The Essential Thing to Remember About Presentations Is That They Are Meetings

SYS364 A,B,C 001 PRESENTATIONS page 6 of 7

The essential thing to remember about presentations is that they are meetings. Meetings are expensive. And meetings are neither the best way to inform (use written materials to be read at reader's convenience) nor to persuade (use one-on-one, or even two-on-one, to persuade interactively). No, the only valid reason for the expensive luxury of meetings is the achievement of consensus amongst decision makers. When a meeting is held for the entire purpose of viewing a presentation, the onus is on the presenters to realize that their purpose is to aid the decision makers to achieve consensus, and to conduct their presentation in such a way that it fosters this purpose.

For many projects, presentations are the events which occur between phases or stages of the project. An initial presentation is usually simply for the purpose of obtaining permission and authorization to begin a project. At the outset, no resources have been allocated and no funds yet authorized, so the project team's entire goal is to get the next stage authorized, that is, keep the client happy enough to agree to another meeting.

The next presentation is usually a "proposal", including the scope and purpose of the project, an outline of stages to be performed (and the presentations which will mark their conclusion), a broad outline of the features and benefits of the project, and a still tentative estimate of the project expense, duration, and impact.

After this stage, the number of phases and presentations will vary, but there is usually one to endorse the project team's specifications for the project, one to authorize construction, and one to authorize implementation and actual installation of the new system or product into the client organization's working schedule.

When a prototype project methodology is used, more stages may be required. As each phase of a project unfolds, the estimates of total cost and impact become much more accurate; the one outstanding feature of responsible project work is ensuring that the estimates for the next phase of work are very accurate. The "creeping commitment" philosophy is that no one should be expected to authorize any work for which both the costs and the benefits are not well known. In fact, a presentation marks the tendering of a promise to achieve accurately predicted progress at accurately predicted cost by the next presentation, and its date.

When making a presentation to a client (or management), there is much to be said for salesmanship. However, the objective is not to sell an idea or collection of ideas, the objective must be to assist the "audience" to become participants in the consensus-reaching activity which justifies their presence. The presenters must avoid at all costs any appearance that they are "gurus" or wish-granters or magicians in any way; they are simply the team that has been hired to investigate the client's problem and propose solutions for the client to implement. The idea is to lead them to water and let them believe it was their idea to drink.

For the sake of simplicity, the coverage in this paper is in chronological stages:

- planning a presentation

- preparing for a presentation

- making a presentation

- following up on a presentation

Planning a Presentation

The important items here are:

- who - what - where - when - how

The who? question has two aspects:

a) who will be the audience b) who will be the presenters

and they should be answered in this sequence! The audience for a presentation should be the decision makers plus any persons on whom they might rely for assistance:

- the chair should be the "prime user" of the system or product being presented; the person whose job relies extensively on that system/product, and whose "head will roll" if it doesn't function

- an essential member of the audience is someone with the authority to assign any necessary funds and resources to the project ("Mr. Moneybags", the authorizer)

- other essential participants are other users of the system/product, not only the direct employees of the prime user but any other members of the organization whose work will be impacted by any innovation

- another useful attendee is anyone within the client organization who is qualified in some way to assess the excellence of the system or product being presented, and the qualifications of the presenting team

- other attendees are usually chosen by the prime user and the authorizer

An audience of fewer than five or more than ten will be hard to keep focussed; seven usually works well.

The presenters for a project team phase report should usually be three. The danger with a single spokesman is the possibility of credibility-reducing personality clash. The danger with a large team presentation is of confusion. There is no problem in having all team members present to respond to questions in their area of expertise, but the presenters do not want to outnumber or overwhelm the decision makers. Three is usually a safe number to ensure a credible "bench strength" impression, to divide the material topically, and to promote interaction.

The issue of "what?" to present is often detailed by the previous presentation, but should include at least:

- a progress report, on what has been achieved in the interim or to date

- outstanding features of the work accomplished

- a plan for the next phase of the project, outlining both achievements expected and costs (tangible and intangible) to the client organization

- an update on the expected costs and benefits of the entire project

If there is much information to be conveyed, it is better conveyed in a written report than in a presentation. In fact, the written report should be delivered about a week before the presentation, but should also be ready for distribution at the entry to the presentation. The presentation should cover only the "highlights". Rarely should a presentation and ensuing discussion require more than one hour. This means that your rehearsed presentation should take about half an hour, with the remaining time left for discussion.

The presentation of active demonstrations or prototypes is dangerous. You can be positive that something will go wrong, and should probably arrange to deliver demonstrations or prototypes at another time, when the demand on the audience will be to be constructive/appreciative rather than participants in achieving decision-making consensus.

The "where?" question is largely one of convenience for the decision makers. If the client organization has a board room, it may be ideal. But only if no intrusions are likely. If intrusions cannot be avoided on client premises, try for an off-site location.

The "when?" question is also one of convenience for the decision makers, but try to avoid:

- first thing in the morning when people will be worried about what they left to do overnight, or what has happened since their last desk and 'phone time

- last thing in the day when people may be anxious to return to their family and social lives

- Monday mornings and Friday afternoons (for the same reasons, in spades)

- lunch hour (unless you can afford it!)

The "how?" question is probably going to have to be settled later, when you actually prepare for the presentation, but some prior thought about media requirements for visual aids may be worthwhile.

The outcome of the planning for a presentation should be formal letters of invitations to the attendees from the project team leader. These letters should establish the time, location, and purpose for the presentation, and should promise the delivery of a written report prior to the presentation.

Preparing for a Presentation

The essence of preparation is being ready! In some ways, it makes more sense to first discuss how to make a presentation, and then review what is necessary to be ready, but for now, we'll stick with the chronological approach. The essential steps in preparation are these:

- decide on content - prepare written report

- divide and schedule content - script - prepare visual aids

- rehearse several times, individually and together - check site

Fortunately, many of these chores are sufficiently independent that they can be divided amongst various members of the project team and performed concurrently. Once the overall content has been decided, and decisions have been made about what will appear only in the written report versus what will be presented for discussion by the decision makers, many of the other chores can proceed. It is not necessary that the charts or illustrations in the written report match those used for visual aids, nor that the sequence of the written report match that of the presentation. It is, however, important that the coverage of facts and estimates match closely.

The difficulty in planning content is usually one of reducing the material sufficiently; not just deciding what to say, but deciding how much to leave unsaid! Once it is decided what is to be said, it is necessary to plan who will say what, and when. It usually makes audience collaboration in decision-making easier if each of the presenters has a "specialty", and if one of them serves as the introducer, outliner, summarizer; this person is often the team's chosen user liaison representative. It is also usually helpful to have one "numbers" specialist, who serves as the team's expert on costs and time estimates. The other specialties will vary from project to project and from phase to phase. Once the presenter specialties are sorted out, it is usually fairly simple to schedule the topic coverage so that there is a minimum of shuffling amongst the presenters.

It is usually worthwhile to tailor some remarks especially for some of the individuals in the audience. Marketing benefits should be addressed to the client sales management, cost advantages should be flagged for the accountants, etc. The user liaison person for each team should be useful at this point in making each of the presenters aware of the special warmths and pet peeves of the client personnel.

The scripting of the individual segments is often left to each individual presenter, but not necessarily if the team has a better "wordsmith". It is important that the scripting be careful enough to cover the topics decided, and that the key words are comfortable to the presenter and the audience, but the scripting should not be so exact that the presenter feels any need to memorize! The scripts should be summarized in point form on cue cards: two or three words per card, in block letters about 1" tall, with the cards numbered (with gaps).

The preparation of visual aids is discussed separately below.

The rehearsal of presentations cannot be overemphasized! The first rehearsal, each presenter usually does on his/her own, to get some idea of the timing and pacing, what to omit, what to expand. The next rehearsal should probably be with two team-mates who are asked to spot the presenter's annoying mannerisms (flat voice, fidgeting, scowling, posture, etc.) Notes of these should be added to the corners of the presenter's cue cards. The next rehearsal should be with the whole presenting team, ironing out who introduces whom, who flips visual aids for whom, etc. Final rehearsals should be by the presenting team for the whole project team, and any other constructive critics who can be enlisted, to look for gaps, distractions, sloppiness in general.

A last-minute site check is essential. Preferably the day before the presentation, but possibly an hour before. Take with you:

- an oil can. Squeaky chairs are easy to fix and annoying if not

- an extension cord, and if using a computer, a surge-protected power bar

- a spare projector bulb, or better, two (one for now, one for later)

- large (5"x8") index cards to make name plates if seating around table, small index cards and straight pins (or stick-on labels) if using row seating

Find out who will likely sit where. If there is no podium, arrange for one. Decide on wall and/or screen for projector. If no screen, arrange for one (and confirm the arrangement). Find out whether drinking water will be available, and jug and glasses. If not, bring jug, with disposable glasses!!! Find out whether note pads and pencils will be available; if not, bring them. Place a table near the door to hold extra copies of the written report.

Visual Aids

Before carrying on with the rest of the preparation steps, a few words about visual aids. In fact, two words:

VISUAL AIDS

Visual aids must be visible. And they should be visually attractive. This usually means they need to have a common colour scheme, compatible and suitable type fonts, and readily understood graphics with minimal detail.

Visual aids must be aids. They should never take over from the presenter! Nor should they interfere with the presenter's ability to key the presentation to the audience response. For example, slide presentations usually require a darkened room, with all eyes on the screen, and not much possibility for the eye contact which will help a presenter to adjust comments to suit pleasure or disagreement.

One useful kind of aid is a simple point-form summary of each segment of the presentation. It usually helps listeners to know what is coming, and how what is being said at the moment relates to the overall picture. Keep such textual displays short and clear: no more than 5 points, no more than 5 words per point.