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Common presentation mistakes - 1

Bullet-point abuse

The only place where a person can legally plunge bullet after bullet into your head is in a presentation room.

If you in corporate world you would have undoubtedly experienced it. Presenters’ sometimes use multiple levels of bullets, and when the limit is crossed the experience becomes worse than a Chinese torture. So, when does a bullet-point use become bullet-point abuse?

There can be no clear demarcation. Bullet-points have becomes such a routine exercise, that the very importance attached to bullet-points is extinct. On the contrary, we are on the other side of the curve, where use of bullet points may signify the lack of any significant points to communicate! Even if we had strong content to communicate, it could easily be drowned in the sea of obscurity.

Cliff Atkinson, who wrote Beyond Bullet Points, gives a very interesting analogy. For more than 100 years films have communicated and held audience in rapt attention, again and again, without the use of written communication. He states, audience have better bonding with visual and vocal communication than using the written word. He says bullet points which are a tiny fragment of intended communication do not do full justice; hence his advice of using wider range of slides which could represent the bullet points themselves, supported by visuals.

To do full justice to bullet points in our presentation few points can help us.

1. The bullets should not go deeper than 3 levels.

2. Bullets should be used sparingly in the deck. More the bullets, more the info-overload, more the confusion, more the failure.

3. Avoid bullets where it is possible. If it can be avoided, by saying using couple of additional slides, prefer the slides.

4. Do not read from bullet points - If you are reading you are not concentrating on audience. If your audience is reading - you are not center of attraction.

5. Bullets inhibit your presentation by stealing the forcefulness of ideas and compress it into a tiny fragment, which may not do sufficient justice to the idea or audience may completely miss the point due to language confusion.

6. Great impact and great thoughts don’t come in fragments. They usually come in visuals. Visuals and multimedia keeps your audience interested.

Don’t keep bullet to audience's head and force the info down the throat. Such involuntary (read boring) digestion of information does not help audience in any way.

Color Abuse

Another presenter abuse is use of colors. We have frequently come across presentations that have colors that are either not coordinated at all or are misfits to the context.

It is said that entire Egyptian hieroglyphics were made using just 6 colors. The colors used were Green, Red, Blue, White, Black and Yellow. And each color was used for a purpose and with specific meaning. The point is colors too have purpose and meaning just like words, it cannot be used out of context nor can it be used with unassociated colors.

It is widely believed that a presentation should be made of two Primary colors. These two colors should be supplemented in presentation by three or four secondary colors. The purpose of secondary colors is to break the monotonous presentation by accessorizing the deck.

Story board

Ever been through a badly scripted film or a well made film with a bad storyline? That is exactly how your audience will feel if your presentation does not have the story. If you do not have a story to tell, better not say anything.

Every presenter is a showman. He/she is creating an illusion for the audience to believed in. It is irrelevant, if what is being said is good or twisted but grain of communication is in being able to convince the opposite party of that you have a point.

Easiest way to get into the subconscious of any person is through stories. Stories are remembered long after everything else is forgotten. So, getting your story right is half the win. Once you have the story in place, the other half is how to present it.


:) Falkor
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