Effective Presentations

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Effective Presentations

• Lessons from my residency
• (with special thanks to Dr. Harvey Goldman)
• Bruce R. Smoller, MD

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Effective Presentations

• Substance
• Style

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Substance

• Organization
• Presentation
• Verbal
• Visual

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The 10 minute talk

• Much more difficult than the 1 hour presentation
• Organization crucial - if you lose the listener,
  he/she cannot get back in
• Every word counts
• Cannot add too much detail
• Speed does not increase effectiveness

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Organization

• Start with an introduction of yourself - making
  yourself a person helps attract listener
  attention
• Highlight your main thesis
• tell them what you are going to tell them
• tell them
• tell them what you just told them
• Adhere to outline rigorously!

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Organization

• Know the time allotted for the talk
• Budget accordingly
• Introductory material
• Study design
• Results
• Take home points
• (Future studies)

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Organization

• Begin with a clear thesis
• What is the purpose of your talk?
• What is the background that led you to this
  hypothesis?
• Background information should be targeted to
  audience and sufficient to understand study, but
  not comprehensive - HIT THE HIGHLIGHTS
• Define all terms VERY clearly

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Organization

• How do you plan to make this case?
• What was the experimental design?
• Know your audience assume neither too little nor
  too much
• Not necessary to present exact dilutions, times
  for incubation, etc. - HIT THE HIGHLIGHTS
• Often good to mention controls (and rationale for
  choosing control groups)

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Organization

• What are the salient results?
• If you cannot remember them without prompting,
  the audience wont care or remember
• Often good to present results compared
• with controls, if appropriate
• Tabular data easy to follow
• Not every result is salient remember the initial
  thesis - only supporting or refuting data is
  salient!
• HIT THE HIGHLIGHTS

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Organization

• A picture is worth a thousand words
• Show high quality photomicrographs (if
  appropriate) of salient results
• Sharp focus
• Sharp contrast
• Label (arrows) if subtle
• Appropriate magnification

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Too Much of a Good Thing
CP ExpPath FacDev Educ. Finan. Progress report
Renovation in progress/ Negotiations for CP space in new hospital successful
x x Sayed conf. no other volunteers - will keep trying/ Blackall course director
x x x System upgrade, Lynne Jetton project leader/ researching many systems
x Most up to AAMC mean
Molecular pathology x x Bellamy hired as new director of Molecular Pathology
Slide previewing x x Restructured surgical pathology to accommodate
Outreach program x x McKenney CPDF Jetton managing/ attended Mayo Clinic meeting - lots to do!
Reg. and nat. reputation x x x 5 short courses, 1special course and 1 long course at USCAP this year!
Translational research x x x Multiple recruits, Vet. Path.
Tissue procurement facil. x ARDAIS contract Yared to head - up and running
Increase research x Drs. Yang and Das added to faculty
Faculty mentoring x x x Mentoring program established
Secretarial support x x allocation done fully implemented with move
Balance of protected time x x x current scheduling appears to be to faculty's liking
Graduate programs x x full participation in Interdisciplinary Graduate Program
Telepathology x x no interest within our department
Incentives for tech. Staff x work in progress
Visiting professor program x x In place sponsorships available
Hospital support x 100K raise in support this year
Expectations of faculty x Annual review - clearly stating
Integrity of promises x Trying to assure 100 compliance
Lack of direction x Have developed mission statement- "State of Dept" attempted to address progress
Fringe accounts x x x x Completed national survey - we are above avg.
Collegiality/morale x x Continue to sponsor events as allowed from Foundation accounts
Increase forensics x Still under negotiation with Dr. Kokes
Restructure autopsy rot. x Completely restructured
Resid. Remediation prog. x AP
New fellowships x Lack of space x
Course peer evaluations x ACH/VAH fac. Integration x
Library x Informatics x
Contract equity Faculty salaries x
Foundation account x Marked growth in foundation acct
Conference scheduling x x Completely restructured conferences - move to AM, combined AP and CP
Core facilities x Immuno, ARDAIS, vet.path (pending)
Faculty finance education x Suskie monthly updates/education, also conferences for residents/faculty
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Organization
(A Better Table)
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Organization

• How do we explain the results we obtained?
• Put together a reasonable story that helps to
  hold the data together - why else would anyone
  want to remember what you said?
• Simplify, concentrating only on the big picture -
  the minute details will lose the forest for the
  trees

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Organization

• What did we learn from this study?
• Why do we care?
• If you cannot tell them, the only appropriate
  audience response is, So what?
• If you do not tell them, they may not understand
  - they have only had one pass through to try to
  understand your point

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Organized Chaos
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Organized Conclusions
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Organization

• Where do we go from here?
• May be interesting to speculate on the next step
  - helps to put into perspective

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Organization

• Recapitulate!
• Tell them what you are going to tell them
• Tell them
• Tell them what you just told them

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Organization

• Thank your co-workers
• It only makes you look better
• Thank your audience
• It is arrogant to assume that the audience has
  nothing better to do than to listen to you (even
  if it is true!)
• Solicit questions

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Organization

• Questions Coda
• Repeat the question for audience
• Ensures all can hear
• Stalls for time while you consider the answer
• Compliment the questioner
• I dont know is a perfectly valid response DO
  NOT BLUFF - you will be exposed!
• Deferring to member of audience may be
  appropriate in certain circumstances

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Organization

• Substance Abuse
• I need to hurry to get finished
• I have a lot of material that I need to get
  through
• - Why bother? For whom are you giving the talk?
• Running over NEVER helps!
• LESS IS MORE

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Presentation

• Verbal
• Do not read slides to audience
• Elaborate on your bullets!
• Vary tone of voice
• Use appropriate volumes - articulate clearly!
• Enthusiasm and eye contact are essential

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Presentation

• Verbal
• Pauses, fumbling, going back to previous slides,
  prolonged pauses
• Loses interest for audience
• Makes speaker appear incompetent and confused
• PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE!!!

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Presentation

• Visual
• Do not read slides to audience - follow the
  bouncing ball is distracting and boring
• Bullet points
• Large font with good contrast
• Proof read - SPELLING MISTEAKS REFLECT POURLY ON
  YOU!
• Busy slides do not improve presentation

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Presentation - poor choices

• Visual
• Do not read slides to audience - follow the
  bouncing ball is distracting and boring
• Bullet points
• Large font with good contrast
• Busy slides do not improve presentation

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Presentation - poor choices

• Visual
• Do not read slides to audience - follow the
  bouncing ball is distracting and boring
• Bullet points
• Large font with good contrast
• Busy slides do not improve presentation

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Presentation - poor choices

• Visual
• Do not read slides to audience - follow the
  bouncing ball is distracting and boring
• Bullet points
• Large font with good contrast
• Busy slides do not improve presentation

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Presentation - poor choices

• Cutesy is fine for some audiences, but not for
  formal presentations
• KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE!

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Style

• Dress
• Speech
• Posture

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Style

• Dress
• It is ALWAYS better to over dress than to under
  dress
• Scrubs are almost never a good choice
• If you are presenting, you should always look
  professional!

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Style

• Speech
• Use grammatically correct, concise and clear
  sentences
• Finishing each sentence with, Okay? is only
  appropriate if you plan to take questions after
  each sentence
• Um, ya know, so are placeholders that
  detract from the impression that you make
• If we know, why are you telling us?
• Slang terminology should be limited to
  appropriate, informal situations - assume a
  formal presentation until otherwise indicated

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Style

• Speech
• Humor is wonderful, but should be temperate,
  moderate, and appropriate
• Anecdotes are wonderful tools for reinforcement,
  if appropriate setting

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Style

• Posture
• Stand upright
• Appropriate hands
• Not in pockets (or nose)
• Laser pointer is not a crutch
• Convey confidence,
• but not arrogance

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Style

• Out of style
• Um, like, ya know, I did this project thing with
  . .. .. Wait, let me go back a slide to show you
  guys . . . .

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Summary

• Substance
• Organization
• Less is more
• Style
• Know your audience and be appropriate and
  gracious!

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Thank you for your attention! I hope that some
of that some of these pointers will be useful to
you in the future!
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