Ask, Not Tell

I attended a lot of presentations on a regular basis. They include presentations by participants in my training class, product briefing by sales professionals, speeches in conferences, proposal presentations in business meeting, and so on…. There are good and not-so-good presentations. In the latter type, the presenters would mostly do the followings (yes, to my surprise, even some public speakers):

(after finishing one visual aid, most likely being a PPT slide….)

1. They click to show the next visual aid;
2. They then read the visual aid themselves, as a reminder (worse version – with their back now facing the audience)
3. They then elaborate the visual aid (worse version – they just read out whatever on the PPT)

Better still, the presenters should:(after finishing one visual aid, most likely being a PPT slide….)

1. They block the screen so that they get the audience’s attention on themselves;
2. They talk about the next message, which may or may not be illustrated by the next visual aid;
3. For those message with visual aid, they just talk it through;
4. For those with the visual aid, they will show the visual aid after a brief outline about the message;
5. They shut up for a while so that the audience can have a free mind to read a bit the slide first;
6. They then elaborate the visual aid. If the slide content is not detailed, they even just block the screen to gain full attention.

How is the second method better than the first one?

First, you avoid burden the audience with too much information. Most people cannot read and listen at the same time. If they are forced to do so, they will get less than if they just listen or just read. This is especially the case in case of long meetings / conferences. People are tired.

Second, delivering the message without the visual aid raises your creditability. The audience would think ‘Hey, this guy knows the stuff. He does not need the slides to remind himself about the content.’ The worst is reading straight from the slide. The audience would think ‘I can read myself. Why do I have to be here at all?’

Third, people love watching a human being presenting rather than a slide. The second method guides the audience’s eyeball to focus on the presenters most of the time. The visual aid is just an aid. With this method, your eye contact and body language can work to a greater effect to help you deliver the message

Of course, there is a price to pay in order to present in the second way. You need to really know the content. More importantly, you need to memorize the flow of your presentation. Most presenters use the visual aid as the presentation note because they have not comprehended the presentation flow. (Realty here…. most do not have enough time to memorize and rehearse…) Well, surprise, surprise, surprise!! It is preparation again….

[I once thought to put this post as a Presentation Quick Fix. I decide not to at the end because I do not think it to be a quick fix by nature. Simply, it takes time for all of us to stop using the visual aid as the speaking note.....]

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I am now in the Shanghai Pudong airport waiting for my delayed plane to Hong Kong. I will have around 2 hours to spend. Luckily I find a new cafe in the airport which I can enjoy the power supply and free wireless internet access!! I am happy. See the quick photo on the left taken here on spot.

I finished another one day course today in Shanghai before rushing to the airport. Here are the details:

• Course: An one day soft skills course
• Date: 26 Oct 2007
• Location: Another cloudy day in Shanghai, China
• # of Participants: 18
• I am feeling: Good

I think the course today went well. At least I saw quite a few nodding heads throughout the day. I have been ‘evolving’ the delivery of this course bit by bit since I acquired it one year ago. For example, whilst I keep the same learning points at the end, I changed how the activities are run to suit better the local participants here. I gained insight of how to change the delivery better after each delivery experience. Compared with the course done 2 days earlier, I should put more effort and make more change to that one. You got to evolve the course! And you got to make it as a habit!

I always think that trainer is a ‘dangerous’ career in the sense that you can be outdated easily. And when bad economy comes, training department is often one of the most ‘vulnerable’ one…… If you are an outdated trainer, you will be let go the first.

The main reason of easily being outdated is that feedback on performance does not come easily. No one outside the training room knows what happens inside. Once the door is closed, you are like in another world. On the other hand, the L1 feedback is a ‘happy’ sheet in most of the case. So, you got to seek aggressively for feedback and be critical about yourself!!

For now, I got to go and check whether my flight is good to go!!

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• Course: An one-day soft skills course
• Date: 24 Oct 2007
• Location: A cloudy day in Shanghai, China
• # of participants: 12
• I am feeling: A bit frustrated

Why frustrated? Frankly I do not think the course is good enough for the participants. The content is a bit too general and of common sense. Not much insight. But there is so much I can do by delivering creatively and differently as I am not the one who designed the course. On the other hand, with the stretching non-delivery work, I have less-than-desirable amount of time to change the delivery. For example, I should have changed some sessions right after the class today but…… I do want to be more focused.

The Presentation Quick Fix this time is ‘block the screen whenever you speak for a considerable period of time’. And here is why and how.

The visual aid e.g. flipchart, PPT, projector does not always ‘aid’ our presentation if we do not use it properly. This is especially true on projector. Nowadays, projectors produce very bright and clear image. More importantly, participants / audience have generally developed a tendency to look at the screen NO MATTER WHETHER the content is relevant or not. This is true. In fact, the same applies sometimes to presenters as well. Some presenters are so used to look at the screen when they talk. I had a participant who turned back and looked at the screen as he talked, even though it was a blank screen. Habit rules. This phenomenon is like that at home – sometimes we look at the TV set without really paying attention on the content. People are more and more used to look at the TV set or screen with brain blanked. Perhaps we are resting our brain, somehow. Observe yourself next time at home.

In some sense, the visual aid is competing with the presenter for the participants’ attention. So, the question is how to ‘win’ the battle. Easy, block the screen and stand to the middle of the stage whenever you need to talk for a considerable while. But how? There are a few ways:

1. Use the ‘B’ or ‘W’ key – When you are in Powerpoint ‘Slide Show’ mode, you can empty the screen by simply press a button. If you press the ‘B’ key, the screen will be totally black. And white for the ‘W’ key.

2. Use the remote presentation device – There are a lot of good remote presentation devices. Basically, they allow you to page up and down without using the keyboard i.e. you can freely walk on the stage. Some good devices even have a button equivalent to the ‘B’ key on the keyboard. See the picture on the right – it is the Kensington device which I use. Oh, and Kensington now has a better one which you can use AAA batteries i.e. easier to replace the power.

3. Use the ‘STILL’ / ‘HOLD’ / ‘PAUSE’ or ‘MUTE’ / ‘NO SHOW’ key on the projector remote control – There is a downside using above 2 methods – you can do nothing on your computer e.g. amending a slide or retrieve another PPT. For example, after you press the ‘B’ key, both the projector and the computer screen will become black. However sometimes, you block the screen because you want to find out a file from c: drive and open it. Well, you do not want to let your Coca Cola client see that you have a Pepsi Cola file on your c: drive!! Here is the solution – your projector normally comes with a remote control. Use it. There is likely a ‘STILL’ / ‘HOLD’ / ‘PAUSE’ button. If you press it, the projector will stay on the existing image, even though you change the image on the computer. In addition, there is a ‘MUTE’ / ‘NO SHOW’. If you press it, the projector will project nothing.

Remember, point this remote control to the projector, NOT your computer!!

4. Simply block the projector physically – I like this trick the best – just simply put a cover in front of the lens. See the pictures on the right. Very straight-forward. You do not need to find the remote control which hides somewhere on the table. You will be embarrassed because you are already holding the mic, the notes and the pens. And this trick will never disappoint you like what an electronic device will!! I always use unless the projector is hung from the ceiliing!!

PS Note however that you should not block and unblock the screen too frequently. And if you find the participants are paying real attention on the screen, tell them that you will block the screen before you do it. Otherwise, it will be very disturbing to them.

• Course: A Cash Management course
• Date: 19 Oct 2007
• Location: A good sunny autumn day in Hong Kong, China
• # of Participants: 28
• I am feeling: Tired but Good

It is an interesting experience this morning.   The projector did not work when I examined it before the class started.   It still did not work after repeated ‘rescue’ attempt.   There was only 10 more minutes before the class started and the participants were down-stair already.   They are external participants, not internal ones.   And this is a technical knowledge training i.e. lot of hard content instead of a soft-skills one with lot of experimental activities.   What would you do?

I chose to do my training without projector instead of delaying the start or finding another room.   I was glad that I was quite calm about this.  This may be because I have been more and more suspecting about whether visual ‘aids’ the delivery.   See my upcoming post ‘Blocking the Projector’ for more of my thoughts on this.   In addition, I am the one who developed the course content, and thus I know the content and flow well.

The no-projector delivery went very well.   I was so satisfied that I almost decided not to use the projector even though it was fixed after the first break!!   This experience strengthens my thought of avoiding reliance on projector / PPT:

• It will disappoint you some day (…well.. Murphy Law..)
• Audience hates PPT more and more these days
• PPT is more a speaking note than visual aid these days.  Using it will just lower your creditability since you speak only after looking at what is on the slide.   (Yet, it is a good safety net if you really do not have time to prepare)

Just finished the class.  I was very happy with my natural tendency and ability to develop thoughts on-the-spot to help participants to learn

• Course: A SPIN selling course
  Date: 16-18 Oct 2007
  Location: Sunny in Shenzhen, China
  Duration: 3 days
  # of Participants: 18
  I am feeling: Good

During the class, I found that the participants had difficulty to integrate all the SPIN concepts into practice during the role play.   Though we had gone through concepts one by one, it is another story to put them together in use.   I thus developed an integrated flow diagram.   When I elaborated it to them, I was very happy to see nodding head and that some were writing it down.  Anyway, I am now on the shuttle bus from Shenzhen to Hong Kong for another class tomorrow.  Bumpy road… cannot read too much!!

Combining my learning from the ASTD ICE 2007 and my own thoughts, I put together a speech in the ASTD conference in China this month. In case you are interested, please click here to go the full speech content.

In addition, I have discussed in my previous post for the same topic, just click here to link to there.

Taking advantage of the offsite meeting this weekend, I gathered all the trainers right before the offsite meeting.  It was not easy to gather all since we all travel very frequently.   Another trainer and I facilitated the session.    Here is the RAC details:

• Venue: A Sunny morning in Shanghai
• Course type: A Facilitation Discussion Session
• Duration: 3 hours
• No. of participants:11
• I am feeling: Happy and Energized

I facilitated to discuss the 22 sins outlined by Bob Pike in our organisation’s own environment.   Other than understanding what the sins mean, we discussed how to avoid them.   The another facilitator of the session then facilitated a discussion on course closing, and another ran a closing.   I hope that the session was useful to all.

I am more and more interested in TTT (‘Train-The-Trainer) these days.   It is challenging as I have to demonstrate what I deliver.   It is more challenging than presentation class since the participants are……   trainers.    They are often good at presentation skills which is an essential element in being a good trainer.