مکالمه

BEC : Presentations -Conversation

AJ: So the next topic I think we should talk about is the topic of presentations, just because it’s such a common thing. It’s another one of those fears. I think in the interview conversation, or one of those lessons, I mentioned that interviews are a terrifying experience for a lot of people. I also mentioned that the other common terrifying experience was public speaking --standing up in front of other people and talking --in other words, giving a presentation.

That could be just a meeting where you have to stand up and do a little presentation for a small group, a department, a team or it could be something much larger, at a conference or a seminar or something even quite large if you’re expected to give like a keynote speech or something. So I think it’s an important topic and the ability to make good presentations really can help your career quite a bit.

George: Absolutely. I don’t think it matters much what job you’re in, in one way, shape or form you’re going to be giving a presentation some time or other in your career. It may be a simple one-on-one presentation with your boss or a presentation to your boss’ boss, your second line manager or somebody up even higher than that. Or, it could be just a presentation to your team of, pick a number, anywhere from three to 10 people I suppose.

Every once in a while, particularly since we know that you are very good at what you do, there’s a possibility that you’re going to end up having to stand in front of a group of 20-30-50-100 people and present something and you’re absolutely right. It is a terrifying experience until you get the hang of it and you are accustomed to standing up in front of groups of people.

I know when I first started that, in fact when I was a teacher I guess was my first real experience of giving a “presentation” and I was scared to death.

When I got in the business world I wasn’t much better until I learned a few basic techniques and ideas to get me over the hump, but it’s a traumatic experience for people.

AJ: I think the most important thing - we were talking earlier - is that the number one thing is you have to totally and completely know what you’re talking about, know your subject, know your topic. I mean that’s the starting point for all of it, because if you don’t really know, if you’re not quite confident about what you’ll be talking about, knowledgeable about it, then you’re naturally going to be super nervous even if you’re a great speaker.

It’s going to kill your confidence if you don’t really know, so the first step is to just really, really, prepare and that means knowing all about your subject. It does not mean memorizing a speech. It does not mean writing out a speech and memorizing it word for word. That is horrible. It’s the kiss of death. It’s super boring. Do not memorize word for word.

What it does mean is let’s say I’m going to give a speech about teaching techniques, English teaching techniques. Imagine I’m speaking to other English teachers. Well, I need to know my subject, English teaching. I need to know about all the techniques I’m going to be teaching them. I need to know that very, very, very well. Now, that is a subject I know well because I have lots and lots of experience so for me that would be easy to prepare for.

If I had to give a speech for some reason, I don’t know why, but if I had to give a speech about physics then I would really, really have to do a lot of studying and learning and reading and talking to people to be comfortable giving a talk about physics. Of course, usually I would just turn down that. I wouldn’t do it, but if for some reason I was forced to.

Sometimes in your job maybe you’ll be forced to give a speech about something you’re not an expert in. Maybe your boss will say I want you to give a presentation about something. Then you’ve just really got to start studying hard. I think that’s the main first step before any techniques.

George: Oh, I agree totally. If you know what your subject is, you know what the message is that you want to get across and you believe in it, I guess is another way to say it, it really becomes very easy. The terrifying part I think for people is, one, maybe they’re not comfortable with the subject and then, two, if they are comfortable with the subject they’re afraid of the questions that might come back.

If you’re prepared, you know your stuff, you know your subject then you’re ready for any kind of question. The only thing left that you have to worry about and you don’t even have to worry about it, the only thing you have to think about is what kind of techniques you want to use in terms of slides and pictures and the way you walk and move your arms and all that kind of stuff.

I tell you what, it’s outstanding to be able to stand up in front of a group of people and only be concerned, not only concerned, but you’re conscious of the movements that you’re making and the way you’re presenting things because you can become a showman, an actor, if you will.

AJ: Yeah, yeah, it’s definitely a performance. That’s how I think of it. When I’m giving a speech or something or a presentation to a small or large group, I do, I feel like I’m an actor. You know I’m performing for them and I mean that not in a fake way. I’m not being fake. I’m not being insincere. What I mean is that I’m giving them like my sort of top level of confidence and energy, everything.

So I’m performing at the top level that I can and because I know the subject really well, yeah, then I can focus on my energy level, my confidence, the way I’m going to walk around the room, all of those other techniques which we’ll talk about in some of our commentaries. The main thing is you’ve got to get that core confidence and that comes from really knowing what you’re talking about.

George: Yup, exactly. Once you know what you’re talking about, than it’s very easy for you to come across to any size of audience as being committed to the subject, enthusiastic about the subject and in some way or other you’re probably trying to sell that group you’re talking to on your subject, whether it’s a new program that you’re going to recommend being implemented.

Or, whether you’re talking to the vice president about saving money and increasing efficiencies and effectiveness and things of that nature or whether it’s just the weekly update to the 10 people and your boss that work together on whatever your phase of the business is.

AJ: Once you really know what you’re talking about let’s say the next step might be just thinking about the basic structure of the speech, how you’re going to communicate. So let’s say you have a lot of information. For example, again, I’m giving a speech about teaching techniques. Let’s imagine I’m doing that, so how will I prepare. How will I present that? I could just talk about it, lecture like most teachers do and that’s a really boring way to do it.

There are many different techniques, but one technique I learned, the basic technique I learned at the Dale Carnegie Speech Course, which is the first speech course I ever took and it was excellent, was to use lots of stories.

Stories, stories, stories, personal stories or stories you personally know of to communicate the information.

So instead of just telling someone to do something, what you do is first you tell a story. What’s a story? It’s just an example. It’s quite similar to the interview techniques we talked about. So first you tell your story. Maybe it’s a story about you. Maybe it’s a story about a customer, somebody who had an experience related to what you’re talking about.

So you tell your story. Keep it short. Just a couple minutes, a few minutes, three-four minutes at the most. Then after you tell your story you might give some basic data, if that’s required, some research statistics or something like that to support your main idea. Then you tell them an action --what’s the action that they should take - and then, finally, you tell them the benefit of that action --what will happen when they take that action; what beneficial result will they get.

That’s a really basic formula. It won’t necessarily work with every single speech, but for a lot of presentations that formula works. I use it all the time in my seminars. So instead of just giving information and lecturing, for example, first I’ll tell a story about my own teaching experience. Maybe I’ll tell a story about some disaster, some terrible thing that used to happen and then I’ll tell about how I learned a better way.

Then I’ll give some data, some information, some statistics about the number of students who fail or student motivation numbers being really low, something to support my point. Then I’ll tell them the actual technique they should use instead, what I learned, what is better and then I’ll tell them the benefit. If you do this your students will get better results and they’ll be happier. Then, if necessary, if I’m actually training something then I would actually train them to do the technique themselves.

So that’s a nice little basic outline you can use for a lot of presentations and it keeps it more interesting because stories are more emotional. It’s not just giving them a bunch of facts. You’ve got to connect people with real life and with real emotions.

George: Well, I agree totally, but I would add that I’ve always been partial to analogies. Maybe that’s because a lot of my presentations to small groups and even very large groups I’ve made were on a subject that maybe everybody in the audience didn’t quite understand or there was a specific topic that I was dealing with that was a little difficult to conceptualize just sitting there listening to somebody.

So I always interject a lot of analogies and I’ll be quite honest with you, most of them just come off the top of my head as I’m talking. There are a few that I plan to use and that’s like AJ’s stories, that’s really what they are, except they’re stories that are designed to take maybe a complex idea and bring it down to a simpler thought process.

Actually, I can’t think of one off the top of my head right now, but an analogy is very, very useful. It is just a way to explain a process, an issue or a problem on a lower level that makes sense to everybody, whether they understand the overall subject or not.

In other words, let’s say it’s a financial concept or there are financial issues that you’re doing a presentation on. Everybody in the room isn’t a financial person, but they all have a vested interest and a need to understand what you’re trying to get across so you interject a lot of analogies to bring it down to the simplest terms so everybody can follow where you’re going with your story and your presentation.

AJ: Yes. So, you know, you’ve got stories, personal stories, true, real stories from yourself, customers, whatever and then using an analogy or another way to say it is metaphor. An analogy is just like a symbolic story. It’s a little story that uses metaphors really. I’ll give you a very short example of this from Effortless English from my teaching system.

Sometimes there are a lot of complicated things I’m talking about, psychology and motivation and research studies and teaching methods and all this stuff, but I have a really basic metaphor or analogy for this and it’s called the Effortless English Engine. So I say there are two parts, there’s fuel or gas and there’s a motor. I say the gas - the fuel - that’s emotion, that’s energy, that’s motivation and then the motor.

Those are the actual teaching techniques, so I tell them you need both. You have to have a great method, great techniques of teaching - a motor - but then you also have to have students who have great motivation. Their energy level is high. They’re really concentrating. They’re excited. They’re enthusiastic. You need both, right? If you have gas and a motor then you go.

You can go quickly. If you’re missing one then you can’t go. You go nowhere.

So that’s just a simple example of using metaphors or an analogy. It’s some kind of symbolic way to teach. It makes it simple. You take something that’s complex and then you compare it to something else and make it more simple.

George: Absolutely. It’s really not as hard as you think. It’s just getting over the initial shock and the reaction. I really believe once you give it a try a few times you’ll actually probably be like AJ and I. You’ll enjoy getting up in front of a group of people and talking to them. It can be a very fun-filled event and a very rewarding situation. I’ve done a lot of it and it’s great.

The End.