the event: have a checklist so that you do not leave vital papers, memory sticks, disks, visual aids, computers or other things at home. Make sure you have a watch that you can read easily so that you can monitor your timing during your

• talk. Allow plenty of time to arrive at the venue, register, find the audio visual technician,

the chairperson for your session, the room where you will speak, etc. Learn relaxation techniques: controlled breathing techniques are the simplest. You can use controlled breathing without anyone else noticing. Try inhaling slowly, holding your breath for a slow count of four, exhaling slowly and waiting for a few seconds before taking your next slow breath. Some people relax through:

• visualisation: visualise yourself speaking confidently and coping well with the
• presentation. The more you instil this positive view of your performance in your mind,

the more effective it will be, so practise the visualisation many weeks in advance.

• inspiration: Collect sounds, images, experiences that inspire you and make you feel

positive about yourself. It is less about superstitious belief than a system of triggering positive feelings about yourself and the performance you are about to give.

• focussing on the passion for the work, your message and purpose rather than on your

performance. Avoid: (i) disasterising (imagining that it all goes wrong): if you catch yourself disasterising, you have to simply say to yourself “I am disasterising. Nothing bad has happened and in fact it will go well.” Then engage in some positive visualisation. (ii) striving for perfection: your audience does not expect you to be perfect so there is no reason for you to set such unrealistic standards for yourself. If you are a perfectionist, redefine your version of perfection so that it realistically reflects what an inexperienced PhD student ought to be able to do. Also:

• Speak slowly enough to be understood, fast enough to sound enthusiastic.
• Have water available if your mouth goes dry. Dehydration leads to performance loss.

Avoid salty foods prior to your speech (crisps, salted nuts) and avoid dehydrating drinks (coffee, tea, alcohol).

• Avoid alcohol as it will not prevent nerves but could make you sound silly.
• Avoid food that causes gas, and get energy from pasta, rice, etc rather than sugars.

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8. Presentation-tips posters.

Who are you talking to?

Motivation Background Level Individual/Audience

Call to action Conclusion Methods & Results Orientation Introduction Action Convincing Informing Understanding Attention

What will you say?

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9. Presentation Observation Sheet

(adapted from: Goodlad, S., 2000, Speaking Technically, Imperial College Press, London.)

For each section, please circle the statement which you think applies and write the numerical score in the space at the right of the sheet.

Name of Speaker:___________________________________________ CONTENT AND ORGANISATION

Awareness of audience knowledge and interests

Clear statement of the Weak Introduction No statement of the purpose purpose of the talk and

• f the talk or how it related to

how it related to your your interest interests 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 _______________________________________________________________

Pacing of Material

Ideas and facts too Ideas and facts well Ideas and facts too thinly spread. Boring. paced: easy to follow densely packed.; confusing. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 _______________________________________________________________

Amount of Material

Too little (under-ran time) Satisfactory Too much (over-ran time) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 _______________________________________________________________

Clarity and Organisation

Material logically organised Material weakly Material badly and coherent.

• rganised.
• rganised

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 _______________________________________________________________

14 Theme / Dramatic Shape

Speaker explained how talk Speaker did not explain was organised and /or gave how talk was organised it some dramatic shape & theme Shapeless talk. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 _______________________________________________________________

Summary

Excellent summary of No summary of Main points main points 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 _______________________________________________________________ Other comments on content and organisation.

USE OF VISUAL AIDS

Positive use of visual aids (i.e. slides, film, exhibits, demonstrations etc.)

e.g. helped to emphasise important points; helped to pace material; legible / clearly visible; added interest to the talk; adequate time allowed for us to see Other comments on the use of visual aids.

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THE SPEAKER

Audibility

Clear Difficult to hear Inaudible 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 _______________________________________________________________

Quality (e.g. varied tone and volume of voice to emphasise key points)

Lively/varied tone Dull 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 _______________________________________________________________

Speed

Too fast About right Too slow 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 _______________________________________________________________

General Manner (note down any satisfactory / unsatisfactory aspects)

Agreeable Poor 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 _______________________________________________________________ Notes on general manner.

Eye Contact

Insufficient Satisfactory Too much 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 _______________________________________________________________

16 Posture & Movement

Awkward and / or Relaxed Sloppy posture; tense posture too relaxed 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 _______________________________________________________________ Too static About right Too much movement 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 _______________________________________________________________

Gestures (e.g. effective use of hands)

Effective/natural Awkward 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ______________________________________________________________ Other comments on the speaker.

Comments on Overall Impression.

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