Post by sumiseo558899 on Nov 9, 2024 22:52:49 GMT -5
For an employee whose job does not involve speaking, the preparation process is often non-linear: slides, a story, more slides (it turns out you want to talk about something else), more story (with funny pictures you found), and so on without stopping. This cycle is nerve-wracking and often leads to a refusal to speak at the slightest opportunity.
Over the past year, our staff has become increasingly involved in speaking engagements, so Original Works has been working on developing a guide to preparing for speaking engagements.
If you are not a professional content writing service speaker, but you want or need to speak, then below we will consider a list of the main points of preparation that we recommend you go through, especially if you are speaking for the first time. The ultimate goal is to show the most important things, to give a “road map” so that a novice speaker can understand which points he needs to work out in more detail. The most persistent readers will find a checklist for preparing for speeches at the end of the article, where we have collected the main points.
Now let's look at each preparation point in more detail.
1. Decide what, to whom and why we are telling
At this stage, you need to clearly connect the purpose of the speech, the topic of the report and the audience. What is primary here is a difficult question. It is better to consider these questions in an inseparable connection with each other. Understanding the goals and reasons for the speech will help to correctly build the structure of the presentation, select examples and place emphasis in the right places.
news
Emotional portrait of the audience of the report on legal risks of entrepreneurs in social networks
Now in more detail:
Objectives of the speech
The more precise and simple the answers, the stronger the presentation:
What is the main idea of your report?
What should the audience ultimately do, learn?
As a result, you should have the main message of the speech, which will run like a red thread through the entire report.
Public speaking is a skill, so I recommend setting personal goals to improve yourself as a speaker. For example: at this speech I will address the audience more often, at the next one I will monitor the pace of my speech.
Who is my audience?
To match the topic of the report with the needs of the audience, you need to understand:
Who will be at the performance?
What is special about the listeners?
Why will the report be of interest to the public?
To describe the target audience, we use Dave Gray's Empathy Map . It helps us systematize the key characteristics of the audience and understand where the presentation can be strengthened.
Where to get information for creating the Map: brainstorming sessions with colleagues; surveys of friends and acquaintances similar to the target audience; customer questionnaires; surveys of future listeners; publications on thematic platforms; posts and comments on social networks.
news
Updated Dave Gray Empathy Map Template
Important: the speaker does not always have the opportunity to know exactly how advanced the audience is in the topic of the report. The solution is to calibrate the presentation as you go along with the questions “Raise your hands, who has heard of this service? And who has used it?”
If there are experts in the audience, you can safely consider practical issues, go into detail, show complex diagrams and infographics.
Event format
At this stage, it is important to understand where exactly you are going to speak. The perception of the speech also depends on the context. Here are some steps to help fine-tune the speech:
Find out which speakers are speaking at the event (especially before and after you) and what topics they will cover.
Look at the reports from last year (if the conference is annual), reports on similar topics, to get an idea of the level of presentations.
Read reviews on social networks using hashtags. Conference participants usually share their impressions of the event, highlighting specific speakers.
Talk to the conference curators and organizers - this can help you build the line of your presentation and place the right emphasis.
Agree on how the event host will announce you.
2. We make a story plan and test it
If you make your slides first (or grab some ready-made ones from a presentation that the marketing department dumped on you) and start rehearsing the day before your presentation, you run the risk of finding out that the story has taken on a life of its own, separate from the presentation.
It's more effective to prepare in an Agile manner: work in small sprints, adding a test run of the presentation in front of a live audience at each stage, as if the presentation were tomorrow.
So, we have an understanding of what, to whom and why we are telling. Let's move on.
Story outline
We sketch out a plan for the speech and test the sketches on acquaintances, ideally close to the target audience. No slides or special effects - just a story. Surprisingly, this stage is often skipped and they start with searching for pictures.
After the run-through of the performance it will become clear:
what to correct in the story;
how the audience perceives the topic;
what presentation format would be optimal;
what you will need on stage (flipchart, markers, video).
Presentation format
There are very specific stages of acquiring knowledge: knowledge → skills (mastered ability to perform actions efficiently) → skill (skills brought to automatism). The second two points are impossible without practice.
On average, an expert's report at a conference takes 40-45 minutes at most. During this time, you can give new knowledge, convince of something, show the audience what is useful in a specific area.
You can share a few tricks, secrets, life hacks that the listeners are ready for, but teaching the audience something new during this time is a very utopian idea.
If you add to this that the brain will forget 60% of the information within an hour, by choosing the right presentation format, you can make the report more useful for the listener.
news
The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve shows a sharp drop in recall efficiency immediately after learning, followed by a slow, gradual forgetting of the material.
An example of a mismatch between the topic, task and audience: the speaker, without specifying who his listeners are, tells how to set up contextual advertising in great detail. Most of those present are marketing directors who outsource these services and have not set up anything themselves for a long time.
Presentation structure: classic
Only after the first public testing of the topic do we build up the “meat” of the report: we think about the structure, select the content.
Pictures won't save the presentation if it doesn't have a clear, logical structure: successful memes will certainly be laughed at, but nothing will remain in the audience's memory.
There are many models for assembling a presentation structure. Perhaps the most popular is:
Introduction/setting up (we talk about ourselves, the company, the topic of the report).
Problem (client's pain, introduce the main characters, antiheroes, lead to conflict).
Solution/conclusion (the main part, the most voluminous).
Call to action.
It is impossible to get into the “pain” of everyone present. And the “find the client’s pain” approach is so widely used that listeners easily detect when the speaker uses this technique. If you can, be more inventive with the topic of “TA pain”.
When preparing the structure, it is convenient to assemble it using stickers or a mindmap - elements can be easily replaced or swapped.
news
We have put together the structure of the future report “The Colander Site or Where Your Money Goes”
"Is it possible without pain?" alternative structure
Business consultant Andy Raskin offers a structure for a presentation that avoids obvious client focus and engaging “About Us” stories.
The presentation in this case is similar to the script for a BBC film:
talk about the changes that are happening in the world;
to show how these changes affect the world and the target audience in particular;
visualize the ideal future;
tell about a service/product that will bring the ideal future closer;
provide evidence that you can actually help.
3. Make a storyboard
So, the story plan is ready, we have taken the feedback from the audience - we start storyboarding the future performance, like real directors. We do not work out the slides in detail, but we figure out which images will enhance the story.
Once again. We don’t collect ready-made slides, we don’t waste time on aligning headings, we just connect: structure – story – visualization.
news
Using directors' tools to prepare presentations
We show/tell the finished storyboard to the working group, collect feedback, and record insights.
4. Design the slides
When you have a clear understanding of the goals of the presentation, the Client Empathy Map is developed, the structure of the story is clear, then the presentation design takes much less time and effort.
news
Nancy Duarte's Slide:ology is about how to communicate your idea to the listener, persuade and inspire
Design
The purpose of this article is to cover the step-by-step process of preparing for a presentation, so it makes sense to cover the detailed topic of presentation slide design in a separate article.
Let me briefly highlight the points we are trying to keep in focus at this stage:
more pictures and less text;
stories and visualizations with humor are better remembered;
diagrams, infographics for ideas that are already understood;
several interim summaries during the presentation;
one thought - one slide;
no more than three fonts per presentation;
text and graphics are visible from the last rows;
align to grid;
we adhere to the corporate style;
All illustrations are in the same style.
First slide
The slide that most presentations start with is important — “About us / About me.” In these seconds, listeners decide whether it’s worth spending time on this speaker. If they fail to grab the attention of the audience, they’ll go to their gadgets or take a break.
Try to tell about yourself through the prism of the interests and needs of the audience: so that your experience and portfolio are in tune with the tasks of those present. Choose words, examples, phrases that will resonate with the audience - the Empathy Map will help.
Use the first slide to voice and work through possible doubts and stereotypes of the audience (“too young,” “not enough experience”). Clearly, objectively, and with a bit of self-irony.
And remember the principle of “social proof”: we are more willing to listen to a speaker who is in demand, is published in significant media, is a member of a professional association, has awards, diplomas, certificates, is the author of a book or a popular blog.
Coffee "cup" and road map
After the introduction, the speaker usually says what his report is about and what exactly he plans to talk about during his speech. Many speakers make the mistake of going straight to the problem and solution.
Carmine Gallo, in his book iPresentation, makes a great analogy with a cup of coffee: "An investor once told me, 'You need to create a new space in my brain so I have a place to put your information. I switch off immediately when an entrepreneur starts pitching a solution without explaining the problem. They have coffee - their idea - but they don't have a cup to hand it to me.'"
news
Carmine Gallo, a public speaking coach and journalist, studied all of Steve Jobs' presentations, analyzed his methods, and compiled his findings in his book
The speaker’s task at the very beginning is to create a “cup” – introduce the category, voice the problem, and only then offer coffee.
At this stage, give the user a roadmap of the speech - highlight 3-4 main points of the speech and tell the audience about them. Listeners will understand at any time where they are in the story, it will be easier to follow the speech and perceive information.
Conclusion or super offer
A speech is a story, and a popular story should have a bright and clear ending, like a good blockbuster (not like an art-house film).
At the very beginning of preparation, we set goals for the presentation, looking for answers to the questions “what do I want the audience to do/understand/remember?”
End your presentation with an offer for the audience that will work towards these goals: discounts and bonuses, special conditions, useful materials, and so on.
Access code - a little about perception
In a large audience there are necessarily not only visual learners, but also auditory and kinesthetic learners. Each has their own access code:
For visual learners, a clear picture is important - we visualize the information, draw it on a flipchart, engage with the help of special questions that use their "native" channel of perception: "Can you see well, is there enough light?"
For auditory learners, sound variety is critical: clear speech with pauses, changes in intonation, timbre of voice, special words like “listen”, “I’ll tell you”, “sounds”.
For kinesthetic learners, it is important to use the sphere of sensations and movement: ask them to do a simple action (raise their hand or nod in response to a question), suggest sitting comfortably, opening handouts, making notes in a notebook), gesticulate, move around in space. If you ask the audience to raise their hand, start with yourself so that the mirroring technique works.
5. Rehearse
news
The Original Works team improves public speaking skills in master classes
During home rehearsals, we set the task of pumping up the voice, posture, and gestures. The word "posture" appeared here for a reason: how the audience perceives the speaker depends very much on posture. Posture changes the speaker's voice, mood, and position.
Another task of rehearsals is to stick to the timing without losing the quality of the performance: set a countdown timer, monitor the pace of speech, and allow time for questions from the audience.
An effective way to practice your serve (not for the faint of heart) is to make videos of your performances, find your weak spots, and try again and again!
6. Getting to know the site
Make sure the venue is equipped with the necessary equipment for the performance. You can make a checklist in advance to check:
screen and its resolution (see how clear and bright the screen image is);
speakers, microphone, clicker;
flipchart, markers, magnets;
Is your internet powerful enough (if you plan to include online inserts);
Is it planned to videotape the reports?
Please check the status of the site in advance to allow time to resolve issues with the organizers.
At large events, time is usually allocated for a run-through of the speech so that the speaker can get acquainted with the stage. If you can’t get there in advance, ask the organizers to send a photo of the venue.
Advice: Try the clicker in action beforehand. Many novice speakers simply don’t know where to point the remote control or how to rewind slides. If the presentation has a lot of meaningful special effects, such frivolity can put an end to the performance.
When choosing a microphone, consider whether you need to attach the transmitting unit under your clothes. If you don’t want the audience to hear the dialogue with the sound engineer, take the speaker’s position as soon as you pick up the microphone or put on a lapel microphone (a microphone inserted into a lapel).
Over the past year, our staff has become increasingly involved in speaking engagements, so Original Works has been working on developing a guide to preparing for speaking engagements.
If you are not a professional content writing service speaker, but you want or need to speak, then below we will consider a list of the main points of preparation that we recommend you go through, especially if you are speaking for the first time. The ultimate goal is to show the most important things, to give a “road map” so that a novice speaker can understand which points he needs to work out in more detail. The most persistent readers will find a checklist for preparing for speeches at the end of the article, where we have collected the main points.
Now let's look at each preparation point in more detail.
1. Decide what, to whom and why we are telling
At this stage, you need to clearly connect the purpose of the speech, the topic of the report and the audience. What is primary here is a difficult question. It is better to consider these questions in an inseparable connection with each other. Understanding the goals and reasons for the speech will help to correctly build the structure of the presentation, select examples and place emphasis in the right places.
news
Emotional portrait of the audience of the report on legal risks of entrepreneurs in social networks
Now in more detail:
Objectives of the speech
The more precise and simple the answers, the stronger the presentation:
What is the main idea of your report?
What should the audience ultimately do, learn?
As a result, you should have the main message of the speech, which will run like a red thread through the entire report.
Public speaking is a skill, so I recommend setting personal goals to improve yourself as a speaker. For example: at this speech I will address the audience more often, at the next one I will monitor the pace of my speech.
Who is my audience?
To match the topic of the report with the needs of the audience, you need to understand:
Who will be at the performance?
What is special about the listeners?
Why will the report be of interest to the public?
To describe the target audience, we use Dave Gray's Empathy Map . It helps us systematize the key characteristics of the audience and understand where the presentation can be strengthened.
Where to get information for creating the Map: brainstorming sessions with colleagues; surveys of friends and acquaintances similar to the target audience; customer questionnaires; surveys of future listeners; publications on thematic platforms; posts and comments on social networks.
news
Updated Dave Gray Empathy Map Template
Important: the speaker does not always have the opportunity to know exactly how advanced the audience is in the topic of the report. The solution is to calibrate the presentation as you go along with the questions “Raise your hands, who has heard of this service? And who has used it?”
If there are experts in the audience, you can safely consider practical issues, go into detail, show complex diagrams and infographics.
Event format
At this stage, it is important to understand where exactly you are going to speak. The perception of the speech also depends on the context. Here are some steps to help fine-tune the speech:
Find out which speakers are speaking at the event (especially before and after you) and what topics they will cover.
Look at the reports from last year (if the conference is annual), reports on similar topics, to get an idea of the level of presentations.
Read reviews on social networks using hashtags. Conference participants usually share their impressions of the event, highlighting specific speakers.
Talk to the conference curators and organizers - this can help you build the line of your presentation and place the right emphasis.
Agree on how the event host will announce you.
2. We make a story plan and test it
If you make your slides first (or grab some ready-made ones from a presentation that the marketing department dumped on you) and start rehearsing the day before your presentation, you run the risk of finding out that the story has taken on a life of its own, separate from the presentation.
It's more effective to prepare in an Agile manner: work in small sprints, adding a test run of the presentation in front of a live audience at each stage, as if the presentation were tomorrow.
So, we have an understanding of what, to whom and why we are telling. Let's move on.
Story outline
We sketch out a plan for the speech and test the sketches on acquaintances, ideally close to the target audience. No slides or special effects - just a story. Surprisingly, this stage is often skipped and they start with searching for pictures.
After the run-through of the performance it will become clear:
what to correct in the story;
how the audience perceives the topic;
what presentation format would be optimal;
what you will need on stage (flipchart, markers, video).
Presentation format
There are very specific stages of acquiring knowledge: knowledge → skills (mastered ability to perform actions efficiently) → skill (skills brought to automatism). The second two points are impossible without practice.
On average, an expert's report at a conference takes 40-45 minutes at most. During this time, you can give new knowledge, convince of something, show the audience what is useful in a specific area.
You can share a few tricks, secrets, life hacks that the listeners are ready for, but teaching the audience something new during this time is a very utopian idea.
If you add to this that the brain will forget 60% of the information within an hour, by choosing the right presentation format, you can make the report more useful for the listener.
news
The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve shows a sharp drop in recall efficiency immediately after learning, followed by a slow, gradual forgetting of the material.
An example of a mismatch between the topic, task and audience: the speaker, without specifying who his listeners are, tells how to set up contextual advertising in great detail. Most of those present are marketing directors who outsource these services and have not set up anything themselves for a long time.
Presentation structure: classic
Only after the first public testing of the topic do we build up the “meat” of the report: we think about the structure, select the content.
Pictures won't save the presentation if it doesn't have a clear, logical structure: successful memes will certainly be laughed at, but nothing will remain in the audience's memory.
There are many models for assembling a presentation structure. Perhaps the most popular is:
Introduction/setting up (we talk about ourselves, the company, the topic of the report).
Problem (client's pain, introduce the main characters, antiheroes, lead to conflict).
Solution/conclusion (the main part, the most voluminous).
Call to action.
It is impossible to get into the “pain” of everyone present. And the “find the client’s pain” approach is so widely used that listeners easily detect when the speaker uses this technique. If you can, be more inventive with the topic of “TA pain”.
When preparing the structure, it is convenient to assemble it using stickers or a mindmap - elements can be easily replaced or swapped.
news
We have put together the structure of the future report “The Colander Site or Where Your Money Goes”
"Is it possible without pain?" alternative structure
Business consultant Andy Raskin offers a structure for a presentation that avoids obvious client focus and engaging “About Us” stories.
The presentation in this case is similar to the script for a BBC film:
talk about the changes that are happening in the world;
to show how these changes affect the world and the target audience in particular;
visualize the ideal future;
tell about a service/product that will bring the ideal future closer;
provide evidence that you can actually help.
3. Make a storyboard
So, the story plan is ready, we have taken the feedback from the audience - we start storyboarding the future performance, like real directors. We do not work out the slides in detail, but we figure out which images will enhance the story.
Once again. We don’t collect ready-made slides, we don’t waste time on aligning headings, we just connect: structure – story – visualization.
news
Using directors' tools to prepare presentations
We show/tell the finished storyboard to the working group, collect feedback, and record insights.
4. Design the slides
When you have a clear understanding of the goals of the presentation, the Client Empathy Map is developed, the structure of the story is clear, then the presentation design takes much less time and effort.
news
Nancy Duarte's Slide:ology is about how to communicate your idea to the listener, persuade and inspire
Design
The purpose of this article is to cover the step-by-step process of preparing for a presentation, so it makes sense to cover the detailed topic of presentation slide design in a separate article.
Let me briefly highlight the points we are trying to keep in focus at this stage:
more pictures and less text;
stories and visualizations with humor are better remembered;
diagrams, infographics for ideas that are already understood;
several interim summaries during the presentation;
one thought - one slide;
no more than three fonts per presentation;
text and graphics are visible from the last rows;
align to grid;
we adhere to the corporate style;
All illustrations are in the same style.
First slide
The slide that most presentations start with is important — “About us / About me.” In these seconds, listeners decide whether it’s worth spending time on this speaker. If they fail to grab the attention of the audience, they’ll go to their gadgets or take a break.
Try to tell about yourself through the prism of the interests and needs of the audience: so that your experience and portfolio are in tune with the tasks of those present. Choose words, examples, phrases that will resonate with the audience - the Empathy Map will help.
Use the first slide to voice and work through possible doubts and stereotypes of the audience (“too young,” “not enough experience”). Clearly, objectively, and with a bit of self-irony.
And remember the principle of “social proof”: we are more willing to listen to a speaker who is in demand, is published in significant media, is a member of a professional association, has awards, diplomas, certificates, is the author of a book or a popular blog.
Coffee "cup" and road map
After the introduction, the speaker usually says what his report is about and what exactly he plans to talk about during his speech. Many speakers make the mistake of going straight to the problem and solution.
Carmine Gallo, in his book iPresentation, makes a great analogy with a cup of coffee: "An investor once told me, 'You need to create a new space in my brain so I have a place to put your information. I switch off immediately when an entrepreneur starts pitching a solution without explaining the problem. They have coffee - their idea - but they don't have a cup to hand it to me.'"
news
Carmine Gallo, a public speaking coach and journalist, studied all of Steve Jobs' presentations, analyzed his methods, and compiled his findings in his book
The speaker’s task at the very beginning is to create a “cup” – introduce the category, voice the problem, and only then offer coffee.
At this stage, give the user a roadmap of the speech - highlight 3-4 main points of the speech and tell the audience about them. Listeners will understand at any time where they are in the story, it will be easier to follow the speech and perceive information.
Conclusion or super offer
A speech is a story, and a popular story should have a bright and clear ending, like a good blockbuster (not like an art-house film).
At the very beginning of preparation, we set goals for the presentation, looking for answers to the questions “what do I want the audience to do/understand/remember?”
End your presentation with an offer for the audience that will work towards these goals: discounts and bonuses, special conditions, useful materials, and so on.
Access code - a little about perception
In a large audience there are necessarily not only visual learners, but also auditory and kinesthetic learners. Each has their own access code:
For visual learners, a clear picture is important - we visualize the information, draw it on a flipchart, engage with the help of special questions that use their "native" channel of perception: "Can you see well, is there enough light?"
For auditory learners, sound variety is critical: clear speech with pauses, changes in intonation, timbre of voice, special words like “listen”, “I’ll tell you”, “sounds”.
For kinesthetic learners, it is important to use the sphere of sensations and movement: ask them to do a simple action (raise their hand or nod in response to a question), suggest sitting comfortably, opening handouts, making notes in a notebook), gesticulate, move around in space. If you ask the audience to raise their hand, start with yourself so that the mirroring technique works.
5. Rehearse
news
The Original Works team improves public speaking skills in master classes
During home rehearsals, we set the task of pumping up the voice, posture, and gestures. The word "posture" appeared here for a reason: how the audience perceives the speaker depends very much on posture. Posture changes the speaker's voice, mood, and position.
Another task of rehearsals is to stick to the timing without losing the quality of the performance: set a countdown timer, monitor the pace of speech, and allow time for questions from the audience.
An effective way to practice your serve (not for the faint of heart) is to make videos of your performances, find your weak spots, and try again and again!
6. Getting to know the site
Make sure the venue is equipped with the necessary equipment for the performance. You can make a checklist in advance to check:
screen and its resolution (see how clear and bright the screen image is);
speakers, microphone, clicker;
flipchart, markers, magnets;
Is your internet powerful enough (if you plan to include online inserts);
Is it planned to videotape the reports?
Please check the status of the site in advance to allow time to resolve issues with the organizers.
At large events, time is usually allocated for a run-through of the speech so that the speaker can get acquainted with the stage. If you can’t get there in advance, ask the organizers to send a photo of the venue.
Advice: Try the clicker in action beforehand. Many novice speakers simply don’t know where to point the remote control or how to rewind slides. If the presentation has a lot of meaningful special effects, such frivolity can put an end to the performance.
When choosing a microphone, consider whether you need to attach the transmitting unit under your clothes. If you don’t want the audience to hear the dialogue with the sound engineer, take the speaker’s position as soon as you pick up the microphone or put on a lapel microphone (a microphone inserted into a lapel).