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16 Developing Presentations in a Social Media Environment LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you will be able to

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#P7001012451000000000000000005C04) Describe the tasks involved in analyzing the situation for a presentation and organizing a presentation.

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005d23#P7001012451000000000000000005D27) Explain how to adapt to your audience and develop an effective opening, body, and close for a presentation.

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#P7001012451000000000000000005DA9) Discuss five steps for delivering a successful presentation.

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005e33#P7001012451000000000000000005E38) Explain the growing importance of the backchannel in presentations, and list six steps for giving effective presentations online.

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COMMUNICATION CLOSE-UP AT Barnett International

barnettinternationalconsulting.com (http://barnettinternationalconsulting.com)

Presentations have much in common with other business communication efforts, from analyzing the situation and defining your purpose to gathering information and crafting audience-focused messages. They have one major difference, of course: Presentations are performances, and a good message isn’t enough. How you perform in front of an audience has a major influence on how they respond to your message.

Communication coach Gina Barnett advises speakers to learn how to read and use their body’s signals to become more relaxed, open, and engaging.

Max Gordon/Barnett International Inc.

From her years of experience in the theater, communication coach Gina Barnett knows that the performance makes or breaks the presentation. A strong performance makes any message more compelling, whereas a weak performance can undermine even the best messages.

While performance is vital, it’s a mistake to think that only actors or extroverts have some special performance gift. All business professionals can learn to use their bodies to perform more effectively while giving speeches and making presentations. Being mindful of your physical habits and mannerisms, from how you hold your head to the way you use your feet, can make you a more effective speaker. And there’s a bonus: You’ll enjoy it more, too. A body-mindful approach to speaking can help you control the anxiety that every presenter feels and harness that energy for a more natural and engaging experience.

In her performance-coaching work with corporate executives, Barnett helps presenters explore the key centers in the human body that regulate how speakers feel and how they come across to others, both visually and vocally. For example, it’s easy to think a smile is merely a reaction to a pleasant thought or experience, but smiles can also instigate positive thoughts. The physical act of smiling can trigger improvements in your own mood and in the moods of people watching you. A warm smile helps the audience connect with you and conveys your confidence in yourself and in your message. Smiling also forces you to relax your jaw and facial muscles, which helps to release pent-up stress and improve your vocal clarity and projection. With so many benefits to offer, the simple act of smiling as you step onto the stage can launch your presentation on a strong note.

Barnett tells speakers to think of their bodies as communication instruments and to use them to their full potential, in much the same way musicians use their instruments. Like a musical instrument, your body can be treated well or poorly and played with varying degrees of success.

Using your physical self to full advantage starts with understanding the signals your body is sending to you and the people in your audience. Tune in to your body and listen to its signals. If you are anxious leading up to a presentation, you may feel this signal in your shoulders, your jaw, or wherever you tend to “collect” stress. Explore that emotion and try to identify why you feel that way. You may identify some reasons that are real and relevant to the situation and some that are noise or distractions, at least as far as the immediate situation is concerned.

A real and extremely relevant reason might be that you haven’t prepared thoroughly and therefore lack confidence in your ability to present your message or respond to audience questions. Assuming you’ve given yourself enough time, you can address this source of anxiety by finishing your preparation. A less relevant source of stress might be a buried memory of being embarrassed in front of your class as a child. This emotional mishap might still be stuck in your memory at some deep level, but it doesn’t need to be part of who you are as a professional adult.

Barnett emphasizes that by dismissing irrelevant sources of stress and proactively dismantling relevant sources of stress, your mind can then tell your body that you’re ready to go. This confidence will change the way you carry and present yourself on stage, it will give your voice fresh energy, and it will spread to your audience—your confidence in yourself will make them more confident in you, too. Rather than rushing through your presentation with your mind a nervous

whirl, hoping only to make it through in one piece and get off the stage, you’ll enjoy being in the moment and sharing your ideas and inspiration.1

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FAC)

16.1 Planning a Presentation

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1 Describe the tasks involved in analyzing the situation for a presentation and organizing a presentation. Gina Barnett (profiled in the chapter-opening Communication Close-Up) recognizes the importance of being your best and most authentic self when you’re giving presentations. Presentations offer important opportunities to put all your communication skills on display, including research, planning, writing, visual design, and interpersonal and nonverbal communication. Presentations also let you demonstrate your ability to think on your feet, grasp complex business issues, and handle challenging situations—all attributes that executives look for when searching for talented employees to promote.

Business presentations involve all of your communication skills, from research through nonverbal communication, and they let you demonstrate your business acumen as well.

If the thought of giving a speech or presentation makes you nervous, keep three points in mind. First, everybody gets nervous when speaking in front of groups. Second, being nervous is actually a good thing; it means you care about the topic, your audience, and your career success. Third, with practice, you can convert those nervous feelings into positive energy that helps you give more compelling presentations. You can take control of the situation by using the three-step writing process to prepare for successful presentations (see Figure 16.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#P7001012451000000000000000005C09) ).

Feeling nervous is perfectly normal when you’re faced with a presentation; the good news is there are positive steps you can take to reduce your anxiety.

Planning presentations is much like planning any other business message: You analyze the situation, gather information, select the right medium, and organize the information. Gathering information for presentations is essentially the same as for written communication projects. The other three planning tasks have some special applications when it comes to presentations; they are covered in the following sections.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY WATCHING THIS VIDEO

More advice from communication coach Gina Barnett

In this talk at Google, Gina Barnett (profiled in the chapter-opening Communication Close-Up) shares some essentials of using your body as an effective speaking instrument. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

On the subject of planning, be aware that preparing a professional-quality business presentation takes time. Nancy Duarte, a presentation design expert profiled in Chapter 17 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005fef#P7001012451000000000000000005FEF) ,

offers this rule of thumb: For a 1-hour presentation that uses 30 slides, allow 36 to 90 hours to research, conceive, create, and practice.2

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FAE) Not every one-hour presentation justifies a week or two of preparation, of course, but the important presentations that can make your career or your company certainly can.

Creating a high-quality presentation for an important event can take many days, so be sure to allow enough time.

ANALYZING THE SITUATION

As with written communications, analyzing the situation for a presentation involves defining your purpose and developing an audience profile. The purpose of most of your presentations will be to inform or to persuade, although you may occasionally need to make a collaborative presentation, such as when you’re leading a problem-solving or brainstorming session. Given the time limitations of most presentations and the live nature of the event, make sure your purpose is crystal clear so that you make the most of the opportunity and show respect for your listeners’ time and attention.

The purpose of most business presentations is to inform or persuade; you may also give presentations designed primarily to collaborate with others.

Figure 16.1 The Three-Step Process for Developing Presentations

Although you rarely “write” a presentation or speech in the sense of composing every word ahead of time, the tasks in the three-step writing process adapt quite well to the challenge of planning, creating, and delivering presentations.

When you develop your audience profile, try to anticipate the likely emotional state of your audience members. Figure 16.2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#P7001012451000000000000000005C41) offers tips for dealing with a variety of audience mindsets.

Knowing your audience’s state of mind will help you adjust both your message and your delivery.

You also need to determine whether your audience is comfortable listening to the language you speak. Listening to an unfamiliar language is much more difficult than reading that language, so an audience that might be able to read a written report might not be able to understand a presentation covering the same material (see “Communicating Across Cultures: Making Sure Your Message Doesn’t Get Lost in Translation (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#P7001012451000000000000000005C67) ”).

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS ARTICLE

Engage the audience for a more successful presentation

Whenever you can, get the audience involved in the development of your presentations. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real- timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

Also consider the circumstances in which you’ll be making your presentation. Will you speak to five people in a conference room where you can control everything from light to sound to temperature? Or will you be demonstrating a product on the floor of a trade show, where you might have from 1 to 100 listeners and little control over the environment? Will everyone be in the same room, or will some or all of your audience participate from remote locations via the Internet? What equipment will you have at your disposal?

Learn as much as you can about the setting and circumstances of your presentation, from the size of the audience to seating arrangements to potential interruptions.

For in-person presentations, pay close attention to seating arrangements. The four basic formats have distinct advantages and disadvantages:

• Classroom or theater seating, in which all chairs or desks face forward, helps keep attention focused on the speaker and is usually the best method for accommodating large audiences. However, this arrangement inhibits interaction among audience members, so it is not desirable for brainstorming or other collaborative activities.

• Conference table seating, in which people sit along both sides of a long table and the speaker stands at one end, is a common arrangement for smaller meetings. It promotes interaction among attendees, but it tends to isolate the speaker at one end of the room.

• Horseshoe, or U -shaped, seating, in which tables are arranged in the shape of a U, improves on conference table seating by allowing the speaker to walk between the tables to interact with individual audience members.

Figure 16.2 Planning for Various Audience Mindsets

Try to assess the emotional state of your audience ahead of time so you can plan your presentation approach accordingly.

• Café seating, in which people sit in groups at individual tables, is best for breakout sessions and other small-group activities. However, this arrangement is less than ideal for anything more than short presentations because it places some in the audience with their backs to the speaker, making it awkward for both them and the presenter.

COMMUNICATING ACROSS CULTURES

Making Sure Your Message Doesn’t Get Lost in Translation

When speaking to an international audience, keep in mind that audience members’ language fluency might vary widely. So take special care to ensure clear communication:

• Speak slowly and distinctly. The most common complaint of international audiences is that English speakers talk too fast. Articulate each word carefully, emphasize consonants for clarity, and pause frequently.

• Repeat key words and phrases. When audiences are not very familiar with your language, they need to hear important information more than once. Also, they may not be familiar with synonyms, so word key points in the same way throughout your presentation.

• Aim for clarity. Keep your message simple. Avoid complex sentence structures, abbreviations, acronyms, and metaphors. Replace two-word verbs with one-word alternatives (such as review instead of look over). Such verbs are confusing because the definition of each separate word differs from the meaning of the two words combined. Similarly, avoid slang and cultural idioms, such as once in a blue moon, which may be unfamiliar to an international audience. If you use words or phrases from the audience’s native language, make sure you understand them fully.

• Communicate with body language. Emphasize and clarify verbal information with gestures and facial expressions. For instance, smile to emphasize positive points and use gestures to illustrate the meaning of words such as up, down, or under.

• Support your spoken message with visuals. Simple, clear visuals can help you describe your key points and keep the audience engaged. If possible, prepare captions in both English and your audience’s native language.

CAREER APPLICATIONS

1. One of the most important changes speakers need to make when addressing audiences in other cultures is to avoid colloquial figures of speech. Listen carefully to the next three course lectures you attend and identify phrases that could cause confusion (such as “hit one out of the park,” “go for broke,” or “get your ducks in a row”). Review your list and replace the problematic phrases with wording that is more likely to be understood by nonnative English speakers or audiences in other countries.

2. Make a list of 10 two-word verbs. How does the meaning of each separate word differ from the definition of the combined words? Replace each two- word verb with a single, specific word that will be clearer to an international audience.

Sources: Adapted from Ramez Naguib, “International Audiences,” Toastmasters International, accessed 8 February 2013, www.toastmasters.org (http://www.toastmasters.org) ; Patricia L. Kurtz, The Global Speaker (New York: AMACOM, 1995), 35–47, 56–68, 75–82, 87–100; David A. Victor, International Business Communication (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992), 39–45; Lalita Khosla, “You Say Tomato,” Forbes, 21 May 2001, 36; Stephen Dolainski, “Are Expats Getting Lost in the Translation?” Workforce, February 1997, 32–39.

If you can’t control the seating arrangement, at least be aware of what it is so you can adjust your plans if necessary.

All these variables can influence not only the style of your presentation but the content. For instance, in a public environment full of distractions and uncertainties, you’re probably better off keeping your content simple and short because chances are you won’t be able to keep everyone’s attention for the duration of your presentation.

Table 16.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#P7001012451000000000000000005C82) on the next page offers a summary of the key steps in analyzing an audience for presentations. For even more insight into audience evaluation (including emotional and cultural issues), consult a good public-speaking textbook.

SELECTING THE BEST COMBINATION OF MEDIA AND CHANNELS

For some presentations, you’ll be expected to use whatever media and channels your audience, your boss, or the circumstances require. For example, you might be required to use specific presentation software and a conference room’s built-in display system or your company’s online meeting software.

For other presentations, though, you might have an array of choices, from live, in-person presentations to webcasts (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005ECC) (online presentations that people either view live or download later from the web), screencasts (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005EC6) (recordings of activity on computer displays with audio voiceover), or twebinars (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005EC9) (the use of Twitter as a backchannel —see page 477 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#page_477) —for real-time

conversation during a web-based seminar3

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FB0) ).

TABLE 16.1 Analyzing Audiences for Business Presentations

Task Actions

To determine audience size and composition

• Estimate how many people will attend (in person and online). • Identify what they have in common and how they differ. • Analyze the mix of organizational position, professions, language fluencies, and other demographic factors that

could influence your content and delivery choices.

To predict the audience’s probable reaction

• Analyze why audience members are attending the presentation. • Determine the audience’s general attitude toward the topic: interested, moderately interested, unconcerned, open-

minded, or hostile. • Analyze your audience’s likely mood when you speak to them. • Find out what kind of supporting information will help the audience accept and respond to your message: technical

data, historical information, financial data, demonstrations, samples, and so on. • Consider whether the audience has any biases that might work against you. • Anticipate possible objections or questions.

To gauge the audience’s experience

• Analyze whether everybody has the same background and level of understanding. • Determine what the audience already knows about the subject. • Consider whether the audience is familiar with the vocabulary you intend to use. • Analyze what the audience expects from you. • Think about the mix of general concepts and specific details you will need to present.

ORGANIZING A PRESENTATION

Linear presentations generally follow a fixed path from start to finish.

The possibilities for organizing a business presentation fall into two basic categories: linear or nonlinear. Linear presentations are like printed documents in the sense that they are outlined like conventional messages and follow a predefined flow from start to finish. The linear model is appropriate for speeches, technical and financial presentations, and other presentations in which you want to convey your message point by point or build up to a conclusion following logical steps.

Nonlinear presentations can move back and forth between topics and up and down in levels of detail.

In contrast, a nonlinear presentation doesn’t flow in any particular direction but rather gives the presenter the option to move back and forth between topics and up and down in terms of level of detail. Nonlinear presentations can be useful when you want to be able to show complicated relationships between multiple ideas or elements, to zoom in and out between the “big picture” and specific details, to explore complex visuals, or to have the flexibility to move from topic to topic in any order.

The difference between the two styles can be seen in the type of software typically used to create and deliver a presentation. Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, Google Slides, and similar packages use sequences of individual slides, often referred to as a slide deck. They don’t necessarily need to be presented in a strict linear order, because the presenter does have the option of jumping out of the predefined order, but in most presentations using slides, the speaker moves from start to finish in that order.

Prezi is the best-known nonlinear presentation software and doesn’t use the concept of individual slides. Instead, you start from a main screen, or canvas, which often presents the big picture overview of your topic (see Figure 16.3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#P7001012451000000000000000005CC4) ). From there, you add individual objects (including blocks of text, photos, or videos) that convey specific information points. When you present, you can zoom in and out, discussing the individual objects and their relationship to the big picture and each other. You can also define a narrative flow by creating a path from one object to the next,

which also lets people view the presentation on their own4

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FB2) (and effectively turns a Prezi presentation into a linear presentation).

Remember that presentations—using any software or system—are not about flash and dazzle; they are about sharing ideas, information, and emotions with your audience.

Prezi is sometimes viewed as a more dynamic and engaging way to present, and it certainly has that potential. However, keep several points in mind if you have a choice of which approach to take and which software to use. First, match the tool to the task, not the other way around. A detailed technical discussion might need a linear presentation, whereas a free-form brainstorming session might benefit from a nonlinear approach, for example. Second, if they are used well, software features can help you tell your story, but your story is what matters—not the software. If they are used poorly, software features only get in the way. (Overuse of

zooming in Prezi is a good example of this.5

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FB4) ) Third, in spite of their reputation, PowerPoint and other conventional slide programs aren’t limited to creating boring, linear flows of bullet points (see “Choosing Structured or Free-Form Slides (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006064) ” on page 489 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#page_489) in Chapter 17 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005fef#P7001012451000000000000000005FEF) ).

Figure 16.3 Nonlinear Presentations

Nonlinear presentations, particularly those using the cloud-based Prezi system, give the presenter more freedom to zoom in and out between the big picture to the details and to cover topics in any order.

“Nonlinear Presentations” copyright © by Matt Hollowell. Used by permission of Matt Hollowell.

Defining Your Main Idea

Regardless of which overall approach you take, a successful presentation starts with a clear picture of the main idea you want to share with your audience. Start by composing a one-sentence summary that links your subject and purpose to your audience’s frame of reference. Here are some examples:

Convince management that reorganizing the technical support department will improve customer service and reduce employee turnover.

Convince the board of directors that we should build a new plant in Texas to eliminate manufacturing bottlenecks and improve production quality.

Address employee concerns regarding a new health-care plan by showing how the plan will reduce costs and improve the quality of their care.

Each of these statements puts a particular slant on the subject, one that directly relates to the audience’s interests. Make sure your purpose is based on a clear

understanding of audience needs so that you can deliver information your audience truly cares about.6

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FB6) For example, a group of new employees will be much more responsive to your discussion of plant safety procedures if you focus on how the procedures can save lives and prevent injuries rather than on how they will save the company money or conform to government regulations.

Limiting Your Scope

Limiting your scope is important for two reasons: to ensure that your presentation fits the allotted time and to make sure you respect your audience members’ time and attention.

Limiting your scope is important with any message, but it’s particularly vital with presentations, for two reasons. First, for most presentations, you must work within strict time limits. Second, the longer you speak, the more difficult it is to hold the audience’s attention and the more difficult it is for your listeners to retain

your key points.7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FB8)

The only sure way to measure the length of your presentation is to complete a practice run.

The only sure way to know how much material you can cover in a given time is to practice your presentation after you complete it. As an alternative, if you’re using conventional structured slides (see page 489 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#page_489) ), you can figure on three or four minutes per

slide as a rough guide.8

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FBA) Of course, be sure to factor in time for introductions, coffee breaks, demonstrations, question-and-answer sessions, and anything else that takes away from your speaking time.

Approaching time constraints as a creative challenge can actually help you develop more effective presentations. Limitations can force you to focus on the most

essential message points that are important to your audience.9

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FBC)

If you’re having trouble meeting a time limit or just want to keep your presentation as short as possible, consider a hybrid approach in which you present your

key points in summary form and give people printed handouts with additional detail.10

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FBE)

Choosing Your Approach

Organize a short presentation the same way you would a brief written message; organize a longer presentation as you would a report.

With a well-defined main idea to guide you and a clearly defined scope for your presentation, you can begin to arrange your message. If you have 10 minutes or less to deliver your message, organize your presentation much as you would a brief written message: Use the direct approach if the subject involves routine information or good news; use the indirect approach if the subject involves negative news or persuasion. Plan to spend a minute or two during your introduction to arouse interest and to give a preview of what’s to come. For the body of the presentation, be prepared to explain the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your subject. In the final few moments, review the points you’ve made and close with a statement that will help your audience remember the subject of your speech (see Figure 16.4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#P7001012451000000000000000005CE8) ).

Figure 16.4 Effective Outline for a 10-Minute Progress Report

Here is an outline of a short presentation that updates management on the status of a key project. The presenter has some bad news to deliver (either the product launch will have to be delayed or the materials costs will be higher than anticipated), so she opted for an indirect approach to lay out the reasons for the delay before sharing the news.

Longer presentations are organized like reports. If the purpose is to inform, use the direct approach and a structure imposed naturally by the subject: importance, sequence, chronology, spatial orientation, geography, or category. If your purpose is to analyze, persuade, or collaborate, organize your material around conclusions and recommendations or around a logical argument. Use the direct approach if the audience is receptive and the indirect approach if you expect resistance.

As you develop your presentation, keep in mind that presentations have one important advantage over written reports: You can adjust your outline on the fly if you need to. Identify the critical points in your presentation and ask yourself some “what if” questions to address possible audience reactions. For instance, if you’re worried the audience might not agree with the financial assumptions you’ve made, you might prepare a detailed analysis that you can include in case you sense that a negative reaction is building or if someone openly questions you about it. Most presentation software makes it easy to adjust your presentation as you move along, allowing you to skip over any parts you decide not to use or to insert backup material at the last minute.

Simplicity is critical in the organization of presentations.

Regardless of the length of your presentation, remember to keep your organization clear and simple. If listeners lose the thread of your presentation, they’ll have a hard time catching up and following your message in the remainder of your speech. Explain at the beginning how you’ve organized your material and try to limit the number of main points to three or four.

With every presentation, look for opportunities to integrate storytelling (see page 117 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000021ce#page_117) ) into the structure of your presentation. The dramatic tension (not knowing what will happen to the “hero”) at the heart of effective storytelling is a great way to capture and keep the audience’s attention.

Preparing Your Outline

A presentation outline helps you organize your message, and it serves as the foundation for delivering your speech. Prepare your outline in several stages:11

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• State your purpose and main idea and then use these to guide the rest of your planning. • Organize your major points and subpoints in logical order, expressing each major point as a single, complete sentence. • Identify major points in the body first and then outline the introduction and close. • Identify transitions between major points or sections and then write these transitions in full-sentence form. • Prepare your bibliography or source notes; highlight those sources you want to identify by name during your talk.

• Choose a compelling title. Make it brief, action oriented, and focused on what you can do for the audience.12

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In addition to planning your speech, a presentation outline helps you plan your speaking notes as well.

You may find it helpful to create a simpler speaking outline from your planning outline.

Many speakers like to prepare both a detailed planning outline (see Figure 16.5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005d23#P7001012451000000000000000005D0C) on the next page) and a simpler speaking outline that provides all the cues and reminders they need to present their material. Follow these steps to prepare an effective speaking

outline:13 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FC4)

• Start with the planning outline and then strip away anything you don’t plan to say directly to your audience. • Condense points and transitions to key words or phrases. • Add delivery cues, such as places where you plan to pause for emphasis or use visuals. • Arrange your notes on numbered cards or use the notes capability in your presentation software.

16.2 Crafting Presentation Content

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

2 Explain how to adapt to your audience and develop an effective opening, body, and close for a presentation. Although you usually don’t write out a presentation word for word, you still engage in the writing process—developing your ideas, structuring support points, phrasing your transitions, and so on. Depending on the situation and your personal style, the eventual presentation might follow your initial words closely, or you might express your thoughts in fresh, spontaneous language. This section covers the tasks of adapting to your audience and developing your presentation; Chapter 17 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005fef#P7001012451000000000000000005FEF) covers the task of creating slides to accompany your talk.

Figure 16.5 Effective Outline for a 30-Minute Presentation

This outline (based on Linda Moreno’s report in Chapter 15 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000055a2#P70010124510000000000000000055A2) ) clearly identifies the purpose and the distinct points to be made in the introduction, body, and close. Notice also how the presenter wrote her major transitions in full-sentence form to be sure she can clearly phrase these critical passages when it’s time to speak.

ADAPTING TO YOUR AUDIENCE

Adapting to your audience addresses a number of issues, from speaking style to technology choices.

Your audience’s size, the venue (in person or online), your subject, your purpose, your budget, the time available for preparation, and the time allotted for your talk all influence the style of your presentation. If you’re speaking to a small group, particularly people you already know, you can use a casual style that encourages audience participation. Use simple visuals and invite your audience to interject comments. Deliver your remarks in a conversational tone, using notes to jog your memory if necessary.

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How to establish an emotional connection with any audience

Entertainment executive Peter Guber talks about the art of purposeful storytelling. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

If you’re addressing a large audience or if the event is important, establish a more formal atmosphere. During formal presentations, speakers are often on a stage or platform, standing behind a lectern and using a microphone so that their remarks can be heard throughout the room or captured for broadcasting or webcasting.

When you deliver a presentation to people from other cultures, you may need to adapt the content of your presentation. It is also important to take into account any cultural preferences for appearance, mannerisms, and other customs. An interpreter or event host can suggest appropriate changes for a specific audience or particular occasion.

DEVELOPING YOUR PRESENTATION

Like written documents, presentations comprise distinct elements: the introduction, the body, and the close.

Presentation Introduction

A good introduction arouses the audience’s interest in your topic, establishes your credibility, and prepares the audience for what will follow. That’s a lot to pack into the first few minutes of your presentation, so give yourself plenty of time to prepare the words and visuals you’ll use to get your presentation off to a great start.

Arousing Audience Interest

If your audience isn’t likely to be naturally interested in your topic, your introduction will need to build interest by relating the subject to their personal concerns.

Some subjects are naturally more interesting to some audiences than others. If you will be discussing a matter of profound significance that will personally affect the members of your audience, chances are they’ll listen, regardless of how you begin. All you really have to do is announce your topic, and you’ll have their

attention. Other subjects call for more imagination. Here are six ways to arouse audience interest:14

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• Unite the audience around a common goal. Invite listeners to help solve a problem, capitalize on an opportunity, or otherwise engage in the topic of your presentation.

• Tell a story. Well-told stories are naturally interesting and can be compelling. Of course, make sure your story illustrates an important and relevant point.

• Pass around product samples or other objects. If your company is in the textile business, for example, let the audience handle some of your fabrics. The more of their senses you can engage, the more likely people are to remember your message.

• Ask a question. Asking questions will get the audience actively involved in your presentation and give you information about them and their needs. • Share a startling statistic. An intriguing, unexpected, or shocking detail can often grab the attention of your listeners. • Use humor. Opening with an amusing observation about yourself, the subject matter of the presentation, or the circumstances surrounding the

presentation can be an effective way to lighten the “pre-presentation jitters” for you and the audience or to make an emotional connection with your listeners. However, humor must be used with great care. Make sure any comments are relevant, appropriate, and not offensive to anyone in the audience. In general, avoid humor when you and the audience don’t share the same native language or culture; it’s too easy for humor to fall flat or backfire.

Regardless of which technique you choose, make sure you can give audience members a reason to care and to believe that the time they’re about to spend

listening to you will be worth their while.15

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Building Your Credibility

In addition to grabbing the audience’s attention, your introduction needs to establish your credibility. If you’re a well-known expert in the subject matter or have earned your audience’s trust in other situations, you’re already ahead of the game. If you have no working relationship with your audience or if you’re speaking in an area outside your known expertise, however, you need to establish credibility and do so quickly; people tend to decide within a few minutes whether you’re

worth listening to.16

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If someone else will be introducing you to the audience, you can ask this person to present your credentials.

Techniques for building credibility vary, depending on whether you will be introducing yourself or having someone else introduce you. If another person will introduce you, he or she can present your credentials so that you don’t appear boastful. If you will be introducing yourself, keep your comments simple, but don’t be afraid to mention your relevant experience and accomplishments. Your listeners will be curious about your qualifications, so tell them briefly who you are and why you’re the right person to be giving this presentation. Here’s an example:

I’m Karen Whitney, a market research analyst with Information Resources Corporation. For the past five years, I’ve specialized in studying high-technology markets. Your director of engineering, John LaBarre, has asked me to talk to you about recent trends in computer-aided design so that you’ll have a better idea of how to direct your research efforts.

This speaker establishes credibility by tying her credentials to the purpose of her presentation, without boasting. By mentioning her company’s name, her specialization and position, and the name of the audience’s boss, she lets her listeners know immediately that she is qualified to tell them something they need to know. She connects her background to their concerns.

Previewing Your Message

In addition to arousing audience interest and establishing your credibility, a good introduction gives your audience members a preview of what’s ahead, helping them understand the structure and content of your message. A report reader can learn these things by looking at the table of contents and scanning the headings, but in a presentation you need to provide that framework with a preview.

Use the preview to help your audience understand the importance, the structure, and the content of your message.

Your preview should summarize the main idea of your presentation, identify major supporting points, and indicate the order in which you’ll develop those points. Tell your listeners in so many words, “This is the subject, and these are the points I will cover.” Once you’ve established the framework, you can be confident that the audience will understand how the individual facts and figures are related to your main idea as you move into the body of your presentation. If you are using an indirect approach, your preview can discuss the nature of your main idea without disclosing it.

Presentation Body

The bulk of your speech or presentation is devoted to a discussion of the main supporting points from your outline. Whether you’re using the direct or indirect approach, make sure the organization of your presentation is clear and your presentation holds the audience’s attention.

Connecting Your Ideas

Use transitions to repeat key ideas and help the audience follow along, particularly in longer presentations.

Help your listeners move from one key point to the next with generous use of transitions. Between sentences and paragraphs, use transitional words and phrases such as therefore, because, in addition, in contrast, moreover, for example, consequently, nevertheless, and finally. To link major sections of a presentation, use complete sentences or paragraphs, such as “Now that we’ve reviewed the problem, let’s take a look at some solutions.” Every time you shift topics, be sure to stress the connection between ideas. Summarize what’s been said and then preview what’s to come. You might also want to call attention to the transitions by using gestures, changing your tone of voice, or introducing a new slide or other visual.

Holding Your Audience’s Attention

After you’ve successfully captured your audience’s attention in your introduction, you need to work to keep it throughout the body of your presentation. Here are a few helpful tips for keeping the audience tuned in to your message:

The most important way to hold an audience’s attention is to show how your message relates to their individual needs and concerns.

• Relate your subject to your audience’s needs. People are naturally most interested in things that affect them personally. • Anticipate your audience’s questions. Try to anticipate as many questions as you can and address these questions in the body of your presentation.

You’ll also want to prepare and reserve additional material to use during the question-and-answer period, in case the audience asks for greater detail. • Use clear, vivid language. If your presentation involves abstract ideas, show how those abstractions connect with everyday life. Use familiar words,

short sentences, and concrete examples. Be sure to use some variety as well; repeating the same words and phrases puts people to sleep. • Explain the relationship between your subject and familiar ideas. Show how your subject is related to ideas that audience members already

understand and give people a way to categorize and remember your points.17

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• Ask for opinions or pause occasionally for questions or comments. Audience feedback helps you determine whether your listeners understand a key point before you launch into another section. Asking questions or providing comments also gives your audience members a chance to switch for a time from listening to participating, which helps them engage with your message and develop a sense of shared ownership.

• Illustrate your ideas with visuals. As Chapter 17 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005fef#P7001012451000000000000000005FEF) discusses, visuals enliven your message, help you connect with audience members, and help people more effectively remember your message.

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Quick tips for a variety of speaking situations

Use these ideas for some of the most common public speaking scenarios. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

Presentation Close

Plan your close carefully so that your audience leaves with your main idea clear in their minds.

The close of a speech or presentation has two critical jobs to accomplish: making sure your listeners leave with the key points from your talk clear in their minds and putting your audience in the appropriate emotional state. For example, if the purpose of your presentation is to warn managers that their out-of-control spending threatens the company’s survival, you want them to leave with that message ringing in their ears—and with enough concern for the problem to stimulate changes in their behavior.

Restating Your Main Points

Use the close to succinctly restate your main points, emphasizing what you want your listeners to do or to think. For example, to close a presentation on your company’s executive compensation program, you could repeat your specific recommendations and then conclude with a memorable statement to motivate your audience to take action:

We can all be proud of the way our company has grown. However, if we want to continue that growth, we need to take four steps to ensure that our best people don’t start looking for opportunities elsewhere:

• First, increase the overall level of compensation • Second, establish a cash bonus program • Third, offer a variety of stock-based incentives • Fourth, improve our health insurance and pension benefits

By taking these steps, we can ensure that our company retains the management talent it needs to face our industry’s largest competitors.

By summarizing the key ideas, you improve the chance that your audience will leave with your message clearly in mind.

Ending with Clarity and Confidence

Plan your final statement carefully so you can end on a strong, positive note.

If you’ve been successful with the introduction and body of your presentation, your listeners have the information they need and are in the right frame of mind to put that information to good use. Now you’re ready to end on a strong note that confirms expectations about any actions or decisions that will follow the presentation—and to bolster the audience’s confidence in you and your message one final time.

Some presentations require the audience to reach a decision or agree to take specific action, in which case the close provides a clear wrap-up. If the audience agrees on an issue covered in the presentation, briefly review the consensus. If they don’t agree, make the lack of consensus clear by saying something like, “We seem to have some fundamental disagreement on this question.” Then be ready to suggest a method of resolving the differences.

If you need to have the audience make a decision or agree to take action, make sure the responsibilities for doing so are clear.

If you expect any action to occur as a result of your speech, be sure to explain who is responsible for doing what. List the action items and, if possible within the time available, establish due dates and assign responsibility for each task.

Make sure your final remarks are memorable and have the right emotional tone.

Make sure your final remarks are memorable and expressed in a tone that is appropriate to the situation. If your presentation is a persuasive request for project funding, you might emphasize the importance of this project and your team’s ability to complete it on schedule and within budget. Expressing confident optimism sends the message that you believe in your ability to perform. Conversely, if your purpose is to alert the audience to a problem or risk, false optimism undermines your message.

Whatever final message is appropriate, think through your closing remarks carefully before stepping in front of the audience. You don’t want to wind up on stage with nothing to say but “Well, I guess that’s it.”

16.3 Delivering a Presentation

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

3 Discuss five steps for delivering a successful presentation. With an outline, speaking notes, and any visual aids you plan to use, you’re almost ready to deliver your presentation. This section covers five essential topics that will help you prepare for and deliver engaging and effective presentations, starting with choosing your method.

CHOOSING YOUR PRESENTATION METHOD

MOBILE APP

authorSTREAM lets you replay webcasts and other recorded presentations on your mobile device.

Depending on the circumstance of your presentation, you can choose from a variety of delivery methods:

• Memorizing. Except for extremely short speeches, trying to memorize an entire presentation is not a good idea. In the best of circumstances, you’ll probably sound stilted; in the worst, you might forget your lines. Besides, you’ll often need to address audience questions during your speech, so you need to be flexible enough to adjust your speech as you go. However, memorizing a quotation, an opening paragraph, and some strong finishing remarks can bolster your confidence and strengthen your delivery.

• Reading. In a few rare instances you may need to read a speech from a prepared script. For instance, policy statements and legal documents are sometimes read in full because the wording can be critical. However, unless you’re required or expected to read your presentation verbatim, reading is

not a good choice. You won’t talk as naturally as you would otherwise, and the result will be a monotonous, uninspiring presentation.18

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FCE) If you must read your speech for some reason, practice enough so that you can still make periodic eye contact with your audience and make sure the printout of your speech is easy to read.

Speaking from carefully prepared notes is the best delivery mode for nearly all presentations.

• Speaking from an outline or notes. Speaking with the help of an outline or note cards is nearly always the easiest and most effective delivery mode. The outline or notes guide you through the flow of the speech while giving you the freedom to speak naturally and spontaneously, to maintain eye contact with your listeners, and to respond and improvise as circumstances warrant. If you print note cards, use heavy note cards instead of regular paper. They’re quieter and easier to flip through as you talk.

• Impromptu speaking. From time to time, you may be called upon unexpectedly to give an impromptu or extemporaneous speech on the spot, without the benefit of any planning or practice. Take a few seconds to identify the one key idea you want to share with the audience. That idea alone may be enough to meet the audience’s expectations, or it might be enough to get you started and allow you to piece together additional ideas on the fly. Then think about a structure that would help convey that idea. Telling a brief story can be particularly effective in these situations because the structure helps you organize what you want to say, even as you’re speaking. If you are asked to speak on a topic and simply don’t have the information at hand, don’t try to fake it. Instead, offer to get the information to the audience after the meeting or ask whether anyone else in the room can respond. Finally, before you even enter the meeting or other setting, if there is a chance you might be called on to say a few words, you can “prepare for the surprise” by thinking

through what you might say in response to potential questions.19

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Whichever delivery mode you use, be sure that you’re thoroughly familiar with your subject. Knowing what you’re talking about is the best way to build your self- confidence. If you stumble, get interrupted, or suffer equipment failures, your expertise will help you get back on track.

PRACTICING YOUR DELIVERY

The more you practice, the more confidence you’ll have in yourself and your material.

Practicing your presentation is essential. Practice boosts your confidence, gives you a more professional demeanor, and lets you verify the operation of your visuals and equipment. A test audience can tell you if your slides are understandable and whether your delivery is effective. A day or two before you’re ready to step on stage for an important talk, make sure you and your presentation are ready:

• Can you present your material naturally, without reading your slides?

Make sure you’re comfortable with the equipment you’ll be expected to use; you don’t want to be fumbling with controls while the audience is watching and waiting.

• Is the equipment working, and do you know how to use it?

• Could you still make a compelling and complete presentation if you experience an equipment failure and have to proceed without using your slides at all?

• Is your timing on track? • Can you easily pronounce all the words you plan to use? • Have you anticipated likely questions and objections?

You’ll know you’ve practiced enough when you can present the material at a comfortable pace and in a natural, conversational tone.

With experience, you’ll get a feel for how much practice is enough in any given situation. Practicing helps keep you on track, helps you maintain a conversational tone with your audience, and boosts your confidence and composure.

PREPARING TO SPEAK

In addition to knowing your material thoroughly and practicing your delivery, make sure your location is ready, you have everything you’ll need, and you’re prepared to address audiences from other cultures, if that applies.

If possible, visit the speaking venue ahead of time to familiarize yourself with the facilities and the equipment.

Whenever you can, scout the location for your presentation in advance. Check the seating arrangement to confirm it’s appropriate for your needs and the audience’s. Verify the availability and operation of all the equipment and supplies you’re counting on, from the projection system to simple but vital necessities such as flip charts and marking pens. If you’re using slides, make sure you know how to get the file from your computer or other device to the projection system.

If you’re addressing audience members who speak a different native language, consider using an interpreter. Working with an interpreter does constrain your presentation somewhat. For instance, you must speak slowly enough for the interpreter to keep up with you. Send your interpreter a copy of your speaking notes and your visuals as far in advance as possible. If your audience is likely to include persons with hearing impairments, team up with a sign-language interpreter as well.

When you deliver a presentation to people from other cultures, take into account cultural differences in appearances, mannerisms, and other customs. Your interpreter or host will be able to suggest appropriate changes for a specific audience or occasion.

OVERCOMING ANXIETY

Recognize that nervousness is an indication that you care about your audience, your topic, and the occasion. These techniques will help you convert anxiety into

positive energy:20 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FD2)

Preparation is the best antidote for anxiety; it gives you confidence that you know your material and that you can recover from any glitches you might encounter.

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Don’t let anxiety hold back your presentations

Take action to keep public speaking anxiety under control. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

• Put yourself into a positive frame of mind before you start. Remind yourself of how well you know the material and how much you enjoy sharing useful or inspirational information. If appropriate for the setting, smile as you take the stage.

• Stop worrying about being perfect. Successful speakers focus on making an authentic connection with their listeners, rather than on trying to deliver a note-perfect presentation.

• Know your subject. The more familiar you are with your material, the less panic you’ll feel. • Practice, practice, practice. The more you rehearse, the more confident you will be. • Visualize success. Visualize mental images of yourself in front of the audience feeling confident, prepared, and able to handle any situation that might

arise.21 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FD4) Remember that your audience wants you to succeed, too.

• Remember to breathe. Tension can lead people to breathe in a rapid and shallow fashion, which can create a lightheaded feeling. Breathe slowly and deeply to maintain a sense of calm and confidence.

• Be ready with your opening line. Have your first sentence memorized and on the tip of your tongue. • Be comfortable. Dress appropriately but as comfortably as possible. Drink plenty of water ahead of time to hydrate your voice (bring water with you,

too).

• Take a three-second break. If you sense that you’re starting to race or ramble, pause and arrange your notes or perform some other small task while taking several deep breaths. Then start again at your normal pace.

• Concentrate on your message and your audience, not on yourself. When you’re busy thinking about your subject and observing your audience’s response, you tend to forget your fears.

• Maintain eye contact with friendly audience members. Eye contact not only makes you appear sincere, confident, and trustworthy but can give you positive feedback as well.

• Keep going. Things usually get better as you move along, with each successful minute giving you more and more confidence.

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Two secrets to presenting like a pro

Read how to build your confidence and stay in the moment. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

No one enjoys mistakes, equipment failures, and other troubles, but they are survivable. To learn how several experienced presenters have overcome some serious glitches, see “The Art of Professionalism: Recovering from Disasters (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#P7001012451000000000000000005E07) .”

Nonverbal signals tell the audience how you’re feeling, so pay attention to the signals you send.

Confident delivery starts as soon as you become the focus of attention, before you even begin to speak, so don’t rush. As you approach the front of the room, walk with confidence, breathe deeply, and stand up straight. Face your audience, adjust the microphone and other equipment as needed, count to three slowly, and

then scan the audience. When you find a friendly face, make eye contact and smile. Look away, count to three again, and then begin your presentation.22

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FD6) If you are nervous, this slow, controlled beginning will help you establish rapport and appear more confident. Make sure your nonverbal signals send a message of confidence.

THE ART OF PROFESSIONALISM

Recovering from Disasters

You’ve researched your topic, analyzed your audience, prepared a compelling message, crafted eye-catching visuals, and practiced until you’re running like a smooth machine. You’re ready to go.

Then you wake up with a sore throat and half a voice. You grab a few lozenges, hope for the best, and drive to the conference facility in plenty of time to set up your equipment. Oops, somebody forgot to tell you that your presentation has been moved up by an hour, and your audience is already in the room waiting for you. You scramble to turn on your laptop and get it connected to the projector, only to discover that you forgot the power cord and your battery is low. But that won’t be a problem: Your laptop is dead anyway. Feeling smart, you pull out a CD-ROM with a backup copy of your PowerPoint slides and ask to use one of the several laptops you see scattered around the room. Nice idea, but they’re equipped only with USB flash drives, so your CD is useless. The audience is getting restless; a few people get up to leave. You keep hoping you’ll wake up from this bad dream so that your great day can really start. Sorry. This is your day.

Ask any business speaker with a few years of experience, and you’ll hear all these horror stories and a few more: people who have driven to the wrong conference center, hit themselves in the head with a microphone, tripped over wires, started with a sure-fire joke that generated nothing but cold stares, or been rendered speechless by tough questions. Hoping you’ll be spared isn’t an effective response. You must be prepared for when—not if—something goes wrong.

If you assume that something will go wrong at some point, you can make peace with the possibility and focus on backup planning. Experts suggest that you make a list of every major problem you might encounter and imagine how you’ll respond when these calamities strike you on the day of a big presentation. As much as possible, create a backup plan, such as calling ahead to reserve a second projector in the event that yours gets lost in transit. You won’t be able to put backup resources in place for every possible glitch, but by at least thinking through the possibilities, you can decide how you’ll respond. When disaster does strike, you’ll look like a polished pro instead of a befuddled novice.

CAREER APPLICATIONS

1. If you spy trouble ahead in your presentation, such as noticing that your laptop battery is about to go dead or that you somehow have an old copy of the presentation file, should you tell your audience what’s wrong? Or should you try to “wing it”? Explain your answer.

2. What steps can you take to make absolutely sure you have a usable backup copy of your presentation slides outside your office? Why is this important?

Sources: Based in part on C. Peter Guiliano and Frank J. Currilo, “Going Blank in the Boardroom,” Public Relations Quarterly, Winter 2003, 35+; Jennifer Rotondo and Mike Rotondo Jr., Presentation Skills for Managers (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002), 160–162; Mark Merritt, “No More Nightmares,” Presentations, April 2001, 44+.

As Gina Barnett advises, your posture helps you project confidence. Stand tall, with your weight on both feet and your shoulders back. Avoid gripping the lectern or other physical structure. Use your hands to emphasize your remarks with appropriate gestures. Meanwhile, vary your facial expressions to make the message more dynamic.

Finally, think about the sound of your voice. Studies indicate that people who speak with lower pitches at a slightly faster-than-average rate are perceived as

being more credible.23

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FD8) Try to sound

poised and confident, varying your pitch and speaking rate to add emphasis. For instance, slow down slightly when you’re making an important point.24

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FDA) Speak clearly and crisply, articulating all the syllables, and sound enthusiastic about what you’re saying. Use silence instead of meaningless filler words such as um, you know, okay, and like. Silence adds dramatic punch and gives the audience time to think about your message.

HANDLING QUESTIONS RESPONSIVELY

Don’t leave the question-and-answer period to chance: anticipate likely questions and think through your answers.

Whether you take questions during a formal question-and-answer (Q&A) period or as they come up during your presentation, audience queries are often one of the most important parts of a presentation. They give you a chance to obtain important information, to emphasize your main idea and supporting points, and to build enthusiasm for your point of view. When you’re speaking to high-ranking executives in your company, the Q&A period will often consume most of the time

allotted for your presentation.25

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Note that you may not always have the option of establishing ground rules for Q&A. If you’re presenting to a small group of upper managers or potential investors, for example, you will probably have no say in the matter: Audience members will likely ask as many questions as they want, whenever they want, to get the information they need. On the other hand, if you are presenting to your peers or a large public audience, establish some guidelines, such as the number of questions allowed per person and the overall time limit for questions.

Don’t assume you can handle whatever comes up without some preparation.26

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FDE) Learn enough about your audience members to get an idea of their concerns and think through answers to potential questions.

When people ask questions, pay attention to nonverbal signals to help determine what each person really means. Repeat the question to confirm your understanding and to ensure that the entire audience has heard it. If the question is vague or confusing, ask for clarification; then give a simple, direct answer.

If you don’t have the complete answer to an important question, offer to provide it after the presentation.

If you are asked a difficult or complex question, avoid the temptation to sidestep it. Offer to meet with the questioner afterward if the issue isn’t relevant to the rest of the audience or if giving an adequate answer would take too long. If you don’t know the answer, don’t pretend you do. Instead, offer to get a complete answer as soon as possible or ask if someone else can offer information on the topic.

Be on guard for audience members who use questions to make impromptu speeches or to take control of your presentation. Without offending anyone, find a way to stay in control. You might admit that you and the questioner have differing opinions and, before calling on someone else, offer to get back to the questioner

after you’ve done more research.27

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If you ever face hostile questions, respond honestly and directly while keeping your cool.

If a question ever puts you on the hot seat, respond honestly but keep your cool. Look the person in the eye, answer the question as well as you can, and keep your emotions under control. Defuse hostility by paraphrasing the question and asking the questioner to confirm that you’ve understood it correctly. Maintain a

businesslike tone of voice and a pleasant expression.28

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No matter how the presentation has gone, conclude in a strong, confident manner.

When the time allotted for your presentation is almost up, prepare the audience for the end by saying something like, “We have time for one more question.” After you reply to that last question, summarize the main idea of the presentation and thank people for their attention. Conclude with the same confident demeanor you’ve had from the beginning.

16.4 Incorporating Technology in Your Presentation

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

4 Explain the growing importance of the backchannel in presentations, and list six steps for giving effective presentations online. Like much of the rest of business communication, presentations can be high-tech affairs in many companies. Two aspects you will most likely encounter on the job are the backchannel and online presentations.

EMBRACING THE BACKCHANNEL

Twitter and other social media are dramatically changing business presentations by making it easy for all audience members to participate in the backchannel.

Many business presentations these days involve more than just the spoken conversation between the speaker and his or her audience. Using Twitter and other digital media, audience members often carry on their own parallel communication during a presentation via the backchannel (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005EC3) , which the presentation expert Cliff Atkinson defines as “a line of communication created by people in an audience to connect with others inside or outside the room, with or

without the knowledge of the speaker.”29

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FE4) Chances are you’ve participated in an informal backchannel already, such as when texting with your classmates or live-blogging during a lecture.

Resist the urge to ignore or fight the backchannel; instead, learn how to use it to your advantage.

The backchannel presents both risks and rewards for business presenters. On the negative side, for example, listeners can research your claims the instant you make them and spread the word quickly if they think your information is shaky. The backchannel also gives contrary audience members more leverage, which can cause presentations to spin out of control. On the plus side, listeners who are excited about your message can build support for it, expand on it, and spread it

to a much larger audience in a matter of seconds. You can also get valuable feedback during and after presentations.30

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By embracing the backchannel, rather than trying to fight it or ignore it, presenters can use this powerful force to their advantage. Follow these tips to make the

backchannel work for you:31

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• Integrate social media into the presentation process. For example, you can create a website for the presentation so that people can access relevant resources during or after the presentation, create a Twitter hashtag that everyone can use when sending tweets, or display the Twitterstream during Q&A so that everyone can see the questions and comments on the backchannel.

• Monitor and ask for feedback. Using a free service such as TweetDeck to organize tweets by hashtag and other variables, you can monitor comments from the audience. To avoid trying to monitor the backchannel while speaking, you can schedule “Twitter breaks,” during which you review comments and respond as needed.

• Review comments to improve your presentation. After a presentation is over, review comments on audience members’ Twitter accounts and blogs to see which parts confused them, which parts excited them, and which parts seemed to have little effect (based on few or no comments).

• Automatically tweet key points from your presentation while you speak. Add-ons for presentation software can send out prewritten tweets as you show specific slides during a presentation. By making your key points readily available, you make it easy for listeners to retweet and comment on your presentation.

• Establish expectations with the audience. Explain that you welcome audience participation but that to ensure a positive experience for everyone, comments should be civil, relevant, and productive.

MOBILE APP

SlideShark lets you present and share PowerPoint slides with mobile and PC users.

GIVING PRESENTATIONS ONLINE

Online presentations give you a way to reach more people in less time, but they require special preparation and skills.

Online presentations offer many benefits, including the opportunity to communicate with a geographically dispersed audience at a fraction of the cost of travel and the ability for a project team or an entire organization to meet at a moment’s notice. However, this format also presents some challenges for the presenter, thanks to that layer of technology between you and your audience. Many of those “human moments” that guide and encourage you through an in-person presentation won’t travel across the digital divide. For instance, it’s sometimes difficult to tell whether audience members are bored or confused if your view of them is confined to small video images (and sometimes not even that). To ensure successful online presentations, keep the following advice in mind:

• Consider sending preview study materials ahead of time. Doing so allows audience members to familiarize themselves with any important background information. Also, by using a free service such as SlideShare, you can distribute your presentation slides to either public or private

audiences, and you can record audio narrative to make your presentations function on their own.32

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005ebd#P7001012451000000000000000005FEA) Some presenters advise against giving out your slides ahead of time, however, because doing so gives away the ending of your presentation. If time allows, you can prepare preview materials that don’t include your entire slide set.

• Rehearse using the system live, if at all possible. Presenting online has all the challenges of other presentations, with the additional burden of

operating the presentation system while you are talking. Practice with at least one test viewer so you’re comfortable using the system.33

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• Keep your presentation as simple as possible. Break complicated slides down into multiple slides if necessary and keep the direction of your discussion clear so that no one gets lost.

With online presentations, you often can’t rely on nonverbal signals to sense audience confusion or disagreement, so check in with your listeners frequently to see if they have questions.

• Ask for feedback frequently. Except on the most advanced telepresence systems, you won’t have as much of the visual feedback that alerts you when audience members are confused, and many online viewers will be reluctant to call attention to themselves by interrupting you to ask for clarification. Setting up a backchannel via Twitter or as part of your online meeting system will help in this regard.

• Consider the viewing experience from the audience members’ point of view. Will they be able to see what you think they can see? For instance, webcast video is sometimes displayed in a small window on screen, so viewers may miss important details. People logging in on mobile devices (smartphones in particular) may not get the same visual experience as people sitting in front of full-size computer screens.

• Allow plenty of time for everyone to get connected and familiar with the screen they’re viewing. Build extra time into your schedule to ensure that everyone is connected and ready to start. If the meeting will require them to download and install meeting software, make sure to let them know well in advance.

Last but not least, don’t get lost in the technology. Use these tools whenever they’ll help, but remember that the most important aspect of any presentation is getting the audience to receive, understand, and embrace your message.

For a reminder of the steps to take in developing a presentation, refer to “Checklist: Developing Presentations (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005e33#P7001012451000000000000000005E6C) .” For the latest advice on planning presentations, visit real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Chapter 16 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005bd7#P7001012451000000000000000005BD7) .

CHECKLIST Developing Presentations

A. Planning your presentation • Analyze the situation by defining your purpose and developing an audience profile. • Select the best medium. • Organize your presentation by defining the main idea, limiting the scope, choosing your approach, and preparing your outline.

B. Developing your presentation • Adapt to your audience by tailoring your style and language. • Compose your presentation by preparing an introduction, a body, and a close. • Use your introduction to arouse audience interest, build your credibility, and preview your message. • Use the body to connect your ideas and hold your audience’s attention. • Close with confidence and clarity, restating your main points and describing the next steps.

C. Delivering your presentation • Choose a presentation method, which should be speaking from an outline or notes in nearly all situations. • Practice until you can deliver your material naturally, without reading your slides. • Prepare to speak by verifying the operation of all the equipment you’ll need to use. • Determine whether you should use an interpreter. • Overcome anxiety by preparing thoroughly. • Handle questions responsively.

D. Embracing the backchannel • Integrate social media into the presentation process. • Monitor and ask for feedback. • Review comments to improve your presentation. • Automatically tweet key points from your presentation while you speak. • Establish expectations with the audience.

E. Giving presentations online • Consider sending preview study materials ahead of time. • Rehearse using the system live, if at all possible. • Keep your presentation as simple as possible. • Ask for feedback frequently. • Consider the viewing experience from the audience members’ point of view. • Allow plenty of time for everyone to get connected and familiar with the screen they’re viewing.

COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES AT Barnett International

You are a communication coach at Barnett International, helping corporate clients improve their presentations using Gina Barnett’s insights and strategies. In addition to presentation skills and stage presence, you also counsel clients on the content of important presentations.

INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: One of your clients wants to give an inspirational speech about how his grandparents founded a company during the Great Depression, built it up over four decades, and passed it on to their children, who then passed it on to him. He now serves as the CEO and wants to give his employees a sense of the company’s history and values. After several attempts, however, he has given up and declared that he is simply not a storyteller. You believe he could benefit from a good example to study.

Revisit the story of Sarah Calhoun and Red Ants Pants on page 329 (M16_C12.xhtml#page_329) in Chapter 12 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004853#P7001012451000000000000000004853) . Construct a brief outline that would convey Calhoun’s founding story in roughly 10 minutes. You can also visit redantpants.com (http://redantpants.com) and search for some of the articles published about her for more on the company’s history.

TEAM CHALLENGE: Merge the outlines you and your teammates created in the individual exercise and then develop the content for this presentation. Brainstorm your way through the introduction, the body, and the close, identifying key message points and ideas for supporting visuals (anything from Red Ants Pants products to photographs to presentation slides). You don’t have to create the visuals, but identify and describe them. Prepare a speaking outline with notes that convey all the key message points you’ve identified.

Quick Learning Guide

KEY TERMS

backchannel A social media conversation that takes place during a presentation, in parallel with the speaker’s presentation

screencasts Recordings of activity on computer displays with audio voiceover

twebinars The use of Twitter as a backchannel to facilitate organized discussions

webcasts Online presentations that people either view live or download later from the web

SUMMARY OF LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1 Describe the tasks involved in analyzing the situation for a presentation and organizing a presentation. Although you rarely want to write out a presentation word for word, the three-step writing process is easy to adapt to presentations. The steps you take in planning presentations are generally the same as with any other business message: analyze the situation, gather information, select the right medium, and organize the information. The purpose of most business presentations is to inform or to persuade, although you may occasionally need to make a collaborative presentation. When you develop your audience profile, anticipate the likely emotional state of your audience members and plan to diffuse emotional situations if necessary.

Organizing a presentation requires the same general tasks as organizing a written message (define your main idea, limit your scope, select the direct or indirect approach, and outline your content), but pay special attention to the demands a presentation puts on listeners. They are largely captive to your timing and sequence, so make doubly sure you have a clear purpose, and limit your scope to convey your main idea and necessary supporting points within your allotted time frame. At the same time, take advantage of the flexibility you have with speeches and presentations to adjust the flow and level of detail on the fly if you sense that the audience wants different information than you originally planned. After you complete your planning outline, consider simplifying it to create a speaking outline to guide you during your presentation.

2 Explain how to adapt to your audience and develop an effective opening, body, and close for a presentation. To adapt to your audience, assess the size of your audience and the venue (in person or online); your subject, purpose, and budget; and the time available for preparation and allotted for your presentation. Determine whether you need to adjust your presentation or engage an interpreter when addressing audiences from other cultures, and assess the specific circumstances in which you’ll be making your presentation.

You rarely write out a presentation in full, but plan your word and phrase choices so you can speak in a way that delivers planned messages in a spontaneous way. This step also includes creating whatever visual support materials you plan to use.

An effective introduction arouses audience interest in your topic, builds your credibility, and gives your audience a preview of your message. If your topic doesn’t naturally interest the audience, you need to work extra hard in your introduction (and throughout the presentation) to relate the material to the audience in as personal a manner as possible. If you can’t demonstrate credibility in your subject area, you can “borrow” credibility from recognized experts by incorporating their insights and opinions into your presentation (giving proper credit, of course). Previewing your message in the introduction helps the audience members recognize the importance of your material and gives them a chance to prepare for it by understanding how you plan to present it.

The bulk of your speech or presentation is devoted to a discussion of the main supporting points from your outline. Throughout the body of your talk, take care to connect your supporting points so that listeners can follow your thinking. Also work to hold your audience’s attention by relating your subject to their needs, anticipating their questions, using clear and vivid language, relating your subject to familiar ideas, asking for questions or comments, and illustrating your ideas with visuals.

The close of a speech or presentation has two critical jobs to accomplish: making sure your listeners leave with the key points from your talk clear in their minds and putting your audience in the appropriate emotional state.

3 Discuss five steps for delivering a successful presentation. First, choose the best delivery method, which is speaking naturally and spontaneously from notes or a speaking outline in nearly all instances. Second, practice until you can deliver your material naturally, without reading your slides. Third, prepare to speak by making sure that your location is ready, you have everything you’ll need, and you’re prepared to address audiences from other cultures, if that applies. Fourth, work to overcome anxiety before and during your presentation by letting go of worrying about being perfect, preparing more material than necessary, visualizing your success, remembering to breathe, being ready with your opening line, making yourself comfortable, taking a three-second break if you sense that you’re starting to race, concentrating on your message and your audience rather than on yourself, maintaining eye contact with friendly audience members, and going on even if you stumble. Fifth, handle questions responsively by determining whether you can set boundaries for the Q&A period, prepare answers to potential questions, pay attention to nonverbal signals, be sure to respond to all questions, don’t let questioners take control of the presentation, face hostile questions head-on without getting defensive, and alert the audience when the Q&A period is almost over.

4 Explain the growing importance of the backchannel in presentations, and list six steps for giving effective presentations online. The backchannel is a parallel conversation taking place among audience members and other interested parties using Twitter and other media. To take advantage of the backchannel, you can integrate social media into your presentation, monitor and ask for feedback, review comments point by point to improve your presentation, automatically tweet key points from your presentation while you speak, and establish expectations with the audience.

To ensure a successful online presentation, consider sending preview materials ahead of time, keep your content and presentation as simple as possible, ask for feedback frequently, consider the viewing experience from the audience’s side, and give participants time to get connected.

MyBCommLab

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) to complete the problems marked with this icon .

Test Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

16-1. What skills do business presentations give you the opportunity to practice and demonstrate? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#P7001012451000000000000000005C02)

16-2. What are the two most common purposes for giving presentations? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#P7001012451000000000000000005C02)

16-3. How do linear and nonlinear presentations differ? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#P7001012451000000000000000005C02)

16-4. How can outlines help you write and deliver a presentation? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#P7001012451000000000000000005C02)

16-5. How can you get and keep the audience’s attention? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005d23#P7001012451000000000000000005D25)

16-6. How does the delivery method of impromptu speaking differ from the delivery method of speaking from notes? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#P7001012451000000000000000005DA7)

16-7. As a speaker, what nonverbal signals can you send to appear more confident? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#P7001012451000000000000000005DA7)

16-8. What can speakers do to maintain control during the question-and-answer period of a presentation? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#P7001012451000000000000000005DA7)

16-9. What is the backchannel? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005e33#P7001012451000000000000000005E36)

Apply Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

16-10. You just gave an in-depth presentation on the company’s new marketing programs, intended for the specialists in the marketing department. The marketing manager then asked you to give a shorter version of the presentation to the company’s top executives. In general, how should you modify the scope of your presentation for this new audience? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#P7001012451000000000000000005C02) , [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005d23#P7001012451000000000000000005D25)

16-11. What role can entertainment play in an effective presentation? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005d23#P7001012451000000000000000005D25)

16-12. If you’re worried about forgetting your key message points, should you write them out and read them during your presentation? Why or why not? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#P7001012451000000000000000005DA7)

16-13. Letting go of the idea that you have to be perfect can reduce your anxiety before a presentation. However, is it possible to create ethical problems by being too relaxed about your message and your performance? Explain your answer. [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#P7001012451000000000000000005DA7)

16-14. What are the possible consequences of ignoring the backchannel during a presentation to a public audience (such as at a convention)? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005e33#P7001012451000000000000000005E36)

Practice Your Skills Messages for Analysis

16-15. Message 16.A: Analyzing the Structure of a Presentation [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#P7001012451000000000000000005C02) Find the transcript of a business-oriented speech or presentation by searching online for “speech transcription” or “presentation transcription.” You can also browse www.americanrhetoric.com (http://www.americanrhetoric.com) , which has thousands of transcriptions from speeches on a variety of subjects. Examine both the introduction and the close and analyze how these two sections work together to emphasize the main idea. Does the speaker want the audience to take any specific actions? To change any particular beliefs or feelings?

Next, identify the transitional sentences or phrases that clarify the speech’s structure for the listener, especially those that help the speaker shift between supporting points. Using these transitions as clues, list the main message and supporting points, then indicate how each transitional phrase links the current supporting point to the succeeding one. Finally, prepare a brief (two- to three-minute) presentation summarizing your analysis for your class.

16-16. Message 16.B: Did the Introduction Get Your Attention? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005d23#P7001012451000000000000000005D25) To access this message, visit real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) , select Student Assignments, then select Chapter 16 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005bd7#P7001012451000000000000000005BD7) , Message 16.B. Download and listen to this podcast, which is the introduction of a presentation to college seniors. Identify at least two techniques the speaker uses to try to grab your attention.

Exercises

Each activity is labeled according to the primary skill or skills you will need to use. To review relevant chapter content, you can refer to the indicated Learning Objective. In some instances, supporting information will be found in another chapter, as indicated.

16-17. Presentations: Planning and Developing [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#P7001012451000000000000000005C02) , [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005d23#P7001012451000000000000000005D25) With a team of three other students, prepare a detailed outline (including descriptions of any visuals you would plan to use) for a 10-minute presentation on the advantages of attending your college or university. The presentation would be delivered by someone from the admissions office, and the audience would be visiting high school students and their family members. After completing the outline together, each team member should individually develop a 60-second introduction to the presentation. Meet again, have each team member present his or her introduction, and then discuss which was most effective and why. Be prepared to discuss your conclusion with the class.

Presentations: Planning and Developing [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#P7001012451000000000000000005C02) , [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005d23#P7001012451000000000000000005D25) Choose a topic from this list and prepare a brief speech or presentation (5–10 minutes), with or without visuals, as your instructor indicates.

16-18. What I expected to learn in this course—and what I have learned 16-19. Past public speaking experiences: the good, the bad, and the ugly 16-20. I would be good at teaching ______. 16-21. I am afraid of ______. 16-22. It’s easy for me to ______. 16-23. I get angry when ______. 16-24. I am happiest when I ______. 16-25. People would be surprised if they knew that I ______. 16-26. My favorite older person 16-27. My favorite charity 16-28. My favorite place 16-29. My favorite sport 16-30. My favorite store 16-31. My favorite television show 16-32. The town you live in suffers from a great deal of juvenile vandalism. Explain to a group of community members why juvenile recreational facilities should be built instead of a juvenile detention complex. 16-33. You are speaking to the Humane Society. Support or oppose the use of animals for medical research purposes. 16-34. You are talking to civic leaders of your community. Try to convince them to build an art gallery. 16-35. You are speaking to a first-grade class at an elementary school. Explain why they should brush their teeth after meals. 16-36. You are speaking to a group of first-time drivers. Convince them of the dangers of texting while driving. 16-37. You are speaking to a group of elderly people. Convince them to adopt an exercise program. 16-38. Energy issues (supply, conservation, alternative sources, national security, global warming, pollution, etc.) 16-39. Financial issues (banking, investing, family finances, etc.) 16-40. Government (domestic policy, foreign policy, Social Security taxes, welfare, etc.) 16-41. Interesting new technologies (virtual reality, geographic information systems, nanotechnology, bioengineering, etc.) 16-42. Politics (political parties, elections, legislative bodies and legislation, the presidency, etc.) 16-43. Sports (amateur and professional, baseball, football, golf, hang gliding, hockey, rock climbing, tennis, etc.) 16-44. Presentations: Planning, Developing, and Delivering [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#P7001012451000000000000000005C02) , [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005d23#P7001012451000000000000000005D25) , [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#P7001012451000000000000000005DA7)

Identify a company whose prospects look bright over the next few years because of highly competitive products, strong leadership, fundamental changes in the market, or any other significant reason. Prepare a five-minute speech, without visuals, explaining why you think this company is going to do well in the near future. 16-45. Presentations: Mastering Delivery [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#P7001012451000000000000000005DA7)

Watch any talk that interests you at the TED website, www.ted.com/talks (http://www.ted.com/talks) , and compare the speaker’s delivery with this chapter’s “Checklist: Developing Presentations (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005e33#P7001012451000000000000000005E6C) .” Write a brief report (one to two pages) analyzing the speaker’s performance and suggesting improvements. 16-46. Presentations: Mastering Delivery; Communication Ethics: Making Ethical Choices [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#P7001012451000000000000000005DA7) , Chapter 1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000105b#P700101245100000000000000000105B) Think again about the presentation you observed and analyzed in the previous exercise. How could the speaker have used nonverbal signals to unethically manipulate the audience’s attitudes or actions? 16-47. Presentations: Using the Backchannel; Collaboration: Team Projects [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005e33#P7001012451000000000000000005E36) ,

Chapter 2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000015f4#P70010124510000000000000000015F4) In teams assigned by your instructor, develop a 15-minute slide presentation on any topic that interests you. Nominate one person to give the presentation; the others will participate via a Twitter backchannel. Set up private Twitter accounts if your class doesn’t already use them, and create a hashtag that everyone on the team can follow using TweetDeck or a similar tool. During the presentation, the audience members should tweet comments and questions, and the presenter can take a Twitter break partway through to respond to backchannel messages. Be ready to discuss your experience with the entire class.

Expand Your Skills Critique the Professionals

Find a product demonstration video on YouTube for any product that is appropriate to discuss in class. (Find a video that is at least two minutes long and was uploaded by the company that makes the product, not by a customer or other outside party.) Study the effectiveness of the demonstration, including the use of visuals and the presenter’s speech and mannerisms. Did you find the demonstration compelling? Why or why not? If not, what would’ve made it more compelling? Using whatever medium your instructor requests, write a brief summary of your analysis. Be sure to include a link to the video.

Sharpening Your Career Skills Online

Bovée and Thill’s Business Communication Web Search, at websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com (http://websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com) , is a unique research tool designed specifically for business communication research. Use the Web Search function to find a website, video, article, podcast, or presentation that offers advice on public speaking or presentations in business. Write a brief email message to your instructor, describing the item that you found and summarizing the career skills information you learned from it.

MyBCommLab

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) for Auto-graded writing questions as well as the following Assisted-graded writing questions:

16-48. What three goals should you accomplish during the introduction of a presentation? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005d23#P7001012451000000000000000005D25)

16-49. Can you prepare for an impromptu speech? Explain your answer. [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#P7001012451000000000000000005DA7)

Endnotes

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005bd7#rP7001012451000000000000000005FAC) . Kate Torgovnick May and Emily Ludolph, “A TED Speaker Coach Shares 11 Tips for Right Before You Go on Stage,” TED blog, 14 February 2016, blog.ted.com (http://blog.ted.com) ; Laura Montini, “Steal This TED Coach’s Top 3 Public Speaking Tricks,” Inc., 4 June 2015, www.inc.com (http://www.inc.com) ; Barnett International website, accessed 5 May 2016, barnettinternationalconsulting.com (http://barnettinternationalconsulting.com) ; Gina Barnett, “Play the Part: Master Body Signals to Connect and Communicate for Business Success,” Talks at Google, video, 24 June 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3nxsdQt7Rg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3nxsdQt7Rg) ; “TED Conference Coach Gina Barnett Offers Public Speaking Tips,” CBC News, 19 March 2015, www.cbc.ca (http://www.cbc.ca) ; Gina Barnett, “Like, Totally Don’t Talk Like This to Get Ahead in Business?” Fortune, 6 July 2015, www.fortune.com (http://www.fortune.com) ; Gina Barnett, Play the Part: Master Body Signals to Connect and Communicate for Business Success (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2015).

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#rP7001012451000000000000000005FAE) . Nancy Duarte, slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations (Sebastopol, Calif.: O’Reilly Media, 2008), 13.

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#rP7001012451000000000000000005FB0) . Amber Naslund, “Twebinar: GE’s Tweetsquad,” 4 August 2009, www.radian6.com/blog (http://www.radian6.com/blog) .

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#rP7001012451000000000000000005FB2) . “Get Started with Prezi,” Prezi website, accessed 2 May 2014, prezi.com (http://prezi.com) .

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#rP7001012451000000000000000005FB4) . Adam Noar, “PowerPoint vs. Prezi: What’s the Difference?” Presentation Panda blog, 21 February 2012, presentationpanda.com (http://presentationpanda.com) .

6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#rP7001012451000000000000000005FB6) . Irwin Pollack, “Don’t Just Give Presentations, Impact Your Audience,” Fort Worth Business Press, 1 May 2006, 10.

7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#rP7001012451000000000000000005FB8) . Carmine Gallo, “How to Deliver a Presentation Under Pressure,” BusinessWeek online, 18 September 2008, www.businessweek.com (http://www.businessweek.com) .

8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#rP7001012451000000000000000005FBA) . Sarah Lary and Karen Pruente, “Powerless Point: Common PowerPoint Mistakes to Avoid,” Public Relations Tactics, February 2004, 28.

9 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#rP7001012451000000000000000005FBC) . Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Berkeley, Calif.: New Riders, 2008), 39–42.

10 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#rP7001012451000000000000000005FBE) . Reynolds, Presentation Zen, 66.

11 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#rP7001012451000000000000000005FC0) . Sherwyn P. Morreale and Courtland L. Bovée, Excellence in Public Speaking (Fort Worth, Tex.: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998), 234–237.

12 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#rP7001012451000000000000000005FC2) . John Windsor, “Presenting Smart: Keeping the Goal in Sight,” Presentations, 6 March 2008, www.presentations.com (http://www.presentations.com) .

13 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005c00#rP7001012451000000000000000005FC4) . Morreale and Bovée, Excellence in Public Speaking, 241–243.

14 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005d23#rP7001012451000000000000000005FC6) . Adapted from Eric J. Adams, “Management Focus: User-Friendly Presentation Software,” World Trade, March 1995, 92.

15 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005d23#rP7001012451000000000000000005FC8) . Carmine Gallo, “Grab Your Audience Fast,” BusinessWeek, 13 September 2006, 19.

16 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005d23#rP7001012451000000000000000005FCA) . Walter Kiechel III, “How to Give a Speech,” Fortune, 8 June 1987, 180.

17 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005d23#rP7001012451000000000000000005FCC) . Communication and Leadership Program (Santa Ana, Calif.: Toastmasters International, 1980), 44, 45.

18 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#rP7001012451000000000000000005FCE) . Steve Adubato, “Throw Away That Script, Use an Outline Instead,” NJBiz, 23 October 2006, 17.

19 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#rP7001012451000000000000000005FD0) . Cheryl Wiles, “Impromptu Speaking,” Harvard Management Communication Letter, December 2001, 7–8.

20 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#rP7001012451000000000000000005FD2) . Richard Zeoli, “The Seven Things You Must Know About Public Speaking,” Forbes, 3 June 2009, www.forbes.com (http://www.forbes.com) ; Morreale and Bovée, Excellence in Public Speaking, 24–25.

21 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#rP7001012451000000000000000005FD4) . Jennifer Rotondo and Mike Rotondo Jr., Presentation Skills for Managers (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002), 9.

22 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#rP7001012451000000000000000005FD6) . Judy Linscott, “Getting On and Off the Podium,” Savvy, October 1985, 44.

23 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#rP7001012451000000000000000005FD8) . Iris R. Johnson, “Before You Approach the Podium,” MW, January–February 1989, 7.

24 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#rP7001012451000000000000000005FDA) . “Advice from a Voice Coach: Say It and Sell It,” Presentations, 6 November 2006, www.presentations.com (http://www.presentations.com) .

25 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#rP7001012451000000000000000005FDC) . Rick Gilbert, “Presentation Advice for Boardroom Success,” Financial Executive, September 2005, 12.

26 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#rP7001012451000000000000000005FDE) . Rotondo and Rotondo, Presentation Skills for Managers, 151.

27 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#rP7001012451000000000000000005FE0) . Teresa Brady, “Fielding Abrasive Questions During Presentations,” Supervisory Management, February 1993, 6.

28 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005da5#rP7001012451000000000000000005FE2) . Robert L. Montgomery, “Listening on Your Feet,” Toastmaster, July 1987, 14–15.

29 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005e33#rP7001012451000000000000000005FE4) . Cliff Atkinson, The Backchannel (Berkeley, Calif.: New Riders, 2010), 17.

30 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005e33#rP7001012451000000000000000005FE6) . Atkinson, The Backchannel, 51, 68–73.

31 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005e33#rP7001012451000000000000000005FE8) . Olivia Mitchell, “10 Tools for Presenting with Twitter,” Speaking About Presenting blog, 3 November 2009, www.speakingabout-presenting.com (http://www.speakingabout-presenting.com) ; Atkinson, The Backchannel, 51, 68–73, 99.

32 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005e33#rP7001012451000000000000000005FEA) . SlideShare website, accessed 3 August 2010, www.slideshare.net (http://www.slideshare.net) .

33 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005e33#rP7001012451000000000000000005FEC) . Geoffrey James, “How to Give an Online Presentation,” BNET, 23 February 2011, www.bnet.com (http://www.bnet.com) .

17 Enhancing Presentations with Slides and Other Visuals LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you will be able to

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#P700101245100000000000000000601C) Explain the role of visuals in business presentations, and list the types of visuals commonly used.

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P700101245100000000000000000606B) Explain the difference between structured and free-form slides, and suggest when each design strategy is more appropriate.

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609E) Outline the decisions involved in using a key visual and selecting color, artwork, and typefaces to create effective slide designs.

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006138) Explain how to create effective slide content.

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#P70010124510000000000000000061CB) Explain the role of navigation slides, support slides, and handouts.

MyBCommLab®

Improve Your Grade!

More than 10 million students improved their results using Pearson MyLabs. Visit mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) for simulations, tutorials, and end-of-chapter problems.

COMMUNICATION CLOSE-UP AT Duarte

www.duarte.com (http://www.duarte.com)

When managers of top consumer brands, global experts in a wide variety of topics, and campaigners for major social causes need help getting their messages across, many of them turn to the services of Duarte, a Silicon Valley firm that specializes in presentation design. You don’t have to be a major corporation or well- known speaker to benefit from Duarte’s expertise, however. In her books and in various presentations, CEO and founder Nancy Duarte offers advice that all business communicators can use to create more compelling presentation slides.

Duarte suggests five principles of effective slide design that echo the audience-centered approach you’ve been practicing throughout this course. The first and most important is to make your presentation about your audience and their needs. If you are pitching a new business idea to potential investors, for example, do it in a way that addresses their interests in finding profitable investment opportunities. In other words, don’t make it all about you and how clever you are. Use slides and other visuals to show audience members how they can make money by climbing on board with you.

Follow Nancy Duarte’s slide design principles to create compelling, audience-focused visuals for your presentations.

Ariel Skelley/Blended Images/age Fotostock

Second, don’t try to transfer truckloads of data and information to your audience. Instead, focus on sharing meaning and connecting with audiences at an emotional level. If you’re training your sales force on a new product, give them the technical details and market information, but also fire them up with stories about how people can use this product to improve their lives or do amazing things in their businesses. Use images and video to convey the human side of whatever business proposition you’re discussing. And with every slide or visual, strive for simplicity. Overloaded slides exhaust and confuse audiences.

Third, use your visual medium to full effect. This might sound obvious, since presentation slides are a visual medium to begin with, but too many presenters rely too heavily on verbal content. Showing your audience one slide after another with nothing but words on them is not very far removed from handing them a

written report. In addition, when it comes to learning and understanding, many people respond better to visual content and representations of ideas. For each major point in your presentation, see if you can find a way to present the key information visually—through a flowchart, a diagram, a photo, a mindmap, or any other visual tool. PowerPoint and other slide programs offer a host of easy-to-use drawings that help you present ideas and information.

Fourth, think design, not decoration, when it comes to creating your slides. When choosing fonts, colors, artwork, animation, and other visual elements, consider how each piece can support the meaning you want your audience to receive. Don’t add things to your slides to “liven them up” or because you stumbled on a cool- looking special effect in your slide software—some of these add little or no value while distracting the audience from your message.

Fifth, remember that slides and other visuals are simply part of the channel between you and your audience. Because slides are so visible, it’s easy for presenters to fall into the trap of treating their slides as the centerpiece of a presentation. But slides are just a conduit for moving ideas, meaning, and inspiration from your mind to your audience’s minds. By following some time-tested principles of good design, you can create slides that help you make those important connections

with every audience.1

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000063AE)

17.1 Planning Your Presentation Visuals

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1 Explain the role of visuals in business presentations and list the types of visuals commonly used. The three-step development process in Chapter 16 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005bd7#P7001012451000000000000000005BD7) helps ensure that you have a well-crafted, audience-focused message. The techniques in this chapter, which reflect the advice offered by experts such as Nancy Duarte (profiled in the chapter-opening Communication Close-Up), will help you enhance the delivery of that message with creative and effective visuals.

Visuals can improve the quality and impact of any presentation by creating interest, illustrating points that are difficult to explain with words alone, adding variety, and increasing the audience’s ability to absorb and remember information. Behavioral research has shown that visuals can improve learning by up to 400

percent because humans can process visuals 60,000 times faster than text.2

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000063B0)

Remember that the purpose of visuals is to support your spoken message, not replace it.

For all the communication power of visuals, however, don’t make the mistake of thinking that your visuals are your presentation. Particularly when using software such as Prezi or Microsoft PowerPoint, communicators sometimes fall into the trap of letting the visuals take center stage. Remember that your message

is the presentation, not your visuals; your visuals are there to help support and clarify what you have to say.3

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000063B2)

SELECTING THE TYPE OF VISUALS TO USE

You can select from a variety of visuals to enhance presentations, each with unique advantages and disadvantages:

Presentation slides and Prezis are the most common visual supports for presentations, but don’t limit yourself to these.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY WATCHING THIS VIDEO

Get started with Prezi

Watch this tutorial to see how to create effective Prezi presentations. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

• Prezis. Chapter 16 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005bd7#P7001012451000000000000000005BD7) discusses the differences between linear and nonlinear presentations, with Prezis as the dominant example of nonlinear presentations. The biggest advantages of Prezis are flexibility (both in how you structure your visuals and in how you access them during your presentation), the ability to incorporate video and other media elements, and a more dynamic look and feel than conventional slide shows. The potential disadvantages of Prezis include fewer design options, the chance of viewers “losing the plot” as the presenter jumps from topic to topic, and the possibility of viewers feeling dizzy or even getting

motion sickness if zooming is overused.4

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000063B4)

• Slides. Slides created with PowerPoint or similar programs have a number of advantages: They are easy to create and edit (at least for simple slides), designs are easy to customize, and slides are easy to incorporate into online meetings and webcasts. The biggest potential disadvantage of slides is the linear nature of the presentation. Changing the flow of the presentation or jumping to specific slides is more difficult in presentation software than it is with a Prezi. Note that for both Prezi and slide software, the disadvantages people sometimes mention are usually a result of how the tools are used, rather than limitations in the software itself.

• Overhead transparencies. Overhead transparencies are the very definition of old school, but they do have advantages. They can be created with nothing more than a marking pen, they don’t require the latest computer or projection equipment, you can write on them during a presentation, and they never malfunction. On the downside, they’re limited to static displays, they’re virtually impossible to edit once you’ve printed them, you need to have the right equipment, and you or a partner must stand next to the projector throughout the entire presentation.

• Chalkboards and whiteboards. Chalkboards and whiteboards are effective tools for recording points made during small-group sessions. With digital whiteboards, you can print, save, and share copies of whatever is written, too.

• Flip charts. Flip charts are another dependable low-tech tool for meetings and presentations. They are great for recording comments and questions during a presentation or for creating a “group memory” during brainstorming sessions, keeping track of all the ideas the team generates.

• Other visuals. Be creative when choosing visuals to support your presentation. A video of a focus group talking about your company can have much more impact than a series of text slides that summarize what the group said. In technical or scientific presentations, a sample of a product or material lets your audience experience your subject directly. Designers and architects use mock-ups and models to help people envision what a final creation will look like. You might also want to incorporate other software into your presentation, such as a live spreadsheet to show financial data or a computer-

aided design program to show a new product’s design. If you’re demonstrating the use of a software program, you can create a screencast that shows the software in action. Screencasting software also lets you add on-screen annotations and record an audio track to explain what is happening on screen.

This chapter focuses on slide presentations, although most of these design tips apply to other visuals as well.

THE FUTURE OF COMMUNICATION

Holograms

If you’ve ever wanted to be in two places at once, your wish could be coming true soon. At a recent executive meeting of the global management and technology consulting firm Accenture, the attendees included CEO Pierre Nanterme and human resources chief Ellyn Shook. During the meeting, which took place near Chicago, they chatted with other managers, pitched and listened to ideas, and even shared a few ceremonial fist bumps. Nothing remarkable there, except that Nanterme was in Paris and Shook was in New York City. Their three-dimensional selves were beamed in as holograms over the company’s hyper-advanced information network.

Accenture has long been on the leading edge of communication technology, including the use of advanced telepresence facilities that help its huge workforce stay connected from outposts all over the world. As much as Nanterme would like to meet frequently with employees in person, the fact that there are 375,000 of them spread over 120 counties makes that impossible.

Vastly oversimplified, in this context holograms are created by scanning a person or an object with a laser, transmitting the resulting data to a second location, then re-creating the person or object as a three-dimensional “figure.” The figure is made entirely of light, but today’s systems can make that figure look extremely lifelike. And researchers at the University of Tokyo have invented a system that combines holograms with ultrasonic haptic technology that simulates the sensation of touch, making it possible to “touch” a hologram.

Few companies have the resources to pull off what Accenture can do with holograms, and as a technology consulting firm, it has other business reasons to keep pushing the limits of technology. If this use of holograms moves into the mainstream, however, it could change the way far-flung companies communicate. And holograms are already being used in such areas as research and product design, letting people interact with objects that aren’t really there.

WHAT’S YOUR PREDICTION?

Research the current state of holograms to identify one way in which the technology has the potential to change business communication practices. Do you agree with the predictions the experts make? Why or why not?

Sources: Jena McGregor, “Star Wars Meets the C-Suite: This CEO’s Hologram Is Beaming into Meetings,” Washington Post, 13 April 2016, www.washingtonpost.com (http://www.washingtonpost.com) ; Alan Murray, “The CEO as Hologram,” Fortune, 16 December 2015, fortune.com (http://fortune.com) ; Jason Hahn, “Japanese Researchers Have Created Holograms You Can Touch, Poke, and Push,” Digital Trends, 26 December 2015, www.digitaltrends.com (http://www.digitaltrends.com) ; Microsoft HoloLens website, accessed 7 May 2016, www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens (http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens) .

VERIFYING YOUR DESIGN PLANS

Think through your presentation outline carefully before designing your visuals.

After you have chosen the medium or media for your visuals, think through your presentation plan carefully before you start creating anything. Discerning audience members—the sort of people who can influence the direction of your career—are not easily fooled by visual razzle-dazzle. If your analysis is shaky or your conclusions are suspect, an over-the-top visual production won’t help your presentation succeed. Review the plan for each visual and ask yourself how it will help your audience understand and appreciate your message.

Next, make sure your presentation style is appropriate for the subject matter, the audience, and the setting (see Figure 17.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#P7001012451000000000000000006050) ). Take the time to double-check any cultural assumptions that might be inappropriate. Are you highlighting with a color that has negative emotional connotations in your audience’s culture? Would your materials be too playful for a serious audience? Too serious for an audience that values creativity?

When it comes time to make design choices, from selecting fonts to deciding whether to include a photo, remember the advice from Chapter 16 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005bd7#P7001012451000000000000000005BD7) and designers such as Garr Reynolds: Let simplicity be your guide. Doing so has several advantages. First, creating simple materials often takes less time. Second, simple visuals reduce the chances of distraction and misinterpretation. Third, the more complex your presentation, the more likely something might go wrong.

Finally, use your time wisely. Presentation software seems to encourage experimentation and fiddling around with details and special effects, which can eat up hours of time you probably don’t have. Based on your audience and the situation, decide up front how much visual design is sufficient for your purpose and then stop when you get there. Use the time you’ll save to rehearse your presentation—practice is far more important than minor design issues on your slides.

Figure 17.1 Presentation Style

Presentation software lets you create a variety of visual styles, from quiet and plain to bold and busy. These four slides contain the same text but send different nonverbal messages. Make sure you choose a style that is appropriate for your audience and your message.

17.2 Choosing Structured or Free-Form Slides

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

2 Explain the difference between structured and free-form slides, and suggest when each design strategy is more appropriate.

Structured slides are usually based on templates that give all the slides in a presentation the same general look.

The most important design choice you face when creating slides is whether to use conventional structured slides (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000062AF) or the looser, free- form slides (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000062A3) that many presentation specialists now advocate. Compare the two rows of slides in Figure 17.2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006071) . The structured slides in the top row follow the same basic format throughout the presentation; in fact, they’re based directly on the templates built into PowerPoint, which tend to feature lots of bullet points.

Free-form slides typically don’t follow any set design plan but are unified by color and other elements.

The free-form slides in the bottom row don’t follow a rigid structure. However, choosing a free-form design strategy does not mean you should just randomly change the design from one slide to the next. Effectively designed slides should still be unified by design elements such as color and typeface selections, as Figures 17.2c (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006071) and 17.2d (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006071) show. Also, note how Figure 17.2d (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006071) combines visual and textual messages to convey the point about listening without criticizing. This complementary approach of pictures and words is a highlight of free-form design.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF STRUCTURED SLIDES

Figure 17.2 Structured Versus Free-Form Slide Design

Compare the rigid, predictable design of the two slides in the top row with the free-form designs in the bottom row. Although the two free-form slides don’t follow the same design structure, they are visually linked by color and font choices. As you compare these two styles, you can imagine how free-form designs require more slides to cover the same subject and require the speaker to convey more of the message. (Note that Figure 17.2d (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006071) is a lighthearted but effective way of conveying the first bullet point in Figure 17.2b (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006071) .)

yanugkelid/Shutterstock

Andres Rodriguez/Fotolia

Structured slides have the advantage of being easy to create; you simply choose an overall design scheme for the presentation, select a template for a new slide, and start typing. If you’re in a schedule crunch, going the structured route might save the day because at least you’ll have something ready to show. Given the speed and ease of creating them, structured slides can be a more practical choice for routine presentations such as project status updates.

Structured slides are usually the best choice for project updates and other routine information presentations, particularly if the slides are intended to be used only once.

Also, because more information can usually be packed onto each slide, carefully designed structured slides can be more effective at conveying complex ideas or sets of interrelated data to the right audiences. For example, if you are talking to a group of executives who must decide where to make budget cuts across the company’s eight divisions, at some point in the presentation they will probably want to see summary data for all eight divisions on a single slide for easy comparison. Such a slide would be overcrowded by the usual definition, but this might be the only practical way to get a “big picture” view of the situation. (The best solution is probably some high-level, summary slides supported by a detailed handout, as “Creating Effective Handouts (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#P7001012451000000000000000006217) ” on page 502 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#page_502) explains.)

MOBILE APP

With Apple Keynote, you can create and deliver presentations on your iOS mobile devices.

Structured slide designs, which can lead to screen after screen of identical-looking bullet points, can be boring and overwhelming.

The primary disadvantage of structured design is the mind-numbing effect of text-heavy slides that all look alike. Slide after slide of dense, highly structured bullet points with no visual relief can put an audience to sleep.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF FREE-FORM SLIDES

Free-form slide designs can overcome the drawbacks of text-heavy structured design. Such slides can fulfill three criteria researchers have identified as important for successful presentations: (1) providing complementary information through both textual and visual means, (2) limiting the amount of information delivered at any one time to prevent cognitive overload, and (3) helping viewers process information by identifying priorities and connections, such as by highlighting the

most important data points in a graph.5

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000063B6) (Of course, well- designed structured slides can also meet these criteria, but the constraints of prebuilt templates make doing so more of a challenge.)

Well-designed free-form slides help viewers understand, process, and remember the speaker’s message while keeping the focus on what the speaker is saying.

With appropriate imagery and thoughtful design, free-form designs can also create a more dynamic and engaging experience for the audience. Given their ability to excite and engage, free-form designs are particularly good for motivational, educational, and persuasive presentations—particularly when the slides will be used multiple times and therefore compensate for the extra time and effort required to create them. By taking advantage of the animation capabilities in PowerPoint or Keynote, it is also possible to create some of the dynamic, flowing feel of a Prezi.

A key disadvantage of free-form slide designs is the time and effort that can be required to create them.

Free-form slides have several potential disadvantages, however. First, effectively designing slides with both visual and textual elements is more creatively demanding and more time consuming than simply typing text into preformatted templates. The emphasis on visual content also requires more images, which take time to find.

Second, because far less textual information tends to be displayed on screen, the speaker is responsible for conveying more of the content. Ideally, of course, this is how a presentation should work, but presenters sometimes find themselves in less-than-ideal circumstances, such as being asked to fill in for a colleague on short notice.

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Design tips from presentation pro Garr Reynolds

Garr Reynolds brings Zen design instincts to his advice for visual design. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

Third, if not handled carefully, the division of information into smaller chunks can make it difficult to present complex subjects in a cohesive, integrated manner. For instance, if you’re discussing a business problem that has five interrelated causes, it might be helpful to insert a conventional bullet-point slide as a summary and reminder after discussing each problem on its own.

17.3 Designing Effective Slides

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

3 Outline the decisions involved in using a key visual and selecting color, artwork, and typefaces to create effective slide designs. Businesspeople have had to sit through so many poorly conceived presentations that you may hear the phrase “death by PowerPoint” to describe the agony of sitting through dull, slide-heavy presentations. However, the problem is not with PowerPoint itself (or with Apple Keynote or any other presentation program). The software is just a tool and, like other tools, can be used well or poorly. Unfortunately, lack of design awareness, inadequate training, schedule pressures, and the instinctive response of doing things the way they’ve always been done can lead to ineffective slides and lost opportunities to really connect with audiences.

“Slideuments” are hybrids that try to function as both presentation slides and printed documents—and often fail at both tasks.

Another reason for ineffective slides is the practice of treating slide sets as standalone documents that can be read on their own, without a presenter. These “slideument” hybrids that try to function as both presentation visuals and printed documents often don’t work well as either: They usually have too much information to be effective visuals and too little to be effective reports (in addition to being clumsy to read).

The ideal solution for many presentations is an effective set of slides and a complementary handout.

As the section “Creating Effective Handouts (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#P7001012451000000000000000006217) ” on page 502 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#page_502) explains, the ideal solution is to create an effective slide set and a separate handout document that provides additional details and supporting information. This way, you can optimize each piece to do the job it is really meant to do. An alternative is to use the notes field in your presentation software to include your speaking notes for each slide. Anyone who gets a copy of your slides can at least follow along by reading your notes, although you will probably need to edit and expand them to make them understandable by others.

If you must create a slideument, make the slides as simple and clear as possible.

However, if creating slideuments is truly your only option, be sure to emphasize clarity and simplicity. If you have to add more slides to avoid packing individual slides with too much text, by all means do so. Having a larger number of simpler slides is a better compromise all around than having a smaller number of jam- packed slides. Remember that the primary purpose of the slides is to support your presentation, so make sure your slides work well for that purpose.

DESIGNING SLIDES AROUND A KEY VISUAL

Organizing a slide around a key visual can help the audience quickly grasp how ideas are related.

With both structured and free-form design strategies, it is often helpful to structure specific slides around a key visual that helps organize and explain the points you are trying to make. For example, a pyramid suggests a hierarchical relationship, and a circular flow diagram emphasizes that the final stage in a process loops back to the beginning of the process. Figure 17.3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P70010124510000000000000000060B9) on the next page shows six of the many types of visual designs you can use to organize information on a slide.

SELECTING DESIGN ELEMENTS

To design effective slides, remember the six principles of effective design: consistency, contrast, balance, emphasis, convention, and simplicity (review Chapter 9 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003806#P7001012451000000000000000003806) for a refresher).

As you design and create slides, always keep the audience’s experience in mind: What will it be like to view this slide while listening to a speaker? Chapter 9 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003806#P7001012451000000000000000003806) highlights six principles of effective design: consistency, contrast, balance, emphasis, convention, and simplicity. Pay close attention to these principles as you select the design elements for your slides (covered in this section) and create content for each slide (covered in the following section).

Color

Color is much more than mere decoration: It provides emphasis, isolation, and contrast; it increases readability and retention; it sends powerful nonverbal signals; and it can stimulate desired emotional responses.

Color is a critical design element, far more than mere decoration. It grabs the viewer’s attention, emphasizes important ideas, creates contrast, and isolates slide elements. Color sends a powerful nonverbal message, too, whether it’s elegance, technical sophistication, fiscal prudence, or hipster trendiness. You can study this effect as you view various websites or advertisements, for instance. A palette of cool grays and blues “says” something different from a palette of warm oranges and browns, which says something different from a palette of hot pink and lime green.

Color can also play a key role in the overall acceptance of your message. Research shows that color visuals can account for 60 percent of an audience’s acceptance

or rejection of an idea. Color can increase willingness to read by up to 80 percent, and it can enhance learning and improve retention by more than 75 percent.6

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000063B8)

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Advice and free templates for more effective slideuments

The free e-book and a pair of PowerPoint templates will help you make more effective slide-document hybrids. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

Your color choices can also stimulate various emotions, as Table 17.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P70010124510000000000000000060CF) on the next page suggests. For instance, if you want to excite your audience, add warm colors, such as red and orange, to your slides. If you want to achieve a more relaxed and

receptive environment, blue is a better choice.7

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000063BA) Remember, color may have a different meaning in certain cultures, so if you are creating slides for international audiences, research those cultural differences.

Figure 17.3 Using a Key Visual to Organize Points on a Slide

Simple graphical elements such as these “SmartArt” images in Microsoft PowerPoint make it easy to organize slide content using a key visual. Whether you’re trying to convey the relationship of ideas in a hierarchy, a linear process, a circular process, or just about any other configuration, a key visual can work in tandem with your written and spoken messages to help audiences get your message.

TABLE 17.1 Color and Emotion

Color Emotional Associations (for U.S. audiences) Best Uses

Blue Peaceful, soothing, tranquil, cool, trusting

Background for business presentations (usually dark blue); safe and conservative

White Neutral, innocent, pure, wise Font color of choice for most business presentations with a dark background

Yellow Warm, bright, cheerful, enthusiastic Text bullets and subheadings with a dark background

Red Passionate, dangerous, active, painful For promoting action or stimulating the audience; seldom used as a background (“in the red” specifically refers to financial losses)

Green Assertive, prosperous, envious, relaxed Highlight and accent color (green symbolizes money in the United States but not in other countries)

Source: Claudyne Wilder and David Fine, Point, Click & Wow!!: A Quick Guide to Brilliant Laptop Presentations (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Pfeiffer, 1996), 63, 527.

When selecting color, limit your choices to a few compatible ones and keep in mind that some colors work better together than others. Contrasting colors, for example, increase readability, so when selecting colors for backgrounds, titles, and text, avoid choosing those that are close in hue, such as brown on green or blue

on purple.8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000063BC) If you’ll be presenting in a dark room, use dark colors such as blue for the background, a midrange of brightness for illustrations, and light colors for text. If you are presenting in well-lit rooms, reverse the colors: Use light colors for the background and dark colors for text. If you have some reason to change colors between

slides, don’t switch back and forth from very dark to very bright; the effect is jarring to the audience’s eyes.9

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000063BE)

Artwork

Every slide has two layers or levels of visual elements: the background and foreground. The background is the equivalent of paper in a printed report and often stays the same from slide to slide, particularly with structured designs. The foreground contains the unique text and graphic elements that make up each individual slide.

The background should stay in the background, not compete with the foreground.

In general, the less the background does, the better. As Nancy Duarte explains, the background “should be open, spacious, and simple.”10

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000063C0) Cluttered or flashy backgrounds tend to distract from your message. The background needs to stay in the background; it shouldn’t compete with the foreground elements. Be careful when using the design templates that come with your software. Many have backgrounds that are too busy, and some are too playful for business use. Bear in mind that you don’t need to use a background at all, other than perhaps a solid color to set type and images against.

Artwork can be either decorative or functional; use decorative artwork only if it supports the message of the slide in question.

Figure 17.4 Effective and Ineffective Artwork

Slide artwork can carry your message, support your message, or totally get in the way. Figure 17.4a (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P7001012451000000000000000006105) could be an effective way to introduce a talk about teamwork, with one ant helping its “teammate” out of a tough spot. If this image were created using clip art, it would probably be too cartoony for a professional presentation. However, this image has a sophisticated, almost elegant, look in spite of the fact that it features ants. The slide in Figure 17.4b

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P7001012451000000000000000006105) is a disaster. The visual confusion created by the clutter and mixed styles of artwork will distract the audience and obscure the message.

Mark Evans/Vetta/Shutterstock

In the background, all artwork is essentially decorative. In the foreground, artwork can be either functional or decorative. Functional artwork includes photos, technical drawings, charts, and other visual elements containing information that is part of your message. In contrast, decorative artwork doesn’t deliver textual or numerical information, and it may or may not be helpful. Decorative artwork can be helpful if it establishes an appropriate emotional tone or amplifies the

message of a slide, in part because simple, high-impact images are easier to remember than text.11

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000063C2) However, decorative artwork is unhelpful if it doesn’t add value, is off topic, conveys an unprofessional image, or pulls viewer attention away from the essential elements on a slide (see Figure 17.4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P7001012451000000000000000006105) ). Decorative artwork is usually the least important element of any slide, but it often causes the most trouble. Clip art, collections of drawings you can insert in slides and other documents, is probably the biggest troublemaker of them all. You can find thousands of pieces of free clip art in presentation software or online, but few of them have any information value, and many give your slides an unprofessional, cartoony appearance.

Typefaces and Type Styles

When selecting typefaces and type styles for slides, follow these guidelines:

Many of the typefaces available on your computer are difficult to read when projected, so they aren’t good choices for presentation slides.

• Avoid script or decorative typefaces, except for limited, special uses. • Use serif typefaces with care and only with larger text. • Limit the number of typefaces to one or two per slide. • When using thinner typefaces, use boldface so that letters don’t disappear on screen. • Avoid most italicized type; it is usually difficult to read when projected. • Avoid all-capitalized words and phrases. • Allow extra white space between lines of text. • Be consistent with typefaces, type styles, colors, and sizes.

When selecting type sizes, consider the room(s) in which you’ll be presenting. The farther the audience is from the screen, the larger your type must be in order to be readable from everywhere in the room. The investor and author Guy Kawasaki, who has sat through hundreds and hundreds of presentations, suggests using no type smaller than 30 points. Doing so not only ensures readable slides but forces you to distill every idea down to its essential core, simply because you

won’t have space to be wordy.12

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000063C4)

After you have selected your fonts and type styles, test them for readability by viewing sample slides from your audience’s viewing location. If you don’t have access to the meeting room, a clever way to test readability at your computer is to stand back as many feet from the screen as your screen size in inches (17 feet

for a 17-inch screen, for example). If the slides are readable at this distance, you’re probably in good shape.13

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000063C6)

MAINTAINING DESIGN CONSISTENCY

Design inconsistencies confuse and annoy audiences; don’t change colors and other design elements randomly throughout your presentation.

Audiences start to assign meaning to visual elements beginning with your first slide. For instance, if the first slide presents the most important information in dark red, 36-point, Arial typeface, your audience will expect the same type treatment for the most important information on the remaining slides as well. Don’t force viewers to repeatedly figure out the meaning of design elements by making arbitrary changes from slide to slide.

Fortunately, presentation software makes consistency easy to achieve, particularly for structured slide designs. You simply adjust the slide master using the colors, fonts, and other design elements you’ve chosen; these choices will then automatically show up on every slide in the presentation. In addition, you can maintain consistency by choosing a predefined layout from those available in your software—which helps ensure that bulleted lists, charts, graphics, and other elements show up in predictable places on each slide. Something as simple as switching from a single column of bullet points to two columns can cause problems for readers as they try to figure out the meaning of the new arrangement. The less work readers have to do to interpret your slide designs, the more attention they can give to your message.

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The latest tools and trends in presentations

From design trends to new software tools, this blog covers the newest ideas in presentations. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real- timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

17.4 Creating Effective Slide Content

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

4 Explain how to create effective slide content.

No matter which design strategy you use, limit the amount of information on each slide to avoid overloading your viewers.

With some design fundamentals in mind, you’re ready to create the textual and visual content for your slides. For every slide, remember to watch out for information overload. When slides have too much content—textual, visual, or both—particularly for several slides in a row, viewers can’t process the incoming information fast enough to make sense of it and eventually tune out. Keep your slides clear and easy to grasp, and pace the flow of information at a speed that lets

people connect your ideas from one slide to the next.14

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000063C8)

WRITING READABLE CONTENT

Use slide text sparingly and only to emphasize key points, not to convey your entire message.

One of the most common mistakes beginners make—and one of the chief criticisms leveled at structured slide designs in general—is stuffing slides with too much text. Doing so overloads the audience with too much information too fast, takes attention away from the speaker by forcing people to read more, and requires the presenter to use smaller type.

Effective text slides supplement your words and help the audience follow the flow of ideas. In a sense, slide text serves as the headings and subheadings for your presentation. Accordingly, choose words and short phrases that help your audience follow the flow of ideas, without forcing them to read in depth. You want your audience to listen, not to read. Use your slides to highlight key points, summarize and preview your message, signal major shifts in thought, illustrate concepts, or help create interest in your spoken message. If the audience can benefit from additional written information, provide those details in handouts.

When writing content for text slides, keep your message short and simple (see Figure 17.5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006144) ):

Figure 17.5 Writing Text for Slides

Effective text slides are clear, simple guides that help the audience understand and remember the speaker’s message. Notice the progression toward simplicity in these slides: Figure 17.5a (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006144) is a paragraph that would distract the audience for an extended period of time. Figure 17.5b (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006144) offers concise, readable bullets, although too many slides in a row in this structured design would become tedious. Figure 17.5c (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006144) distills the

message down to a single thought that is complete on its own but doesn’t convey all the information from the original and would need embellishment from the speaker. Figure 17.5d (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006144) pushes this to the extreme, with only the core piece of the message to serve as an “exclamation point” for the spoken message. Figure 17.5c (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006144) and especially Figure 17.5d (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006144) could be more even more powerful with a well-chosen visual that illustrates the idea of following the flow.

• Limit each slide to one thought, concept, or idea (without dividing things so far that the audience has trouble seeing the big picture). • Limit text content to four or five lines with four or five words per line. For selected slides, it might make sense to exceed these limits, but do so

infrequently. • Don’t show a large number of text-heavy slides in a row; give the audience some visual relief. • Write short, bulleted phrases rather than long sentences.

• Use sentences only when you need to share a quotation or some other text item verbatim.15

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000063CA)

• Phrase list items in parallel grammatical form to facilitate quick reading. • Use the active voice. • Include short, informative titles. • When combining visuals with text, the more information the visual can convey, the less work your text needs to do.

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Give your audience “soft breaks” to keep them alert and engaged

Breaking up a presentation with videos and other elements gives viewers a chance to mentally reset. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real- timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

CREATING CHARTS AND TABLES FOR SLIDES

Many graphics that work well in printed form need to be simplified for use in presentations because they are too dense and too complicated to be easily viewed on screen.

Charts and tables for presentations need to be simpler than visuals for printed documents. Detailed images that look fine on the printed page can be too dense and too complicated for presentations. Remember that your audience will view your slides from across the room—not from a foot or two away, as you do while you create them. Don’t force the audience to study your charts and graphs in order to get the message. Follow these guidelines:

• Reduce the detail. Eliminate anything that is not absolutely essential to the message. If necessary, break information into more than one slide. If a deeper level of detail is helpful or necessary, hand out printed visuals that people can review during or after the presentation.

• Simplify. For example, if a bar chart is segmented by week, don’t write “Week of 12/01,” “Week of 12/08,” and so on. Use the “Week of” label once and then just include the dates. Similarly, you might be able to remove the vertical scale from the left side of the chart and just show individual values above

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• Shorten numbers. If doing so doesn’t hide essential details, you can round off numbers such as $12,500.72 to $12 or $12.5 and then label the axis to indicate thousands.

• Limit the amount of data shown. Line charts look busy when they have more than two or three lines, bar charts look crowded with more than five or six bars, and tables are difficult to read if they have too many rows or columns.

• Highlight key points. Use arrows, boldface type, and color to direct your audience’s eyes to the main point of a visual. Summarize the intent of the graphic in one clear title, such as “Earnings up by 15%.”

• Adjust the size and design. Modify the size of a graphic to accommodate the size of a slide. Leave plenty of white space so that audience members can view and interpret content from a distance. Use colors that stand out from the slide’s background and choose a typeface for labels that is clear and easy to read.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY WATCHING THIS VIDEO

Nancy Duarte’s low-tech approach to slide design

Duarte advises starting with the simplest tool imaginable, the humble sticky note. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

ADDING ANIMATION AND MULTIMEDIA

MOBILE APP

Haiku Deck is a mobile-first presentation app that lets you create and present from your iOS phone or tablet.

Today’s presentation software offers a wide array of options for livening up your slides, including sound, animation, video clips, transition effects from one slide to the next, and hyperlinks to websites and other resources. As with every other visual element, the key is to make sure any effects you use support your message.

Always consider the impact that all these effects will have on your audience members and their desire to understand your message.17

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Animation and special effects can be grouped into four categories: functional animation, transitions and builds, hyperlinks, and multimedia. These capabilities are briefly discussed in the following sections; to learn more about using them, consult the Help menu in your software.

Functional Animation

Although you can animate just about everything in a presentation, resist the temptation to do so. Make sure each animation has a purpose.

PowerPoint and other presentation packages offer a mind-boggling set of tools for moving and changing things on screen. You can have a block of text cartwheel in from outer space, change colors, change font and font size, spin around in circles, blink on and off, wave back and forth, crawl around the screen following a predefined path, and then disappear one letter at a time, like some sort of erasing typewriter. You can do all this, but should you?

Just as static graphic elements can be either functional or decorative, so too can animated elements. For instance, having each bullet point fly in from the left side of the screen doesn’t add any functional value to your communication effort. In contrast, a highlight arrow or color bar that moves around the screen to emphasize specific points in a technical diagram can be an effective use of animation and a welcome alternative to a laser pointer. You can control every aspect of the animation, so it’s easy to coordinate the movement with the points you’re making in your presentation.

Using carefully controlled functional animation is also a great way to demonstrate sequences and procedures. For a training session on machinery repair, for example, you can show a schematic diagram of the machinery and walk your audience through each step of the troubleshooting process, highlighting each step on screen as you address it verbally. Again, use animation in support of your message, not simply for animation’s sake.

Transitions and Builds

Use subtle transition animations between slides to ease the viewer from one slide to the next; most transitions available in presentation software are too distracting.

In addition to animating specific elements on your slides, you can choose from various options for adding motion between slides. These slide transitions (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000062AC) control how one slide replaces another on screen. Subtle transitions can ease your viewers’ gaze from one slide to the next—such as having the current slide gently fade out before the next one fades in. However, many of the transitions currently available (such as checkerboards, pinwheels, and spinning “newsflashes”) are like miniature animated shows themselves and are therefore distracting. These pointless transition effects not only disrupt the flow of your presentation, they can make the whole thing seem amateurish. If you use a transition effect, use the same one throughout the presentation (so that audiences won’t wonder whether there is some significance to a new transition at some point during the presentation), and choose the effect carefully. Aim for a smooth, subtle effect that is easy on the eye. And unless a sound effect is somehow integral to the message, there is no reason to add audio to a transition.

Using carefully designed builds can be a great way to reveal information in easy-to-process pieces.

Builds (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000062A0) are much more useful than transitions, at least when used with care and thought. These effects control the release of text, graphics, and other elements on individual slides. For instance, with builds you can make a list of bullet points appear one at a time rather than having all of them appear at once, which makes it difficult to focus on a single point. This controlled release of information helps draw audience members’ attention to the point being discussed and keeps them from reading ahead.

As with transitions, stick with the subtle, basic options for builds. The point of a build is to release information in a controlled fashion, not to distract or entertain the audience. Another useful option is to change the color of bullet points as you discuss each one. For instance, if your primary text color is a strong blue, you might have the text in each bullet point change to a light gray after you’ve finished talking about it. This subtle approach keeps the audience’s attention focused on the bullet point you are currently discussing.

After you’ve assigned builds to your slides, you can control the build activity with a mouse or a remote control device. Experiment with the options in your software to find the most effective build scheme. In addition to building up text, you can build up graphical elements. For instance, to discuss monthly sales of three products over the past year, you can have a line graph of the first product appear by itself while you discuss it, and then you can click the mouse to display the second product’s sales line, then the third.

Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks and action buttons can be quite handy when you need flexibility in your presentations or want to share different kinds of files with the audience. A hyperlink (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000062A6) instructs your computer to jump to another slide in your presentation, to a website, or to another program entirely. Depending on your presentation software, hyperlinks can be underlined text, invisible hotspots in graphical elements, or clearly labeled action buttons.

THE ART OF PROFESSIONALISM

Being a Team Player

Professionals know that they are contributors to a larger cause, that it’s not all about them. Just as in athletics and other team efforts, being a team player in business is something of a balancing act. On the one hand, you need to pay enough attention to your own efforts and skills to make sure you’re pulling your own weight. On the other hand, you need to pay attention to the overall team effort to make sure the team succeeds. Remember that if the team fails, you fail, too.

Great team players know how to make those around them more effective, whether it’s by lending a hand during crunch time, sharing resources, removing obstacles, making introductions, or offering expertise. In fact, the ability to help others improve their performance is one of the key attributes executives look for when they want to promote people into management.

Being a team player also means showing loyalty to your organization and protecting your employer’s reputation—one of the most important assets any company has. Pros don’t trash their employers in front of customers or in their personal blogs. When they have a problem, they solve it; they don’t share it.

CAREER APPLICATIONS

1. If you prefer to work by yourself, should you take a job in a company that uses a team-based organization structure? Why or why not? 2. You can see plenty of examples of unprofessional business behavior in the news media and in your own experiences as a consumer and an

employee. Why should you bother being professional yourself?

You can increase the flexibility of your presentation slides with hyperlinks that let you jump to different slides, websites, or other software screens with the click of a mouse.

Using hyperlinks is also a great way to customize your presentations, giving a linear presentation some of the flexibility of a nonlinear presentation. For instance, if you work in sales and call on a variety of customers, you can’t be sure what sort of situation you’ll encounter at each customer’s site. You might be prepared to give an in-depth technical presentation to a group of engineers, only to have the company president walk in and request a brief financial overview instead. Or you might prepare a set of detailed technical slides but not show them unless the audience asks detailed questions.

Another challenging situation is finding out at the last minute that you have less time than you thought to make your presentation. If you’ve built in some flexibility, you won’t need to rush through your entire presentation or scramble on the spot to find the most important slides. Instead, you can simply click an action button labeled “Five-minute overview” and jump right to the two or three most important slides in your presentation. With hyperlinks, you can even switch from the indirect approach to the direct approach or vice versa, based on the response you’re getting from your audience. By building in links that accommodate these various scenarios, you can adjust your presentation at a moment’s notice—and look polished and professional while you do it.

Multimedia Elements

Video clips can add memorable, engaging content to your presentations—as long as they are relevant, interesting, and brief.

Multimedia elements offer the ultimate in active presentations. Using audio and video clips can be an effective way to complement your live message, such as including a recorded message from a company executive or scenes from a customer focus group. Just be sure to keep these elements brief and relevant—as supporting points for your presentation, not as replacements for it.

INTEGRATING MOBILE DEVICES IN PRESENTATIONS

Smartphones and tablets offer a variety of ways to enhance presentations for presenters as well as audience members (see Figure 17.6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P70010124510000000000000000061C0) ). For example, you can get around the problem of everyone in the audience not having a clear view of the screen by using systems that broadcast your slides to tablets and smartphones. In fact, these systems can eliminate a conventional projection system entirely; everyone in the audience can view your slides on their mobile devices. You can also broadcast a live presentation to mobile users anywhere in the world. Each time you advance to a new slide, it is sent to the phone or tablet of

everyone who is subscribed to your presentation.18

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Figure 17.6 Using Mobile Devices in Presentations

A variety of mobile apps and cloud-based systems can free presenters and audiences from the constraints of a conventional conference room.

17.5 Completing Slides and Support Materials

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

5 Explain the role of navigation slides, support slides, and handouts. Just as you would review any message for content, style, tone, readability, clarity, and conciseness, you should apply the same quality control to your slides and other visuals. As you look over your presentation for the final time, make sure that all visuals are

Review each slide carefully to make sure it is clear and readable.

• Readable. Can text be read from the back of the room? Does the text stand out from the background? • Consistent. Are colors and design elements used consistently? • Simple. Is each slide and the entire presentation as simple as possible? Can you eliminate any slides? • Audience centered. Are the message and the design focused on the audience?

• Clear. Is the main point of a slide obvious? Easy to understand? Can the audience grasp the main point in just a few seconds?19

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• Concise and grammatical. Is text written in concise phrases? Are bulleted phrases grammatically parallel? • Focused. Does each slide cover only one thought, concept, or idea (or summarize a group of related ideas)? Does the slide grab the viewer’s attention in

the right place and support the key points of the message? Are arrows, symbols, or other techniques used to draw the audience’s attention to the key sections of a chart or diagram?

• Fully operational. Have you verified every slide in your presentation? Do all the animations and other special effects work as you intended?

Use the slide sorter view to verify and modify the organization of your slides.

The slide sorter view (different programs have different names for this feature) lets you see some or all of the slides in your presentation on a single screen. Use this view to add and delete slides, reposition slides, check slides for design consistency, and verify the operation of any effects. Moreover, the slide sorter is a great

way to review the flow of your story.20

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With your slides working properly and in clear, logical order, you’re just a few steps away from being ready. Now is a good time to think about a backup plan. What will you do if your laptop won’t turn on or the projector dies? Can you get by without your slides? For important presentations, consider having backup equipment on standby, loaded with your presentation and ready to go. At the very least, have enough printed handouts ready to give the audience so that, as a last resort, you can give your presentation “on paper.”

CREATING NAVIGATION AND SUPPORT SLIDES

Now that the content slides are ready, enhance your presentation with several slides that add “finish” to your presentation and provide additional information to benefit your audience:

Navigation slides help your audience keep track of what you’ve covered already and what you plan to cover next.

• Title slide(s). Make a good first impression on your audience with one or two title slides, the equivalent of a report’s cover and title page. A title slide should contain the title of your presentation (and subtitle, if appropriate), your name, your department affiliation (for internal audiences), and your company affiliation (for external audiences). You may also include the presentation date and an appropriate graphic element. Depending on the amount of information you need to convey at this point, two title slides might be appropriate: one focusing on the topic of the presentation and a second with your affiliation and other information. This second slide can also be used to introduce the speaker and list his or her credentials.

• Agenda and program details. You can use these slides to communicate the agenda for your presentation and any additional information your audience might need. Because presentations pull your audience members away from their daily routines and work responsibilities, they can have questions about anything from break times or lunch plans to the password needed to log onto the facility’s wireless network. By answering these questions at the beginning of your presentation, you’ll minimize disruptions later and help the audience stay focused on your message.

• Navigation slides. To tell your audience where you’re going and where you’ve been, you can use a series of navigation slides (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000062A9) based on your outline or agenda. This technique is most useful in longer presentations with several major sections. As you complete each section, repeat the slide but indicate which material has been covered and which section you are about to begin (see Figure 17.7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#P70010124510000000000000000061F4) ). This sort of slide is sometimes referred to as a moving blueprint. You can then use the original slide again in the close of your presentation to review the points you’ve covered. As an alternative to the repeating agenda slide, you can insert a simple bumper slide at each major section break, announcing the

title of the section you’re about to begin.21

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Figure 17.8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#P70010124510000000000000000061FB) illustrates some of the many options you have for presenting various types of information. Note that although these slides don’t follow a rigid structure of text- heavy bullet points, they are unified by the color scheme (a silver background and bold color accents) and typeface selections.

Figure 17.7 Blueprint Slides

Here are two of the ways you can use a blueprint slide as a navigational aid to help your audience stay on track with the presentation. Figure 17.7a (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#P70010124510000000000000000061F4) visually “mutes” and checks off the sections of the presentation that have already been covered. In contrast, Figure 17.7b (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#P70010124510000000000000000061F4) uses a sliding highlight box to indicate the next section to be covered.

Figure 17.8 Designing Effective Visuals: Selected Slides

These slides, from a presentation that addresses a company’s high employee turnover rate, illustrate the wide variety of design options you have for creating effective, appealing slides. (All the slides were created using features in PowerPoint.)

CHECKLIST Enhancing Presentations with Visuals

A. Plan your presentation visuals. • Make sure you and your message, not your visuals, remain the focus of your presentation. • Select your visuals carefully to support your message; use a combination of visuals if needed. • Review your plan for each visual to make sure it truly supports your message. • Follow effective design principles, with an emphasis on accuracy and simplicity. • Use your time wisely so that you have plenty of time to practice your presentation.

B. Choose structured or free-form slides. • Structured slides using bullet-point templates are easy to create, require little time or skill to design, and can be completed in a hurry. Best

uses: routine, internal presentations. • Primary disadvantages of structured slides are mind-numbing repetition of bullet-point format and the common tendency of stuffing too

much information on them. • Free-form slides make it easier to combine textual and visual information, to create a more dynamic and engaging experience, and to

maintain a conversational connection with the audience. Best uses: motivational, educational, and persuasive presentations. • Primary disadvantages of structured slides are the time, skill, and imagery required; added responsibilities for the speaker; and the

possibility of fragmenting complex topics. C. Design effective slides.

• If you can, avoid creating “slideuments,” slides that are so packed with information that they can be read as standalone documents. • Use color to emphasize important ideas, create contrast, isolate visual elements, and convey intended nonverbal signals. • Limit color to a few compatible choices and use them consistently. • Make sure your slide background doesn’t compete with the foreground. • Use decorative artwork sparingly and only to support your message. • Emphasize functional artwork—photos, technical drawings, charts, and other visual elements containing information that is part of your

message. • Choose typefaces that are easy to read on screen; limit the number of typefaces and use them consistently. • Use slide masters to maintain consistency throughout your presentation.

D. Create effective slide content. • Write content that will be readable from everywhere in the room. • Write short, active, parallel phrases that support, not replace, your spoken message. • Avoid complete sentences unless you need to quote verbatim. • Limit the amount of text so that your audience can focus on listening, not reading. • Simplify print graphics for use on slides but don’t oversimplify. • Use functional animation when it can support your message. • Make sure slide transitions are subtle, if used at all. • Use builds carefully to control the release of information. • Use hyperlinks and action buttons to add flexibility to your presentation. • Incorporate multimedia elements that can help engage your audience and deliver your message.

E. Complete slides and support materials. • Review every slide carefully to ensure accuracy, consistency, and clarity. • Make sure that all slides are fully operational. • Use the slide sorter to verify and adjust the sequence of slides, if needed. • Have a backup plan in case your slide plan fails. • Create navigation and support slides. • Create handouts to give the audience additional information and to minimize the amount of information you need to put on your slides.

CREATING EFFECTIVE HANDOUTS

View handouts as an integral part of your presentation strategy so that they work in harmony with your slides and spoken message.

Handouts, any printed materials you give the audience to supplement your talk, should be considered an integral part of your presentation strategy. Plan them in tandem with your presentation slides so that you use each medium as effectively as possible. Your presentation should paint the big picture, convey and connect major ideas, set the emotional tone, and rouse the audience to action (if that is relevant to your talk). Your handouts can then carry the rest of the information load, providing the supporting details that audience members can consume at their own speed, on their own time. You won’t need to worry about stuffing every

detail into your slides because you have the more appropriate medium of printed documents to do that.22

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Possibilities for good handout materials include the following:23

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Use handout materials to support the points made in your presentation and to offer the audience additional information on your topic.

• Complex charts and diagrams. Charts and tables that are too unwieldy for the screen or that demand thorough analysis make good handouts. • Articles and technical papers. Magazine articles that supplement the information in your presentation make good handout materials, as do technical

papers that provide in-depth coverage of the material you’ve highlighted in your presentation. • Case studies. Summaries of business case studies can make good supplemental reading material. • Recommended resources. Lists of websites, blogs, and other online resources related to your topic can be useful. For each source, provide a URL and a

one- or two-sentence summary of its content.

• Copies of presentation slides. Audiences often like to have print versions of the slides used by a speaker, containing the speaker’s comments about each slide and blank lines for note taking. Use the page and print setup options in your software to choose the more useful arrangement.

Timing the distribution of handouts depends on their content, the nature of your presentation, and your personal preference. Some speakers like to distribute handout copies of their slides before the presentation begins so that the audience can take notes on them. Doing so can be risky, however, particularly if you’ve organized your talk with the indirect approach, because the audience can read ahead and reach the conclusion and recommendations before you’re able to build up to them yourself. Other speakers simply advise the audience of the types of information covered in handouts but delay distributing anything until they have finished speaking.

For a quick review of the key steps in creating effective visuals, see “Checklist: Enhancing Presentations with Visuals (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#P700101245100000000000000000622E) .” For the latest information on presentation design, visit real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Chapter 17 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005fef#P7001012451000000000000000005FEF) .

COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES AT Duarte

You’ve joined the dozens of designers, trainers, and information specialists at Duarte. Use what you’ve learned in this chapter to address these two challenges.

INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: You’ve just been given the assignment to create presentation slides for a new client. The client, HouseYou, is a start-up that aims to compete with Airbnb in the private room- and house-rental business. The purpose of the presentation is to pitch the business idea to investors.

Your first task is to choose a color palette for the slides, which will also be used in the company’s other promotional materials. Using any program or app you’re comfortable with, choose five standard colors or mix your own. You’ll need one dark color to use for slide backgrounds, one contrasting color for type on this dark background, and three compatible accent colors to use for various purposes. Study Airbnb’s logo and make sure you don’t choose any colors that are too similar. Using PowerPoint, Keynote, or Google Slides, create a few slides that show how your color palette could be used in a presentation. (Don’t worry about the content of the presentation; use any text and visual material that lets you show your five colors.)

TEAM CHALLENGE: With a team of classmates, search the Creative Commons website for attractive photos that could be used on slides to help illustrate or emphasize the following message points in a presentation:

• Trends in health-care costs • Competition • High levels of employee engagement (the energy, enthusiasm, and effort employees put into their work) • Consumer hyperchoice (situations in which shoppers have such an overwhelming array of choices in a given product category that purchase decisions

become difficult and stressful) • Scalability (the ease with which a business process or an entire company can be expanded to handle a greater number of transactions)

For each message point, find three good images and then decide as a team which one conveys the point most effectively and in the most appropriate style for a fairly formal business presentation. Create a slide show in which you show the photos, describe how each one conveys the concept in question, and explain why you chose the one you think is most effective. Make sure you follow the usage and attribution guidelines for any photos you find online.

Quick Learning Guide

KEY TERMS

builds Effects that control the release of text, graphics, and other elements on individual slides

free-form slides Presentation slides that are not based on a template, often with each slide having a unique look but unified by typeface, color, and other design choices; tend to be much more visually oriented than structured slides

hyperlink Link embedded in a presentation that instructs your computer to jump to another slide in your presentation, to a website, or to another program

navigation slides Noncontent slides that tell your audience where you’re going and where you’ve been

slide transitions Software effects that control how one slide replaces another on screen

structured slides Presentation slides that follow the same design templates throughout and give all the slides in a presentation the same general look; they emphasize textual information in bullet-point form

SUMMARY OF LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1 Explain the role of visuals in business presentations and list the types of visuals commonly used. Visuals create interest, illustrate and clarify important points, add variety, and help the listener absorb the information you’re presenting. In most businesses today, Prezi-style and conventional slide presentations are the most common tools, but you might also use overhead transparencies, chalkboards and whiteboards (including digital whiteboards), flip charts, product samples, models, video, and various software programs.

2 Explain the difference between structured and free-form slides, and suggest when each design strategy is more appropriate. Structured slides follow the same design plan for most or all of the slides in a presentation. They are often created by using the templates provided with PowerPoint and other presentation programs. Structured slides tend to convey most of their information through bullet points. In contrast, free-form slides do not follow any set design scheme from slide to slide, although they can and should use color, font selection, and other design choices to create a unified feel across a presentation. Free-form slides often have just a single statement on each slide, requiring many more slides to cover the same amount of material as the typical structured design.

The ease and speed with which structured slides can be created make them most useful for routine presentations such as project update meetings, particularly for internal audiences and in situations in which the slide deck will be used only once. They can also be useful when the audience needs to see a number of information points on screen simultaneously in order to make comparisons. Given their ability to excite and engage, free-form designs are particularly good for motivational, educational, and persuasive presentations—particularly when the slides will be used multiple times and therefore compensate for the extra time and effort often required to create them.

3 Outline the decisions involved in using a key visual and selecting color, artwork, and typefaces to create effective slide designs. Using a key visual involves selecting a single, simple visual element as a structure for the elements on a slide. For example, a circle can be used to identify the points in a repeating process, and a triangle can establish the interrelationship of three entities.

Color is a critical design element because it can grab the viewer’s attention, emphasize important ideas, create contrast, isolate particular slide elements, stimulate emotions, and send powerful nonverbal messages such as elegance or technical sophistication. Color also affects the acceptance and retention of messages. When selecting color, limit your choices to a few compatible ones and use them consistently.

Slides have two layers of visual elements, the background (which should be as unobtrusive as possible) and the foreground, which carries the information content of the slide. Artwork on the background and foreground can be divided into functional, which conveys information directly, and decorative, which does not. Well-designed functional artwork is always useful and a great way to convey message points quickly. Decorative artwork can be useful if it supports the message point on a slide, but it can be distracting otherwise.

Typefaces and type styles need careful consideration to ensure that they are easily readable from every point in the presentation room. Clean, sans serif typefaces are usually the best choice, although serif typefaces can be useful when used in large sizes. In general, avoid decorative typefaces except for limited, special purposes.

4 Explain how to create effective slide content. Slide content can be divided into three groups: text, tables and graphics, and animation and multimedia. To choose effective words and phrases, think of the text on your slides as a guide to the content, not the content itself. For all-text slides, try to limit the content to four or five lines, with four or five words per line, and use short phrases rather than full sentences.

To create effective tables and graphics, keep in mind that visuals for projection need to be simpler than those used for print documents. If necessary, create simplified versions for your slides and provide the full-detail versions in a printed handout.

Like artwork, animation can be functional or decorative. Functional animation can be a powerful way to demonstrate processes and procedures. Decorative animation is nearly always a distraction and should be avoided. Slide transitions, which control how one slide replaces another on screen, are a form of animation. Except for subtle transitions such as a gentle fade to black, avoid using most of the transitions that come with your software. Builds, on the other hand, can be extremely helpful by letting you control the release of individual text points or graphical elements on a slide.

Hyperlinks instruct your computer to jump to another slide in your presentation, to a website, or to another program entirely. They can be handy for designing flexibility into your presentations and for sharing other types of files with the audience.

Audio, video, and other multimedia files can complement your live message, but make sure they support your message rather than replace it.

5 Explain the role of navigation slides, support slides, and handouts. In addition to the slides that convey your content, you can create one or more title slides to introduce your presentation (and yourself, if necessary), agenda and program detail slides that tell viewers what to expect during the presentation and provide information to help them plan their time, and navigation slides that help you and your audience keep track of where you

are in the presentation. Particularly for longer presentations, a moving blueprint slide is a great way to show the audience what has been covered so far and what is still to come.

Handouts should be considered an integral part of your presentation, working in conjunction with your slides and spoken message to provide audience members with additional details, supporting documents, and other material too detailed to include in the presentation itself.

MyBCommLab

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) to complete the problems marked with this icon .

Test Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

17-1. What are your options for supporting a presentation with visuals? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#P700101245100000000000000000601A)

17-2. What are the potential disadvantages of Prezi-style presentations? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#P700101245100000000000000000601A)

17-3. How do structured and free-form slide designs differ? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006069)

17-4. What should the role of the background be in a slide? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609C)

17-5. How does Guy Kawasaki’s “30-point rule” for fonts (see page 494 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#page_494) ) help ensure readable and memorable slide content? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609C)

17-6. Why is it important to avoid arbitrarily changing colors throughout a presentation? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609C)

17-7. What is the recommended number of fonts to use per slide? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006136)

17-8. How do slide transitions differ from builds? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006136)

17-9. How is a moving blueprint slide used in a presentation? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#P70010124510000000000000000061C9)

17-10. How does the slide sorter view facilitate the editing process for a presentation? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#P70010124510000000000000000061C9)

Apply Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

17-11. Would you choose a structured or free-form design plan for a presentation about upcoming changes in international accounting regulations? Why? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006069)

17-12. What is the fundamental problem with “slideuments”? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006069)

17-13. How can you use slide masters to enhance the effectiveness of your slides? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609C)

17-14. Is it ethical to use design elements and special effects to persuade an audience? Why or why not? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609C)

17-15. If you are giving a presentation to company management using the indirect approach to recommend that the company consolidate its manufacturing operations (a traumatic change that would result in the loss of hundreds of jobs, including a dozen management positions), would it be wise to hand out copies of your slides at the beginning of the presentation? Why or why not? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#P70010124510000000000000000061C9)

Practice Your Skills Messages for Analysis

17-16. Message 17.A: Improving a Slide Examine the slide in Figure 17.9 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P7001012451000000000000000006310) and point out any problems you notice. How would you correct these problems? 17-17. Message 17.B: Modifying for Presentation Examine the graph in Figure 17.10 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P7001012451000000000000000006317) and explain how to modify it for a presentation, using the guidelines discussed in this chapter.

17-18. Message 17.C: Analyzing the Animation To access this PowerPoint presentation, visit real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real- timeupdates.com/bct14) , select Student Assignments, and select Chapter 17 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005fef#P7001012451000000000000000005FEF) , Message 17.C. Download and watch the presentation in slideshow mode. After you’ve watched the presentation, identify at least three ways in which various animations, builds, and transitions either enhanced or impeded your understanding of the subject matter.

Figure 17.9 Piece of Cake Bakery Customer Survey

Figure 17.10 CommuniCo Employee Training Costs

Exercises

Each activity is labeled according to the primary skill or skills you will need to use. To review relevant chapter content, you can refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

17-19. Designing Effective Slides [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006069) Find a business-related slide presentation on SlideShare (www.slideshare.net (http://www.slideshare.net) ) and analyze the design. Do you consider it structured or free form? Does the design help the audience understand and remember the message? Why or why not? What improvements to the design would you suggest? Is the slide set understandable on its own? 17-20. Designing Effective Slides [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609C) Think about a company you might like to start after graduation and imagine that you are giving a 20-minute presentation to potential investors. Review the design templates or themes available in whatever presentation software you have available, such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, or Google Slides. Choose a template and color palette that best support the message you want to convey to these financiers. Write a one-page report or brief blog post that includes a sample slide using this theme and color palette and an explanation of how this design supports your message. 17-21. Creating Effective Slide Content [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006136) Look through recent issues of several business periodicals for an article that discusses issues a specific company or industry is facing. Based on the information in the article and the guidelines discussed in this chapter, create three to five presentation slides summarizing these issues. 17-22. Creating Effective Slide Content [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006136)

Locate one of the tables elsewhere in the book and convert it to presentation slides so that the content is easily readable in a large conference room. (Be sure to select one of the shorter tables.) Choose whether to use free-form or structured slides, and decide how much content will be on the slides and how much will be spoken by the presenter. Provide speaker’s notes along with your slides. 17-23. Creating Effective Slide Content; Mobile Skills [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006136) Find

a business-oriented presentation on SlideShare or another online source. Re-create four of the slides so they will be more effective on small mobile screens, then assemble a before-and-after presentation that highlights the changes you made.

Expand Your Skills Critique the Professionals

Dave Paradi, the author of The Visual Slide Revolution, specializes in helping presenters transform text-heavy slides into more readable and more effective visuals. Visit his YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/thinkoutsidetheslide (http://www.youtube.com/thinkoutsidetheslide) , watch several of his “PowerPoint Slide Makeover” videos, and select the one that you find most helpful or enlightening. Using whatever medium your instructor requests, summarize the changes Paradi made to the slide in question and explain in your own words why these changes made the slide more effective.

Sharpening Your Career Skills Online

Bovée and Thill’s Business Communication Web Search, at websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com (http://websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com) , is a unique research tool designed specifically for business communication research. Use the Web Search function to find a website, video, article, podcast, or presentation that offers advice on creating slides and other presentation visuals. Write a brief email message to your instructor, describing the item that you found and summarizing the career skills information you learned from it.

Cases

For all cases, feel free to use your creativity to make up any details you need in order to craft effective messages.

PRESENTATION SKILLS

17-24. Planning, Designing, and Creating Presentation Slides [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#P700101245100000000000000000601A) , [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006069) , [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609C) , [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006136) Select the Communication Close- Up from the beginning of any chapter in the book and decide whether free-form or structured slides would be the most effective way to present this story to an audience of business professionals.

Your task: Using whichever design approach you think is better, create a brief presentation (slides and speaking notes) to tell the story.

PRESENTATION SKILLS

17-25. Planning, Designing, and Creating Presentation Slides [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#P700101245100000000000000000601A) , [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006069) , [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609C) , [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006136) Not long ago, snowboarding seemed to be on pace to pass skiing as the country’s favorite way to zoom down snowy mountains, but the sport’s growth has

cooled off in recent years.24

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000063DC)

Your task: Research and prepare a 10-minute presentation on participation trends in snowboarding and skiing, including explanations for the relative popularity of both sports. Include at least three quotations to emphasize key points in your presentation. Use either structured or free-form slides.

PRESENTATION SKILLS

17-26. Planning, Designing, and Creating Presentation Slides [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#P700101245100000000000000000601A) , [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006069) , [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609C) , [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006136) Many companies publish stories of their founding and early years as a way to convey the company’s strengths and values.

Your task:? Choose a company that has been in business for at least two decades and prepare a 10-minute presentation on its history.

PRESENTATION SKILLS/TEAM SKILLS

17-27. Planning, Designing, and Creating Presentation Slides [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#P700101245100000000000000000601A) , [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006069) , [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609C) , [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006136) Changing a nation’s eating habits is a Herculean task, but the physical and financial health of the United States depends on it. You work for the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (www.cnpp.usda.gov (http://www.cnpp.usda.gov) ), and it’s your job to educate people on the dangers of unhealthy eating and the changes they can make to eat more balanced and healthful diets.

Your task: Visit real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) , select Student Assignments, and download Chapter 17 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005fef#P7001012451000000000000000005FEF) , Dietary Guidelines for Americans. With your team, develop a presentation no longer than 15 minutes, using a Prezi or free-form slides, that conveys the key points from Chapter 3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001b46#P7001012451000000000000000001B46) of the Guidelines, “Food and Food Components to Reduce.” The objectives of your presentation are to alert people to the dangers of excessive consumption of the five components discussed in the chapter and to let them know what healthy levels of consumptions are. This chapter has a lot of information, but you don’t need to pack it all into your slides; you can assume that the chapter will be available as a handout to anyone who attends your presentation. Along with your presentation, draft speaking notes that someone outside your team could use to give the presentation. You can use images from the Guidelines PDF, the websites of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or a nongovernment source such as Creative Commons (creativecommons.org (http://creativecommons.org) ). Make sure you follow the usage and attribution guidelines for any photos you find on nongovernment sites.

PRESENTATION SKILLS

17-28. Planning, Designing, and Creating Presentation Slides [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#P700101245100000000000000000601A) , [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006069) , [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609C) , [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006136) PechaKucha is a style of presentation that might be the ultimate in creative constraint: The speaker is limited to 20 slides, each of which is displayed for exactly 20 seconds before automatically advancing. PechaKucha Nights, which are open to the public, are now put on in cities all over the world. Visit www.pechakucha.org (http://www.pechakucha.org) for more information on these events or to view some archived presentations.

Your task: Chose any topic that interests you and develop a PechaKucha-style presentation with 20 slides, each designed to be displayed for 20 seconds. Use the slide timing capabilities in your presentation software to control the pace. Make sure you practice before presenting to your class so that you can

hit the precise timing requirements.25

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#P70010124510000000000000000063DE)

PRESENTATION SKILLS

17-29. Planning, Designing, and Creating Presentation Slides [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#P700101245100000000000000000601A) , [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006069) , [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609C) , [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006136) Learning to play a musical instrument offers children multiple benefits, beyond the joys of creating and appreciating music.

Your task: Research the benefits of learning and playing an instrument, then prepare a brief presentation that conveys these benefits in a way that most parents would find compelling.

PRESENTATION SKILLS/PORTFOLIO BUILDER

17-30. Planning, Designing, and Creating Presentation Slides [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#P700101245100000000000000000601A) , [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006069) , [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609C) , [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006136) Small farmers looking for more predictable revenue and consumers who want to eat fresh local produce have found a match in community-supported agriculture (CSA). CSA is essentially a subscription service in which consumers sign up for regular allotments of fruits and vegetables from a local farm. At regular intervals during the growing season, each subscriber gets a box of whatever produce is ripe and ready at that time.

Your task: Research CSA options in your area and prepare a brief presentation on how these programs work and how they benefit farmers and consumers. If you can’t find any local programs, choose any location in the United States where CSA is available.

PRESENTATION SKILLS/PORTFOLIO BUILDER

17-31. Planning, Designing, and Creating Presentation Slides [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#P700101245100000000000000000601A) , [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006069) , [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609C) , [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006136) One could argue that sleep is the single most important element of healthy living. Not only is adequate sleep essential for the body on its own, but getting enough sleep enables other activities that are essential for health, including getting exercise and taking the time to eat a healthy diet. Unfortunately, millions of people who recognize the value of sleep and want nothing more than to get enough sleep every night are often unable to do so.

Your task: Research the types and causes of insomnia and the cures most often recommended by sleep specialists. Using Prezi or slide software, prepare a 10- to 15-minute presentation on why insomnia affects so many people and the steps people can take to reduce or eliminate it.

PRESENTATION SKILLS/TEAM SKILLS/PORTFOLIO BUILDER

17-32. Planning, Designing, and Creating Presentation Slides [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#P700101245100000000000000000601A) , [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006069) , [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609C) , [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006136) In your job as a business development researcher for a major corporation, you’re asked to gather and process information on a wide variety of subjects. Management has gained confidence in your research and analysis skills and would now like you to begin making regular presentations at management retreats and other functions. Topics are likely to include the following:

• Offshoring of U.S. jobs • Foreign ownership of U.S. firms • Employment issues involving workers from other countries • Tax breaks offered by local and state governments to attract new businesses • Economic impact of environmental regulations

Your task: With a team assigned by your instructor, choose one of the topics from the list and conduct enough research to familiarize yourself with it. Identify at least three important issues that anyone involved with this topic should know about. Prepare a 10-minute presentation that introduces the topic, comments on its importance to the U.S. economy, and discusses the issues you’ve identified. Assume that your audience is a cross section of business managers who don’t have any particular experience in the topic you’ve chosen.

PRESENTATION SKILLS/PORTFOLIO BUILDER

17-33. Planning, Designing, and Creating Presentation Slides [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#P700101245100000000000000000601A) , [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006069) , [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609C) , [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006136) Depending on the sequence your instructor chose for this course, you’ve probably covered at least a dozen chapters at this point and learned or improved many valuable skills. Think through your progress and identify five business communication skills that you’ve either learned for the first time or developed during this course.

Your task: Create a 10-minute Prezi or slide presentation that describes each of the five skills you’ve identified. Be sure to explain how each skill could help you in your career. Use any visual style that you feel is appropriate for the assignment.

PRESENTATION SKILLS/TEAM SKILLS/PORTFOLIO BUILDER

17-34. Planning, Designing, and Creating Presentation Slides [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#P700101245100000000000000000601A) , [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#P700101245100000000000000000609C) , [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#P7001012451000000000000000006136) In its competitive battles with AT&T and other phone and Internet service providers, Verizon seeks to attract and keep not just customers but top employees. Engineers and technicians obviously play a vital role in a technology company such as Verizon, but the firm also needs specialists in everything from accounting to public relations to real estate.

Your task: Prepare a brief presentation (Prezi or slides) that Verizon recruiters could use at job fairs and other venues to entice both new graduates and experienced professionals to consider joining the company. Create an appropriate amount of visual material for a presentation that is at least 10 minutes but no longer than 15 (not including a question-and-answer period). Assume the audience members have heard of Verizon but don’t have any in-depth knowledge about the company. Visit the company’s website to learn more about the benefits of working there.

MyBCommLab

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) for Auto-graded writing questions as well as the following Assisted-graded writing questions:

17-35. Why is it important to use your time carefully when creating presentation materials? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#P700101245100000000000000000601A)

17-36. How do structured and free-form slide designs differ from one another? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#P7001012451000000000000000006069)

Endnotes

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005fef#rP70010124510000000000000000063AE) . Duarte website, accessed 9 May 2016, www.duarte.com (http://www.duarte.com) ; Nancy Duarte, slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations (Sebastopol, Calif.: O’Reilly Media, 2008), 251–261; Marta Kagan, “Nancy Duarte’s Five Rules for Creating Great Presentations,” HubSpot, 22 July 2011, blog.hubspot.com (http://blog.hubspot.com) .

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#rP70010124510000000000000000063B0) . “Polishing Your Presentation,” 3M Meeting Network, accessed 8 June 2001, www.mmm.com/meetingnetwork/readingroom/meetingguide_pres.html (http://www.mmm.com/meetingnetwork/readingroom/meetingguide_pres.html) .

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#rP70010124510000000000000000063B2) . Michael Hyatt, “Five Rules to Better PowerPoint Presentations,” 21 June 2005, Working Smart blog, www.michaelhyatt.com (http://www.michaelhyatt.com) .

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006018#rP70010124510000000000000000063B4) . Jeff Herb, “Prezi—Advantages and Disadvantages,” Instructional Tech Talk blog, 29 December 2012, instructionaltechtalk.com (http://instructionaltechtalk.com) .

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006064#rP70010124510000000000000000063B6) . Cliff Atkinson, “The Cognitive Load of PowerPoint: Q&A with Richard E. Mayer,” Sociable Media, accessed 15 August 2009, www.sociablemedia.com/articles_mayer.htm (http://www.sociablemedia.com/articles_mayer.htm) .

6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#rP70010124510000000000000000063B8) . Margo Halverson, “Choosing the Right Colors for Your Next Presentation,” 3M Meeting Network, accessed 8 June 2001, www.mmm.com/meetingnetwork/readingroom/meetingguide_right_color.html (http://www.mmm.com/meetingnetwork/readingroom/meetingguide_right_color.html) .

7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#rP70010124510000000000000000063BA) . Carol Klinger and Joel G. Siegel, “Computer Multimedia Presentations,” CPA Journal, June 1996, 46.

8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#rP70010124510000000000000000063BC) . Jon Hanke, “Five Tips for Better Visuals,” 3M Meeting Network, accessed 25 May 2007, www.3m.com/meetingnetwork/presentations/pmag_better_visuals.html (http://www.3m.com/meetingnetwork/presentations/pmag_better_visuals.html) .

9 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#rP70010124510000000000000000063BE) . Hanke, “Five Tips for Better Visuals.”

10 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#rP70010124510000000000000000063C0) . Duarte, slide:ology, 118.

11 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#rP70010124510000000000000000063C2) . Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Berkeley, Calif.: New Riders, 2008), 132.

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13 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000609a#rP70010124510000000000000000063C6) . Duarte, slide:ology, 152.

14 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#rP70010124510000000000000000063C8) . Eric Markowitz, “How to Create a Great PowerPoint Presentation,” Inc., 7 February 2011, www.inc.com (http://www.inc.com) .

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16 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000006132#rP70010124510000000000000000063CC) . Weissman, Presenting to Win, 144–147.

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19 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#rP70010124510000000000000000063D2) . Nancy Duarte, “Avoiding the Road to PowerPoint Hell,” Wall Street Journal, 22 January 2011, online.wsj.com (http://online.wsj.com) .

20 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#rP70010124510000000000000000063D4) . Reynolds, Presentation Zen, 85.

21 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#rP70010124510000000000000000063D6) . Weissman, Presenting to Win, 162.

22 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#rP70010124510000000000000000063D8) . Reynolds, Presentation Zen, 66.

23 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000061c7#rP70010124510000000000000000063DA) . Ted Simons, “Handouts That Won’t Get Trashed,” Presentations, February 1999, 47–50.

24 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#rP70010124510000000000000000063DC) . Hugo Martin, “Snowboarding Craze Fades, Skiing Becomes Cool Again,” Seattle Times, 7 February 2013, seattletimes.com (http://seattletimes.com) .

25 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000629a#rP70010124510000000000000000063DE) . PechaKucha20×20 website, accessed 4 August 2010, www.pechakucha.org (http://www.pechakucha.org) ; Reynolds, Presentation Zen, 41.