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Present yourself with excellence that lasts

I was talking last time about the three questions you need to ask yourself before you even turn your computer on. I know, I know, it’s not exactly advanced stuff but you’d be amazed at how many people skip the basics and rush to try the stuff that should come second. After all, you’d not start driving your car until you knew where you were going…

… would you?

Let me give you a bit more background about presentations - and pretty much other form of communication, to be honest. There are three ‘levels’ of communication; I call them stages.

The first is the Physical level.

The second is the intellectual level.

The third is the emotional or contextual level.

If you want people to change what they do, you need to get to the third. Simple facts and figures don’t cut it, I’m afraid. If you don’t believe me, find yourself a smoker and ask them if they know the statistics about how much it’s costing them and how much shorter their life is likely to be as a result. Ask them if they know how much more of their life they’ll spend ill, compared to a non-smoker.

Of course, I recommend you do this to a smoker you know and who isn’t likely to get cross at you!

Then consider this - the chances that your friend knows these things is high but according to some research I read recently, the chances of him or her successfully giving up smoking on any given attempt is only about three percent.

In other words, the fact and figures aren’t sufficient motivator.

I should add at this point, that the chances of a smoker giving up after they’ve had a heart attack - in other words, when the facts become real to them - are considerably higher.

Facts alone don’t cut it. Facts that strike home do. In other words, the facts need to be personal.

Here’s an exercise for you - go back to your smoking friend and ask them what would make them give up… what motivation do they need. Don’t be put off by them giving you excuses such as “I’ve not got the time” or “I need some help”. Everything comes down to motivation in the end! ;)

After all, if facts and figures were all that’s needed to change the way people behave, we would, as a nation,

•drink far, far less

•smoke not at all

•exercise more

•eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day

•and so on.

We know what we need to do - we just don’t do it. Presentations need to get past the point of just telling people the facts (a simple, written report could do that!) and get to the emotional, third level of communication. A presentation is about a connection with your audience that makes the emotions work, and so gives a better chance of changing the way someone thinks and the kinds of things they do.

Here’s a challenge for you. Think about the next time you need to make a presentation; then think about what you want your audience to do differently; then think of what facts they’d need to have in order to do that; and then think of how you can make those facts personal and ‘sticky’.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Raybould .

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