The Standup Trainer
Newsletter
November 2005
Brought to you by Ellen Dowling,
PhD ("The Standup Trainer") and the fine folks of Dowling & Associates,
Inc.
edowling@standuptrainer.com
www.standuptrainer.com
This newsletter is guaranteed
certifiably useful as well as amusing. (If you are not completely
satisfied, there are unsubscribe instructions at the end. But we're betting
you'll change your mind by the time you get there.)
Welcome to all new and continuing
subscribers!
Coming next week to Albuquerque!
A
dynamic, interactive, 2-hour workshop:
Dealing with Difficult People
Conducted by Dr. Ellen Dowling
November 14th, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00
p.m.
at the MCM Hotel Elegante
(on Menaul just east of University)
$59 per person (includes lunch and handouts)
Visit www.standuptrainer.com to
register (or for more information)
In this issue:
1. Presentation Horror Story of the
Month
Have transparencies, will
travel!
2. Presentation Hall of Shame
A sure-fire way to get a standing
ovation!
3. Presentation Skills Book Review
What do you say to a naked
audience?
4. Useful Online Resource of the Month
A PowerPoint presentation
on how to make a good PowerPoint presentation!
1. Presentation Horror
Story of the Month
[Editor's Note: Have you a
good story to tell about the time SOMETHING WENT WRONG at a presentation you
were giving (or attending)? We are soliciting submissions for this segment of
our newsletter. If your story is chosen, you will receive a FREE copy of either
of Ellen's two books, The Standup Trainer or Presenting with Style
(your choice). Simply send your story (just a couple of paragraphs will be fine)
to edowling@standuptrainer.com.]
The winner of this month's contest
is Diana Gallegos, Training Manager for Raley's grocery stores and a student
in Ellen's "Presentation Skills for Trainers" class, offered by UNM
Continuing Education's Training
and Development in Instructional Technology certificate program.
I was all set up to conduct
a New Employee Orientation Class for 20 new hires when a "higher up"
announced that my training room needed to be used for a video conference and
we had to vacate the premises.
There was no other room available,
so I had to conduct the first half of the class in the lobby of the building,
with most of the students sitting on the floor and me passing around the transparencies.
(They let us back in the room for the second half of the class, which may have
been even more disruptive!)
[Editor's Note: Perhaps Diana,
a graduate of two of Ellen's presentation skills classes, was just remembering
what Ellen told her was the most important characteristic of a superior trainer:
FLEXIBILITY!]
2. Presentation Hall
of Shame
It just makes sense, doesn't
it? If you make a 15-minute presentation, which part do you think your audience will remember best: the first minute or the last minute? And yet so many presenters spend scads of time polishing and perfecting their openings while completely ignoring the potential punch of their closings.
"Begin with the end in
mind," says Stephen Covey. Good advice, but hardly ever followed in a presentation.
Instead, far too many presenters end this way: "Ok, are there any more
questions? No? [pause] No more questions? [pause] Well, [pause] OK [pause] I
guess if there are no more questions [pause and a little awkward dancing] then
that's all I have to say . . . ." and then the whole thing just sort of
dribbles off, leaving the audience feeling awkward and unsure of whether or
not to applaud, slink to the door, or just sit there stone-faced. The presentation
may have begun with a bang, but it's going to end with a whimper.
So how do you jazz up your
closing so that the audience is just as impressed by your exit as your entrance?
Here are some tips from Ellen's book, Presenting
with Style :
Tip #1. Be sure to conduct
your last Q&A BEFORE you officially "conclude" your presentation.
There are two important reasons for this placement:
a. You want to be able to
include any information in your conclusion that might have been raised during
the question and answer period. If you do this, you will demonstrate to your
audience that you were indeed listening to them. (This is particularly useful
if the subject of your presentation is guaranteed to make a majority of audience
members unhappy, such as “Why the New Road Will Go Through Sacred
Indian Land,” or something.)
b. What if the last question
you get is one you can’t answer? What if the last thing the audience hears you
say is, “I don’t know. Oh, well, are there any other questions? No? Well, that’s
all I have . . ." Not a very confident closing, you will agree.
Tip #2. To officially "close''
your presentation, plan ahead to end with a powerful quote or refer to a story
you told earlier in your presentation. Then break eye contact with the audience,
bow your head, and say, "Thank you." (You'll find more information
on how to get a standing ovation in Presenting
with Style.)
3. Presentation Skills
Book Review
I Can
See You Naked,
by Ron Hoff (Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1988; revised edition 1992)
The title, of course, refers
to a long-standing claim by presentation skills instructors that the best way
to overcome stagefright is to do something that will make you feel in control
of the situation (you, confident presenter vs. your audience, self-conscious
nudists).
Hoff pooh-poohs this technique
right off the bat, asserting that it will actually produce the opposite result,
as "the presenter scrunches down behind the podium so no one can see him,
reads from his script so he will say nothing spontaneous, keeps his eyes down
so that no one can make contact, and hold his voice on one deadly level to muffle
his emotions."
DON'T do this, Hoff advises.
Try these cool techniques instead:
"Think of your next presentation
as a big, buoyant medicine ball which you must keep 'alive.' It's your responsibility
to keep that ball up in the air, guiding it deftly, tapping it ever higher,
perhaps hitting it smartly with your head. Occasionally you'll boost the ball
toward someone in your audience. That ball will move around a lot, people will
get involved with it, but it will always come back to you because you're the
one who keeps it 'alive.' Besides, it's your ball."
Design a presentation with
a "mind map," rather than an outline or a script. [The Presentation
Diamond is a version of a mind map.] Hoff calls his "the memory model."
To overcome those intitial
jitters, start your presentation by "focusing on a friend, one who is committed
to your support . . . a legitimate member of the audience who is not a member
of your hand-picked team."
Be sure that you use your
hands to punctuate your remarks, not distract from them. To do this, says, Hoff,
you need to discover your real gestures. Here's how you do this: "Stand
in front of a full-length mirror with a large book in each hand. Then, talk.
At times, you'll raise one hand or the other in a gesture even though the books
are heavy. Those are the real gestures. Save them. Eliminate all
others. Those are nervous gestures."
Don't stand behind the lectern
for long. "Lecterns have all kinds of bad side effects. They put a barrier
between you and your audience when you should be doing everything in your power
to clear all obstacles away . . .The best presenters may stand behind the lectern
or podium for a few seconds, then (as if freed from it by some cosmic force)
move out into a pool of light, probably closer to the audience."
And lastly, beware of too
much technology: "The more A/V equipment you use in a presentation, the
more susceptible you become to electronic goof-ups . . . Unless you can deliver
you presentation without fancy A/V equipment, don’t try it with fancy
A/V equipment."
4. Useful Online Resource
of the Month
Here's a cool download: It's
a PowerPoint presentation on how NOT to make PowerPoint presentations! It's
produced by the University of Northern British Columbia and can be found here:
http://ctl.unbc.ca/present/Jan20_04/BadPresentations.ppt
That's it for this month!
If you enjoyed this newsletter please do pass it on to your friends. (Or send
them to www.standuptrainer.com
to get their own subscription. Why should YOU have to do everything for them?)
If you have a suggestion for
something we could do to make this newsletter even MORE useful as well as amusing,
please contact us:
Dowling & Associates,
Inc.
Ellen Dowling, President
edowling@standuptrainer.com
(505) 883-9070
