A Presentation That Engages - Six
leaders explain how they get their message across in the conference room
Stories,
Google’s chief executive officer Sundar Pichai says, are best told with
pictures. During the company’s annual developer conference in San Francisco in
May, the Indian-American presented clutterfree slides, dissecting Big Data in
pictures and simple words. His first slide, for instance, had only the logos
for Google’s primary products—Gmail, Android, Chrome, Maps, Search, YouTube and
the Google Play Store—along with the text “1 Billion+ Users”. His message: Each
of the seven products has over a billion monthly-users.
AFP Google
CEO Sundar Pichai’s presentation at the annual developer conference in May in
the US was all about simple, clutter-free slides.
Office
presentations can be boring, especially when they are crammed with words. It is
actually more difficult to process information if it comes simultaneously in
both verbal and written forms, according to a study published in 2013 in the
International Journal Of Engineering Education. Visuals tend to have a greater
impact, it says.
We
asked six leaders across sectors to tell us how they create their presentations
and what, according to them, is an ideal presentation.
LESS IS MORE
Chaayos’
co-founder Raghav Verma likes to limit his presentations to 10 slides. “I
prefer more images and video content. For example, when addressing our café
leads (managers), cricket and Bollywood examples resonate best when delivering
even a sales or growth aspect,” says the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),
Delhi, alumnus who co-founded the start-up, which offers customized tea, with
fellow IITian Nitin Saluja in 2012.
US-based
slide design guru Nancy Duarte says each slide should pass the glance test:
People should be able to understand it in 3 seconds. If they cannot, then the
slide is too complex, she says.
Agrees
Anil Kothuri, CEO at Edelweiss Retail Finance Ltd: “The presentation should be
as concise as possible, definitely not more than 10 slides. Mine normally has a
few tables or visual aids to help reinforce what I want to say.”
Udit
Sheth, founder and managing director of SE TransStadia, a sports infrastructure
firm, keeps his brief to 10 minutes.
Sunanda
K. Malik, the global talent marketing and communication leader at business
process outsourcing (BPO) firm Genpact, too believes “less is more. In today’s
instant gratification-obsessed world, if you don’t make your point quickly,
you’ve lost your audience. And the presentation needs to be interactive; the
feedback will show how you’ve performed.” That is also the case with Vighnesh
Shahane, the CEO and whole-time director of IDBI Federal Life Insurance, who
likes to keep his presentations “to the minimum”, and Santhosh Babu, founder-chair
of Organization Development Alternatives, who “tries to get the audience glued
to me, which facilitates the exchange of dialogue, even ideas, with the
audience. Their participation indicates how your presentation was. If one is
not a great speaker and cannot remember data, then it is always useful to have
more slides and text.”
TECHNOLOGY MATTERS
To
create an engaging presentation with a “wow factor”, one needs to look beyond
PowerPoint, especially if the plan is to illustrate ideas with flair. Verma
prefers Prezi for its animated, non-linear presentations. “iMovie works great
for video content,” says Verma, though he, like Sheth, still has a soft corner
for PowerPoint. Malik banks on SlideShare: “It has a bunch of great
presentations to browse through if you’re facing a creative block and are
seeking inspiration.”
Shahane
has no specific go-to app or tool. “Technology is only a facilitator. I may use
anything, whether it be slides, images or videos or any other technological
advancement; it has to do just one thing, help me get across a powerful story,”
he says. Babu, on the other hand, likes to keep things simple: “If I use
visuals, I would like to use the photographs I have taken.” Kothuri uses text,
tables, graphs and, sometimes, a link to YouTube.
FOLLOWING GUIDELINES
The
people we spoke to talked about a set of specific guidelines they follow to
ensure their message is being heard across the board or meeting room.
Babu
says what is important is the overall storyline. “Think about the presentation
as a story that can grip your audience. What is the beginning? How do you
create curiosity? How do you engage your audience, interact with them and
exchange ideas? What kind of questions do you ask? How do you add a slice of
humour? What is the end like? Once the storyline is clear, then you could think
what format will best fit the story,” he says.
TED
Talks author Chris Anderson made a similar point in his 2013 article in the
Harvard Business Review. “We all know that humans are wired to listen to
stories, and metaphors abound for the narrative structures that work best to
engage people. When I think about compelling presentations, I think about
taking an audience on a journey. A successful talk is a little miracle—people
see the world differently afterward,” he wrote.
Verma
too believes in the power of storytelling. “Keeping the audience in mind is
essential—humour/drama in between acts as a great hook to keep people actively
involved.” Malik’s advice: “Avoid clichés (unless you’re making fun of them),
be confident while talking, don’t stuff everything that comes to your mind on a
slide, and humour is best when least expected (never be predictable and start
with those standard Dilbert joke slides!).”
Sheth
has a set rule: “Never write what you are going to speak. Let the PowerPoint
give sublime messages while one is presenting.”
For
Shahane, starting strong is most important. “You need to grab your audience’s
attention and hold it. Another important guideline I follow is to vary the
speed at which I talk and make changes in pitch and tone to avoid making it
sound monotonous. I believe body language is crucial in getting your message
across. Confident and positive body language is an integral element of a
powerful presentation,” he says.
Kothuri
says a presentation should be used to emphasize the salient points one wants to
communicate. “Each slide should be visually appealing; the font size and style
should be uniform. I believe there should be only four lines on a slide, as it
helps people focus and understand what I am trying to convey,” he says.
GETTING HELP
Creating
a blockbuster presentation needs large doses of brainstorming and creativity.
How do leaders manage this along with everyday work?
Verma’s
presentations are made in-house. “Good graphics obviously make presentations
engaging, so we actively use our in-house design team to give the right imagery
to the brand,” he says. Sheth normally provides the content and asks one of his
colleagues to execute it. Malik believes that if you’re making the presentation
yourself, you should create the presentation, otherwise you won’t come across
as authentic. “But yes, it’s always nice to get creative folks to add some
magic,” she admits. Babu spends more of his time in creating the storyline and
adding content to the slides. “For formatting, cleaning it up and beautifying,
I usually send the slide deck to my colleague,” he says.
Shahane
involves his teams, because “that helps strengthen the content with an allround
perspective on the subject”. Kothuri typically has someone (generally the head
of strategy) put together the data and the first draft of the presentation.
“The final edit is always mine,” he insists.
THE FINAL WORD
The
common thread, then: less text, more visuals, an engaging storyline, keeping it
interactive, and ensuring the right body language. Kothuri sums it up best: “We
are living in an over-communicated society. The corporate environment has
numbed our ability to process new information. We need to cut through the
clutter.”
Source | Mint | 24 July 2017
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior Manager @
Knowledge Repository
Khaitan
& Co
Upcoming Lecture | ACTREC - BOSLA Annual lecture series (125th birth anniversary of father of library
science, Padmashree Dr. S. R. Ranganathan) on Saturday, 12th August 2017 at Advanced Centre for Treatment,
Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. (Theme | 'MakerSpace')
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