Have you ever found yourself sitting down at your computer screen, hands poised over the keyboard, staring blankly at the screen, and trying to find the appropriate words and thoughts for an upcoming presentation?
This month, my thanks to Vistage resource Bonnie Budzowski (bonnie@InCredibleMessages.com) for some great ideas on getting from the pen to the platform. She suggests three easy-to-follow rules.
Rule 1: Take a filmmaker’s perspective
Rather than approach your project from start to finish, do what filmmakers do. They work on one scene at the moment (one part of the presentation) and then come back later to edit it and line up all the scenes in the proper sequence. It’s kind of like putting together a picture puzzle where each little sub-part makes up the whole.
“Warming up” by envisioning a successful presentation is important. This entails visualizing, just like an actor does, what you want the desired effect to be. For example:
Do you believe your listener is going to be in a “tell-me-more-about-it” mode for a segment of your presentation? In other words, your task is to inform and lay out the facts. The rule of thumb is to not present more than three facts to support a point you are trying to make for this purpose.
Do you believe your listener is going to be in a “make-me-feel better” mode for a segment of your presentation? In this case, you need to think of words or illustrations that connote positive emotions and warm feelings.
Do you think your listener is going to be in a “convince me” mode for a segment of your presentation? If so, use deductive logic. For example, “if this is the case, and that is the case, and you want such-and-such, then the conclusion must be…”
Or do you think your listener wants to be in an “entertain me” mode for a segment of your presentation? This calls for using levity, fun and humor to accomplish this result.
The message here is that your intended audience will have expectations about your speech. Determining what you can do to meet them will significantly improve the impact of the presentation.
Again, follow the perspective of a filmmaker. Ask yourself how your different “scenes” can be put together in a logical flow that makes sense, from beginning to end. With each scene in its assigned order, ask yourself what additional supporting material for each scene makes sense. These may be in the form of examples, stories, case histories, statistics and so on.
If you’re Power Point-savvy, you’ll find “cut and paste” an invaluable tool to help you with this process. In effect, you’re shaping your final edited product, just as filmmakers and editors do for a major screen production. Guess what? It takes the pain out of thinking about, wrestling with and composing a traditional speech from start to finish!
Rule 2: Separate your filmmaker and editing tasks
The experts have known for a long time that filmmaking (putting your presentation together) and editing (changing what was created so it makes sense in the final analysis) need to occur at two different periods of time.
As Budzowski points out, two different areas of your brain are being called upon to complete each part of the process. This is probably not new to you.
The right brain is the creative, inventive, imaginative part of ourselves – the source of color, inspiration and motivation. But the right brain can be a bit of a maverick in terms of trying to make sense out of things.
The left brain is like a robot traffic cop in many respects. It checks for the order of things, what follows, what does not, and is almost like the “logical” critical parent.
This is why it’s important to do your filmmaking first, and your editing later — at least a day later, as Budzowski recommends.
Years ago, I worked for a department head at General Motors who was a key speech writer for Ed Cole, GM’s president. Several days before Cole was to deliver the speech, the speech writer would always run the general text of the speech before his group. The group dissected it and came back with suggestions to help it make more sense for the rank and file. He understood this second rule.
Rule 3: Divide preparation time into equal parts
Let’s suppose you don’t have the luxury of spending a lot of time preparing and rehearsing a speech. The key thing is to work with your brain, not against it.
The important task is to divide your project into three equal parts:
Use one-third of your time to develop questions (scenes) from the audience’s perspective, and then develop questions to answer them.
Use one-third of your time to write and complete the presentation draft, noting your opening, mid-section transitions and conclusion.
Use one-third of your time to “re-visualize” what you want the audience to hear — from their perspective, not yours. You should feel comfortable deleting or adding material. Finally, edit. Look hard transitions between points. Do they follow, make sense and appear seamless?
Take some time to “rest” between tackling each part. It will give you some left brain/right brain separation. Most importantly, you will be assured of a well-balanced preparation for the short amount of time you have to develop it.
Let’s face it. Creating, writing and revising the presentation — then delivering it — is an arduous task for most of us. But the tips offered here will help you, and make it fun in the process.
Until next month, speak well and win your own private Oscar!
