Aylık arşivler: Ağustos 2015

Presentation Tricks to Keep Your Audience Alert

curtainBest practices for presentations, including practicing and structuring your presentation effectively, are important to make a high quality show. Try using these 10 tricks to command your audience’s attention.

Presentations can be really good or really bad. Even the “okay” presentations–the ones that are well put-together but don’t particularly stand out–end up being really bad, and usually it’s for one reason: They’re boring. Boring presentations are reputation killers, and they can turn a room full of attentive professionals into a room full of sleepy zombies, checking their phones and counting the slides.

Best practices for presentations, including practicing and structuring your presentation effectively, are important to make a quality show. However, it’s the little things, the speaking and body language tricks you use, that will keep your audience awake long enough to hear it.

Start using these 10 tricks to command your audience’s attention:

1. Start off with something shocking. Don’t start off a presentation with something general and clunky, like a conventional introduction to your topic. If you have a bold conclusion planned, why not start out with a tease of it? For example, if your presentation builds to a conclusion that your company can change the way people talk to each other, start out by introducing a vision of that change. Inspire a bit of interest right off the bat, and people will be desperate to know how you got there. You can also use surprising statistics or eye-opening facts in the same way.

2. Tell a story. Humans take naturally to stories. Narratives are an evolutionary social tool we use to convey experiences, so we find it far easier to listen and relate to a story than we do a list of facts or statements. Transform anything you can in your presentation into a story format. Use real-life and invented examples, and use illustrative metaphors to prove your points. The more narratives you can weave into your overarching presentation, the more people will want to pay attention.

3. Go off script. It’s a good idea to prepare your presentation in advance, and even practice it a few times so you can iron out all the kinks. But once you’re on stage, you should probably abandon the cue cards altogether. At this point, you should be so familiar with your subject matter and so engrossed in your presentation that you can talk about it naturally in your sleep. Veer off course. People will be able to tell which lines you’ve rehearsed and which ones you haven’t.

4. Use emotional inflections in your voice. If you aren’t emotionally invested in whatever it is you’re presenting, you probably shouldn’t be the one presenting it. Be sure to show that emotion to the people listening to you. Get angry if the statistics call for it. Get excited about the solutions you propose. Get animated on the stage, and use emotional vocal inflections to put some real texture behind your words. Without that emotional inflection, you might as well hand your presentation to a robot to read.

5. Use the power of louds and softs. Speaking in one constant tone will bore your readers, even if you somehow manage to put some emotion behind it. Certainly, some sections or your presentation are more compelling or more important than others. Use the power of louds and softs to accentuate those differences. Speak softly when you can afford your users to trail off, and rise back up to a higher volume when you drive home an important point.

6. Alternate your pacing. Similarly, it’s a good idea to vary your pacing. Talk fast when it comes to background information that most people already know, or when you recap sections from earlier, then slow way down when it comes time to hammer in an important piece of information. Use the power of silence, but don’t become trapped in a predictable pattern of speech.

7. Call out individuals in the audience. This one demands a degree of improvisation, since you may not be able to predict the makeup or participation willingness of your audience until the day of your presentation. Try to get individual people involved in your presentation however you can. This may include taking them onstage for a demonstration or something far more innocuous like pointing to them when making a point.

8. Set up some jokes. Even the most serious of topics deserve some kind of humorous break. It’s your job to help people find humor throughout your presentation. If you can get them laughing, or at least smiling, you’ll keep their attention firm. Obviously, you’ll want your jokes to be appropriate, but don’t be afraid to push the boundaries–confident, unexpected humor tends to facilitate likeability.

9. Skip the data. If you can, avoid mentioning statistics and facts at all. Put them on a background slide for people to visualize independently of your presentation. People don’t attend presentations to be read information they could read themselves. They want new insights and personally related beliefs.

10. Never read a slide. Last, but certainly not least, you should never read from a slide directly during the course of your presentation (assuming you have some kind of slideshow in the background). Your audience can see the slides for themselves. Reading those slides aloud insults their intelligence and makes your presentation flat-out boring. Say something different, and let your slides speak for themselves.

Your presentation doesn’t have to be boring, so why would you let it be? Use these 10 useful tricks to keep your audience focused and engaged in your subject.

İş Sunumlarında Hikaye Anlatımına Geçiş Nasıl Yapılır

Business Storytelling eğitimi verirken artık bana çok doğal gelen hikaye geçişleri başkaları için zorlayıcı ve tuhaf gelebilmektedir.  Geçen hafta bir yöneticiye Business Storytelling Koçluğu verirken bunun bir benzerini yaşadım.  Satış Sunumu yaparken hikayenin nasıl kullanılacağını kendisine gösterirken beni hemen durdurdu ve bunu nasıl yaptığımı kendisine tekrar göstermemi istedi. Yaptığım şey aslında sıradan bir hareketti. Tam olarak neyi kastettiğini sorduğumda, hikayeye geçiş kısmını nasıl hissettirmeden yaptığımı tekrar etmemi istedi. Yeniden dinlemek ve pratik etmek istiyordu.

Güzel bir geçiş yapıldığında hikaye sunum içerisinde fark edilmez olmaktadır. Fark edilmez demekten kastım, bir konuda fikrinizi paylaştıktan sonra sizi izleyenlere dönüp, “Size şimdi bu konuyla ilgili bir hikaye anlatacağım” dememelisiniz. Onun yerine sadece konuşmanıza devam etmeli ve izleyicilerin konuya daha da dâhil olmasını sağlamalısınız. Hikâye geçişi sırasında ses tonunuzu değiştirmeden bunu yaparsanız, karşılıklı konuşma havasını korursunuz.

Profesyoneller iş hayatında paylaşılan düşüncelerle alakalı hikaye dinleme fikrinden çok hoşlanırlar. Bu fırsatın tadını çıkarmak isterler. Buna karşın, anlatacağınız hikayenin fikirle olan ilişkisini kurmadan hikayeye girerseniz, sizi dinleyenlerin keyfi kaçar ve odaklarını yitirirler. Bunun olmasını her halde kesinlikle istemezsiniz.

Paylaştığınız fikir ve hikaye arasında sadece bir veya iki adet ilgi kurma cümlesi bulunur. İlgi kuran cümlelerin nasıl olması gerektiği ve nasıl kolayca geçiş imkanı tanıdığını şimdi size göstermek isterim:

Farz edelim, kurumunuzdaki ödül sistemini çalışma arkadaşlarınızla tartışıyorsunuz. Toplantı sırasında bir yöneticiniz söz istiyor ve çalışanların kurum kültürünü daha fazla sahiplenmesi için ödül miktarlarının artmasını ve çeşitlendirilmesini öneriyor.

Siz de cevaben diyorsunuz ki, “Çalışanları çantada keklik tarzı ödüllerle motive etmekten uzak durmalı ve buna dikkat etmeliyiz. Zira, birçok kere bu açılımın ters teptiği görülmüştür.” Bu iki cümle sizin ilgi kurma cümlelerinizdir. Fikrinizi bu şekilde paylaşır sonra da hikayeye girişinizi yapabilirsiniz. Bu süreçte de hikaye sözcüğünü asla kullanmazsınız.

İşte size bir hikaye ile kombine edilmiş bir ilgi kurma cümlesi:

Elde edecekleri neredeyse garanti ödüllerle çalışanlarımızı motive etmekten kaçınmalıyız. Birçok kere bu açılımın ters teptiği görülmüştür.

70’li yıllarda Amerikalı araştırmacılar insanlarda ödül-performans ilişkisini test etmişler ve öğrencilerden bir bulmacayı çözmelerini istemişlerdir. Başlamadan önce öğrencilerin yarısına bulmacayı çözmeleri için para verilmiştir. Diğeri yarısına ise verilmemiştir.

Bulmacayı çözmesi için odaya alınan her bir öğrenci, çalışmasını tek başına bir süre yapmıştır. Birden odaya araştırmacı girmiş ve deneyin ikinci kısmı başlayacağından bu süre zarfında öğrencinin beklemesini isteyerek, odayı terk etmiştir. Gerçek psikoloji deneyi işte o an başlamıştır. Bir kamera odada yaşananları kaydeder.

Bulmaca çözmek için para alan öğrencilerden hiçbirisi beklerken bulmacaya el sürmez. Para almayan öğrenciler ise beklerken dahi bulmacayı kurcalamaya devam ederler. Araştırmanın sonuçlarına göre, önceden belli olan ve verilen ödüllerin insanlarda araştırmacı yönü baltaladığı ortaya çıkar.”

İlgi cümlesi kurmanın en kolay yolu kendinize sormaktır: “Hikâyemin dikkat çektiği temel nokta nedir?” Cevabını bulduğunuzda, hikayenizin ön sözünü buna göre ayarlarsınız. Pratik yaparak bunu doğal bir iletişim şekli haline getirebilirsiniz. Hikâyenizin ana mesajını bildiğinizde hikâye anlatımınız kolayca gelişecektir. Hikâyeleriniz kısa ve öz olacak ve hedefi on ikiden vuracaktır. En önemlisi de mesajlarla ilgi oluşturmadan hikaye anlatıp duran birisi olmayacaksınız.

Çiğdem Karabel

Sunum Becerileri Eğitmeni

How to Improve Your Presentation Skills

Your presentations skills are as important as the information you are presenting. This guide will help you prepare for a presentation and polish your speaking skills for a successful pitch. 

The opportunity to pitch your services to a potential client, spell out your business plan to a potential business partner, or promote your business at an event may require that you give a presentation. Whether or not your presentation achieves its desired outcome can be affected by your skills as a speaker, so it’s important to step in front of your audience with your best foot forward. As Speakandmore, we explain how to prepare, deliver, and answer questions about a stellar presentation.

Preparation

1) Research your audience. Knowing the needs of your audience can help you tailor your presentation to target their interests and explain how your company can be of use in their specific situation.

2) Structuring your presentation. The classic format is to tell them what you’re going to say, present, and then tell them what you told them, What we advise is to start off with the benefits of what you’re going to say, the benefits to the audience, and then present and review.

  • Opening. Your opening should be something that makes an emotional connection with the audience.  It can be a story, a question, or a shocking static. It should not be an introduction of yourself or five minutes of thank-you. Any stories you use should represent your audience’s position in life and should use characters that are analogous to your audience.
  • Body. Try to stick to your three most important points. It’s more important to engage the audience than to tell them everything you know. You will need to leave some information out, but it is likely that what you don’t cover in the presentation will come up when you take questions. Keep your outcome in mind. You don’t have to write out your presentation word for word (or worse, memorize it) if you just remember to keep going back to your main points and working toward your desired outcome. Be prepared to present both sides of an issue. You’ll appear more credible if you acknowledge your competitors or any opposing arguments. After you’ve explained the other side, you can spell out exactly why your company is better or your argument is stronger.
  • Closing. The closing of your presentation is the last opportunity you have to give your audience something that will stick in their minds. You can go back to your opening or end on a clever slogan or a call to action.  When making a business proposal, you end on a positive forecast. Your forecast will provide fodder that can serve to validate any subconsciously generated optimism.

3) Practice, practice, practice…but don’t memorize. If you practice your speech only once, you’re going to stink. Starting to rehearse your presentation about a month in advance. You can talk into a mirror, talk to a wall, or ask a family member to listen. Do whatever works for you, but make sure it includes practicing out loud so that you can get a sense of timing.

  • Rehearsing does not mean memorization. Memorizing your speech can make you sound mechanical and over-rehearsed. Really the only people who are good at memorizing things are actors, If you’re going to do it well, you actually have to act it out and play a character, and most speakers aren’t very good at that. Even if you are good at acting, you don’t memorize your speech to perfection. When an individual is too polished, it makes them relatively inaccessible in the mind of the audience. The audience is human at the end of the day, and this person doesn’t seem to be like them.  It really retards the rapport building process.
  • Videotape yourself. You can’t know how you come off to people until you see it. Recording yourself is the best way to target the areas where you can improve.
  • Calm your nerves. Changing the word ‘presentation’ to ‘conversation’ when thinking about your big day. Feel better yet? If not, you can also quell panic by conditioning yourself to be in presentation-mode.
  • Stop working on it. You really need time to start getting into relaxation mode. You can’t be in your hyper rewriting, restructuring mode right up to your presentation. Take a couple of days to relax before your speech.

Yeni Resim

Delivery

1) Verbal Delivery

  • Be Brief. The average adult was able to focus on a loading web page for only four to eight seconds before looking somewhere else. Attention spans are short; don’t dwell on a specific subject too long.
  • Ask questions to keep the audience engaged. This can be something as simple as pausing to ask if your audience understands everything you’ve presented so far.
  • Speak to your demographic. Match the semantics of your audience as closely as possible. Speak their language. If you’re selling a new video game, for instance, your semantics are going to be a lot different than if you’re working with a litigation attorney.
  • Work on your tone. Evolutionary psychology suggests that people of both sexes respond better to deep male voices and high female voices. It takes practice to change the tone of your voice, but it can be done.
  • Avoid speaking softly or other speech patterns that make you seem unconfident. For example, avoid ending sentences in an escalating tone that suggests every sentence you speak is a question.
  • You should avoid words like ‘umm’, ‘uhh’. One strategy for kicking a fill-word habit: Say the offending word and concentrate on it.Then tell yourself, ‘this is a fill word, I’m avoiding this”. When you say this, it creates that pattern of changing it so that you’ll catch yourself when you start saying it.
  • Don’t use words like ” don’t “. It’s important to avoid phrases like “don’t worry”. Tell your audience what they should do instead. Similarly, don’t say“I hope you will enjoy this presentation”. Say, “I am confident that you will enjoy this presentation.”

2) Body Language

  • Stand at a comfortable distance. Remaining within 2.5 – 7 feet of your audience. This presupposes (at a subconscious level) a personal to social relationship.
  • Eye contact. Don’t surf the audience with your eyes.  Rather, make eye contact with one person at a time.
  • Appear confident:

a. Shoulders back

b. Arms at your sides or held in front of your body when making gestures

c. Hands open or only slightly closed

d. Smile slightly or keep your face neutral.

e. Take long strides

f. Make every movement purposeful and decided

g. Treat props (like your resume or a handout) as though they are of value.  Don’t let a paper in your hand flap back and forth carelessly.

3) Powerpoint

  • A Good Powerpoint…
  1. Relies heavily on images.
  2. Has only one or two sentences per slide.
  3. Entertains.
  4. Enhances your presentation, but doesn’t summarize it.
  • A Bad Powerpoint…
  1. Contains font smaller than 32pt.
  2. Has more than five or six lines of text per slide.
  3. Displays a logo on every slide (your audience won’t forget who you are).
  4. Is printed and distributed as a handout.

Questions

Being prepared to answer questions plays a major role in appearing credible to your audience.

Taking questions before the end of your presentation. You’ll have to let the audience know that you plan to continue after questions so that they don’t start packing up their things, but this approach allows you to close your presentation on your own note. The audience will leave with your final message in their minds instead of some random question that someone asked that maybe was off-topic.

For further details you can always contact us in order to boost your presentation skills and impress your audience.