Breaking Presentation Rules - Don't Be Useless

Did you know there is an unspoken "Be Useless" rule?

 Having already established the strategically oriented Presentation Prime Directive which informs all of our rule breaking, let's break some specific rules. One of the worst is the unspoken rule that as a speaker, you should make yourself as useless as possible. (In case you missed it, the Presentation Prime Directive is: "Make your audience think, feel, or do something that accomplishes the presentation's objective." Read the post here.)

 Is Being Useless Really A Rule?

Upon examining the evidence, there is little question this is an unspoken rule in the current, severally dysfunctional business presentation culture. We've all seen it and likely bowed our knee to it ourselves. As is so frequently true, slideware is at the evil heart of this rule. Think of the last presentation you went to. There's a pretty good chance that a "copy of the PowerPoint will be made available to you after the presentation for your review." If your audience can get all of the content of your presentation from your slides, then what does that make you as a speaker? That's right - USELESS.

 After speaking at a recent event, I asked for some quick video testimonials. One of the attendees who gave one said something revealing. I gave her no coaching. I just asked her to give a testimonial about my presentation. Much of her response explains that she usually shows up at presentations and says, "just give me the notes so I can leave." I think a reasonable translation would be "I find speakers useless."

 Two Great Uses of Slideware

Slideware is an awesome tool for creating something which someone will open at their desk and consume at their own pace, reading each slide in turn, going backward if necessary etc. Using slideware to create documents like this is really useful. It allows you to keep one idea per slide rather than a string of content created in Word. But this is not a "presentation" as no one is "presenting" it. This is a "document."

The other use for slideware is to put things on a screen while a speaker presents. Another powerful use for slideware. These are "slides."

You see the problem already, right? Most slides are designed as documents, but are used for presentations.

That's like using a pipe wrench for violin repair.

Pipe wrenches are awesome, but only when you're doing plumbing work. Use it to fix a violin and you'll only make it worse. Create what Nancy Duarte calls "Docuslides" and you will hurt your presentation, not help it.

 Then What Are Slides For?

There's plenty of evidence that images and schematic drawings that show relationships and functions provide great clarity and emotional impact. Projecting the right type of content on a slide has tremendous power to realize the Presentation Prime Directive: Make people think, feel, or do something.

Simply listing your verbal content in bullet lists does nothing but serve to diminish the capacity to understand and retain (see Cognitive Load Theory by John Sweller). Since presenters don't often follow their own outline, the bullet list will also confuse when it doesn't match the speaker's content.

 But I Want To Give The Audience Something To Review

Providing a printed or electronic document to the audience to be able to review your presentation is of great value and I highly recommend it. So how do you design slides that will be useful to use as a presenter and to the audience later?

You just don't. It's not possible. Stop trying.

You'll need a separate document for distribution.

 Here are three ways to do that:

1) Make a parallel slide deck with all the bullet lists and content on the slides. That's the way you've always done it, so start there. Make a slide deck with all the bullets about everything you're going to say as you create the content. Then create a separate deck that you will use during the presentation by removing all the text and substituting presentation-appropriate slides (much more about that coming later). You can give them the original deck as a take-away or print a handout from the slideware if you want to distribute hard copy.

2) In the "notes" section of the slideware, put all of your text content. Then you can distribute your slide deck and they can view your notes to find the full content of your presentation.

3) Create a "real" document with a word processor or other layout software and distribute that.

 Another Rule to Break: Please Ignore Me

A word about handouts. If you have a hard copy you want to distribute, don't hand it out until after you've spoken. If you give it out first, it's usually another source of distraction threatening your usefulness. According to the Presentation Prime Directive, there are strategic exceptions to this, but let's not dive into that now. And certainly don't hand out anything to pass around while you're speaking. That's a sure fire way to lose an audience. As a speaker, you already have plenty of competition for your attention - the last thing you want is to create more.

 Let's make this Rule #1 under the Prime Directive: Don't Be Useless

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