I completed an internship where I had to give a comment at a Marine Resource Committee meeting. I was so nervous for this as I had never spoken in front of a government organization before. I didn't know what to expect and I wasn't well versed on how to prepare for a presentation. I was trying to speak about the findings of a research paper I was writing, but in my outline I definitely got lost trying to convey my core message. When the presentation finally came I was very nervous and spoke extra fast the whole time. It was definitely hard to understand what my message was and what I was saying, and I could tell people were not following along. Once I finished I was glad it was over, but I was definitely embarrassed about how the presentation went.
As part of a scientific diving class, we had to teach students a lot of important information. Sometimes understanding that information could be a matter of life and death. It was hard to balance keeping their attention and getting our point across of the seriousness while also not scaring them. We found that a balance worked best. I also found, and it holds true for me too, that when lectures are given late in the day, like these were, people are much less interested, no matter how exciting the lecture is. One method I used was to bring in props that students could interact with. I brought in an underwater camera rig during a UW photography lecture which seemed to help students better understand some of the more abstract concepts.
Absolutely! Your audience's attention span will ebb and flow with the natural rhythm of the day and a good presenter will factor this into the preparation.
As someone who often organizes days that are full of presentations and meetings, I've found that natural attention spans don't last much longer than 90-minutes before many brains the room need a break. For professional conferences/meetings, I've also noticed that many in the audience will get antsy wanting to check their email, voicemail, Slack/Teams, etc. I will often specifically ask participants for "devices down" during the 90-minute block where we are in-session and then promise a long break for them to catch up (often 30-minutes). I find that this holds attention and builds respect among the audience.
Your technique of adding interactivity is also a very strong way for holding attention, especially during times when the natural rhythm of the day is fading.
I was invited to speak at the 2016 Children & Nature Network's International Conference for the "REACHING FAMILIES WITH DIVERSE BACKGROUNDS" session. However, the facilitator required that the presentation be formatted in PechaKucha - I would have 6 minutes & 40 seconds to show 20 images in a slide show, each appearing for 1 second, which I'd use to introduce myself and discuss my biggest challenges, successes and favorite strategy to work with diverse families. I had never done this format before. Obviously, I accepted the invitation.
Well, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words but - I'm a talker so it was rough for me. lol. I just ended up rushing. I was already very accustomed to presentation self-prep due to my work at the time but NOT in this style so I should have asked for/made more 1:1 time from/with this session facilitator. I wish they solicited audience feedback or provided me some, because I'd be curious about how it was really perceived, but I do remember that they were live tweeting the session and didn't tweet much from my presentation, while the other speakers in my session had better sound bytes that they did share. I also don't think many people came to talk to me afterwards to get more info or anything so I think that's a no bueno sign. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ womp.
Interesting! I've never heard of PechaKucha - this sounds very challenging! I agree that practice/prep in this style would have been helpful. Sounds like it was a meaningful experience for you - if not terribly fun.
Yea, and I think also the facilitator could have thought about matching the format of the presentation with the topic. I personally don't think strategies to work with families with diverse backgrounds is something to rush through, and it runs the risk of distilling the strategies and practices into superficial, super basic to-dos. So I think that is a part of the set-up that wasn't necessarily setting me up for success either. Maybe everyone feels this way when they are short on time to talk about anything they're in the weeds on but, I dunno, I guess it's also about whether it's more presentational versus a workshop. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As a former research assistant for a capacity-building project on coral reef assessments and coral taxonomy in the Philippines, my first task was to join a week-long training as a trainee so I could edit and advise the trainers on how to make their presentations better. Our research director gave a 4-hour presentation the first day. It was so long and he even had the tendency to switch to different presentations to explain more concepts. It was a LOT to say the least. Even if the audience were also researchers, I saw them zone in and out. So, while a researcher might think that all the details were important, it is essential to remind them that some things might not be as interesting to somebody else. For intensive trainings most especially, it was very important to keep the presentations concise to keep the audience excited for the next few presentations they would have to process that day.
Yeah ... I agree with you. Many of us will end up giving very long presentations in our career. Made to Stick day 1 is a full day of content! I agree with you ... mixing it up is very important. Focusing on segmenting out the messages that you are trying to convey and treating each of them as their own 3-act play will be helpful. With a half-day or full-day presentation it's also important (if the situation allows for it) to be interactive and allow your audience to access the material in small groups or activities.
During my Peace Corps service in Mexico, I gave a series of presentations in a community to support them on what they wanted to address not having access to piped water. One presentation was about climate change scenarios that I ran and how that would impact their annual rainfall. I thought I had simplified the graphs but I think graphs weren’t the appropriate way to present that information to this audience. The community members were to nice to say anything but I could see it on their faces like what is this gringa talking about.
I once worked for an environmental education non-profit where I was given a canned lesson plan to teach and told not to deviate from it. The day's lesson was marine mammals which I had introduced many times and had success with in the past. It was fun and hands-on and included several props for the kids to engage with. As I revealed the specimens and pictures to the students, I was met with expressionless faces. I also noticed a couple of students had fallen asleep. I struggled through most of the lesson before one student interrupted me to say they had spent the last two weeks studying marine mammals and that they "knew it all already." It's essential to understand your audience and to be able to pivot and tailor your message to them!
In my line of work, I haven't had to give many professional presentations to large audiences, but I did elect to give an informal presentation one time during a "lunch & learn" series my company started to increase employee engagement. This presentation was optional and focused on personal topics of our choice with the goal of it being educational for other employees. I choose to do a presentation on sustainable life hacks, something I learned over many years of transforming my life, daily choices and purchases to be less wasteful. I wanted to convey my passion for this topic and show the different types of lifestyle alternatives. I focused more on what it meant to be sustainable and why one should do it as well as how the company could implement some of these ideas but realized it wasn't practical to everybody. My biggest mistake was not accounting for the fact that not everybody cared like I did about this topic and I failed to show how they could easily make changes to fit their lifestyle versus telling them how I would suggest they change their lifestyle. I wasn't very experienced in presentations at that point but was fortunate to have a nice boss who gave me some helpful feedback. In reflection, I think practice (to a test audience) is extremely valuable and being conscious of your audience is critical in crafting something that resonates and engages. Telling people about something they don't have much interest in won't magically change their minds or behavior, it's up to the presenter to make it relevant for the audience.
I agree and I think practicing in front of a test audience is the absolute best way to prepare. It's not always feasible, but when you can take advantage it will ALWAYS be hugely helpful.
I used to work for admissions at my undergraduate school, and one of my jobs there was to do the information sessions for incoming and prospective students. In other words, selling the school to the students and their parents. We had a formula to follow that was given to us by the upper level admissions staff on what we could and couldn’t say, mainly around what stories and candid information we could share. The robotic ness of some of those presentations from repeating the same thing over and over again in only partially my own words made me feel bored with what I was saying, which visibly made my audience feel the same. No questions followed those presentations, no audience interactions, just folks wanting to leave and do something else.
Yep ... anything that feels "robotic" is going to have a much harder time "sticking" with the audience. This is often why presentations (even really good presentations) where the speaker reads a script from the podium can have difficulty sticking. If you can tell the presenter is reading - it starts to feel more robotic from the audience.
I did not do many professional presentations, but I always got marks off in school because I was too afraid to present without notes. One of my professors said, "Your work is proof that even if something is well argued, it's less effective if you just stare down at your notes and read." Also I have been told that I read too fast for people to keep up with me. These are skills I would really like to work on because I get so nervous in public speaking that I stick to my notes and don't feel confident enough to improvise which can make me lose my train of thought or freeze up completely when I get in front of a crowd. (Patricía, after reading your comment, I feel your pain so much!) I also know I have trouble making eye contact or scanning an audience and tend to look down or stare at the slides I am presenting.
We'll discuss "stage fright" quite a bit in future posts and hopefully some of that content will be helpful for you when we get there.
This sounds silly but it's important to realize that you aren't actually in any physical danger when you're own stage. Your audience ALWAYS wants to see you succeed and no one is going to physically threaten you. Stage fright is a physical manifestation of your nervous system and it's a natural reaction to threat. It's perfectly normal. Believe it or not - I'm extremely nervous EVERY TIME I get in front of your class. Even though I've done it for over a dozen years now ... my body still tells me that I'm going to freeze up and I'm going to fail to connect with you all. It's hard and it's perfectly normal!!
Yes. I worked on a scientist study about the by catch of seaturtles in Cabo Verde waters by European fleet. I was pretty sure it was a good one since it was the first time somebody touched on that. So, they invited me to presented on the sea turtles symposium in New Orleans with a room with more than 200 people ( seaturtles people). I panicked and I did not speak at all. They gave me a second chance and I did a terrible job presented knowing that everybody new that I failed the first time. And that was the time I promised that I wouldn't be afraid of speaking in public. But first, know how to do it, so it doesn't happen again.
Wow - this is a very difficult experience - I can completely empathize with how terrifying this must have been!!
We'll discuss "stage fright" quite a bit in future posts and hopefully some of that content will be helpful for you when we get there. I'll also acknowledge that your previous experience on-stage will continue to affect you going forward and you'll probably need to work harder than some of your colleagues to live with and preform well along side your fear. Some might say that you can "overcome it" but that may not be true. I don't think you need to "overcome" your fear ... I think it can serve you and I think you can perform well even when you are very nervous.
Stage fright is a physical manifestation of your nervous system and it's a natural reaction to threat. It's perfectly normal. Believe it or not - I'm extremely nervous EVERY TIME I get in front of your class. Even though I've done it for over a dozen years now ... my body still tells me that I'm going to freeze up and I'm going to fail to connect with you all. It's hard and it's perfectly normal!! More on this later in the year!
I completed an internship where I had to give a comment at a Marine Resource Committee meeting. I was so nervous for this as I had never spoken in front of a government organization before. I didn't know what to expect and I wasn't well versed on how to prepare for a presentation. I was trying to speak about the findings of a research paper I was writing, but in my outline I definitely got lost trying to convey my core message. When the presentation finally came I was very nervous and spoke extra fast the whole time. It was definitely hard to understand what my message was and what I was saying, and I could tell people were not following along. Once I finished I was glad it was over, but I was definitely embarrassed about how the presentation went.
As part of a scientific diving class, we had to teach students a lot of important information. Sometimes understanding that information could be a matter of life and death. It was hard to balance keeping their attention and getting our point across of the seriousness while also not scaring them. We found that a balance worked best. I also found, and it holds true for me too, that when lectures are given late in the day, like these were, people are much less interested, no matter how exciting the lecture is. One method I used was to bring in props that students could interact with. I brought in an underwater camera rig during a UW photography lecture which seemed to help students better understand some of the more abstract concepts.
Absolutely! Your audience's attention span will ebb and flow with the natural rhythm of the day and a good presenter will factor this into the preparation.
As someone who often organizes days that are full of presentations and meetings, I've found that natural attention spans don't last much longer than 90-minutes before many brains the room need a break. For professional conferences/meetings, I've also noticed that many in the audience will get antsy wanting to check their email, voicemail, Slack/Teams, etc. I will often specifically ask participants for "devices down" during the 90-minute block where we are in-session and then promise a long break for them to catch up (often 30-minutes). I find that this holds attention and builds respect among the audience.
Your technique of adding interactivity is also a very strong way for holding attention, especially during times when the natural rhythm of the day is fading.
I was invited to speak at the 2016 Children & Nature Network's International Conference for the "REACHING FAMILIES WITH DIVERSE BACKGROUNDS" session. However, the facilitator required that the presentation be formatted in PechaKucha - I would have 6 minutes & 40 seconds to show 20 images in a slide show, each appearing for 1 second, which I'd use to introduce myself and discuss my biggest challenges, successes and favorite strategy to work with diverse families. I had never done this format before. Obviously, I accepted the invitation.
Well, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words but - I'm a talker so it was rough for me. lol. I just ended up rushing. I was already very accustomed to presentation self-prep due to my work at the time but NOT in this style so I should have asked for/made more 1:1 time from/with this session facilitator. I wish they solicited audience feedback or provided me some, because I'd be curious about how it was really perceived, but I do remember that they were live tweeting the session and didn't tweet much from my presentation, while the other speakers in my session had better sound bytes that they did share. I also don't think many people came to talk to me afterwards to get more info or anything so I think that's a no bueno sign. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ womp.
Interesting! I've never heard of PechaKucha - this sounds very challenging! I agree that practice/prep in this style would have been helpful. Sounds like it was a meaningful experience for you - if not terribly fun.
Yea, and I think also the facilitator could have thought about matching the format of the presentation with the topic. I personally don't think strategies to work with families with diverse backgrounds is something to rush through, and it runs the risk of distilling the strategies and practices into superficial, super basic to-dos. So I think that is a part of the set-up that wasn't necessarily setting me up for success either. Maybe everyone feels this way when they are short on time to talk about anything they're in the weeds on but, I dunno, I guess it's also about whether it's more presentational versus a workshop. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As a former research assistant for a capacity-building project on coral reef assessments and coral taxonomy in the Philippines, my first task was to join a week-long training as a trainee so I could edit and advise the trainers on how to make their presentations better. Our research director gave a 4-hour presentation the first day. It was so long and he even had the tendency to switch to different presentations to explain more concepts. It was a LOT to say the least. Even if the audience were also researchers, I saw them zone in and out. So, while a researcher might think that all the details were important, it is essential to remind them that some things might not be as interesting to somebody else. For intensive trainings most especially, it was very important to keep the presentations concise to keep the audience excited for the next few presentations they would have to process that day.
Yeah ... I agree with you. Many of us will end up giving very long presentations in our career. Made to Stick day 1 is a full day of content! I agree with you ... mixing it up is very important. Focusing on segmenting out the messages that you are trying to convey and treating each of them as their own 3-act play will be helpful. With a half-day or full-day presentation it's also important (if the situation allows for it) to be interactive and allow your audience to access the material in small groups or activities.
During my Peace Corps service in Mexico, I gave a series of presentations in a community to support them on what they wanted to address not having access to piped water. One presentation was about climate change scenarios that I ran and how that would impact their annual rainfall. I thought I had simplified the graphs but I think graphs weren’t the appropriate way to present that information to this audience. The community members were to nice to say anything but I could see it on their faces like what is this gringa talking about.
Yes! Sometimes converting the graph into an anecdote can be as powerful (or moreso) than presenting the data itself!
I once worked for an environmental education non-profit where I was given a canned lesson plan to teach and told not to deviate from it. The day's lesson was marine mammals which I had introduced many times and had success with in the past. It was fun and hands-on and included several props for the kids to engage with. As I revealed the specimens and pictures to the students, I was met with expressionless faces. I also noticed a couple of students had fallen asleep. I struggled through most of the lesson before one student interrupted me to say they had spent the last two weeks studying marine mammals and that they "knew it all already." It's essential to understand your audience and to be able to pivot and tailor your message to them!
This is one of the "10-commandments" of presenting ... "know your audience"! Just a little research on the subsidence will go a long way.
In my line of work, I haven't had to give many professional presentations to large audiences, but I did elect to give an informal presentation one time during a "lunch & learn" series my company started to increase employee engagement. This presentation was optional and focused on personal topics of our choice with the goal of it being educational for other employees. I choose to do a presentation on sustainable life hacks, something I learned over many years of transforming my life, daily choices and purchases to be less wasteful. I wanted to convey my passion for this topic and show the different types of lifestyle alternatives. I focused more on what it meant to be sustainable and why one should do it as well as how the company could implement some of these ideas but realized it wasn't practical to everybody. My biggest mistake was not accounting for the fact that not everybody cared like I did about this topic and I failed to show how they could easily make changes to fit their lifestyle versus telling them how I would suggest they change their lifestyle. I wasn't very experienced in presentations at that point but was fortunate to have a nice boss who gave me some helpful feedback. In reflection, I think practice (to a test audience) is extremely valuable and being conscious of your audience is critical in crafting something that resonates and engages. Telling people about something they don't have much interest in won't magically change their minds or behavior, it's up to the presenter to make it relevant for the audience.
I agree and I think practicing in front of a test audience is the absolute best way to prepare. It's not always feasible, but when you can take advantage it will ALWAYS be hugely helpful.
I used to work for admissions at my undergraduate school, and one of my jobs there was to do the information sessions for incoming and prospective students. In other words, selling the school to the students and their parents. We had a formula to follow that was given to us by the upper level admissions staff on what we could and couldn’t say, mainly around what stories and candid information we could share. The robotic ness of some of those presentations from repeating the same thing over and over again in only partially my own words made me feel bored with what I was saying, which visibly made my audience feel the same. No questions followed those presentations, no audience interactions, just folks wanting to leave and do something else.
Yep ... anything that feels "robotic" is going to have a much harder time "sticking" with the audience. This is often why presentations (even really good presentations) where the speaker reads a script from the podium can have difficulty sticking. If you can tell the presenter is reading - it starts to feel more robotic from the audience.
I did not do many professional presentations, but I always got marks off in school because I was too afraid to present without notes. One of my professors said, "Your work is proof that even if something is well argued, it's less effective if you just stare down at your notes and read." Also I have been told that I read too fast for people to keep up with me. These are skills I would really like to work on because I get so nervous in public speaking that I stick to my notes and don't feel confident enough to improvise which can make me lose my train of thought or freeze up completely when I get in front of a crowd. (Patricía, after reading your comment, I feel your pain so much!) I also know I have trouble making eye contact or scanning an audience and tend to look down or stare at the slides I am presenting.
We'll discuss "stage fright" quite a bit in future posts and hopefully some of that content will be helpful for you when we get there.
This sounds silly but it's important to realize that you aren't actually in any physical danger when you're own stage. Your audience ALWAYS wants to see you succeed and no one is going to physically threaten you. Stage fright is a physical manifestation of your nervous system and it's a natural reaction to threat. It's perfectly normal. Believe it or not - I'm extremely nervous EVERY TIME I get in front of your class. Even though I've done it for over a dozen years now ... my body still tells me that I'm going to freeze up and I'm going to fail to connect with you all. It's hard and it's perfectly normal!!
Yes. I worked on a scientist study about the by catch of seaturtles in Cabo Verde waters by European fleet. I was pretty sure it was a good one since it was the first time somebody touched on that. So, they invited me to presented on the sea turtles symposium in New Orleans with a room with more than 200 people ( seaturtles people). I panicked and I did not speak at all. They gave me a second chance and I did a terrible job presented knowing that everybody new that I failed the first time. And that was the time I promised that I wouldn't be afraid of speaking in public. But first, know how to do it, so it doesn't happen again.
Wow - this is a very difficult experience - I can completely empathize with how terrifying this must have been!!
We'll discuss "stage fright" quite a bit in future posts and hopefully some of that content will be helpful for you when we get there. I'll also acknowledge that your previous experience on-stage will continue to affect you going forward and you'll probably need to work harder than some of your colleagues to live with and preform well along side your fear. Some might say that you can "overcome it" but that may not be true. I don't think you need to "overcome" your fear ... I think it can serve you and I think you can perform well even when you are very nervous.
Stage fright is a physical manifestation of your nervous system and it's a natural reaction to threat. It's perfectly normal. Believe it or not - I'm extremely nervous EVERY TIME I get in front of your class. Even though I've done it for over a dozen years now ... my body still tells me that I'm going to freeze up and I'm going to fail to connect with you all. It's hard and it's perfectly normal!! More on this later in the year!