How do I improve as a presenter?

A good friend of mine, whom I consider a great presenter, recently emailed me the above question.  Reading her email, I was struck by the fact that perhaps the question itself is what separates the good from the great; great presenters never stop trying to find new ways to improve.

Indeed, I saw this up close and personal a few years back after Tom Guskey presented at our national CRL conference.  Tom gave an outstanding presentation; he was entertaining, highly engaging, moving, and he based his presentation on solid research. Tom had an important message to communicate, and he did it in a way that kept our attention from start to finish. When his time was up, he received an enthusiastic standing ovation.

I had the pleasure of driving Tom back to the airport after his talk, and I asked him how he became such a great presenter. I’ll never forget his response.  He said, “I’ve read every book on presenting I can find.  I’ve done everything possible that I can to learn and improve.”

From that day on, inspired by our conversation, I’ve also made it my goal to read as much as I can about presenting.  In this post, I’ll comment on a few of the best books I’ve read, and include some of the most useful ideas I’ve discovered over the years, either conducting research on Partnership Learning, my next book, or reflecting on my own presentations.  If you haven't done it already, you can download a copy of the Partnership Learning fieldbook free, here.

1. Be Passionate: Carmine Gallo, who interviewed many of the world’s greatest presenters, describes passion as one of the most important secrets of great presenters. Of course this makes sense. If you don’t believe in what you’re sharing, you can bet your audience won’t. 

So how do you make sure you’re passionate about your topic? In my case, when I talk about instruction or coaching, I remind myself of why I think the topic is so important. Improving instruction is a powerful way to do good in the world. Coaches have an impact not just on teachers but on every student those teachers ever teach.  Coaches help us to communicate better with each other, help bring diverse groups together.  I believe these ideas deeply, and on those days when I think present well I think it is at least because my passionate commitment to those topics comes through.

In any presenter there must be some powerful reason for talking. Dig deep, remind yourself of the reason, and then make sure your audience sees your passion for your subject.

2. Be Prepared: Bert Decker, Nancy Duarte, Garr Reynolds, and Cliff Atkinson have all written great explanations about how to plan and organize presentations. I recommend any of their works on this topic.  Let me note a few ideas they all suggest.  (a) Use pen, paper, and post-its to map out your presentations ahead of time. Nancy Duarte suggests using sharpie markers to write on post-its because it forces us to write only a few words for each thought. (b) Bert Decker has this great idea of identifying trigger words, simple words that capture an entire concept, story, anecdote or idea. The goal of preparing is to get all of your good ideas, learning structures, stories and anecdotes out, and then organizing your information into a tightly put together presentation.

A second form of preparation, however, is to review books and notes about how to be an effective presenter. Taking an hour or so to skim through high-lighted sections of Carmine Gallo or Bert Decker’s books, prior to presenting, will remind you of the many communication strategies you want to use while presenting.

3. Make Sure You Are Presenting, Not the PowerPoint.  Duarte and Reynolds give great advice on how to create great slides that compliment your presentation. Cliff Atkinson clarifies that when our slides have too many words, the audience has to choose between reading the slides or listening to us.  Since you’re presenting, you likely want folks to listen to you, so you should put as few words on the slides as possible.

You should give the design of your slides a great deal of attention. I believe that in the next two or three years poor quality slides will be seen as a real presentation weakness. Audiences will no longer tolerate slides that are ugly or that have too many words or distracting images. Both Reynolds and Duarte have great books on this topic. You can follow Duarte’s blog here.  You can follow Reynolds' blog here.  Both authors are also on Twitter at Reynolds and Duarte.

Also, good presenters should use slides only as an aid, and focus on connecting with the audience.  Forget the notion that you have to talk about each slide and cover every planned idea. If you start to rush through your ideas, you’ll lose your audience. A better idea is to take the time you need to cover key information, and if you have to cut info, do it for the sake of keeping people engaged.

4. Use Simple Language.  I don’t mean you should speak simplistically. What I mean is you should find the simplest way to say exactly what you mean.  As Einstein famously said, “make things as simple as possible, but no simpler.”  I've read two books about simplicity and both are worth reading. Bill Jensen’s Simplicity is one of my favorite books with many applications far beyond communication.  John Maeda, the former MIT professor who is now the new director of the Rhode Island School of Design, has also written a great book, The Laws of Simplicity, and he also has a blog I visit frequently.

Part of looking for simple language is finding the precise, correct phrasing, or wording that is memorable.  Steve Jobs is a master at this: when introducing the iphone at the MacWorld conference in 2007, he said, “today, Apple reinvents the phone,” and the iphone “puts the internet in your pocket.” Short, punchy phrases that capture the essence of your message are memorable and engaging. Good presenters are on the look out for just the right turn of phrase.

6. Recognize the Power of Non-verbals.  Be sure to turn toward your audience and make eye contact. Bert Decker suggests making no more than 5 seconds of eye contact, but being sure to sustain eye contact.  Everyone suggests stepping out from behind the podium or desk, making sure nothing stands between you and your audience. Everyone also suggests paying attention to your clothing—dressing down suggests either your don’t care enough to look your best, or you’re so confident that you can’t bother to dress up for the session—and neither message is one you want to send to your audience. You can link to Bert's blog here.

7. Speed Up/Cut back.  As Anita Archer has said, presenters are most effective if they maintain a “perky pace.”  If you’re speaking too slowly, you’ll lose your audience, so it is important to monitor the energy of your presentation style. To do that, you need to record your presentations and take a hard listen to your pace.

Also, even the most engaging presenters will struggle to maintain an audience’s attention if they don’t provide some process time for their audience. Build in activities that will keep your audience engaged. I find more than ten minutes of talk without some process time is too much.

7. Get Feedback. This is the hardest and yet probably most important method of improving.  Bert Decker talks about the power of watching yourself on video tape, and I can testify that video feedback is very useful.  But every presentation, whether or not you’re taping it, is a chance for feedback.

Every time you speak you should read your audience.  Are they engaged? Are people resting their heads on their hands?  Are people taking multiple bathroom breaks? Are people drinking a lot of water or pop? Are there side conversations?

Facing the brutal facts during a presentation can be tough on self-esteem and some situations are beyond our control, but the best way to improve is simply to monitor what works and what doesn’t work.

These are only a few ideas, and, probably not the most important, but I did want to point out the several excellent books I mention here. If you’re looking for one book on how to present, you can’t go wrong with Bert Decker (and you can follow him on twitter ).  If you’d like a book about creating slides (an essential skill), both Nancy Duarte and Garr Reynold’s books, mentioned above, are outstanding. 

Are workshops a waste of time?

My colleague Jake Cornett and I recently wrote a chapter included in Coaching: Approaches and Perspectives, which summarized more than 200 publications discussing research on coaching.  The one most obvious finding buried in all of those articles was that workshops without follow-up do not lead to implementation.  The research we reviewed suggested that the best implementation rate you can hope for after a workshop is about 15%. In one study that I conducted, I found that the after-effects of a workshop can be negative if teachers leave sessions frustrated or disappointed. (If you'd like to read the study feel free to email me at jknight@ku.edu, and I'll be happy to send you a summary)

My recent experiences at the NSDC conference further eroded my faith in workshops.  Again and again I heard educational leaders say that stand alone workshops are simply not good professional development.  So what does this all mean? Should we stop leading and offering workshops?

This summer, when Michael Fullan was a presenter at our CRL Summer conference,  I asked him this question.  I was quite interested in his answer, especially since I am in the midst of writing a book about how to lead workshops.  Michael said that workshops are still important because "they are a mechanism for introducing new ideas into a system."  But, Michael explained, they have to be part of a broader systemic approach to school reform, one that might involve other approaches to professional learning such as instructional coaching, Professlonal Learning Communities, Japanese Lesson Study, focus, continuity,and principal leadership.

Given these concerns about stand alone workshops, I've started asking several questions when I am invited to work with a district to provide support for their development of a coaching program.  If I just lead workshops about coaching (kind of an ironic thing to do, actually), my fear is that I may actually be part of the problem, rather than part of the solution. However, my hope is that if I advocate for high quality PD, my colleagues and I can make a real difference.  

My questions are listed below. Let me know if you think we need to add or subtract any from the list or if you have any additional thoughts about whether or not workshops still matter:

1.     How many schools are being served by this project?

2.     How many coaches do you/will you have in place?

3.     What are your students’ major needs?

4.     What are your teachers’ major needs?

5.     On which teaching practices and other interventions do your current professional development efforts focus?

6.     Which teacher or student needs are/are not addressed by your current professional development?

7.     Do your teacher evaluation methods and walk-throughs target your professional development focus?

8.     Do you have too many, the right amount, or not enough teaching practices being implemented in your district?

9.     What do your coaches know about coaching?

10. What do they need to know about coaching?

11. Do they deeply understand the teaching practices they share?

12. Do they need to learn more about the teaching practices they share?

13. Do they need ongoing coaching to develop their skills, or will workshops be sufficient?

14. What do the principals know about the teaching practices, the methods of evaluation, the coaching practices?

15. What do they need to know?

16. Is there some one to coach the coaches?

17. If yes, what support does that coach of the coaches need?

18. What do we need to do to ensure that coaches, administrators, teachers, and students learn what they need to learn to make this project a success?

19. What other issues need to be addressed to create an effective professional development plan for your coaches, administrators, teachers, and students?

Ten Things About Presenting That I Learned (or Remembered) at NSDC

One: How you respond to participant comments is really important. If you respond with a smile and enthusiasm, there is a much greater chance participants will contribute to a lively discussion. Jennifer Borgioli did a great job of this in her session with Theresa Gray on data and high-stakes testing.

Two:  Use a remote.  They only cost $75.00 but they are a huge difference maker.

Three: A simple question, or a short poem can provoke a lively discussion as effectively as a video clip.  In one session, the simple question “what percentage of your life is impacted by race?” launched a great dialogue, and more importantly, a lot of thinking on my part.

Four: Video is powerful.  When you’re talking about a sophisticated behavior, like a dialogue session, for example, it is hard to beat watching it in action.

Five: Buy good speakers.  I love JBL sound stage speakers.  They fill the room and cast a bit $150.00, but they are well worth it. Use your persuasive communication skills to ensure your organization buys these things for you.  If your speakers are squeaky people aren’t going to get the experience you’re aiming for when you show them that awesome video.

Six: Have enough handouts and organize them to eliminate all confusion.  If participants can’t find the right handout, or worse, if they don’t have a handout at their table, they will check out. If you lose them on one activity, it can be tough to bring them back.  Just ask the fellow who fell asleep beside me at one table.

Seven: Keep a perky pace. (thanks to Anita Archer for that phrase). Err on the side of too fast.  When people spoke with a lively pace, they kept my interest.

Eight: Humor rocks! If people laughed, they liked the sessions, they stayed engaged, they felt connected to the others laughing with them, and I bet they learned more.

Nine:  Stories are a difference maker.  I was honored to see a profoundly influential man, Dr. Stephen Covey at the conference, and I was looking forward to hearing him tell some stories—I consider him a master story teller. However, he really didn’t tell many at all, and it was hard for many around me to stay engaged.  In fact, the most engaging part of the presentation may have been the guest speaker with him who told a very compelling story.

Ten: Offer ideas provisionally. I found it easiest to listen and learn when speakers respected my professionalism, and shared their ideas in a provisional way, suggesting that they knew I’d have to reflect and make my own decisions about what they said. When presenters spoke as if there was only one correct way of doing things and they happened to know it, I found it harder to listen.

Ten and a half. Walk the talk.  For example, if you are talking about the need for teachers to change, don’t say, “this is just the way I am, I can’t help it.”  So, I guess I’d be better walk the talk and be provisional too, by saying that these are just my experiences.  I am sure that there are plenty of situations where these suggestions might not work. Feel free to ignore any and all.  And hey, if you’re reading this and you were there, leave a message and let us know what you learned.  

Open Space Technology

Open Space Technology ,(OST) first described and popularized by Harrison Owen, is a powerful form of what I refer to as Reflection Learning, one of six learning structures in Partnership Learning.   (You can download a free version of my short book on Partnership Learning here, and you can also see a short video of me describing Reflection Learning here).   Owen stumbled on to this methodology. After organizing and attending conferences, he realized that, he says, “…the truly useful part had been the coffee breaks. So much for one year’s effort to arrange papers, participants, and presenters. The only thing that everybody liked was the one thing I had nothing to do with: the coffee breaks. There had to be a message here” (p. 3).

            Open Space is a deceptively simple process that puts conversation and choice at the heart of the matter. At the Kansas Coaching Project’s Annual Instructional Coaching Conference,   my friend Sue Keck facilitates our OST session each year.   Thus, at the conference, Sue asks participants to consider hosting a discussion about a coaching topic they are very interested in discussing. Inevitably people list such issues as evaluating coaches, the role of the principal, math coaching, reading strategies, social networking and coaching. They write their discussion point on chart paper and post their chart on one of the walls around the beautiful old room at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, Kansas where we host our conference.

            Those who host a topic agree to lead a conversation about whatever they have posted.   Once topics are posted, the remaining participants then pick the one that they are most interested in discussing.   Sometimes one topic attracts a large number of participants and the group might choose to divide into smaller groups.   Sometimes only the host is interested in the topic.   In the rare event that no one chooses to discuss a topic, Harrison Owen points out that maybe the host is the only person who is qualified to discuss that topic.   Furthermore, “ There is nothing in the rule book that says a “group” must be composed of more than one. And by the way, when was the last time you had a large piece of time free to work on a major idea for which you had a passion?” (pg. 96).

            Owen offers many suggestions for facilitators, and I think they are especially relevant for any one using the Partnership Learning approach.   I’ll list them here, and then offer a few comments at the end.

Open Space Technology will not work, and therefore should not be used, in any situation where the answer is already known, where somebody at a high level thinks he or she knows the answer, or where that somebody is the sort that must know the answer, and therefore must always be in charge, otherwise known as control, control, control (p. 15).

… Open Space Technology runs on two fundamentals: passion and responsibility. Without passion, nobody is interested. Without responsibility, nothing will get done. Obviously, different people feel passionate about different things (different strokes for different folks). And it is quite unlikely that anybody will take responsibility for something they do not care about. It is extremely important, therefore, to declare right up front what the focus is (p. 18).

Voluntary self-selection is the absolute sine qua non for participation in Open Space (p. 21).

The unique and critical role of the facilitator in an Open Space event revolves around two functions: creating time and space and holding time and space. Observably, in performance, this means doing less rather than more. Under the best of circumstances, the facilitator will be totally present and absolutely invisible (p. 57).

Owen offers the following four guidelines for facilitators:

Show up: “ This is not complicated and simply means you have to be physically on hand. Of course, mere physical presence does not guarantee authentic presence, but it is certain that if the body is not there not much else will be available either, and that body must be in good shape. Showing up tired, hung over, or stressed out just won’t do. Safe space is calm space, and that calm must begin with you, the facilitator.

Be Present: “ Being present … means providing those around us with a profound sense of grounding, reality, solidity, which translates to security, peace, and strength. Being in the presence of one who is truly present is comfortable in the root meaning of that word, “with strength.”

Telling the truth: This “defines the quality of our presence. It is a hard job indeed. Actually, it is even harder than it sounds, for the issue is not so much faithfully reporting the facts of the case (which is certainly useful) but rather being the truth. That is to say, reflecting an essential, powerful, and good humanity in the way one is.”

Letting it Go: This means “Have no attachment to fixed outcomes… the point is that we have no permanent claim on anything that is, and the sooner we get that through our heads the better things will be. It is not that we have gone out of control, it is quite simply that we had no control to begin with. Obviously this phrase is anathema to those folks who have spent their whole lives trying to keep or gain control, which turns out to be most of us. Letting go is also essential for the effective facilitation of Open Space. To the best of my knowledge, there is exactly one way to absolutely guarantee the failure of an Open Space event, and that is to try and control it. It won’t work. Things will either shut down or blow up, but in either case the results will be less than optimal. Guaranteed” (pp. 62 – 64)

“To the extent that the facilitator becomes prescriptive, imposing time, space, and solutions, he or she will fail. The more done, the less accomplished. It is necessary to be physically on hand, be fully present, be the truth, and then get out of the way. As the world would see it, the ultimate facilitator will do nothing and remain invisible.

Preparing oneself to assume this role cannot be done in a moment, nor can it be left to chance. One the contrary, preparation is an intentional, ongoing act that must become part of the life of the would-be facilitator (p. 64).”

A Few Thoughts:

            This is only a quick overview of OST, but those familiar with Partnership Learning should see that this is very much a partnership approach.   When we use Partnership Learning, we work from the assumption that our participants do not need us to check up on them and make sure that they are doing what we ask.   Recently, I was asked, “what do you do to make sure that your participants are on task?”   My response was that “I really don’t do anything during the workshop.”   I try to set up learning structures that people choose to participate in that are inherently compelling enough to keep people interested.  

            If participants consistently don’t tackle the learning opportunities I offer, then I figure my job is to re-think the activity, not use proximity control to get participants to do what they don’t feel interested in doing.

            I have also started to use OST during various workshops.   I let participants post topics, host discussions, and so forth. In each case, after some very careful explanation, participants have had lively, meaningful conversations.

 Next Week: We'll discuss Firms of Endearment, a book Michael Fullan mentions frequently in his book  Six Secrets of Change, which I have discussed previously in this blog.

Slide:ology

In preparation for writing my book for Corwin Press on Partnership Learning (I plan to be done by December!), I have read many books on the topic of creating presentations.   Without a doubt, the book that I have learned the most from is Slide:ology, created by Nancy Duarte

Duarte is the person who helped Al Gore create his Inconvenient Truth presentation.   That presentation, of course, was so powerful that Gore won an academy award, the Nobel Prize, and, perhaps most impressively, dramatically raised global awareness about the dangers of climate change.   It would not be unreasonable to say that no one has done more to influence how we think about global warming, and a large part of the reason for that is simply the way in which Gore’s presentation was put together and delivered.

Indeed, so useful and comprehensive is Duarte’s book, that I’d have to say that on the topic of developing presentations, there is this book, and there is everything else.   Reading Slide:ology was a revelation of sorts; I’ve come to see the presentations I have created as primitive, clumsy products compared to what they might be.   I feel as if someone finally explained grammar to me after I’d been writing for years making multiple grammatical errors.

So what does her book teach us? I’m not able to summarize all she says.   However, here are some of her suggestions, or at least ideas that caught my attention today as I went back through Slide:ology:

·       Brainstorm prior to presenting using post-it notes.   Write on the post-its using a Sharpie.   If the idea is too complex to write with a thick Sharpie pen, then you need to make it simpler

·       Use stick men and other drawings to develop the story of your presentation.   Don’t think of your presentation as a series of individual slides but as a coherent unit

·       Come to an understanding of your audience by asking, (1) What are they like? (2) Why are they here? (3) What keeps them up at night? (4) How can you solve their problem? (5) What do you want them to do? (6) How might they resist, (7) How can you best reach them?

·       “Data slides are not really about the data, they are about the meaning of the data,” so follow the five data slide rules: tell the truth, get to the point, pick the right tool for the job, keep it simple. Duarte goes into great detail explaining just how to do these things

·       Expect to use a lot of time to plan a presentation, maybe as much as 60 hours for a 1 hour, 30 slide presentation

·       Duarte explains that effective slide design hinges on three things: arrangement, visual elements, and movement, and then she tells us in great detail what to do about that

·       White space, which isn’t necessarily white but which is the part of the slide which is unused, “is as much an element of the slide as bullets, headings, and diagrams”

·       “it’s OK to have clear space; clutter is a failure of design.” “Remove everything on your slide that doesn’t bring emphasis to your point”

·       “The four visual elements of a slide are background, color, text, and image”

·       Background: Throw our your PowerPoint templates and start thinking of your background as a blank canvas that you design intentionally

·       Use the same colors through out your presentation and use colors that integrate harmoniously.   Use the color wheel on PowerPoint or Keynote to help you find harmonious colors

·       Consider using pure white or pure black backgrounds since they are best for showing contrast

·       When using text, use the 3 second rule, that is people need to understand the slide in 3 seconds

·       Don’t combine more than 2 fonts during a presentation

·       Part of effective slide design is considering type setting issues like kerning, ligatures, and letter spacing (you’ll have to look these up to get her suggestions)

·       Think about the bullets in your slides (if you use them at all, and there is much to be said for not using them) as headlines

·       Use sides that use a family of images, that is images with similar colors, lighting, themes, rather than a wide range of images that don’t necessarily go together.   Using the first image you find each time can creates a unharmonious presentation

·       Be careful about creating visual vertigo by using too much animation

·       When reducing your old slides, highlight the key word in each bullet, and then practice reading the slide by focusing on that word, then create a slide with only those words

·       Try not to use font smaller than 30 point

·       Remember that your audience can’t read and listen to you at the same time, so consider creating slides that have fewer words if you want them to listen to you

These are just some of the comments (ironically summarized in bullet point, it occurs to me), but they do not do the complexity and in fact beauty of the book justice. She goes into great detail about what kinds of diagrams we might consider using, or how to select the right color family, or how to do type setting for maximum impact. Truly, the book is full of useful ideas, thoroughly developed. And even Gar Reynolds, the author of another comparable book, Presentation Zen calls it the best book on presenting ever created.   So I suggest, if you’re interested in taking your slides several levels forward, that you consider looking into Slide:ology.  You can  also view an interesting little video by Nancy Duarte on the Amazon.com website for her book.

Before closing I want to add that I can imagine some of you might sensibly be saying, “Well why should I be concerned with this, I’m a coach, why would I need to worry about presenting.” I’m convinced that workshops and presentations are still important parts of professional learning in schools.   Workshops introduce new ideas into the school or district, with coaching providing the support to translate those ideas into action.    For that reason, our presentations should be as well done (and I would include partnership learning structures) as possible.   Creating a well-prepared presentation is just as important as crafting a well-prepared written document; anything less is at least careless and may be irresponsible.   Of course, a well-crafted presentation, where the slides powerfully support the talking and learning structures, can be an exciting, authentic, and truly useful way of sharing information. I think Slide:ology can help us do that.   

Next week I'll write about Sway a book about "the irresistible pull of irrational behavior."  I think it is must reading for coaches.