The PROPAR principles determine what we remember, or forget, whether it’s an advertisement, a sales presentation, or a meeting to enroll people in a campaign to clean up the local wetlands. These principles are also the secret of theater — and all public speaking, including business and academic presentations, are theater, for better or worse. All business is show business.
A few years ago, I was invited, on two days’ notice, to speak at a conference for the external-affairs and public-relations division of one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies. The purpose of the conference was to build support for a new advertising strategy, which included moving the company’s entire mega-million-dollar advertising budget to a new agency. The conference slogan was “You’ll Take Us There!”
The company rented the grand ballroom at a luxury hotel and spent a fortune on mock-ups of the new ad campaign. They provided a comprehensive, beautifully produced handout and first-class refreshments. I was offered my full fee to speak for eight minutes on “Meeting the Challenge of Change.”
Arriving early to get to know my audience and check out the environment, I discovered that the seating and stage arrangement was a setup for disaster. The audience of more than four hundred people was to be kept in the dark, as spotlights focused on corporate honchos perched on a dais that seemed as high as Mount Olympus. The speakers were scheduled to make their presentations from behind enormous podiums. I also discovered that the podiums had control buttons, allowing speakers to adjust their height.
Although management aimed to deliver a message of inclusion, empowerment, and inspiration, the audience was likely to feel alienated, distanced, and patronized.
I quickly Mind Mapped a new slant on my presentation and consulted with the lighting and stage crew. I took a seat at the back of the darkened ballroom and awaited my turn to speak. After being introduced, I strode briskly up the center aisle (in the dark), leaped onto the stage, and stepped behind the podium. Like the speakers who preceded me, I projected nothing more than a talking head.
I started, in a monotone voice, to talk about change and the pressure and anxiety it creates, and how anxiety can create barriers between people when they need to find a new approach to collaboration. As I said the word barriers, I pressed the Up button, and as I continued to drone on, the podium rose and I slowly disappeared from view. Unseen for about fifteen seconds, I expounded without pause on the challenge of change and its effects on communication.
Then I leaped out from behind the podium and in an expressive, energizing voice I emphasized the importance of moving beyond barriers. Standing in the spotlight, I urged the audience to recognize their power to make a difference — to create the kind of corporate culture they wanted. As I emphasized the theme of self-empowerment, the spotlights shifted to focus on the audience, and they exploded in spontaneous applause.
Use your environment to empower your message, and be sure that it doesn’t sabotage your presentation. As philosopher Marshall McLuhan said, “The medium is the message.” The environment in which you make your presentation sometimes communicates more strongly than your words. You probably won’t need to make the dramatic alterations that were required in my presentation, but you can increase your effectiveness by mindfully setting the stage to create a better experience for your audience.
The lighting, air quality, even the shape of the room — along with many other factors, including your appearance and the audiovisuals you’re using — can have a profound influence on your audience’s ability to enjoy and remember your presentation and on your sense of confidence and comfort as the speaker.
Stand-up comedy is probably the most challenging form of public speaking. Jerry Seinfeld, a master of the art, explains that the environment, the physical context, is a “gigantic aspect” of success or failure, stating, “The room is doing 80 percent of the job.” The ambiance of the space, the sight lines, and the lighting and acoustics can work either for you or against you, and professionals know the importance of adjusting them accordingly. Always consider these factors to make the most of your presentation environment.
Always aim to give your presentation in a room that provides ample space for every member of your audience. Set up the chairs — and tables if necessary — in an arrangement most suited to the kind of presentation you are giving. For groups of about twenty-five people or fewer, a U-shape design is most effective, since it encourages maximum interaction and participation. For larger groups, a modified classroom-style arrangement is recommended.
Whatever seating arrangement you choose, always remove empty chairs from the room, or at least move them to one side. Vacant seats are a distraction and can unconsciously draw the audience’s attention away from your message. Remove other unnecessary objects as well, such as charts or audiovisual equipment left over by a previous speaker. If there are whiteboards behind you with messages written by previous presenters, erase them before you begin.
Set up the room and furniture so that they’re conducive to connecting with your audience. Before you begin speaking, put yourself in the audience’s position, literally: sit in the back row and imagine what it’s going to be like to participate in your presentation. If you’re presenting virtually, be sure to view your “stage” from the audience’s perspective and create a background that makes it easy for people to enjoy seeing you on their screens.
Many presentations are delivered in drab, generic rooms. Dull environments tend to have a dulling effect on the minds of audience members. Whenever possible, create a livelier, more attractive space. A bouquet of fresh flowers and a few well-placed green plants can transform a space aesthetically and will enliven and engage your audience, thus making them more receptive to your message.
Also consider air quality and temperature. Most presentations are given in rooms with poor ventilation, and often the rooms are either too hot or too cold. Stuffy air can lull your audience into a sleepy state, and an uncomfortable room temperature is a constant distraction. Aim to give your presentation in a well-ventilated room with a temperature of approximately 68 degrees F. The air quality and temperature can often be modified through the judicious opening and closing of doors and windows. If ideal temperatures cannot be met, it is better to err on the side of the room being too cool.
Just as it’s often too cold or too warm in the room, it’s also frequently too bright or too dark. My preference is for more illumination — you don’t want to keep the audience in the dark, literally and figuratively. If you’re speaking at a large event, practice onstage beforehand with the spotlights on, because they can be blinding and quite disorienting if you’re not ready for them. Also check for reflected light that might create a glare that interferes with your visuals.
At many presentation venues, it is just assumed that the speaker will use a podium or lectern, which gets placed right in the center of the stage or riser. I recommend having it moved to one side or the other, and then it’s fine to begin your presentation from that base. If you stay there throughout, as many people do, it’s harder to connect with the audience, who are likely to perceive you as a “talking head.” Practice emerging from behind the podium and interacting with your audience. You can keep your Mind Map notes and glass of water at the podium and use the podium as a base, but learn to be independent of this unnecessary barrier between you and your audience.
Music can help engage the audience’s attention and uplift their energy. Experiment with what works best for you. A few of my favorites include the overture to Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro or Vangelis’s “Chariots of Fire” for the walk onstage, Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood” during breaks, and Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” or Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” for the finish. Even if you’re not able to have these tunes played for the benefit of everyone, you can always craft your own pre-presentation playlist to help get you in the mood and to orchestrate your butterflies.
Each of these elements of setting your stage may seem peripheral to the effectiveness of your presentation, but when you add them together they can make a big difference. Although there are occasions when it is difficult to manipulate the environment in the manner I have suggested, you will be surprised at what can be accomplished if you are focused and insistent. Whether you are giving a presentation within your own organization or coming in from the outside, you can almost always create better conditions. Ultimately, everyone will be glad you did.
Create your own environmental checklist in preparing for presentations, and send it, well in advance, to whomever is in charge of the arrangements. Follow up with a phone call, and review each item. Arrive early enough to check the details and make any last-minute changes.
Here are a few more things to take into consideration when setting the stage.
When I first started as a professional speaker, business audiences wore, and expected a speaker to wear, attire that was much more formal than it is today. One of my first major investments was a hand-tailored suit made in London’s famous Savile Row. It served me well for years. I remember when suit and tie gave way to business casual and have witnessed the shift from casual Friday to casual every day. Nevertheless, your appearance is still your most powerful visual, and audiences will judge you by yours. Despite the trend, especially evident in online videos, toward demonstrating how authentic one is by dressing like one just rolled out of bed, most audiences in a professional context still scrutinize every detail of a speaker’s grooming and dress. Is your blouse the wrong size? Are your shoes unshined? Is your nose ring too big? If you are not sure, at the first break, slip into a restroom stall, have a seat, and listen to the conversations around you.
To avoid becoming the subject of negative restroom reviews, and to be sure that your appearance doesn’t distract from your message, heed the following advice.
Dress and groom yourself so that you feel comfortable and confident. When in doubt, err on the side of being more formal and conservative.
Wear clothes that fit well, in colors and fabrics that are complementary to one another and to you.
Pay attention to detail. Shine your shoes, iron your shirt (even if it’s a T-shirt), use a lint brush on your jacket. Look your best, and enjoy it.
Be slightly better dressed than your audience. Although they seem to be getting more casual every year, most professional and corporate organizations are still hierarchical and a bit like the military. If you are with a group of majors and you wear the uniform of a corporal, they’ll send you out for coffee. Dress like a colonel, and they’ll salute.
Cultivate your own sense of style. If you can, find a few outfits that make you look and feel great, and consider wearing them just for presentations. Enjoy looking your best, and let your clothes become part of your aura of excellence.
Before you walk into the meeting room, auditorium, or virtual set, make it a habit to check your appearance in the mirror or monitor. If you had a spinach salad at lunch and one of your teeth is now green, that will be all the audience talks about when you’re done. Tie everything designed to be tied, tuck in whatever needs to be tucked, zip everything that’s meant to be zipped.
Master of Mind Mapping and internationally renowned public speaker Brian Weller shares a story that highlights the importance of this last point.
When I was twelve years old, Benjamin Britten, the great composer, selected me as a soloist for the premier of his Saint Nicolas cantata, to be performed in front of a thousand people at Wigmore Hall in London.
During the intermission, I went to the men’s room, and to my horror discovered that my fly was open! Had the audience noticed? I experienced intense panic, shaking involuntarily and crying uncontrollably. The feelings were overwhelming and terrible, but I knew I couldn’t run and would return for the second half of the concert. I had no choice but to let the fear run through me completely, and then something extraordinary happened. The emotional storm clouds passed, and I felt a deep sense of relief. I zipped my fly, took a deep breath, and walked back onstage. The concert was a big success. Although I didn’t speak about my breakdown for many years, as you can imagine, I always check my fly every time before I speak in public!
There’s more to Brian’s story than just a reminder to zip up before getting onstage.
With the wisdom of hindsight, and with many years of professional presenting now behind me, I’m able to put this incident into perspective. I discovered, by serendipitous accident, that being present with fear is the secret of transforming it. My stormy emotions were so strong that I had no choice but to surrender, letting my anxious thoughts “fly” through me. I was then graced with a sense of freedom that allowed me to recover and give my full attention to singing and being with my audience. This experience opened my curiosity about the nature of mind and how being present makes all the difference in performance and in life.
Appropriate use of audio and visual aids can dramatically improve the impact, efficiency, and memorability of meetings and presentations. Test and practice with PowerPoint, flip charts, and videos before using them. Make certain that visuals can be clearly seen from all parts of the room.
Use audiovisuals to highlight and emphasize the key points of your presentation. Whether you are using a flip chart, PowerPoint, or any other medium, do not try to fill it with too much detailed information. Your audience will almost never be able to follow information presented in this way. Apply the KISS principle, making all your visuals simple and clear. Follow Margaret Mead’s advice — if an intelligent twelve-year-old couldn’t understand your visual, don’t use it.
Audiovisuals are powerful tools for capturing the attention of an audience. Use them consciously. Be certain that your audience is seeing only what you want them to see, when you want them to see it.
You must be the primary medium for delivering your information. So please don’t rely on audiovisual aids to do the work for you. Avoid hiding behind audiovisuals, or speaking to them. Your job is not to disappear in the dark while the audience looks at slides or a video, or to talk to your flip chart. If you do, you may lose your rapport with your audience — and the impact of your presentation will suffer.
If you plan to use complex audiovisual equipment, practice with it beforehand and learn its operational ins and outs thoroughly. Nothing will be more distracting to an audience, or potentially damaging to the impact of your presentation, than if you’re fumbling with your equipment onstage. Always be prepared for the possibility that your equipment will fail or that materials you requested will not be delivered.
When using electronic media, check the wiring on the floor and be sure you won’t trip on it! Professional AV teams will usually tape it carefully so that this doesn’t happen, but always double-check.
Now let’s consider how to make the most of some commonly used presentation tools.
Slides can have tremendous impact, and they also have entertainment value. If you plan to use slides as part of your presentation, remember these few simple points: think carefully about how each slide supports your objectives, and show the minimum number of slides necessary to illuminate each of your points. You can almost always improve on a slide presentation by eliminating or simplifying slides. Use images and key words instead of sentences and paragraphs. Show pictures that are worth a thousand words, not pictures of a thousand words.
Use a remote-control device to advance the slides, allowing you to move freely and to interact with your audience. Always check beforehand to be sure that the slides are upright, focused, and in the correct order.
Video and film can be the most engaging and entertaining of audiovisual tools. They are so powerful, however, that they can often obscure the role of the presenter. They are best used as a substitute for a stand-up presentation rather than as a complement to it. So when using these media, bear in mind that you are functioning primarily as a facilitator and discussion leader.
Flip charts are readily available, portable, and easy to use. To make the most of this medium, you must print legibly in large, bold letters, using different colors. Use key words or phrases rather than sentences. Flip charts are good for drawing diagrams, graphs, and other pictures that illustrate your key points. Chart sheets should be uncluttered and easy to read. When appropriate, prepare your flip chart before your presentation, although sometimes you will want to write or draw as you go. Write on every third sheet to prevent the audience from reading through the partially transparent paper.
Only use a flip chart in a relatively small group. Sit at the back of the room before you begin your presentation to test its legibility. Flip chart sheets can be awkward to turn, making it difficult to refer to previous sheets. You can overcome this by using multiple charts and by removing the sheets from the easel and hanging them on the walls.
Handouts are an effective way for you to provide more detailed information to your audience. It’s usually best to let your audience know that you will give them supporting materials at the conclusion of your presentation. Avoid distributing handouts at the beginning of the presentation, or your audience may focus more on the handout than on what you have to say. The exception is if you are going to refer specifically to a handout, in which case you’ll need to distribute it before you do so. Direct your audience to the relevant part, giving them time to read it. When they have finished, ask them to put the handout aside.
Use a microphone only when necessary. Amplified sound is often distorted and difficult to modulate. It is vital when using a microphone that you become comfortable with the amplified sound of your own voice. Always test the microphone before you begin speaking, and if you are inexperienced, take some extra time to practice. If you are using a standard microphone, aim it at your mouth, from a constant distance of six to eight inches away. Whenever possible, use a cordless collar microphone to allow maximum freedom of movement and more consistent voice modulation.
In Switzerland and Germany, audiences expect events to begin and end exactly on time. In Latin America and Italy, a more casual approach to timing is the norm. Wherever you go, be prepared to start on time but also ready for the start to be delayed. Finish on time or a bit early because it’s always better to leave people wanting more than to go on too long.
When giving longer presentations, give your audience breaks. Many people complain that they don’t like to give breaks because it’s hard to get people back in the room, but that’s usually because presenters who don’t give breaks tend not to be engaging, and the audience never knows when they may get another break, so they luxuriate in the one they were given. Moreover, decades of research into what psychologists call the “reminiscence effect” make it clear that appropriate breaks enhance learning and recall. In a daylong presentation, a group that gets a ten-minute break every hour will remember more, and rate the session better, than a group that isn’t given breaks. Breaks influence what people remember, and they also help to regulate energy, so the group that gets a break every hour will feel much better at the end of the day than the group that is not given breaks. It’s best to give breaks before they’re needed, preferably at a high point of energy and attention. This creates a positive recency effect and leaves your audience wanting more, and when they return you can repeat or emphasize one of your key points to take advantage of the new primacy effect you have created by giving the break.
A primacy effect is created before your primacy by the person who introduces you. Whenever possible, arrange to have the most senior, authoritative person available do the introduction, and be prepared with a Mind Map of what you would like her to say. Ask her to keep the introduction brief, under two minutes, and encourage her to create an environment of expectation and interest. Three main things can go wrong with the introduction:
The introducer reads your bio verbatim in a monotone voice.
The introducer hallucinates that he is the featured speaker and blathers on, cutting into your time.
The introducer mispronounces your name and makes a series of inaccurate statements.
If possible, engage the introducer in a conversation about why they invited you to speak so the intro can be delivered more like a story, and if necessary, help them craft objectives in terms of what they want the audience to know about you, how they want them to feel about the presentation, and what they want them to do.
Before the formal introduction is made, be sure that all questions concerning the availability of toilets, refreshments, and other basic needs are answered. Basic needs dominate human attention. If people are thirsty or if they need the restroom and don’t know where it is, they will not be focusing on your message.
If you set your stage appropriately, you will preempt most distractions. Nevertheless, from time to time, you may be confronted with inoperative or noisy HVAC systems, exploding projectors, jackhammer choruses from the street, or bomb scares. Whatever the distraction, acknowledge the problem with good humor and act with common sense. Strange as it seems, if a speaker fails to call attention to a continuing distraction, an audience tends to blame the speaker for it.
Along with applying the PROPAR principles and setting the stage, public speakers need to embrace yet another element of theater, one that will help them transform their fear and master their art.
You can craft a brilliant message focused on what you want the audience to know, feel, and do; you can organize it around the PROPAR principles so that they will never forget it; and you can carefully set your stage so that the environment is conducive to success, but if you don’t remember your presentation when you are in front of the room, then all your other efforts will have been in vain.
Here are a few simple and effective ways to ensure that you will remember your presentation:
Begin with a positive attitude and visualization, reframing butterflies as “excitement.”
Apply the Mind Map memory method. You may also wish to have your Mind Map in sight for a quick reference when you are giving your presentation.
Practice sharing your presentation with a friend. Become comfortable expressing your message in a natural, conversational way. When I’m getting ready for a new presentation, I usually ask my wife if I can share what I’m planning to say as we are driving in the car or sitting on a train.
Then give your presentation to a friend or colleague (or spouse) in a more formal way. Practice with any audiovisuals or props you intend to use. Become fluent in whatever medium you intend to employ. Do this a few times first without asking for any feedback so you can get comfortable with the content and flow, and then ask for constructive criticism.
Next, make a video of one of these sessions. Watch the playback from the perspective of your prospective audience, and ask friends and colleagues for constructive feedback. For particularly important presentations, ask them to play the role of a critical, disruptive audience, to be devil’s advocates and point out any possible weakness in your material or delivery. Although this experience may be somewhat unsettling, it will prepare you ably for your actual presentation — which should be easy by comparison.
Time your practice sessions. Become familiar with the amount of time it takes to cover your key points, and bear in mind that your actual presentation will probably take longer than it does in rehearsal. Set minimum and maximum times for each branch of your presentation. Anticipate the effect of questions and interruptions on your timing, and always have more material available than you actually need.
Use your visuals to help you remember. On flip charts you can leave yourself reminder notes in pencil that only you can see, and a well-crafted PowerPoint serves as a memory device for the speaker. In larger, more formal presentation venues, you’ll often be provided with a “confidence monitor” that shows you the slide that your audience is seeing and your next slide; you can easily create this for yourself in less formal situations on your own laptop or mobile device. If you apply all the elements of rehearsal we’ve covered, you probably won’t need this, but it is nice as a backup.
Rehearsal is about more than just remembering. As you practice delivering your message, you’ll develop and refine it. Academy Award–winning actor Sir Ben Kingsley explains that the quality of the event the audience experiences is “largely determined by the rehearsal process and the experiments that you go through and the choices that you make in the rehearsal room, not in front of an audience.”