Partner Article

The blank sheet of paper

With Simon Raybould of Curved Vision.

As pretty much any writer will tell you, the hardest part of writing is being faced with the proverbial blank sheet of paper. The potential for creating something is tremendous - and so is the sense of responsibility and pressure to create. So, too, do presenters sometimes feel the pressure to ‘just start talking’ when they’re ready to deliver - or ‘just start writing’ when they’re preparing the presentation.

And just like writers who have various techniques to help them get started, so too do presenters - the most commonly used one, of course, being PowerPoint. It’s so simple to use you can just sit down and start creating your presentation.

Don’t do it.

On our presentation skills training days we show people how using PowerPoint should be the last thing you do, basically because once you’ve started to “think as PowerPoint thinks” you’ll almost certainly only ever “think as PowerPoint thinks”. Sometimes you’ll be lucky and that will be the best way to do your presentation - but often it won’t. The result will be like trying to play a game of football with a rugby ball… everything will be out of shape, feel wrong and not work.

The tip? Decide - before you start filling the blank page - what the style and structure of the presentation would best be like. Formal or informal? With PowerPoint or without? Linear or Black-Box? It takes some considerable self-discipline, I know, but you’ll feel better for it in the same way as I feel better for going to the gym even though I hate it… and so will your presentations.

As always: questions and comments at sme@curved-vision.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .