Improve Your Presentations by Disrupting the Order

Successful presentations involve three steps: writing, preparing and performing.?Most speakers, by default, follow the same process for all three.?That is, they write and prepare their presentation in the same order.?This is fundamentally flawed.?Changing the process you use for writing and preparing will result in you delivering a much more polished performance – with no extra time needed.

The two most crucial parts of any presentation are the opening and conclusion.?The opening is essential for grabbing the audience’s attention, but it is the conclusion that has the biggest impact.?Two factors that contribute most to a successful conclusion are:

1.????The writing: If the conclusion links back to the opening it is much more likely to be listened to and remembered because it ’closes the loop’ inside the listener’s head.

2.????The delivery: A conclusion must be delivered powerfully – with the most energy of any part of the presentation.?Too many conclusions fail here – ending like a deflating balloon as the speaker slowly runs ‘out of air’.

If you write your opening and conclusion together, it will be much easier to create that linkage.?Many speakers follow Dr Stephen Covey’s second rule (Start with the end in mind) and start their writing with the conclusion.

If you practise your presentation from start to finish, two things will happen:

1.????You will waste time over-practising your opening.?While your opening needs to be delivered with confidence, you do have the opportunity of checking it just before you stand up to speak – unlike the conclusion.

2.????You will under-practise your conclusion. You should always expect to lose your way at some point.?If you have prepared ‘rote’, you will need to go back to the start in your head, do a quick fast-forward ad hope the next bit comes to you.?If you have ‘chunked’ your presentation (opening, conclusion, body parts) and practised the conclusion most, it will be easier for you to get back on track.?You should be working towards the part of the presentation you know best – not away from it.

Most speakers have not thought about these issues and have fallen into the trap of writing, preparing and presenting in the same order by default.?Making these simple changes to your preparation process will significantly improve your presentations.