Category Archives: storyline structure

05-Creating & constructing good solutions, 07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07d-Delivering a presentation, storyline structure

Score your Presentations

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I recently came across an article which was published on Forbes on  how keeping a score  of  your presentations   and rating your presentations and I did some research on a company which tracks constantly  presentation score  ranging  from 1-5 of its business executives. It was an idea which was  conceived by  George Chambers  the CEO of Cisco who scores 4.5 on a scale of 1-5.Cisco is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. Many companies tried to be customer friendly or customer oriented but CISCO continues to win many laurels and awards  compared to its peers because its obsession Presentation Skills.

When a Cisco executive delivers an internal presentation at company events and meetings or delivers a customer facing presentation, that executive is rated on his or her communication skills as soon as the presentation is over. Employees or customers are asked to give the executive a score ranging from 1 to 5 on the following:

1.  DELIVERY:  The presentation was delivered clearly

2.  CONTENT:  I understand how this solution/topic can be applied

First, the results offer an executive feedback on how effectively they’re delivering the Cisco story and, second, senior executives review the scores to evaluate a person’s leadership potential. According to Ricci, “The data and metrics motivate people to get better, even a little competitive with each other.

Cisco’s obsession with Presentation Skills

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07b-Using good information design, charts & graphs, story-boarding, storyline structure, tables

Beer and Infographics DO mix

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I’ve been tinkering with Adobe InDesign and Illustrator. These programs are very powerful but can be equally as frustrating to manipulate – much more manageable after a couple beers.

I put together this standalone document to illustrate the rise of the craft and microbrewery industry. The content is engaging but I’m most interested in your thoughts on the formatting and design. Don’t worry about holding any punches – this is an early shot at the tool and feedback is helpful.

Thanks and here is the PDF:
Beer and Infographics

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07b-Using good information design, 07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation, charts & graphs, creativity methods, PowerPoint resources, slide-craft, story-boarding, storyline structure, tables

Alternatives to PowerPoint

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PowerPoint Alternatives: Will PowerPoint Ever be Obsolete?

Will PowerPoint ever be replaced?  It has become commonly accepted in the business world that ‘PowerPoint’ is synonymous with ‘Presentation’. However, when is the last time that you (or me, or anyone for that matter) questioned the validity of that accepted standard, or even gave fleeting consideration to using a different presentation platform or software program?

So, that leads to the question of whether or not PowerPoint will ever become obsolete, outdated, or replaced by something newer and shinier. In researching thoughts on this topic by folks smarter than myself (such as Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, in this article), I discovered a few things.

First of all, there are already many of alternatives to PowerPoint, and while they might not be household names, they can arguably match the functionality of PowerPoint, and perhaps even be more targeted towards your audience depending on the nature of the presentation. Some of the more popular alternatives to PowerPoint include Apple’s Keynote (which Steve Jobs popularized by using when rolling out new products), Google docs (free, ‘quick and dirty”), SlideRocket (great for folks in a sales environment), and perhaps most notably, Prezi (Intuitive, sophisticated, puts ‘slides in motion’, great for storytelling).

I am personally considering giving Prezi a try based on the positive reviews and feedback that I have read and would love to hear from anyone in our class who has tried the software first-hand. It does seem that one day PowerPoint might be replaced as the gold standard for delivering presentations, but that day is likely not going to come anytime soon, and we are likely better off improving our delivery method rather than changing the platform all-together.

So, what are your thoughts??

 

Articles for Reference:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2012/09/07/jeff-bezos-and-the-end-of-powerpoint-as-we-know-it/

http://lifehacker.com/5888189/five-best-powerpoint-alternatives

http://www.customshow.com/best-powerpoint-alternatives-presentation-programs/

http://www.powtoon.com/blog/10-best-powerpoint-alternatives/

 

 

PowerPoint tricks, problem statement, storyline structure, Uncategorized

The story behind your presentation

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Just a quick one…

The beginning of this HBR article, How to give a killer presentation, is intriguing to the relationship of what many of us just experienced in our final presentations of MP.  Even though this article is shortened to non-subscribers, the intriguing part to me is the basis of the article – a story about a boy who had a story to tell.  The 90+ of us just finished our presentations, and it was amazing to see what some of my peers had to say.  Learning from each other is one of the biggest facets of this program, yet at the same time this isn’t just to learn about each others’ business knowledge, but to learn about the more personal part of each others’ lives.

Many of us gave great presentations, and as this article began, you have to begin with a good background to your story.  I think the key to this article is not just another subset of bulletpoints of how to do a process (although that’s probably where the article heads), but to make you think about what the baseline of any presentation needs to be – a good story.  A lot of times we can get caught up in the details – get caught up in the data.  Presenting the data is so critical, that we forget what the baseline is, and how to bring the story completely together, full circle.  Without a clearly stated statement at the beginning of your presentation, there’s a good chance you’ve already lost a large part of the story you’re trying to tell.

http://hbr.org/2013/06/how-to-give-a-killer-presentation/ar/1

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07c-Telling stories, story-boarding, storyline structure

Telling A Great Story

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This past Thursday I, along with the rest of my classmates, had the opportunity to hear our professor, Professor Noonan, tell his story. I thought bout how would I tell a story, in a way that is purposeful and powerful.

I stumbled upon this article describing how to tell a great story. One who can tell a great story holds the power of influence. The good thing is the article tells us that the art of story telling is not something innate, but it is something that can be learned. I know that story telling is something that I would love to improve on. I am pretty loquacious myself so I would prefer to give an interesting story while talking. So what does it take to tell a great story. Well the article explains that you want to ensure that you:

Start With A Message

Know who your audience is and begin with a message that speaks to them or the problem you want to acknowledge

Mine Your Own Experiences

Use personal and life experience to express your message so that the audience can relate to what you’re saying

Don’t Make Yourself The Hero

Let the details of the story be the essence of the story and not yourself.

Highlight A Struggle

The author of the blog describes it best that “A story without a challenge simply isn’t very interesting”

Keep It Simple

Don’t let unnecessary details overshadow the true message

Practice Makes Perfect

Storytelling is an art and like any art it requires practice

Check out the full article below.

http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/07/how-to-tell-a-great-story/

 

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, slide-craft, story-boarding, storyline structure, Uncategorized

More Tips on Prezi

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The class got a brief glimpse into what Prezi can do during the final MP class on Thursday, but I thought that I would provide a few tips, tutorials and links that I used to orient myself with the program.

In the simplest terms, there are four steps to make a presentation in Prezi:

1. Enter content onto the canvas (words, pictures, videos, etc.)

2. Frame the content with one of the shaped frames (circle, square, brackets) or an invisible frame.

3. Connect the frames in a path (similar to re-arranging slides on the left-hand side of the page).

4. Re-position the frames to convey relation (drag and drop the frames on the canvas).

You can see the whole tutorial on transitions between slides from this link:  http://prezi.com/-oebfwip4irw/the-official-prezi-transitions-tutorial/

When creating spacial relations, remember that you can convey relation in three ways:

1.  In the x-y direction, i.e. up, down or diagonal

2. Rotation (make sure that you don’t rotate slides too much, or the transitions may become confusing and difficult to follow. In general, its best to use rotations <45 degrees).

3.  Size/Depth.  The ability to zoom in and out can either be used to convey differences in size, relationship into or out of the page, or even both.

What other great things can you do with Prezi?

Turn those boring Power Points into Prezi’s!

Share your Prezi!

Check out the official Prezi blog for even more great tips!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07b-Using good information design, charts & graphs, creativity methods, deliverables, PowerPoint resources, storyline structure, tables

Data Visualization – Tableau

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For starters, check out this video

I sometimes struggle with conveying my analysis (say, in Excel) into a presentation (say, in PowerPoint). The best way to capture the attention of your audience and to deliver an effective presentation is through data visualization. No matter how sound and detailed your analysis, if it is not communicated well to your audience then all of your hard work in performing that analysis was wasted.

Presenting data in a visual format can often be the quickest and most effective ways to convey results of your analysis and capture the attention of your audience. This can communicate a message that may have taken hours to develop in a matter of seconds if done correctly.

One of my favorite new data visualization resources that I am learning to use is called Tableau. Tableau is a software company that was founded in 2003 and does nothing other than data visualization. The company had sales of $34.2 Million in 2010 which grew to an astonishing $232.44 Million in 2013 and the company went public. It is now traded on the NYSE (ticker: DATA). It is extremely intuitive and the product looks amazing. Here is a great video that gives you an overview of the capabilities of Tableau (also linked above).

There are some really revolutionary and interesting methods to communicate data visually that are becoming more and more accepted in business and is thought by many as a way for companies to distinguish themselves among their peers. Often times my company might be similarly positioned to perform work for a given client, and I have seen that a lot of the work we have “won” has come from an effective pitch that highlights the strengths of our organization in a visually compelling manner that engages the client and shows that we can “give meaning to numbers” which is a skill that is hard to quantify.

I would be curious to get any thoughts on your experience with data visualization software and any recommendations you might have.

 

Other helpful data visualization links:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-data-visualization-revolution/

http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/04/the-quick-and-dirty-on-data-visualization/

http://fortune.com/2011/11/15/how-tableau-software-makes-business-data-beautiful/

07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation, storyline structure

9 Public-Speaking Lessons From The World’s Greatest TED Talks

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When asked what my passions in life are, I often respond the same way – food and public speaking (in no particular order). While one is likely to help me further my career and the other is likely to help me further my waistline, they are both still passions of mine.

Public speaking didn’t come naturally to me at first; in fact, there was a time in life where it terrified me. But through practice, practice, and more practice, I came to not only achieve an acceptable level of competency in the skill, but I started to truly enjoy speaking to large groups.

I, like most, am constantly looking for ways to improve my public speaking skills. Like many, I often watch TED talks to gain ideas, inspiration, and witty one-liners to utilize in my presentations. Carmine Gallow’s article entitled, 9 Public-Speaking Lessons From The World’s Greatest TED Talks, is a great synopsis of how there is a style to TED talks, and how this same style can be incorporated into everyday presentations.

There are two ways to summarize this article. The first, and the conventional way, would be with the nine bullet points below. However, it is more exciting to view the most watched TED talk of all time via this link. This TED talk, like many others, illustrates eight of the nine points below (The presenter does not use any materials, so point #8 does not apply).

  1. Unleash the master within.
  2. Tell three stories.
  3. Practice relentlessly.
  4. Teach your audience something new.
  5. Deliver jaw-dropping moments.
  6. Use humor without telling a joke.
  7. Stick to the 18-minute rule.
  8. Favor pictures over text.
  9. Stay in your lane.

Aside from the list, I would like to add one more bullet point that I see as a theme through most of the great presentations that I have seen, the one you may have just watched included.

  1. Take chances.

I would like to point out one skill in particular that this article highlights and the TED talk illustrates – storytelling. This presenter is a phenomenal storyteller. He paints vivid images for the audience through the use of tales about his family, his friends, or moments in history that help bring his points to life. When this powerful imagery is combined with his vibrant scene of humor that both engages and captivates the audience, his message becomes memorable, and he gains instant credibility based on the audience liking him, not his actual subject knowledge.

The points raised in the article do not differ from the lessons learned in MP over the past year. Style, delivery, and content are at the heart of every presentation. The only way to improve these skills is to practice and learn from mistakes made along the way. For anyone with trepidation about public speaking, weather at school or at work, read this article and watch this TED Talk, you will be glad that you did.

Read more: 9 Public-Speaking Lessons From The World’s Greatest TED Talks

Watch the TED Talk: Ken Robinson: How schools kill creativity

 

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07c-Telling stories, slide-craft, storyline structure

Structure Storytelling into a Formal Presentation

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I will admit that I am not the best at crafting formal presentations. However, I also would not consider myself the worst. I have a technical background and my slide craft and delivery tend to reflect that. Why do my presentations tend to lean towards the technical and away from creativity and storytelling? I think it may because of my misperception that developing a presentation around storytelling means sacrificing structure until the presentation becomes “fluff”.

Nancy Duarte, a self-described communications theorist and empathy architect, is the CEO of a firm that specializes in the application of storytelling and visual thinking to communications in business settings. Duarte has also authored several books on the topic of communications: Guide to Persuasive Presentations, Resonate, Slide:ology, and Slidedocs. Duarte gave a TED Talk (view here) that has changed my understanding of the structure involved in successfully integrating storytelling into a formal presentation.

Here are a few notes that I took away from Duarte’s talk:

1. Understanding Proper Role Assignment

The presenter is not the hero of the story, the audience is the hero. Duarte states that the presenter needs to play the role of a mentor, guiding the audience along from the current state forward to the presenter’s idea.

2. Three Part Structure

Every story has a beginning, middle, and end, right? Yes, but Duarte provides a little more substance. The story should start with a likeable hero who has a desire. This hero should then encounter a roadblock or obstacle. Ultimately, the hero emerges transformed. This is the kind of structure seen in most movies.

3.  Presentation Shape

Should there be a structure to a good presentation? Most novels have an arch shape, in which they start, build into a climax and then return as the story is resolved. Duarte studied several famous speeches and recognized a similar structure, a repeating step function. The beginning starts with “what is” and compares it to “what could be”. Here is how things currently are, but look at how they could be. The remainder of the presentation should be based on the amplification of the gap between these two. The middle of the presentation repeats the back and forth motion of what is, what could be, what is, what could be. The goal is to make the current status quo and normal condition look unappealing. Finally, the end should be a call to action. The presentation should end on a high with the audience imaging how the world could be with your idea.

Two of the presentations that Duarte analyzed that exhibited this structure were Steve Job’s 2007 presentation to introduce the iPhone and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a Dream” speech. For more information regarding Duarte’s work, check out her website.

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07b-Using good information design, 07d-Delivering a presentation, charts & graphs, clearing slides, PowerPoint resources, PowerPoint tricks, slide-craft, story-boarding, storyline structure, tables

Edward Tufte on PowerPoint

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This is an interesting read on the pitfalls associated with PowerPoint presentations. One of the things that I am focusing on improving this semester is my presentation skills, and I found this article, The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint by Edward Tufte, to be helpful with regards of how to present data in a meaningful way. While you may find some of his opinions to be extreme, I believe that he still has many valid points and that his arguments are logical.

Even if you do not read this entire article, at least see his demonstration of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address via PowerPoint presentation on page 12 along with the section on improving our Presentations on page 22. I’ve included some highlights of the article below:

The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint

PP convenience for the speaker can be costly to both content and
audience. These costs result from the cognitive style characteristic of the standard default PP presentation: foreshortening of evidence and thought, low spatial resolution, a deeply hierarchical single-path structure as the model for organizing every type of content, breaking up narrative and data into slides and minimal fragments, rapid temporal sequencing of thin information rather than focused spatial analysis, conspicuous decoration and Phruff, a preoccupation with format not content, an attitude of commercialism that turns everything into a sales pitch.

Extremely Low Resolution of PowerPoint 

Visual reasoning usually works more effectively when the relevant information is shown adjacent in space within our eyespan. This is especially the case for statistical data, where the fundamental analytical act is to make comparisons.

Bullet Outlines Dilute Thought

By leaving out the narrative between the points, the bullet outline ignores and conceals the causal assumptions and analytic structure of the reasoning.

Bullet outlines might be useful in presentations now and then, but sentences with subjects and verbs are usually better. Instead of this type of soft, generic point found in many business plans.

Improving Our Presentations

Designer formats will not salvage weak content. If your numbers are boring, then you’ve got the wrong numbers. If your words or images are not on point, making them dance in color won’t make them relevant. Audience boredom is usually a content failure, not a decoration failure.

Never use PP templates for arraying words or numbers. Avoid elaborate hierarchies of bullet lists. Never read aloud from slides. Never use PP templates to format paper reports or web screens.

Paper handouts at a talk can effectively show text, numbers, data graphics, images. Printed materials, which should largely replace PP, bring information transfer rates in presentations up to that of everyday material in newspapers, magazines, books, and internet screens.