How to Give the Best Pesentation of Your Life - Without Powerpoint

Want to be the best presenter in your company? Ditch the slides and spend your time writing and practicing to deliver a great story.

There is a quiet revolution underway in the presentation rooms of the world. Slowly, the standard presentation known as “death by Powerpoint” - slide after slide of bullet points, clip art and endless reams of data - is being replaced by skilled presenters backed by supportive visuals. If you haven’t already seen any, there are outstanding resources out there that you should look at if you ever step in front of a group to present. Garr Reynoyds’ site Presentation Zen and his book by the same name are my favorite resources. I also have a copy of Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson, which takes an excellent look at presentations as storytelling. Watching great presentations on-line is well-spent professional development time.

In becoming a better presenter there is a danger though- one I alluded to in my post on how to be more effective by focusing on getting the one most important thing done. In it I made the point that it is all too common to avoid the most important thing, often because we don’t feel comfortable dealing with it. How does this apply to presentations? 99% of people trying to improve their presentations do so by working on improving their slides. Even if you had Garr Reynolds himself at your disposal, creating better slides is not the most important thing to do, for the vast majority of us, if you want to become a better presenter. In fact, it just might be a better use of your time to show up with no slides at all!

For almost everyone, the best thing that can be done to make better presentations is to practice. Rehearse your presentation so that it becomes a natural dialogue with your audience and you will be a better presenter than almost anyone. It is not about memorizing your list of bullet points and slide titles. And please - it is never about reading your slides to the audience - it is about being able to get up and tell a story. Create a conversation. Be a teacher.

Take a few minutes and consider - what is it that makes the vast majority of speakers absolutely mind-numbing and sleep inducing? What are the failings of the worst presentations that you have seen? Remove all those things and what is left? A story. And in a great presentation, a masterful storyteller who could engage a room without a projector and a deck of slides.

For the next presentation you have to give, start well in advance and prepare a story that you can tell without the aid of slides. When you are ready - practice. Practice, practice and practice until it is a natural presentation done without aid. Practice in front of trusted colleagues who will honestly evaluate your message and your delivery. Do you think Steve Jobs gives keynotes off the top of his head? Did Al Gore shoot An Inconvenient Truth on the first take, off the cuff? Yet, so many people will spend hour after hour refining their bullet point laden slide decks, and then assume that they can get up in front of their peers - or worse their superiors - and speak to them without any practice. As if the point of the slides is to remind them what to say next.

Now I’m not suggesting that you get up in front of a group without aid of any visuals. Follow the advice of Presentation Zen and you will impress. What I am suggesting, is that if you took as much time preparing a good story and the ability to deliver it as you take to make slides, you would deliver the best presentation of your life.

Tomorrow: Everyone can benefit from mastering presentation skills.

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