Stop TORTURING Your Audience

And in this slide, we can see an image of 483 words that I will now read to you. This for the benefit of those in the audience that learn best while sleeping...

Ever been at a presentation where the speaker should have said this in the interest of truth in advertising?

I have. Hundreds of them. As a physician, specifically a pathologist, I have witnessed hundreds of hour long lectures that by intelligent physicians who should NEVER set foot on a podium. Their lectures should be classified by the state department as the practice of torture.

What makes some lectures so bad?

It's probably due to the fact that the presenter doesn't realize that the primary focus of their presentation should be ...ENGAGEMENT with the audience. The content should be secondary. That's not to say that the content is insignificant. Far from it. But it IS secondary to having engagement with your audience. Without engagement, you won't be successful in getting your content into the heads of the audience. After all..that's the whole point of a presentation, isn't it?

How do you create engagement in a presentation?

You create engagement by making your audience think...not just listen. By creating mystery. By creating something unusual. By having the audience wonder where you are going with the topic. By making them laugh. By making them gasp. By making them scratch their heads. By making them think....

Recently I had the opportunity to present to a large group of podiatry residents, on the topic of skin cancer. For a pathologist, this is pretty basic, but for new residents this may be a topic that they are not familiar with. A goal that I had was to have the residents actually get something out of my presentation that they would remember, and not just be a good nap. Because I know, unfortunately for most pathologists, lectures to non-pathologists only provide their audience with a good 45 minute nap.

But I was determined to do better. How?

I needed a completely different angle in presenting this topic. Something that would be fun. Different. And memorable. And what is more memorable than the Wizard of Oz? Huh? A classic movie to be the framework for a lecture about pathology? That's crazy! Then I thought..Why not?

As it turns out, my topic meshed perfectly with the presentation. Dorothy was the central character...looking for an answer - the diagnosis. The Tin man with his ax was the surgeon. And for the different cancer diagnoses...there were "bad guys" just waiting for their parts.

The Castle Guards.....mean guys that could march around, but not fly. This matched up with basal cell carcinoma of the skin....it "marches" as it grows, but it can't typically fly (metastasize). The flying monkeys, also bad guys, but with the ability to fly (metastasize). They were the representatives for squamous cell carcinoma of the skin, a cancer that can metastasize ('"fly"). Last, there was the Wicked Witch of the West. Mean. Relentless. Ugly. Dressed in her black dress, always flying around (metastasizing). The perfect image for the worst skin cancer of all...malignant melanoma.

Yes as bizarre as this sounds, the lecture was a hit...and voted the best lecture of the three day symposium. Many of the residents came up and said that it would be hard not to remember the actions of these three common skin cancers, because they would remember their behavior in relationship to their respective Oz characters. I would guess that the characters in the Wizard of Oz never thought that they would help contribute to the medical education of residents. And in the end, can you guess who the wise pathologist was? (Hint...he was "the man behind the curtain").

The last piece of the engagement...the title.

The last item that was needed was the perfect title for the presentation. It had to create that question in the minds of the audience when they read it in the program to get them into the room for the presentation. It had to create some interest, and last, it had to provide a clue to the content of the presentation. So what was the title of this presentation? Basal Cell, Squamous Cell, Melanoma...Oh My!

Now it's your turn...

Next time you are developing a presentation remember that keeping your audience engaged is the number one task. Content should be concise and not overly detailed. Help them understand the general topic first...then they can develop expertise later. Don't overload your presentation with too much detail or too many words. Certainly don't have slides full of words. Have your content developed with a high level overview. And find a completely different way of presenting that information. Perhaps analogies. Perhaps stories. Perhaps images. But be sure that whatever you pick it is something that will keep your audience interested, engaged and...learning.

Note: Thanks to all who have read this post previously. I have updated the images on 3/19/2015 to see if it provides better exposure in LinkedIn...let's see how it does with these new images!

Stephen G. Ruby is a physician, pathologist, entrepreneur, business person, innovator, writer, inventor, researcher. He is a life long learner that has found new enjoyment from sharing his discoveries with others. Read his other musings at www.EntrepreneurialPractice.com (www.EPToday.us) and follow him at Twitter: @EntrePractice and @StephenGRuby.