Sunday, April 29, 2012

Framework for creating Great Presentations

Business Communication & Ethics - Week4 Summary, 4/29/12

Jack Welch MBA Program

This was another great week of learning.

What is amazing is how the learning level increases so sharply in going from reading a book, emphasizing with lectures, applying by doing the assignment, and quite importantly getting feedback from classmates and yourself.

I have gained ***a valuable framework to create a powerful presentation***.
Equally importantly I have learned to stay away from snoozer presentations.

The checklist I have created for my own use is shown below, synthesized from the class experience overall this week. This is what I will be using going forward before any presentation gets out my door.

In fact I have a major presentation at work on Tuesday and I am using this already !

Basic Method of Preparing for a Presentation
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1. Goal - Nourish the needs of audience
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     Force open a wider view for the audience with all your might and help audience learn
     Make the audience walk out the door transformed - deliver, enlighten, contribute, with new value
     Make it actionable - Cut out background stuff; Tell people what they need to do

2. Topic - Choose the right topic with something new and relevant
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3. Audience - Know the audience & tune the presentation
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4. Content - Grab attention with hooks to heart and mind
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   * Make mental connection with logic
   * Make emotional connection
   * Make it a major showcase of brains, talent, ability to lead
   * Clean up chart junk
   * Pay particular attention to opening and ending effectively

5. Kinds of info of greatest use to audience are
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A warning - "this will soon affect you, so consider using..."
A customer insight - "seeing signs of customer flight...here are steps to take"
A best practice - share a productivity boosting method
A tool - introduce a new productivity boosting tool
Lessons learned - "here is what I did wrong...what you can learn from this is"
Lessons learned - "how I handled a disaster crisis...here is something that might help you"
Teaching vehicle - "here is how we succeeded...you can use this and save yourself time"
Report card - "here is how I rate this experience...here is a structure for the future"

6. Presentation T ups
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Provoke, interest, impress

7. Presentations that cannot fail
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Brevity - State how brief you will be
Useful- How important you believe what you are about to say will be
Deliver - Keep the promise and deliver the goods
Grab - Draw the audience away from their laptops, blackberrys

8. Recognize that the audience is Jaded, Bored, Fatigued, Distracted
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Keep it short & Give it your all


Week4, Lecture 1
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1. Develop the skill to present well - sell others on fresh new ideas that really matter
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2. "If you can't present, you can't lead", Larry Bossidy, CEO Honeywell
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3. Hallmarks of a bad presentation are
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- nothing is changed: status quo
- little is learned: vague, dense, irrelevant
- failure is concealed
- perfunctory powerpoints
- disengaged with buzzwords & jargons
- endless slides with data & droning: draining data dump
- uninspiring snoozers that bore everyone with recitation, recycled jargon
- busy dreadful unreadable charts
- has material of little interest or use to anyone
- helps no one (audience walks out yawning, scornful, bored to death)

4. Presentation must be a call for change
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Objective is to be a learning organization that is:
Smart - constantly gets smarter
Productive - becomes more productive
Exciting - becomes a more exciting place to work for

5. Learning organizations
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share ideas (not hoard them)
high potentials help each other by sharing what they learned (not try to look smarter vs colleagues)
admit mistakes & failures (don't gloss over them with sugar coating)
capitalize on the teachings

6. Think about a radically different way to present
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Walk in the room, stand up, deliver a Tour de Force 8 minutes pitch that changes the way audience sees the world; is able to make them see real value

Week4, Lecture2
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Step1. Understand that your presentation is a big deal
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People evaluate you
See it as a grand opportunity, seize the chance and differentiate

Step2. Put in the time - show you give a damn
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Stun with the quality of your thoughts, insights, efforts, intensity

Step3. Never face strangers
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Get an idea of every single person in the room, care about their opinions
Ask for inputs - what would they like to hear
Link it to what you know

Step4. Anticipate the right type of key questions the presentation must answer
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Are we wasting time ?
Do we need to change our approach ?
What are the biggest blocks to our productivity ? What can we do about them ?

Step5. Reflect on the project
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Sit in a quiet room
What have you learned that could help others ?
Do you have any small insights ?
Is this a waste of time ? why ?

Step6. Write down your ideas
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Come up with your own views - write in a notebook

Genius is that which makes the complex look simple.
This class is pure genius as it sets me on a direction that will enable me to reap rewards for the rest of my life with much improved presentations.

Dr DP

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