Secrets Of A Good Presentation (Part 1 of 3)

Composing a presentation can be as simple as throwing all the relevant data into a slideshow, and then shoving them down the throats of your audience. At least that’s what most of the presenters would do. However, if you want to stand out among your peers, then you’ll have to do something that they wouldn’t have thought of doing – preparing a good presentation.

SECRETS OF GOOD PRESENTATIONS-1

What Makes A Good Presentation Is Divided Into Three Basic Parts :-

  1. How People Learn
  2. Core Components
  3. Creating Impact

So if you compose your presentation with all three of these parts in it, you’ll be guaranteed of not only coming up with an interesting and exciting presentation, but also have a sticky message that your audience will remember for a long time to come.

Secret 1

Before you even think of compiling all of your facts and data into your slide show, you first must understand how people learn. What is the process of learning? And how do people receive, process and remember things that they learn?

It turns out that people generally learn in three distinctively different pathways of complementing, and increasing effectiveness.

(1) Hearing

The most basic level of learning, as well as also the most prevalent method, is by listening to a set of instruction conveyed by the teacher, trainer, instructor, or simply somebody who knows more about the topic at hand than ourselves. We all receive a set of verbal instructions just by simply listening to the instructions itself, process the verbal instructions, and then translate it into something that we can understand, or a set of actions that we can perform.

For example, back when you were a toddler, and you were attracted to everything bright and shiny. Your mother tells you not to touch the shiny kettle on the stove. If you do, you’ll burn your hand on it. This is a very basic level of learning, just by simply listening to the verbal instruction that your mother gave to you.

The message is simple – Don’t touch the kettle.

And if you do – You’ll burn your hand.

Nothing could be simpler than that. Message and consequence are delivered in that few simple sentences – If you see that shiny and bright kettle on the stove, do not touch it.

So, before you even think of how to assemble all of the information into your presentation, think of how your audience will be hearing it from your mouth. Is it in a language that they understand? Are you using any technical jargons? Is your message simple enough to go through to them? Always remember, the simpler the sentences, the less the brain has to work to translate them. And that the brain is a lazy piece of meat that doesn’t like a lot of hard work. So if you force it to work hard to translate your jargon-filled sentences, it will lose its attention very quickly, and move away from your message.




(2) Visual

Next level up is visual learning. While it can function independently on its own, visual learning usually serves as an enhancement to verbal learning. You listen to the verbal instructions, and at the same time, you see an accompanying visual presentation to enhance your understanding on the earlier verbal instructions.

Just like when your mother tells you not to touch the shiny kettle on the stove, you probably don’t fully comprehend the seriousness of the message, or worse, choose not to believe it. So what do you do? You call your little brother to come along, and tell him to touch the kettle instead…

The result? Well, your little brother is screaming in pain, having had his hand burnt on contact with the kettle. As for you, seeing your little brother screaming in pain enhances the verbal message that you heard from your mother earlier. In this case, the visual learning enhances the understanding of the verbal message. Your eyes confirm what your ears heard earlier.

Henceforth, a presentation is never complete without a visual slideshow. And a good presentation is never complete without an even better slideshow than your competitors.

(3) Kinaesthetic

No, it’s not kinetic… Kinetic is a form of energy, the energy of a moving body. Kinaesthetic, on the other hand, is the learning through touch and feel. And just like learning through visual means, it enhances further what your audience can learn from your presentation through your verbal delivery and your visual slide show.

Telling your audience something is the basic method of conveying a message. Showing them how it is done enhances your verbal delivery, and makes your message sticks longer in their brains. Letting them physically handle your sample seals their understanding of your message, and boost your message stickiness to the maximum.

So back to the story of you and the shiny kettle – You hear your mother tell you not to touch the kettle. You see your little brother burn his hand upon touching the shiny kettle. But do these messages really stick in your brain? No… Nothing will stick the message that you will burn your hand into your long-term memory other than touching the shiny new kettle yourself… And that is how you learn by kinaesthetic methods.

Ever wonder why successful retail businesses always have sample products sitting on the counter tops for you to play with when you visit them?

And that concludes the first part of the Secrets Of A Good Presentation – How People Learn. Come back and visit us for the next part – Core Components of a good presentation.

2 Replies to “Secrets Of A Good Presentation (Part 1 of 3)”

  1. Pingback: Secrets Of A Good Presentation (Part 2 of 3) - Solarex Imaging

  2. Pingback: Secrets Of A Good Presentation (Part 3 of 3) - Solarex Imaging

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