Episode #59: The Best Way To Prepare For Your Presentation

We have been requested to give a talk, so where should we start? Should we jump straight into pulling together all the slides for the presentation? Absolutely not. We need to prepare this talk so it will be a success. The first important question we must ask is who are we going to be talking to? The next question is about the purpose of the talk. Is it to educate, impress, motivate or to entertain? The next considerations all the mechanics of the speech. Is it at the end of the day when everyone is sleepy, or will it kick off proceedings at the start of the day. How long do we need to talk for? How do we need to dress for this talk? There are so many items we need to consider before going anywhere near the slide deck. Yet this is just the opposite of what most people do. They spend all of their preparation time putting their slides together, do no rehearsal and then proceed to practice on their audience. This is definitely not recommended, if you want to be successful.

Before we get into this week’s topic, here is what caught my attention lately.

Co-working space is really taking off in Tokyo. According to CBRE, in Tokyo’s twenty three wards co working space counted for only zero point five percent of office space prior to 2009. Today it accounts for seven point nine percent. WeWork Japan’s chief executive Chris Hill said that “We feel the opportunity is big enough here that we can grow faster than anywhere else”. WeWork Japan is a joint venture between WeWork and SoftBank and opened its first location in Japan in February. Their aim is to expand the number of users to ten thousand by the end of the year, in eleven different locations, in four major cities. Large companies like Sony, Panasonic and Honda are trying to adapt to the digital era by joining up with startups, hiring external talent and creating a more flexible working environment. WeWork fits the bill for them. Enterprise members account for about one quarter of WeWork’s global member base and they are trying to use Softbank’s client network to expand that number in Japan. In other news, Japan’s job availability improved to a fresh fifty four year high in September. There were one point six four openings for every job seeker. Think about that when you are trying to recruit someone. The job unemployment rate fell to two point three percent, near the lowest level recorded since the early nineteen nineties. The percentage of people in the working ages of between fifteen and sixty four with jobs, rose to seventy seven point three percent, the highest number since this data first became available in nineteen sixty eight. The percentage of women employed also rose to a record high of seventy point three percent, with men at eighty four point one percent.

This is episode number fifty nine and we are talking about The Best Way To Prepare For Your Presentation. Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. Before jumping straight into the slides to build your presentation, identify your likely audience. Who will be staring back at you when get on your feet to present? It might be an internal meeting report to your team, a presentation to your immediate boss or to the senior executives of the firm. It might be a public talk for your industry. How knowledgeable are the attendees on the subject matter? Are you facing a room full of experts or are they amateurs or a mixture of both? What are the age ranges and what is the gender mix?

Next, consider what is the purpose of the speech? Are you there to pass on relevant information, to inform your audience of some facts and figures? Are you there to entertain them, to make people laugh, to boost morale? Is persuasion your objective, to sell them on your vision, idea, product or proposition? Are you trying to motivate them to take action, to rally behind your flag, storm the barricades?

How long do we have to speak? Many may think that a short speech is easier than a longer one. Depending on the objective, the degree of difficulty may be higher with the shorter speech. Trying to persuade others or to motivate others, usually requires solid evidence to bring the audience around to our way of thinking. In a shorter speech there is less opportunity to pour on the evidence. Every word counts and so we need to really prepare well.

What time of the day will we speak. After lunch and after dinner are two tough speaking slots. Consuming meals and alcohol will sap the audience’s energy and attention. If it is an evening affair, where everyone is standing around and your speech is all that separates the masses from the food and drink, expect they will be distracted. In Japan, in such cases, audiences are usually merciless about chit chatting right through your speech. If you have attended one of these events you recall there is that low roar of an ascending passenger jet coming from the back of the room during the speech as people blatantly ignore the speaker.

How will you dress for success? All eyes will be on you. Given we absorb a good deal of your message through body language, how you present yourself makes a big difference. In Japan, it is rare to be overdressed for the occasion. Usually it is better to be more formal in dress than casual. Be careful that your bold tie, adventurous pocket chief or bright scarf does not compete with your face for the attention of the audience.

Where will you stand or will you sit down? If you are using a screen, stand to the “audience left” of the screen. We want the audience to look at our face and then look at the screen. We read left to right, so your face first, then the screen is the natural order. Many people though have no clue about this so they stand on the opposite side. Don’t make that amateur mistake.

Japan loves to have the speaker sit down at a table with a microphone stand, so you can drone on and on, like all the other speakers and put everyone to sleep. This is partially their regard for hierarchy, because standing above others and looking down on everyone else, implies you are superior to the audience. It is felt better to be seated on the same level as the audience. It is also showing polite regard for the speaker, on the basis that you will get tired having to stand and so please be comfortable and sit down. Pass up all opportunities to sit. The people advising you are not professionals in speaking and their advice is worthless. You will often hear Japanese speakers mount a rostrum and say, “Excuse me for speaking from this elevated position”. Is it a good idea to apologise for standing?

It is much better if you can stand. This is simply because you are more easily seen by your audience, especially those seated at the rear. You can use all of your body language to bolster the points you are making. If you need to apologise for standing above everyone, then do it, but keep standing no matter how many do-gooders try to get you to sit down. If you are forced to sit, then sit forward, as high as possible in the seat and use voice modulation, gestures and facial expressions to help convey your message.

What will you do to control your nerves before you speak? Usually for more formal speeches you will be somewhere in a holding position either seated in the same room, behind a curtain or to the side of the room. While waiting your pulse will start to race, you will likely begin to perspire and the “fight or flight” chemical cocktail in your body will now start to kick in.

If you have some space where you cannot be seen, then striding around burning off that excess energy will harmonise your energy output and reduce your nervousness. Following this, take deep, slow, breaths from your lower diaphragm to help reduce your pulse rate. If you can’t do that then just work on the breathing to lower your heart rate and get your nerves under control.

In the hours prior to you speech, try to drink water to get fluids into your system. Also make sure there is some room temperature water, without ice, prepared for you during the talk. Iced water constricts the throat, so we don’t want that when we are talking.

Select a title for the talk that creates curiosity. Isolate out the key points you want to make in the talk, between three and five points. Think of a strong opening that will grab everyone’s attention. People are easily distracted, so you have to break through with a grabber start.

Come up with two closes for your speech. One for the immediate end of your talk and a second one for your finish after the Q&A. We don’t want the randomness of the last question to define the final impression of our talk. We want to end on a strong message for our audience, which we control.

Try to incorporate these ideas into your speech preparation. Most importantly, also allow time for doing a rehearsal of your talk. You will find out which bits flow well and which need some rethinking. You will also be better able to gauge your speaking speed and speaking length. This is important if you have to speak within a very tightly controlled time limit. Don’t worry that you may vary from what you were practicising, when you give the actual talk. Only you know what was supposed to happen and if you change it, keep that information to yourself. Planning and rehearsal need to go together and need to be given sufficient time to be effective. Most people just assemble their slides instead. This is a big mistake and one you can simply avoid by adopting some of the ideas shared today.