[Tips] Slow Down

One of the common…. not mistakes, not even issues, but, well, things we see… is nervous presenters speaking at a breakneck speed. It is probably a side-effect of all the adrenaline that is surging through the body, perhaps combined with the knowledge that the clock is ticking. Or maybe it is simply born a desire to get off the stage. Whatever the cause, people tend to speak fast when they get in front of a crowd.

Speaking fast has several drawbacks. First, you (as the speaker) are more likely to stumble over your words and become more nervous because you feel that you are making a fool of yourself (you’re not, but you feel that way). Second, speaking quickly makes it very difficult for people to understand you, especially people for whom your first language is not theirs (I have been a chief offender on that one).

But perhaps the biggest drawback of speaking quickly is that it is simply exhausting for the audience. Remember, you set the tone for the audience – if you are bored, the audience will be bored. If you are excited, the audience will get excited. And if you are going at a mile-a-minute pace, well, your audience has to also just to follow along. And that gets tiring.

What brought this on? Well, today I came across a talk by Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame. I love the show, and enjoy sitting and watching it with my kids. And I quite like Adam – he has a quirkiness and sense of fun that comes across positively.

So when I found out he had a TED talk, I watched it right away. It reveals a lot of interesting things about Adam, but for me it was mostly exhausting. I think Adam took three breaths through twenty minutes. Maybe. And two happened while I wasn’t looking. Don’t believe me? Check it out yourself:

See? Exhausting. A wonderful topic, good use of visuals, palpable enthusiasm… but waaaayyyy too fast.

So, unless you can pull it off at least as well as Adam Savage, do your audience a favor and slow down.

[Tips] The sound of silence

Most people are afraid of silence – “dead air” as the radio types call it – and use crutch word such as “um” and “ah” to fill the vacuum. You shouldn’t be afraid though – silence is actually a gift

Silence – a gap in the speaking – actually draws people’s attention. People whose attention has wandered will focus back on the speaker. People who have been listening, pay more attention. The implicit expectation is that what follows is important, that the speaker is collecting her thoughts to deliver with maximum impact.

So don’t be afraid of a little silence. Use it, and you shall be rewarded.

[Techniques] Using analogies

The other day I was reading an article about possible water shortages in the future. Now, I have to admit that I have always kind of blown these stories off. I grew up next to a river and 15 minutes from a lake. I went to university about 2 hours drive from a number of glaciers, and the spring flood in town was an annual ritual. My first post-doc was at the juncture of two large lakes, and for my second post-doc I lived on the rainy side of the island of Hawaii.

So the idea of a water shortage seemed to be a bit of, well, fear mongering or something. It certainly didn’t seem real, and although intellectually I could see it being a problem in some parts of the world it certainly wasn’t something that affected, well, me.

But this article quoted a scientist who finally got me to understand, and he did it through an analogy.

In Canada, where I live, we are blessed with abundant water. But the water supply (located in the north, away from the major population centers) was deposited thousands of years ago by retreating glaciers at the end of the last ice age; this is the water that we are using up and that is not being replenished. The analogy that the scientist made was to consider the water supply as our retirement account. The water initially deposited by the glaciers is the initial principal, and the interest on the account is the water re-deposited by rain. Given this set-up, the scientist made the point that we are currently spending our principal, and the interest is not enough to make up for the spending. The inevitable result – someday we will run out of principal…. water.

I found this to be a powerful analogy in a couple of ways. First, it was easily accessible to everyone – scientist or not – as it relates to a situation that we all have to consider in our financial planning. Secondly, by using this analogy the scientist was able to bypass the skepticism that I held relating to the water supply, and if I accepted the analogy I had to accept (or at least think about) the conclusion – that we do indeed need to better manage our water supplies or risk running our account – and our country – dry.

Those two conclusions show the power of analogies. They can help make a difficult concept easier to understand, and they can potentially help make a contentious point more palatable. Perhaps there are other uses – can you think of any?

[Techniques] What’s the point?

No, I’m not getting existential on you – I’m asking a straight-up question:

What’s your point?

We’ve all been there. Sitting in a lecture or meeting, listening to the speaker and wondering “why is he telling me this?”

This question – and others like it – results from a talk that does not have a well-defined point. Such talks tend to be aimless, and people subjected to them end up paying extra attention to their Blackberrys and laptops. Bottom line – they are a waste of everybody’s time.

The cure, of course, lies with the presenter. The very first thing that a presenter needs to do – before putting a single slide together, before looking at a format for the talk, before even sitting in front of the computer to begin drafting the presentation – is to figure out what, exactly, the point of the presentation will be.

Now, this is not as simple as it might sound. You have to think about not just what you want to say, but you also have to think about the audience. Who is the audience, what is it that they care about, what level of knowledge and understanding do they bring to the table – all of these need to be considered first up. After all, if you are not addressing their needs, then they are not listening, and you are wasting everyones time.

Having understood the audience, the next step is to decide, exactly, what the point of your talk is. Be specific. Not “I will update them on my current work.” Instead, “I will discuss how this specific bit of work yielded this result, and this is important to my audience because of this reason.” This will give your presentation a target: something you can aim at, and something your audience will follow and understand.

And the Blackberrys can wait until the next speaker.

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It only seems fitting to get that off my chest as my first post to this blog. After all you, dear reader, may be asking the same question of me. So here is my point

I want to help make you a better presenter.

My goal is to help you improve your presentations – whether at a scientific conference, a design review with clients, or a meeting with management – by giving you advice, tips, and examples. I will point out good presentations that I find on the ‘net, and I will point you at what I think is good advice given by others.

Sure, there are other resources out there for public speaking, but few are directed at the technical speaker – the scientists, engineers, technicians, and technical managers. I will help fill that gap.