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Business Communication Today

Fourteenth Edition

Chapter 16

Developing Presentations in a Social Media Environment

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Learning Objectives

16.1 Describe the tasks involved in analyzing the situation for a presentation and organizing a presentation.

16.2 Explain how to adapt to your audience and develop an effective opening, body, and close for a presentation.

16.3 Discuss five steps for delivering a successful presentation.

16.4 Explain the growing importance of the backchannel in presentations, and list six steps for giving effective presentations online.

Planning a Presentation

LO 16.1 Describe the tasks involved in analyzing the situation for a presentation and organizing a presentation.

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.

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).

The Three-Step Process

Figure Caption: 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.

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.

Analyzing the Situation

Define Your Purpose

Inform

Persuade

Collaborate

Develop an Audience Profile

Emotional State

Comfort Level with Your Language

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.

When you develop your audience profile, try to anticipate the likely emotional state of your audience members. Figure 16.2 offers tips for dealing with a variety of audience mindsets.

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.

Assessing the Environment

Four Basic Seating Arrangements

Classroom or Theater

Conference Table

Horseshoe or U-shaped

Café Seating

Also consider the circumstances in which you’ll be making your presentation.

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.

●● 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.

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

Selecting the Best Combination of Media and Channels

Controlled Methods	Choice of Methods
Specific Software	Live, In-Person
Built-in Display	Webcasts or Screencasts
Online Meeting Software	Twebinars

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 (online presentations that people either view live or download later from the web), screencasts (recordings of activity on computer displays with audio voiceover), or twebinars (the use of Twitter as a backchannel —see page 477— for real-time conversation during a web-based seminar).

Organizing a Presentation

Linear

Outlined Like Conventional Messages

Follow a Predefined Flow

Nonlinear

Doesn’t Flow in Any Particular Direction

Allows Presenter to Move Back and Forth Between Topics

Select the Right Software

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.

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). From there, you add individual objects (including blocks of text, photos, or videos) that convey specific information points.

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.

Defining Your Main Idea

One-Sentence Summary

Subject

Purpose

Audience

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.

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. 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

Work Within Time Constraints

Hold Audience’s 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. 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), you can figure on three or four minutes per slide as a rough guide. 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.

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.

Choosing Your Approach

Shorter Presentations

Direct approach for routine information or good news

Indirect approach for bad news or persuasion

Longer Presentations:

Direct approach to motivate or inform

Indirect approach to analyze, persuade, or collaborate

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).

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.

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.

Preparing Your Outline

State the Purpose and Main Idea

Organize the Points and Sub-Points

Identify Major Points Throughout

Plan Transitions Between Sections

Prepare a Bibliography or Source Notes

Choose a Compelling Title

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

●● 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.

Creaking a Speaking Outline

Simplify the Planning Outline

Condense Points

Add Delivery Cues

Arrange Your Notes

Follow these steps to prepare an effective speaking outline:

●● 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.

Crafting Presentation Content

LO 16.2 Explain how to adapt to your audience and develop an effective opening, body, and close for a presentation.

Follow these steps to prepare an effective speaking outline:

●● 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.

Adapting to Your Audience

Small Groups	Large Audiences
Conversational Tone	Formal Tone
Conference Room	State or Platform
Invite Comments	Limit Participation

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 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 the Presentation

Distinct Elements

Introduction

Body

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

Presentation Introduction

Arousing Audience Interest

Establishing Your Credibility

Previewing Your Message

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

State Your Purpose and Main Idea

Organize Your Major Points and Subpoints

Identify Major Points

Identify Transitions Between Major Points

Prepare Your Bibliography

Choose a Compelling Title

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.

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

●● 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.

Many speakers like to prepare both a detailed planning outline (see Figure 16.5 on the next page) and a simpler speaking outline that provides all the cues and reminders they need to present their material. 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.

Establishing Your Credibility

Have Another Person Introduce You

Introduce Yourself Humbly and Simply

Inform Audience Why You Are the Right Person for This Presentation

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.

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.

Previewing Your Message

Summarize the Main Idea

Identify Major Supporting Points

Indicate the Order in Which You’ll Develop the Points

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.

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

Presenting Your Main Points

Connecting Your Ideas

Holding Your Audience's Attention

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: 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:

●● Relate your subject to your audience’s needs.

●● Anticipate your audience’s questions.

●● Use clear, vivid language.

●● Explain the relationship between your subject and familiar ideas.

●● Ask for opinions or pause occasionally for questions or comments.

●● Illustrate your ideas with visuals.

Presentation Close

Restating Your Main Points

Ending With Clarity and Confidence

Providing a Clear Wrap-Up

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. 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: 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 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.

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.

Delivering a Presentation

LO 16.3 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

Memorizing

Reading

Speaking from an Outline Or Notes

Impromptu Speaking

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. 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 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.

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

Can You Present Your Material Naturally?

Is the Equipment Working?

Can You Make a Compelling Presentation Without Equipment?

Is Your Timing on Track?

Can You Easily Pronounce All the Words You Plan To Use?

Have You Anticipated Questions and Objections?

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?

●● 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?

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

Plan Your Presentation in Advance

Check the Seating Arrangements

Check Equipment and Supplies

Plan for Multicultural Audiences

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.

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 (1 of 2)

Have a Positive Mindset

Don’t Worry About Being Perfect

Know Your Subject

Practice, Practice, Practice

Visualize Success

Remember to Breathe

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:

●● 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. 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.

Overcoming Anxiety (2 of 2)

Be Ready with Your Opening Line

Be Comfortable

Take a Three-Second Break

Concentrate on Your Message and Audience

Maintain Eye Contact

Keep Going

●● 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.

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.”

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. 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.

Speaking With Confidence

Controlled Beginning

Confident Posture

Make Eye Contact

Send Confident Nonverbal Signals

Handing Questions Responsively (1 of 2)

Establishing Ground Rules

Preparing to Answer Questions

Noticing Nonverbal Signals

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.

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. 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.

Handing Questions Responsively (2 of 2)

Responding to Difficult Questions

Controlling Your Presentation

Controlling Your Emotions

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.

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.

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.

Incorporating Technology in Your Presentation

LO 16.4 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

The Audience Creates This Line of Communication

Challenges

Risk of Criticism

Loss of Control

Opportunities

Audience Support

Valuable Feedback

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, 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.” Chances are you’ve participated in an informal backchannel already, such as when texting with your classmates or liveblogging during a lecture.

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.

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

Working the Backchannel

Integrate Social Media into the Presentation Process

Monitor and Ask for Feedback

Review Comments

Automatically Tweet Key Points

Establish Expectation with the Audience

Follow these tips to make the backchannel work for you:

●● 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.

Giving Online Presentations

Advantages	Disadvantages
Cost Savings	“Digital Divide”
Convenience	“Human Moments”

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).

Ensuring Successful Online Presentations (1 of 2)

Send Preview Materials

Rehearse Using the System

Keep Presentation Simple

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. 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.

●● 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.

Ensuring Successful Online Presentations (2 of 2)

Ask for Feedback Frequently

Consider the Audience's Point of View

Give Everyone Time to Get Connected

●● 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.