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| Articles » Presentation Lessons from Al Gore |
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Presentation Lessons from Al Gore |
| by Dave Paradi |
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| Let’s face it - presentations are a way of corporate life
today. Therefore doing them well has its benefits. Effective communication is the key to success, whether you are on a project
or quality team or need to make a presentation to a stakeholder or general audience. |
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| Whether you agree or disagree with the viewpoint of former Vice-President,
Al Gore’s, "An Inconvenient Truth" presentation and
movie, as a presenter there are some key lessons you can take away
from his presentation. It has become more popular than almost any
other presentation in recent memory, even garnering an Academy Award. |
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| Lesson 1: Visuals Rule! |
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One thing you will notice as you watch Al Gore’s presentation
is that most of his slides have no text on them; they are visuals.
There is a mix of photographs, diagrams, data graphs and added video
clips in the movie. When he does use a slide with text on it, there
is very little text compared to the typical text overloaded corporate
presentation slide. And many of his visuals, especially the graphs,
use motion to make the point clear.
What does this mean for you as a corporate presenter? Since so many
people have seen Mr. Gore’s presentation, either live, on Oprah
or in the movie, your audience will now expect you to use visuals
instead of endless bullet point slides. The expectations of your audience
have risen and your mostly text based slides with outdated clip art
won’t cut it any more. You will need to start thinking visually
and learn how to prepare and deliver visuals that engage the audience. |
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| Lesson 2: The Number of Slides Doesn’t Matter |
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After watching the presentation few people would be able to tell that
there are 266 slides in the presentation. They would also say that
they didn’t feel like Mr. Gore was rushing through slides. So
the old lesson of one slide every one to two minutes has been thrown
out the window.
The new rule is to use visuals for however long you need in order
to make your point. That may be as little as a few seconds and as
much as a few minutes or anywhere in between. One outstanding sales
presentation used 155 slides in 35 minutes – an unheard of number
in that time frame for most corporate presenters. The reason it was
effective is that almost every slide was a visual, used for sometimes
a fraction of a second as a product feature, and was built in a series
of photographs. |
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| Lesson 3: Focus on the Audience, Not Yourself |
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As he explains in the movie, Al Gore has spent considerable time addressing
the objections the audience may have to his message. As he encounters
another one in an audience, he goes back and works the answer into
his new talk. He has recognized the value of focusing on what the
audience needs to hear instead of what he wants to say.
Too many corporate presenters think only about what they want to say
and lose the audience along the way. Mr. Gore has a clear goal with
his presentation – individual action to change the climate change
problems. And with calculated precision he steps the audience through
the arguments that lead them to the conclusion he wants them to make.
Presenters should spend more time analyzing their audience and determining
what the audience needs to hear in order for them to understand and
act upon the message of the presentation. |
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| Lesson 4: Direct the Audience to Your Point |
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When you watch Mr. Gore present in the movie, he has a small screen
close by that he will use to point to a part of the image to focus
the audience’s attention on the key point of the visual. He
also sometimes walks over to the large screen and motions towards
a part of the visual. In both cases he is demonstrating that a visual
by itself is not sufficient to make your point.
You must direct the attention of the audience to the specific part
of the visual that illustrates the point you are making. You can do
it physically like Mr. Gore does, but sometimes, an even more effective
technique, is to build callout boxes or arrows on the slide, that
have the same effect of directing attention to a certain spot. A common
technique used by many presenters is to use a laser pointer. This
is a bad idea. It is almost impossible for many people to see the
small red dot on a large screen and, when they do find it, you likely
won’t be able to keep it steady and it will be annoyingly jiggling
around while you speak. Build callouts on visuals to emphasize the
points for your audience. |
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| Lesson 5: Use a Remote |
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You may notice that during his presentation, Mr. Gore never touches
his computer. Even when he appeared on Oprah, you never saw the computer.
He uses a remote control to advance his slides. This allows him to
get closer and connect with his audience, an important component of
getting audience members to understand and commit to acting on your
message.
Too many corporate presenters are glued to their laptop to change
slides. They are stuck behind a podium that separates them from their
audience, or they use slides that don’t build the points or
visuals, leaving the audience guessing at what is being talked about
now. If you are serious about delivering outstanding presentations,
don’t be cheap. Get your own remote and learn how to use it.
For a small investment of under $200, you can reap the rewards of
better connection with your audience. |
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| Lesson 6: Reading Someone Else’s Slide Deck Doesn’t Cut It |
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To spread the message of the presentation and movie, a related organization
is training others to present it. This is similar to a Marketing department
who creates a presentation for the sales force around the country
or across different regions. But, in this case, the approach to spreading
the message is very different.
Most corporations simply e-mail the presentation out with perhaps
some notes and ask the staff to start using it. And most of the time
the presentation is simply read off the slides because the presenter
isn’t invested in the presentation. However, this is not the
case with the "An Inconvenient Truth" presentation. This
presentation is run as a full two-day event. It starts with Al Gore
doing the presentation, so everyone sees how he does it and catches
the fire from the person for whom this burns brightest. Then they
explain the background for each slide so everyone understands and
buys into the information. Then they help each person put their own
emotion into the presentation so that when it is delivered, it is
done with passion. Now each person in the group is equipped to go
out and present the message with personal understanding and passion
– a winning combination. How many organizations could be more
successful if they used this model for distributing important presentations?
When a presentation is so powerful that it appears on the Oprah Winfrey
show, in theatres and is turned into a best selling DVD, presenters
should sit up and pay attention to why it works. If you learn the
six lessons discussed above, you will be able to better engage audiences
and help them understand and act on the important messages you share. |
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| © 2007 Dave Paradi |
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