ADDING VALUE TO GREAT WRITTEN MATERIALS

As the business world’s dominant form of communication, many of us encounter Powerpoint slides on a regular basis. Used in a meeting setting, Powerpoint can quickly convey information of all types: text, graphics, quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, concepts, relationships, insights and takeaways. A great slide can be challenging to speak to because the critical information is already there, and speakers frequently fall into the trap of simply reading their slides aloud. There are two devastating consequences to that approach: (1) the audience gets the impression that the speaker must think they’re dumb and (2) the speaker’s knowledge appears superficial, unable to go beyond the page. Key takeaway: reading slides is bad!

The question facing every speaker is: how do I add value to my thoughtfully crafted slides when presenting in a meeting? One answer is to make poor slides, ones that don’t make any sense without a voiceover. Surely, there’s a better way!

Let’s assume, instead, that you’ve made beautiful slides: visually appealing, rich with content, clean grammar and formatting, helpful visuals. Here’s how to add value to them as a speaker, from lowest to highest degree-of-difficulty (see Figure 1).

• Use different words. It can be as simple as choosing different adjectives and verbs, rounding numbers when you’re addressing analyses, swapping the order of clauses. It doesn’t take much to bring a freshness to the speaking track. And it’s not just a gimmick; there is real value to the audience. Using even slightly different language engages your audience’s brains; they have to do just a little bit of work to reconcile what you’re saying with what they’re reading. That focuses their attention. And, by saying the same thing in two ways – one verbally and one on the page – you’re laying down two neural pathways that make the content more memorable.

• Hit the highlights. Rather than cover all the slide’s content, choose just the 2-4 points that really matter. When preparing for a presentation, I sometimes handwrite little numbers on my slide – 1, 2, 3 – that tell me what to cover in what order. You can trust your audience to read the rest and ask questions if they have them.

• Add depth and color. Maybe you did a case study or customer interviews. Maybe you visited a manufacturing site. Sharing first-hand experiences can bring your presentation to life in a way that the written word never will. If you’ve got a great story, tell it; it builds your credibility as a speaker, further elucidates your meaning and gives your audience another way to remember your messages.

• Draw out connections. How does one slide build upon prior messages? How does it preview or suggest what’s coming on future slides? Powerpoint is a brilliant tool for many things. But to get beyond two dimensions, you must rely on your words. As a speaker, you have the power to make connections, and thus reinforce, what was previously discussed, and lay the foundations that make upcoming conclusions feel inevitable.

• Foster debate. Most speakers try very hard to avoid debate. It’s scary! Because it’s a loss of control. But for a presentation to really matter, you need people to believe in something, to make decisions, to do something different as a result of what they’ve heard. That rarely happens just by listening to a speech. A great speaker knows where the points of contention are and actively engages their audience to resolve those points. They help their audience align around conclusions so they can leave the room and make change happen.

Not every slide needs all of these tactics. You should pick and choose based upon the material at your disposal, the messages you want to convey and the action you want to inspire in your audience. And, you don’t have to jump right to the top of the pyramid. Start at the bottom and work your way up – learning and building confidence along the way. Your audience will thank you for it.