The Art and Psychology of Effective Presentations

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The Art and Psychology of Effective Presentations

• Daina Paupe Henry
• College of William and Mary
• VAMAP 2007

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Effective Presentations

• Effective having the power to produce an
  effect or effects
• Presentations that which is presented could
  be a reading of a poem, a video clip on tv, a
  recipe, a PowerPoint, a written document, a
  speech.

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Goal for this session

• To provide 7 key ideas for effectively
  communicating information whether it is
  written, oral or visual (in other words an
  Executive Summary, a verbal presentation to a
  Board, or a PowerPoint presentation for class or
  a conference.)

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7 key concepts

• KISS
• The Magic Number 7 and its corollaries of
• Primacy and Recency
• The Power of 3 (or the hamburger method of
  presentation)
• Synchronicity and left/right brain
• Humor (LOL)
• Timing
• Urgent Does Not Equal Important

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KISS
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KISS

• Keep it Simple Sam
• Einstein could explain relativity to his
  grandmother.
• Hawking can explain the theory of everything and
  16 dimensional space in a book of less than 200
  pages.
• Stay on target Star Wars A New Hope

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KISS

• In writing, keep it to one page front and back
  if you have to. Never give a 40 page document to
  anyone without a summary or abstract. It could be
  earth shattering, but no one will read it.

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KISS

• Oral presentations and meetings should last no
  more than an hour.
• The average attention span of children is 5
  minutes teens is 25 minutes adults 50 minutes.
• And this may be decreasing with new technology
  that encourages sound bytes, 15 second
  commercials, text messaging etc.

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KISS PowerPoint

• Less is better.
• Not too many colors.
• Not too much animation.
• Dont distract from the main point.
• Dont introduce anything that can distract the
  audience from your message if they can get
  distracted, they will get distracted.

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Bad graph
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Good graph
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Dont make your audience search for the answer
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The Magic Number Seven (7)
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The Magic Number 7

• Psychological research has shown that our brains
  max out with more than 7 bits of information in a
  short period of time.
• Organize your presentation to only 7 points. Or
  better yet, fewer. KISS.

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The following facts are vital

• Mary had a little lamb.
• Joe only wore socks on Tuesday.
• Hannah ate only American cheese.
• Harrys soccer team practices at 5.
• Molly had braces.
• Jill went up the hill.
• Happy was grumpy.
• Dales shoes dont fit.
• Too many cooks spoil the broth.
• Wednesdays child is full of woe.

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What do you remember?
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The Magic Number 7

• When writing or speaking, organize your points so
  that there are only 7 or less.
• If there are two points that are similar, group
  them. For example, There was an increase in
  headcount in Art, History and Philosophy.
  Parallel construction of grammar helps organize
  points.

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The Magic Number 7

• Primacy and recency are psychological terms.
• In a long list of items, a person tends to
  remember the items in the beginning of the list
  (primacy) and the end of the list (recency) and
  are less likely to remember the middle items.

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Primacy and Recency

• Therefore, put the most important things in a
  list either FIRST or LAST.
• This goes for written, oral or PowerPoint.
• Start or finish a meeting with the important
  things.

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The Power of 3
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Say it 3(three) times

• Tell them what your going to tell them.
• Tell them.
• Tell them what you just told them.

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Hamburger method of communication

• Writing and speaking is like a hamburger.
• Introductory bottom bun prepares the audience for
  what comes next.
• The main points the meat of the hamburger are
  placed on top one at a time.
• The conclusion or summary top bun finishes off
  the hamburger.

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Hamburger Method

• This applies to dissertations, Executive
  Summaries, newspaper articles, PowerPoints, class
  lectures and meetings.
• All good meetings have an agenda, cover a select
  few points, and the minutes are written up.

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The power of 3(three)

• Dont repeat yourself.
• An introduction sets the stage and focuses the
  audience.
• The main points provide more detail.
• The conclusion or summary needs to put the
  details in perspective and this is important
  because.

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Synchronizing messages
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Synchronicity

• Be consistent in your message.
• When talking about headcount, dont have a write
  up about FTE.
• Everything that is in your graph should also be
  in your write up or in your speech.
• Dont introduce loose ends.

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Multi Medium

• Go after all the senses visual graph, oral
  presentation and written words.
• Let your audience hear the choir, feel the brick
  of the new sidewalk, taste the soggy French
  Fries, smell the locker room.

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Left versus Right Brain

• Left brain deals with words.
• Right brain deals with art, music, colors,
  pictures etc.
• A picture is worth a thousand words.

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1 picture 1000 words
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Left and Right

• People are more likely to remember and react to
  information that is presented to both halves of
  the brain.
• Words (left) and pictures/graphs (right) together
  are more effective than either separately.

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Humor (LOL)
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Humor

• Avoid it, if the presentation is just in writing,
  because as everyone knowstiming is everything.
  What could be funny out loud, can be misread by
  a reader.
• However, every good speech or oral presentation
  starts with humor or a story.

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Do you want his job?
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Humor

• Humor is a right brain kind of thing. It jump
  starts that part of the brain.
• The very best speakers have not only a really
  good message, but are also entertaining
• Learning and life does not have to be boring.

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Timing is Everything
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Timing Know Your Audience

• Timing requires perspective knowing your
  audience and what is happening.
• Dont make a call for a new program in
  Tiddlywinks, when department budgets have been
  cut.
• Friday 4pm is not a good time for anything,
  except cleaning the desk.

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Timing

• Summer is a bad time to propose anything.
• Be first or last on the agenda (primacy and
  recency).

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Timing and Importance
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Timing

• Consider not only calendar year, but day of the
  month, day of the week, and time of day.
• This is true for meetings, oral presentations,
  emails, and memos.

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Urgent Does Not Equal Important

• NOWNOWNOW lt important

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The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf
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Urgent vs Important

• This requires perspective.
• Important issues, even ones with bad timing, will
  re-emerge.
• Paretos Principle of 80 to 20 is true. Of 100
  items, 20 will be important. Dont write 100
  emails about the 100 items.

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A pile of beans.
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In summary

• NOW !!! lt IMPORTANT

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7 key concepts

• KISS
• The Magic Number 7 and its corollaries of
• Primacy and Recency
• The Power of 3 (or the hamburger method of
  presentation)
• Synchronicity and left/right brain
• Humor (LOL)
• Timing
• Urgent Does Not Equal Important

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And this is important because

• IR folk have lots of data, that they spend an
  enormous amount of time converting into
  information.
• Effective presentations allow us to share our
  information and make change.

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Thank YOU !!!

• Any questions?
• dphenr_at_wm.edu