Which of these is one key way visuals help the audience absorb and remember information

The ability to communicate effectively to clients and colleagues via presentation is critical to your success as a professional, regardless of your seniority. It is a skill to be learned, practiced and continually developed. In most professional roles you will be called upon to present in a variety of situations, pitches, internal meetings, joint team and client meetings, training or networking events and others.

Planning may be the most important activity to foster compelling presentations. It is important to understand your audience, and in particular, their expectations, prior to developing and delivering analytical solutions. This is ever more true when developing presentations. I hope this article will help you to identify the appropriate type of presentation for a given context and audience, craft and deliver a compelling message supported by relevant data and analytical evidence and articulate, plan for and manage the unique constraints and potential pitfalls associated with presenting. Also you will learn some visual aids and props which support and enhance your message.

The eight-step approach

Presentations are often the primary output of our work. In this article I will show an eight step approach, that can help you develop and deliver successful presentations. This approach will give you the tools and techniques that you need, to prepare and confidently deliver an effective presentation. To present well, you need to prepare well. Great presentations leave lasting impressions and look professional, yet effortless. But it is important to understand that they do not just happen naturally. What you see in a final presentation is the culmination of time, thought and energy that has gone into creating it.

Step one is to know your audience. Understanding your audience will help you tailor your message and decide which presentation techniques to use, to capture their attention and to get your point across. This often overlooked step is the most critical, because knowing your audience frames the strategy of your overall presentation, and is an input into almost all the other steps.

Step two is to know your purpose. In this step you define your goals and objectives. What change in behavior or attitude, are you trying to achieve?

Step three is to structure the body of your presentation. Focus on your key-points, and the documentation, and content you will use to support them.

Step four is to plan how you will begin your presentation. Consider how you can capture your audience's attention, by getting them ready to hear what you have to say.

Step five is to consider how you will end your presentation. Plan how you will leave your audience with an understanding of your message and a mandate for action.

Step six is to prepare your visual aids. Develop visuals that support your purpose, key-points, supporting evidence and audience benefit or action.

Step seven is to anticipate the questions you may be asked, and to prepare your answers.Be ready for your audience's reaction and potential needs for additional information.

Step eight is to practice your presentation. Be thoroughly familiar with the presentation before you give it.

Step one and two - Know your audience & know your purpose

First, let us look at how you can know your audience. This is a very important step, because understanding your audience will help you tailor your message, and decide which presentation techniques to use to capture their attention and deliver your messages. To understand your audience, consider the following, how many people will be in the audience? Are you physically co-located or virtual? What kind of organizations are represented? What levels of the organizations are present and who are the decision makers? How well informed is the audience about the subject matter and how interested are they? Overall, you should understand are there expectations that you need to take into account? When you empathize with your audience, you will be able to present content that is useful, proactively address concerns, and anticipate questions.

Once you understand your audience and their needs, the next step is to understand the purpose of the presentation. The purpose answers the questions, why am I giving this presentation? And what change in behavior or attitude am I trying to achieve? In the second step, you will define your goals and objectives. A presentation would usually have one of three purposes:

•  One, to communicate information, a mainly factual presentation or briefing to a group of colleges or stakeholders. This type of presentation is designed to share information and to build understanding. But remember sharing expensive elaborate information is not a good use of a presentation as audiences tend not to remember detail
• Two, to present an idea, a preposition supported by a recent argument and personal judgment. This type of presentation is design to persuade and win support from the audience
• Three, to inspire and motivate, whatever the content it should reflect and reinforce the feelings of the audience and generate enthusiasm, boost morale and encourage positive altitudes. This type of presentation is designed to spur the audience into action

The underlying purpose of your presentation and your audience will influence the structure, content, and style of delivery. Your presentation should have a custom strategy depending on your purpose and your audience. 

You should also be thinking about your audiences potential pain points. Empathize with what is troubling their business and structure the initial part of your presentation to acknowledge these challenges. It is a way to capture their attention. We call it the Hook and the Fix. The Hook is the problem statement, while the Fix is the resolution statement. The Hook should inspire reactions such as "wow" or "I cannot believe", while the Fix should inspire reactions such as "awesome", or "this sounds really cool".

You should also have strategy to address the anticipated attitudes of your audience which you should understand from your step one efforts. Your knowledge of their attitudes can help drive your key points. When presenting to an audience that is passive or complacent, aim to instill a sense of urgency. If the audience is eager for change, aim to harness that energy. If they are resistant, focus on the why. If they are insecure, aim to reassure them. If you have a room full of mixed attitudes, address the attitude of the most important stakeholders who ultimately responsible for making the decision or selling your idea to others.

If you do not have a chance to gauge your audience in advance, do so during your presentation and give yourself room to adjust. So, how can you tell the mood or attitude of your audience? Look for recognizable physical characteristics like body language and facial expressions. Are they interested or not listening? Do they have their computers out and open or they are looking at their phones? Are their heads nodding? These are some examples of physical characteristics that will help you read your audience. 

Knowing your audience and knowing your purpose are your first two steps in delivering a successful presentation. These steps will help you select the appropriate type of presentation and clearly define your aims and objectives. They will also get you ready for the third step.

Step three - Structure the body of your presentation

Now that you know your audience and the purpose of your presentation, you can start developing your ideas. Use an outline format either with pen and paper or on your computer to help you organize your thoughts.

This can be a two step process. First, use a traditional outline format Roman numerals I, II,III, capital A, little a and so on. To organize, structure, sequence and to put hierarchy around your thoughts. Second, convert your outline into a slide based format. Slide 1 is about this, slide 2 is about that, and so on. This can be handwritten and the drawings can be crude or it can be on paper, or on sticky notes on a whiteboard. Be sure to make only one main point per slide, which can be written in the headline.

The process of sketching out the slides in your presentation is called wire framing. Oftentimes during the wire framing exercise, you will discover that you will need two slides rather than one to make a particular point, or vice versa. It is part of the additive process. Once you have an outline and a wire frame, you can decide what goes into the body of your presentation and what goes on to each slide to demonstrate your key points and messages. This is the most important part of your presentation design and development. Focus on your key points and the content and the documentation you will use to support them:

• What is your key message? What are your supporting messages?
• What strategy will you use to support your message? What evidence will you use to support your message?

At this stage, it can be helpful to identify and address emotional underpinnings of your message. Why should the audience care about what you have to say? Remember, your audience's pain points and be sure to use them with a series of hooks and fixes. Capture the audience by appealing to their emotions. Be factual, and do not make things up.

If you arm your story with good facts, it will be more compelling. This means, it can take longer to create a good story because you have to research the facts. It is best to get all of your ideas on paper first, letting them flow in any order. And keeping your purpose visible to align all supporting messages. Take a blank sheet of paper and create a mind map. Start by identifying your key message and what you want people to remember from your presentation. Put that in the center.

Once you have identified your key and supporting messages, you can plan the structure. Make sure to create a logical and simple flow. At the end of this exercise, you should be able to write down the overall message of your presentation in one sentence and identify three or four key messages that you would like the audience to take away. Do not try to cover too much or too much detail in the time that you have been given.

Once you have a clear structure, you can move on to planning how you will get your message across effectively and how you will make your presentation more interesting using examples, anecdotes, and questions. Let us look at some best practices for planning your message:

• One, it is important to use words that you would normally use when talking. You want to be authentic in your presentation. Avoid using too many long words and jargon, unless you are sure your audience will understand. Do not assume that everyone in the same organization speaks the same jargon. Even within an organization, corporate speech in one function may differ from another group or function. Be mindful of your audience, even within the same organization.
• Two, show respect and affection for your audience by addressing them personally with words such as we, our, and you.
• Three, use facts to support your points. Facts are indisputable, opinions are not. But avoid giving too many facts, the audience will only remember a few.
• Four, when describing a new concept, try to compare it to something the audience is familiar with, use personal anecdotes or industry-based examples.
• Five, using questions during your presentation can anchor your key points and engage people by making what you are saying relevant to them. For example, if you want to stimulate everyone's thinking, ask a direct question to the group such as, have you had experience with this? If you want to allow people to respond voluntarily or avoid putting an individual on the spot, ask a question such as, what experiences have any of you had with this problem? If you want to stimulate one person to think and to respond, then direct the question to that individual.
• Six, when you organizing your ideas, keep your purpose or key message visible to help align supporting messages. By the end step three, you should have a draft outline and wire frame of your presentation. They should include the key messages and supporting messages from your mind map. They should also include bullet points under each for supporting facts, examples, anecdotes, and questions.

It is important that you collect your ideas first, or form your complete and supported idea and then iterate and revise later. If you start building a presentation in PowerPoint without doing any wire framing, you will effectively skipped idea collection phase and gone straight to iteration. It is hard to gather ideas in PowerPoint or any other presentation tool when you cannot see the big picture. Paper is still the best medium for that. So skipping wire framing is not recommended, unless you know exactly what you are going to say.

Step four - Plan how you will start

A strong start also helps to establish your credibility and to create rapport with the audience. If you are being introduced, prepare a few word of thanks. If not, prepare a brief introduction for yourself, name, job title, background, and so on.

Preparing and memorizing your opening sentence will help you minimize nervousness on presentation day. There is a mnemonic sometimes used -INTRO that will help you plan the start of your presentation:

• I stands for the impact and interest you want to create for your audience. Remember, this can be accomplished with either a hook, a story, a novelty, or a controversy. 
• N is for need. This is your fix. The "what is in it for me" for the audience. Make the audience aware of their need. Why this information is important?
• T is for timing, be clear about timing. For example, I have an hour to talk today.
• R is for range, establish what the presentation will and will not cover. For example, I will be focusing today on topic x but we will not be covering y details.
• O is for outline the objectives of the presentation. What are the key takeaways?

I and N can be combined into a short statement about the presentation's objectives and why it is relevant for the audience. Think about how an INTRO can combine the emotion with the practical. T, R and O are more about logistics and setting expectations. So start with I and N and then speak to T, R and O. Effective introductions have several elements that aid in their success - arresting statements or quotations, facts, rhetorical questions, personalized openings emphasizing common bonds, short anecdotes or examples, invitations, promised benefits, setting up a story. 

But there are also several opening taboos that can diminish or harm the effectiveness of your introduction - excuses, fishing for compliments, negative beginnings, too much detail, offensive or unnecessarily outrageous statements. So remember, an effective start will capture your audience's attention and prepare them to hear what you have to say. Use the INTRO mnemonic device to plan for a strong start.

Step five - Plan how you will end

An effective close will leave your audience with an understanding of the key messages and benefits, and impart a call to action. Remember, it is important to leave plenty of time for questions. Just as with successful openings, winning conclusions includes several elements:

• Asks for a decision or a challenge to the group
• A presentation of alternatives
• Laying out a just imagine scenario or an art of the possible
• A summary of facts and statistics, a review of major points leading to actions and next steps

And do not forget to survey the audience to ensure they understood your message or to ask for feedback. Of course, there are closing taboos such as announcing the conclusion:

• Repeatedly saying "I hope I have..."
• Making excuses
• Ending abruptly without conclusion, or reiterating the key points that support your conclusion
• Introducing new points

Please remember - your presentation closing is just as important as your intro. How you will close will determine the audiences final impressions. Leave them with a clear understanding of the key messages and benefits, and impart call to action.

Step six - Prepare your visual aids

At this point in your preparation process, you have mapped out a high level outline and a wire frame based on your audience and your purpose. You have planned your presentation introduction and your closing around your key messages. The sixth step is to prepare your visual aids. Visual aids are photos, videos, models, or other data representations that can help your audience visualize information. These aids can be props or physical objects as well. Visual aids can be used to explain ideas, illustrate facts, and support your key messages. Well-prepared visual aids can reinforce credibility and authority.

You have likely been thinking about these as you have drafted your wire frames and even perhaps included some. Determining where visuals can enhance your presentation is the key to amplifying your outline. But, it is important to develop your complete outline, before diving into the visual design. Now you can determine what points in your presentation are best supported by visual aids, and they are particularly useful to present data because they communicate information in ways that plain text cannot. Graphs, tables and diagrams can be used to demonstrate proportion, contrast, development or sequence.

Now let us review a few points on effective visual aids:

• Ensure that your visual aids are simple and uncluttered
• Do not use too many words or display too many headings. And each aid should make only one point. It is easy for anyone to understand and naturally draw a conclusion
• Ensure that your visuals are appropriate for the venue and the audience
• Ensure that the visuals are in keeping with your organization's brand guidelines. If you are not familiar, brand guidelines are a set of standards established by an organization regarding the design of documents, signage, and presentations. These guidelines include specific colors, fonts, and styles that should be used
• Make sure that you integrate visual aids with your spoken presentation
• Last, but not least, double check that you are not disclosing sensitive or confidential information. If your aid has confidential information, it is standard industry practice to blur it out with a filter. It is better to blur than to cover with a black box because blurred information does not draw attention away from the important part of the visual.

Display visuals aids long enough for comprehension, but not too long, to avoid distraction. Do not use the visual aids as a refuge. Speak to the audience, not the visual. Do not immediately talk over the visuals. Allow your audience time to absorb them. And do not insult your audience by reading the visual aid to them. Again, regardless of their form, photos, tables or charts, your visual aids should be appropriate and easy to understand, aligned with your key and supporting messages and integrated with your spoken presentation. 

Step seven - Anticipate the questions

Good presentations are rarely a one way discourse. So it is important to anticipate and prepare for your audience's reactions, questions, and additional information needs. This will give you the confidence to respond effectively. When you want to field questions, whether during or at the end of your presentation is for you, the presenter, to decide in advance. Let your audience know your choice at the outset. In deciding when to take questions, think about the following:

• How much time do you have to present? 
• What is the level of understanding people will have at different points in the presentation? 
• Where will discussion be necessary in order to achieve the purpose of your presentation? 
• What are the audience's needs and preferences?

Some people may find it more difficult than others to park their thoughts or questions and may become less engaged during the rest of the presentation. Once again, knowing your audience is an important part of getting this step right. For example, in an informal team meeting, you will most likely want to answer questions during your presentation. Make this clear to the audience, at the outset. Have techniques prepared for dealing with questions and discussions that might derail you from your objective and given time slot. In general, consider and list the advantages and disadvantages of fielding questions during or at the end of a presentation. For example, questions midway through a presentation can help establish dialogue between the presenter and the audience and engage people on how to move forward. On the other hand, this could disrupt the presenter's flow and move the audience into discussion mode.

If you need to get comfortable before the meeting, discuss how to handle questions with the person you report to. Where do you need support from them? Where do you want to speak for yourself?

During the presentation itself, we find that active listening will help you understand and respond effectively to questions from the audience. Use the following tips to hear questions:

• Relax your facial expressions. Avoid laughing or showing surprise that the question asks even if it appears that the person has not been listening to what you have been saying
• Pay attention and listen patiently
• Observe what is not said or try to sense the emotions of the person asking the question
• Identify the question, be sure that you understand the question particularly if it is long. Repeat or paraphrase if necessary.This also ensures everyone in the audience has heard the question and gives you a little time to frame your answer
• Identify why the question is being asked. If it is to clarify something you said earlier, look for signs that others may not have understood either
• Lastly, consider whether you have raised questions that distract from your message. This can indicate that the audience is not understanding what you have been presenting.

Some questions will be easily addressed with facts but what if the question is challenging? There are many common types of challenging questions and comments and different ways that you should respond to each. For all of them your guiding principle should be to take time and plan your answer:

• Keep it simple, concise and relevant to the audience. It may help to add an example to illustrate your point
• If you encounter several questions in one, ask what the main question is and answer it
• If a question includes incorrect information, provide a correction and then answer the question, if it is still relevant
• If the question is hostile or argumentative, it is important that you avoid being defensive or aggressive. Express understanding of the questioner's feeling, and then explain the reason for your comments. Answer in a way which reinforces what you have already said
• If you receive a rambling question, politely interrupt and ask what the question is. If you are asked to make a comment, do not make a promise you cannot keep
• If necessary, explain your reasons. If you are pressed for an opinion, limit your risk by supporting your comment with facts
• If you are asked a question beyond the scope of the presentation, addressing it could distract from your presentation. Try to gauge if the question is of interest to everyone or just one person. This will indicate whether to answer in the moment and how detailed an answer to give. Alternatively, say that you will speak to the person during a break or after the presentation
• If you genuinely do not know the answer to a question say so clearly and confidently that way you will preserve your credibility. If you do not know the answer but you know where you could obtain the information you can say, I do not have the answer to that but I know someone who does

A presentation without questions is a rarity. The way questions are handled will impact not only the individual who asks but also the engagement and participation you will receive from the other audience members. So when developing your presentation, remember that you will receive questions or comments and be prepared to handle them using the techniques that we have discussed. Have a list of questions and responses for the most common topics that you think may be raised. And again, if you do not know the answer, just say so.

Step eight - Practice your presentation

Rehearsing helps bring a presentation to life. Practicing your language, pace, gestures and timing will give you more confidence and increase your impact. It is important to begin early. Rehearsing provides the opportunity to identify areas for improvement and correct your presentation and delivery. For example, your presentation may be over or under developed. Your gestures may feel unnatural.

Rehearse with your notes and visual aids, so you can assess their effectiveness and make changes. Try to obtain feedback on your presentation. Ask someone to listen to you, and have them ask potential questions. Practice in front of a mirror. Record yourself on video and watch the playback so you can see what works and what does not. It is a good idea to have clear, concise notes with you, which outline the structure and key points of your presentation.

These can be a helpful prompt, which eliminates the possibility that your mind will go blank or that you will ramble off point. Notes also help you ensure that your delivery complements what is on the slide and that you are not simply reading from the slide itself. But avoid the urge to use a script, fewer, less detailed notes will lessen the likelihood of you losing your place under pressure. Reduce the amount of time you spend looking down giving you more time to make eye contact with your audience. Helping you establish rapport and read reactions to your presentation.

Eliminate this need to shuffle through papers which can be distracting for the audience. Refine and edit notes through out the preparation process. Experiment with different words and different arrangements of words. You may want to add directions to remind you to move, gesture, or alter your pace or change slides. Before you present, check that your notes are neat, with no cross outs, simple, primarily single words with an occasional phrase, easy to read. You might want them widely spaced or in uppercase, and numbered. In summary, rehearsing helps you bring your presentation to life, and provides a valuable opportunity to identify and correct areas for improvement.

Practice with your notes and visual aids, and do not wait until the last minute. This is your last opportunity to evaluate yourself and make the necessary changes that will build your confidence and set you up for success.

As they say practice makes perfect. 

Presenting on short notice

Lastly, we will take a look at how to use the eight step approach, even if you do not have a lot of time to prepare. There will be situations when you find yourself having to present on short notice. If you find yourself in a situation like this, the eight steps we have discussed remain relevant. If you only have a short time to prepare, work through the steps methodically. This process will put you in the right frame of mind for presenting, and you will be in control of and confident in what you want to communicate. 

Less than an hour to prepare? Follow the emergency drill. If you know your subject well enough, it is possible to work through steps 1 to 5 in about 15 minutes. Think about your audience and what they need to know. Decide on your purpose and your key message. If you are struggling, think about what you would say if you only had ten seconds. Your key message is also your introduction, write it in full on an index card.

Structure, separately, write down the first five things that come to mind in support of your key message. Write the three most compelling points in bullet form on your index card. These are your supporting messages. End, at the bottom of your card, write a brief concluding statement to reinforce your key point. Use the remaining time to read through the card.

Think about how you can elaborate on your points. Skip step six unless you have a handout or a single slide ready to go, you will not have time to prepare visual aids. For step seven and eight, take a few minutes to get yourself in the right frame of mind.

Everyone has different ways of preparing mentally, but some suggestions include drink a glass of water, take a couple of deep abdominal breaths.

On your way to the venue, repeat the key messages and phrases in your head, and think of questions you might be asked.

Most importantly, pause to collect your thoughts before entering the room. While it is not ideal, there will be times when you will have to present with little notice. The eight step approach still provides the right guidance. Even with only an hour, you can still be sufficiently prepared to deliver a successful presentation. 

Summary

In this article I showed you how to apply the eight step approach in preparing to deliver your presentation. Some of the key takeaways include:

• Selecting the appropriate type of presentation for the context and audience
• Remembering to consider who is watching and your purpose
• Crafting and delivering a compelling message supported by relevant data and evidence, make it tell a story that you have conceptualized with an outline and wire frames.
• Articulating, planning for, and managing the unique constraints and potential pitfalls associated with presenting. How will you effectively begin and end your presentation? What kinds of questions might the audience ask?
• And lastly, identifying and using visual aids and props that support and convey your message. Do they provide evidence? Are they appropriate? Simple, uncluttered and integrated with your spoken presentation.

Having developed this valuable presentation skills, you are now able to address the needs of the audience, convey your message and purpose and persuasively respond to possible questions on the subject of your presentation. In the next article I will discuss communication style for successful presentations and how to maximize your professional presence, and how to communicate your message without distraction.

Literature

Motivation to create this article, except author's desire for continuous self-improvement, was based on three amazing books in this field of study:

• Alexei Kapterev - Presentation Secrets: Do What You Never Thought Possible with Your Presentations
• William Steele - Presentation Skills 201: How to Take It to the Next Level as a Confident, Engaging Presenter
• Tim Pollard - The Compelling Communicator: Mastering the Art and Science of Exceptional Presentation Design

What is the primary purpose of visuals in a presentation?

Which of the following is a benefit to illustrating key ideas with visuals during a presentation?

What is the primary purpose of visuals in a presentation quizlet?

When writing content for text slides What is the advantage to using parallel grammatical form?