Fitzpatrick Persuade on Purpose:

Create Presentations that Influence and Engage
1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-1-78117-475-3
Verlag: Mercier Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 165 Seiten

By combining all his research and ideas on what makes an effective presentation, Eric Fitzpatrick has compiled the 'Presentation Scorecard', which itemises all the things that a speaker needs to consider when making a presentation. He has summed up the key points with the acronym 'TRUE': the presentation should make your audience THINK, should be easy to REMEMBER and UNDERSTAND and should ENGAGE the audience. He outlines all the traps and pitfalls of making a presentation and how to avoid them, and details the tricks and techniques that will attract your audience's attention and convince them of your message. In straightforward chapters he addresses preparation, the structure of your presentation, the use of stories and humour, delivering the presentation, how to use slides and - more importantly - how not to. While the ideas in the book are focused on presentations, they are equally effective when giving speeches, pitching ideas, for one-to-one meetings and communicating in general.

Eric Fitzpatrick established ARK Speaking and Training, a Dublin-based executive training company, in 2009. He is also a well-known conference speaker and has spoken, coached and trained in the USA, the UK and throughout Ireland. He has contributed to RTÉ Radio 1 and 98FM on the subjects of public speaking and using humour as a tool for business, and has written numerous articles for magazines on delivering great speeches and presentations.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fitzpatrick, Eric

Leseproben

4
The Presentation Opening

What is the objective of a presentation opening? Whenever I ask that question at workshops I get many different answers, for instance: ‘It’s to introduce yourself to your audience’; ‘It’s to tell your audience what you are going to talk about’; ‘It’s to build rapport with your audience’. These are all good answers but not how I view it. In my opinion, the objective of a presentation opening is TO DISRUPT YOUR AUDIENCE’S THINKING.

When they come to hear your presentation, audience members have so many different things going on in their lives. As they wait to hear you speak, their thoughts could be on family, friends, work, emails or holidays, just to name a few things. Each is important to them and your job as a presenter is to find a way to say to the audience, ‘Look, I know you have all of these other things going on in your life but, for the next twenty minutes, give me your undivided attention.’ As a presenter, you might be thinking, ‘If they have come to hear my presentation the least they can do is listen to me when I’m speaking.’ However, it’s not their job to stop thinking about the different aspects of their lives; it’s the presenter’s job to make them want to stop.

Think about the opening sequence to the James Bond movie Skyfall. It runs for eleven minutes and thirty-five seconds and its sole purpose is to get cinemagoers to leave all the other aspects of their lives at the cinema door and give Bond their undivided attention, before the main story of the movie starts. It worked for me. At the end of the opening sequence – when Bond gets shot and falls off the top of the train and into a ravine – the thought that went through my head was, ‘Is he dead?’, followed very quickly by, ‘Ah Eric, you eejit. If he was dead that would be the end of the movie.’ As an opening, however, it had achieved its purpose. The only thing going through my mind was what might have happened to Bond. Everything else of importance in my life had been pushed to one side. As presenters, that must be our aim at the beginning of our presentations.

In 1978 Hartley and Davies carried out a study, Note Taking: A Critical Review, which showed that audiences are at their most attentive at the beginning and end of a presentation.1 That is why it is so important to get the presentation opening right. When your audience is at their most attentive, you better have something to say that they find worth listening to. If you don’t then your audience will lose interest very quickly and switch off.

There are many ways to begin a presentation: some will help you get your message across and some will hinder it.

Openings that Hinder

Audiences want to receive valuable information and knowledge, and they want it delivered in a way that engages them. None of the following three types of openings will convey that you are capable of doing that.

Introductory opening

Often presenters will begin a presentation by introducing themselves to their audience: ‘Hi, my name is Eric Fitzpatrick and my company is Ark Speaking and Training.’ Presenters start with an opening like this because it is safe and cannot be challenged by the audience. However, in my experience, the only time this is appropriate is if you have never met your audience before and you haven’t been introduced to them beforehand by someone else. For me, this is not a strong enough opening as it will not disrupt your audience’s thinking. It is more about you than for your audience. Imagine your audience is going to say, ‘So what?’ to everything you say. ‘Hi, my name is Eric Fitzpatrick.’ ‘So what?’ ‘My company is Ark Speaking and Training.’ ‘So what?’ What your audience is saying is, ‘What relevance does this have to me?’

Honestly, I wouldn’t start with an introduction even in a situation where you don’t know the audience and haven’t been introduced to them. Instead, start with an opening that grabs their attention and then introduce yourself. One way to do this is to tell them a story or get them to do something. In one case I asked everyone in an audience of 120 to stand up, turn to the person next to them and say, ‘Hi, you’re my partner.’ I then gave them an exercise to do as partners. Once they had completed it successfully, I showed them how they could have carried it out slightly differently and in doing so, produced a better result. This exercise worked for two reasons: first, it got everybody involved at the beginning of the presentation and second, it allowed me to reinforce one of the points I wanted the audience to take away from the presentation.

TRUE Criteria (-40 pts)

The introductory opening doesn’t meet any of the four TRUE criteria. It doesn’t influence the audience’s thinking and, because it is not relevant to them, it does not contribute to helping them understand or recall your message. It also does nothing to engage them.

Apologetic opening

The second type of opening that hinders you in getting your message across is the apologetic opening. This is when the presenter starts by saying something like, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I haven’t had much time to prepare for this presentation so please forgive me if I get a couple of things wrong or if the slides aren’t perfect.’ This opening is purely for the presenter. It is to protect themselves from looking foolish due to lack of care or preparation.

I know that sometimes a presenter is asked to deliver a presentation at short notice and has very little time to prepare, but even then this type of opening doesn’t help or add value for your audience. Remember your audience doesn’t know or care how much time you had to prepare or how much notice you were given in advance. They only care about how they can benefit from listening to your presentation. Starting off like this will not only fail to grab them, but it could lower their expectations and make them less inclined to listen than before.

TRUE Criteria (-40 pts)

Again this meets none of the four TRUE criteria.

Grateful opening

The third type of opening that will stop you gaining the audience’s attention is the grateful opening. This is where the presenter starts by saying something like, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I would just like to start by saying thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you today’, or ‘Thanks for taking the time to let me make this presentation to you today.’ As with the introductory opening, presenters use this type of opening because it is safe and they can protect themselves with it. Presenters believe that their audience will appreciate that the presenter is grateful for the opportunity to speak. However, if you have valuable knowledge to share with your audience, then it is they who should be grateful to you for taking the time to share it with them.

TRUE Criteria (-40 pts)

The same is true for the grateful opening as the apologetic opening. It meets none of the four TRUE criteria.

Openings that Help

A question

Questions grab our attention. They force us to consider them and our answer to them. When we do that, our thinking is disrupted. Questions bring audiences into the presentation, so it can be very beneficial to start a presentation by asking your audience a question. This gets them thinking about the subject (obviously the question must have a connection to the subject of the presentation). Questions make the audience active participants and that active participation is easier to remember a day or a week later, along with the message behind the presentation.

TRUE Criteria (20 pts)

Questions meet two of the TRUE criteria. They give audiences cause to think and at the moment that they are thinking about the question, or their answer to the question, they are engaged in the presentation.

A story

An even better alternative is to start with a story. Stories get audiences thinking, they are memorable and they make our message easier to remember. Stories generate understanding and they engage.

Have you ever listened to someone telling a story and found yourself completely engrossed in it? They are, in my opinion and the opinion of others, the single most powerful tool a presenter or speaker can have. Patricia Fripp, an internationally renowned speaking coach, has said: ‘No one can resist a good story, well told.’2

For me, stories are so powerful that I am devoting a full chapter (Chapter 9) to them. For now let me just say that a well-told story at the beginning of a presentation will absolutely disrupt your audience’s thinking and grab their attention.

TRUE Criteria (40 pts)

Stories meet the four TRUE criteria.

A quotation

A quotation that is attributed to someone else – particularly someone famous or an expert in the topic you are discussing – is a great way to grab an audience’s attention. However, you must ensure that the quote is related to your message. The quotation can be one that is familiar to your audience, one that they have never heard before, or one that is controversial. Whichever it is, it must be attributed to the originator. If the origins of the quote are in dispute, you can start with, ‘As someone once said …’. If the quote is controversial, then it is more effective to state the quote and then (after a slight pause) attribute it.

Whatever type of quote you use, it will capture your audience’s attention, engage them and get them thinking. In the past I have delivered workshops on adding humour to presentations and have begun the...