When we are asked to, or need to make a presentation, it is quite typical for us to become anxious. We want to do a good job, get our point across, but the very fact that it is a presentation causes us some anxiety. So what can we do in the planning process to help create and deliver an engaging presentation?
The very first part of planning is to define the objective of our presentation. What is the point? Why are we doing this?
But then we can take this objective further. What do we want the audience to get from this talk? From their perspective, what do we want them to gain from the presentation?
Deciding on an objective from the viewpoint of the audience impacts our talk in a number of ways. It forces us to really focus on the finest purpose of the talk. So it is no longer good enough to say the objective is to update the team on the latest developments. We need to ask why we need to inform them of the changes. The objective will then need to be; to ensure the team has the ability to explain the latest development to their clients.
An objective such as updating the senior managers on the progress of a project becomes; ensuring the senior managers understand the value of continuing with the project and can articulate the future funding requirements of the project.
By drafting our objective as an outcome for our audience it can help to give greater and more specific focus to our presentation. If we do this our talk, our slides, our content can be measured against how they contribute to the objective. And in doing that we will make our talk more engaging for the audience, as it is more focussed on them.
What is the key to the planning of an engaging presentation?