Scott at Presentation Revolution offers this very true-funny post:

“…after four years we still have not seen a drastic change in the way presentations are built, designed, and delivered today. The bottom line: most presenters are insane…

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Now, I love what Ethos3 is doing. Meet Henry is brilliant. AND, I do enjoy this post about insanity.

BUT (Yeah you saw that coming. Sorry Scott.)

To play devil’s advocate, why WOULD there be drastic change on the whole? We’ve been mediocre at presentations for millenia. Cicero, Carnegie, lots of smart folks been chipping away at it. Same for how people overall put together memos, writings, music… Drastic improvements don’t follow just because we realize things matter, or even how to improve them. Some can, and do, make drastic improvements, but overall?

As much as communicating well matters, it’s just one thing successful people need to be good at. Presentations “built, designed and delivered” by individuals probably won’t get drastically better anymore than emails will on the whole improve. Or fitness. Or personal finance. The many who know what they *should* do, don’t. And most books on the topic offer little beyond formulaic “rules” and tricks.

When it really really matters, well, that’s when Scott and I earn our keep. We help people do their jobs better by communicating effectively.

Now, if an individual kept schlepping into meetings with the same awful slides and never understood why they weren’t making progress, sure. Insane. If an organization could not break through its “sliditis”-dependent tendencies, well… ok, maybe a lot of large organizations are pretty insane.

All this said, YES, a thousand times, I wish everyday presentations were evolving faster. But I do think the major presentations, the big conferences, we have seen some pretty cool stuff. We just gotta keep plugging away at it and showing where excellence can take us.

PowerPoints consisting entirely of bullets and words are useless, right? Well, for the most part, yes. But dig deeper — there are productive ways to break this (like any) rule.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Haters of PowerPoint, we give you Stephen Colbert’s Colbert Report segment “The Word”

Plan B
Clean Slate
Body Armor
Season Pass
Hip Replacement

The graphic — his “PowerPoint”– is really just bullets & words. Sure, some video and graphics give context, but it’s just the bullets and words that make the segment work.

Notice the text NEVER says the same thing as Colbert. Usually it’s dropping punch lines. Sometimes it contradicts him to comic effect, completes the thought he left hanging, or reads between the lines.

While you really can’t –shouldn’t– remake your slide deck into a comic sideshow, always consider its role a supporting one. It’s a visual aid. If you like, a chalkboard, and no more. Its job is to do and say something other than what you are saying and doing, something more than what you can alone. You’re not taking that “stage” to present your PowerPoint, you’re there to present your ideas. You’re there to do business, so get on with it. The visuals support you, not vice-versa.

Audiences of the world will thank you.

(Pity about the links, we’d like to embed but Wordpress & ComedyCentral don’t play together nicely–yet. Also, the links die mid-May, so after that, try this, click “Daily Show-Colbert” and find “Colbert Report-The Word” in the list. Thanks, Sumner.)

Thanks to Garr Reynolds at Presentation Zen for his recent Comedy/PowerPoint post and the inspiration to finally post about this.

(nod of thanks to Seth Levine, Gordon Whyte and David Teten for blogging about these tip sheets when I first put them on my site)

1. Don’t say “Um.” Look, don’t freak out over bad verbal habits. Minimize them, but trying too hard can blow your cool.

2. One slide per minute. If you have even close to that we’ll hit you. You shouldn’t have anywhere near that many. Unless you know what you’re doing.

3. Memorize your speech. Recital is not effective communication

4. What you say is just 7% of your credibility. Whomever told you that owes you every penny you paid them.

5. Use your full time slot. Quality, not quantity. Be succinct. Be alluring. Make them want to follow-up.

6. End with a summary slide. End by encouraging the next steps in the process.

7. Speak up. Make yourself heard, but more importantly vary your tone, speed, volume & inflection to maintain audience attention.

8. Start by introducing yourself. You just got introduced. Open with some drama (or at least excitement) and get right to the “ah-ha.”

9. Answer every question they might possibly have. Aim to be complete, but don’t overkill. Your pitch is like an executive summary.

10. Sum the years’ experience on your team. 40+ years, wow! Does that mean 10 schmucks with 4 years’ each or 3 with 13 1/3?

11. Make your pitch into a story. “Story” is a hot right now, but be judicious. Don’t just string stories together or be contrived, use 1 (maybe 2) and use other techniques too, like comparisons to convey unfamiliar material in terms of something listeners already understand. (Oh and as always, give something extra)

Sigh. Last time I looked to see what all the fuss was about I was entranced by TwitterVision in a kind of an overtired/ADD/look at that puzzling trainwreck kind of a way, but that was about it. Now this blogger comes along and claims good uses by smart people for this thing. Hmpf.

Now if I could offer some kind of promotion to whomever Twitted that they were working on their presentation, that I might pay for…

Pretty darn good rule, as rules go. (Hint: I am not a fan of rules, except that knowing them allows you to break them productively…)