18 Tips for Killer Presentations

  

Jerry Seinfeld has a skit where he points out that studies show public speaking is a bigger fear than death. That means, he claims, that if you are going to a funeral you are better off in the casket than doing the eulogy. While there isn’t a lot you can do to melt away your anxiety, the best start is simply to make a better presentation.

Becoming a competent, rather than just confident, speaker requires a lot of practice. But here are a few things you can consider to start sharpening your presentation skills:

1. 10-20-30 Rule - This is a slideshow rule offered by Guy Kawasaki. This rule states that a PowerPoint presentation should have no more than 10 slides, last no longer than 20 minutes and have no text less than 30 point font.
2. Be Entertaining - Speeches should be entertaining and informative. I’m not saying you should act like a dancing monkey when giving a serious presentation. But unlike an e-mail or article, people expect some appeal to their emotions. Simply reciting dry facts without any passion or humor will make people less likely to pay attention.
3. Slow Down - Nervous and inexperienced speakers tend to talk way to fast. Consciously slow your speech down and add pauses for emphasis.
4. Eye Contact - Match eye contact with everyone in the room. Salespeople say that you shouldn’t focus all your attention on the decision maker since secretaries and assistants in the room may hold persuasive sway over their boss. In non-sales meetings, you are trying to gain support and buy-in from everyone not just the key decision maker.  
5. 15 Word Summary - Can you summarize your idea in fifteen words? If not, put it on paper and try to condense. Speaking is an inefficient medium for communicating important information that needs to be retained, so know what the most important fifteen words are so that they can be repeated.
6. 20-20 Rule - Another suggestion for slideshows. This one says that you should have twenty slides each lasting exactly twenty seconds. The 20-20 Rule forces you to be concise and to keep from boring people.
7. Don’t Read - This one is a no brainer, but somehow PowerPoint makes people think they can get away with it. If you don’t know your speech without cues, that doesn’t just make you more distracting, it shows that you don’t really understand your message.
8. Speeches are About Stories - If your presentation is going to be a longer one, explain your points through short stories, quips and anecdotes. Great speakers know how to use a story to create an emotional connection between ideas for the audience. Imagine your PowerPoint as a comic book. Each slide tells the reader part of the story and they all connect in a way that tells the overall story.
9. Project Your Voice - Nothing is worse than a speaker you can’t hear. Even in the high-tech world of microphones and amplifiers, you need to be heard. Projecting your voice doesn’t mean yelling, rather standing up straight and letting your voice resonate using the air in your lungs rather than in the throat to produce a clearer sound.
10. Don’t Plan Gestures - Any gestures you use need to be an extension of your message and any emotions that message conveys. Planned gestures look false because they don’t match your other involuntary body cues. You are better off keeping your hands to your side.
11. “That’s a Good Question” - You can use statements like, “that’s a really good question,” or “I’m glad you asked that,” If you are presenting and open for Q&A, those statements might give you an extra second or two so you can pause and formulate a response. If you are facilitating, these statements are good transitions to throw the question back out to the group and generate discussion.
12. Breathe In Not Out - Feeling the urge to use presentation killers like ‘um,’ ‘ah,’ or ‘you know’? Replace those with a pause taking a short breath in. The pause may seem a bit awkward, but the audience will barely notice it.
13. Come Early, Really Early - Don’t fumble with PowerPoint or hooking up a projector when people are waiting for you to speak. Come early, scope out the room, run through your slideshow and make sure there won’t be any glitches. Preparation can do a lot to remove your speaking anxiety.
14. Get Practice - Join Toastmasters and practice your speaking skills regularly in front of an audience. Not only is it a fun time, but it will make you more competent and confident when you need to approach the podium.
15. Don’t Apologize - Apologies are only useful if you’ve done something wrong. Don’t use them to excuse incompetence or humble yourself in front of an audience. Don’t apologize for your nervousness or a lack of preparation time. Most audience members can’t detect your anxiety, so don’t draw attention to it.
16. Do Apologize if You’re Wrong - One caveat to the above rule is that you should apologize if you are late or shown to be incorrect. You want to seem confident, but don’t be a jerk about it.
17. Put Yourself in the Audience - When writing a speech, see it from the audience’s perspective. What might they not understand? What might seem boring? Use WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) to guide you.
18. Have Fun - Sounds impossible? With a little practice you can inject your passion for a subject into your presentations. Enthusiasm is contagious.

Determine the Root Cause: 5 Why’s

Asking “Why?” isn't just something your three-year-old child does to drive you crazy it could also teach you a valuable quality improvement lesson. 

The 5 Why’s is a technique used in determining the root cause of a problem and can be used during any improvement effort, including during the Analyze phase of the Six Sigma DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) methodology. 

 Repeatedly asking the question “Why” (five is a good rule of thumb), can peel away the layers leading to the root cause of a problem. Very often the answer to the question “why” will lead you to another question. 

Although this technique is called “5 Why’s,” you may find that you'll need to ask the question fewer or even more times than five before you find the base issue related to a problem. 

How to Complete the 5 Whys 

1. Write down the specific problem. Although writing the issue down is not required, it helps you formalize the problem and describe it completely, it also helps a team focus on the same problem 

2. Ask why the problem happens and write the answer down below the problem. A written response serves the same focusing purposes 

3. If the answer you just provided doesn’t identify the root cause of the problem that you wrote down in Step 1, ask why again and write that answer down 

4. Repeat step 3 until the team agrees that the problem’s root cause is identified. Again, this may take fewer or more times than 5 Whys. 

 Best 5 Why’s Example The national park service was over budget on a regular basis so they called in some consultants. The consultants held a meeting in which they started asking why? 

Q. Why is the park service regularly over budget? 

A. Because resurfacing the Jefferson Memorial has to be done more frequently than anticipated. 

Q. Why does the Jefferson memorial have to be resurfaced so often? 

A. Because it has to be power washed weekly and the surface of the monument is damaged. 

Q. Why does it have to be power washed weekly? 

A. Because it collects excessive bird droppings. 

Q. Why does it collect excessive bird droppings? 

A. Because the birds are always there. 

Q. Why are the birds always there? 

A. They like to eat the spiders that are in abundance. 

Q. Why are the spiders in abundance? 

A. They like to eat a small fly like creature called a midge that swarm around the memorial in the evening. 

Q. Why do the midges swarm around the memorial in the evening? 

A. They are attracted to the lights on the memorial and the Jefferson memorial turns on it lights earlier than other memorials. 

So it turns out that the solution being over budget so frequently, was to turn the lights on a little bit later in the evening. 

SIPOC

The SIPOC is a tool used in process improvement efforts. The action of creating a SIPOC for process doesn't belong to any particular methodology. The SIPOC was used in TQM, Quality Circles, it can be used as part of an evaluation of category 6 (process or operations) of the Baldridge Criteria for Performance Excellence, and it's also now used in Lean Six Sigma.

SIPOC stands for Supplier, Input, Process, Output & Customer and it's simply a tool used to identify and focus on those areas. With that level of identification in hand, other tools such as a force fiel analysis or process mapping can start and be built upon to achieve a degree of process improvement.

While S > I > P > O > C indicates a natural order surrounding or related to a process, and is easy to remember, it can be confusing to fill out a diagram in that order.  I have found a more practical method of developing a SIPOC based on a revised order and asking questions. This preferred method is to develop

My preferred method of filling it out is C O I S P.

C - Asking first "who receives our product?" (good or service)

O - Next "what is the product they receive?" (good or service) 

I - Next "what is used to make that good or service" (what raw material product(s) go into it) 

S - Next "who supplies that product?"


P - Finally "what are the general steps used to turn the input into the output?"

Note that when identifying the general steps in the process or the P, keep it to between 3 & 5. A process map, SOP or desk guide are better places to expand on the process. 

There you have your SIPOC. A snapshot of what is done and how its done. A collection of SIPOCS can be a good representation of an organization and can help in many ways.