Your Presentation Could Inspire or Turn Off Your Audience - It’s Up to You to Decide

How often are presentation audiences 'there but not there?'

I am indebted to a close contact of mine Ian Brownlee for bringing to my attention the results of an International study on Presentations 2000 to 2012 (updated in Dec 2017).

The study aimed to identify why audiences lose interest and stop paying attention during presentations. I’m sure this is something any presenter would want to understand.

I hardly need to explain why this is a bad outcome. In short, you’ve wasted your best opportunity to get your message across and wasted everyone’s time into the bargain.

I don’t believe that anybody deliberately sets out to deliver a bad presentation. The vast majority of presenters seem to genuinely believe they are presenting well. They might not be totally confident in their own ability but they believe they have done all they could to deliver their messages successfully - even when they haven’t.

Can You Rely On Audience Feedback?
Understanding current performance levels is the first step towards improvement. Unfortunately, audience feedback isn't much help. It's very difficult for an audience to objectively critique a presentation and it’s even more difficult for the presenter to receive this critique objectively.

 A better place to start might be to understand the most common behaviours that will make your audience switch off. Bear in mind too, that remote presentations make the task of keeping your audience engaged that much harder.

 In no particular order here are 5 of the most common issues that arise:

• Clear lack of preparation by the presenter.
• The presentation lacks a clear structure.
• Messages are unclear and lack relevant examples.
• The purpose of the presentation and its stages are not explained clearly.
• The presenter doesn’t engage the audience – often using overly technical language, reading the text on the slides and is monotone in delivery.

 All of these flaws can be fixed. It’s within the power of every presenter to become more engaging and persuasive and to consistently achieve the goals of each presentation.
 
Grasp the Limitations of Working Memory
Without going too deeply into the science behind it, maintaining audience engagement is all to do with our working memory. This is how much information our brains can evaluate and retain. Miller's original research suggested this to be 7+/- 2 pieces of information. More recent studies by Cowan & Shu and others suggest that the memory can process up to 14 connected or related visual elements – lending further weight to the oft quoted cliché that “a picture paints a thousand words.”

Shu, et al, also state that Working Memory is able to easily process 3 chunks of incoming information at one time. E,g., The good, the bad and the ugly. The Father, the son and the holy ghost, etc.. Listen to any politician and note how often points come in groups of three!
 
So in practical terms, to improve your presentations you must avoid overloading the working memory:
 

• Deliver fewer key messages and focus on the ones that really need to be retained. Avoid lengthy explanations of the details. Equally, keep any support materials simple and as visual as possible. Audiences can read so you will insult them if you read text out loud.
• Emphasise the benefits to the audience: ‘what you get… what this means to you is… the difference this makes is...’ Give them ‘real life’ examples that they can relate to so they understand how the benefits will positively affect them. 
• Be prepared to repeat key points to keep them in the working memory.
• Make it clear from the outset what the purpose of the presentation is and what actions need to be made as a result of it (actions by the audience).
• At the start and throughout the presentation regularly provide ‘signposts’ with time updates. The audience is then primed to see and hear what’s coming.
• Prepare thoroughly. And yes, practise delivering the presentation either to yourself or to a ‘friendly audience.’ Think about the passion, pace and tonality of your voice as well as your stance, position and visual engagement with the audience. If you’ve rehearsed it less than 6-7 times to achieve this I’d be astounded. Expert presenters tell us how much they practice before any session and it’s rarely less than this.

 
Doing all of this is easier said than done. It’s beneficial to have an objective external opinion to coach you on how effectively you are implementing these points and to provide encouragement and coaching on subtle ways of improving.
 
If your presentation is of critical importance to you and your business, you really want to do all you can to keep your audience alert and engaged, and ready to absorb the points you need to communicate.
 
The Bid Coach consultants are experts in effective communication. We help individuals and businesses large and small to improve the effectiveness of their presentations so they become sought-after experts and win more business.