Change The Way You Create Your Presentations

Powerpoint is one of the most powerful tools for helping an audience understand and remember your message, yet for most presenters it is one of the main reasons that your presentations are boring and a waste of time for you and your listeners.

The trick to engaging your listeners and killing the boredom factor is to change the way you work with slides. Stop thinking of them as a great place to put your notes just in case you forget or a multi-purpose document that can be a presentation and also a handout for anyone who missed your presentation.

Step 1: Write the Script of Your Presentation

When our boss asks us to prepare a presentation, most of us open up Powerpoint or Keynote and start typing. This is the quick and easy way to boring slides.

Instead, don't go anywhere near Powerpoint until you're clear about what you want to say. By doing this you will be able to design slides that will reinforce what you want your audience to understand.

Step 2: Do I Need Slides?

Not all presentations require slides.

This is important so I'll repeat it, not all presentations require slides. There are other ways to convey information to an audience, you can tell stories, use props and visual aids or simply talk to your audience.

Look at your script and ask yourself "what is the best way for me to deliver this information?". If after considering all the options you think that slides might help your audience understand your message then continue to step 3

Step 3: Decide on Where You Need a Slide

Look through your script and highlight the key pieces of information that you want your audience to remember. Think about what the best ways to convey that information to the audience. Decide where using a story, visual aid or powerpoint slide will add strength or clarity to that information. Be ruthless here, if you don't absolutely have to have a slide then don't use one.

Step 4: Choose Your Words

By now you should have cut down your potential slide deck into a small set of ideas and information. For each piece of information summarise it in a few words or a sentence, your audience don't need your full script, just the essence. Ideally each slide should have no more than 10-15 words.

Step 5: Use Images

Images on slides are an amazing way to add power to your ideas. If you want to stand out from your colleagues, use images. If you want your audience to easily understand your ideas, use images. If you want to help them remember your core ideas, use images.

Remember

The next time you create a presentation remember to think about the most effective way to convey your ideas to your audience, if you decide that you need slides to do this then keep the text to a minimum and use images.

Image credits:

Step 1: Kris Krüg for PopTech(Flickr), Step 2: John Santerre for PopTech (Flickr),

Step 3: Thatcher Cook for PopTech(Flickr), Step 4: Thatcher Cook for PopTech (Flickr),

Step 5: Thatcher Cook for PopTech (Flickr), Remember: Kris Krüg for PopTech (Flickr)