How to create an award-winning presentation in 5 simple steps

Doing a presentation today?

If so, this short example will help…

I recently worked with a group of seven Executives, to prepare them for their annual staff conference. Each of them was delivering a presentation. They wanted me to help them write theirs, plus coach them on how best to deliver it on the day.

They’d all been on a presentation skills course, so ‘knew’ one of the golden rules was that their presentation should contain three key points max.

But I said: “But there are seven of you. If you all have three key points, that’s 21 key points. In one day. There’s no way your audience will remember them all. To them, it’ll be like drinking from a high-power water jet. A bit might go in, but most of it won’t, and it’ll be pretty unpleasant”.

So I showed them how to prepare their presentations in a better way: 

1) Find the DO. Start by identifying what you want your audience to DO differently as a result of your presentation. So, they hear you, they go back to their desks, and then they DO… well, what? Do they start doing something? Stop something they no longer need? (Your aim: you want to be able to say this DO in one simple sentence: “After I’ve spoken, I want them to (action) by (date)” 

2) Why they will. Identify the main reasons your audience will do your DO. Are there some compelling benefits to them? Do they hate what things are like now, so they’ll want to change to what you’re suggesting? Are there people they respect already doing this DO, and they’ll happily copy them? (Your aim is to find the (max three) best reasons. Often, the easiest way to find the best ones is to list all the possible reasons, and then choose the most compelling three) 

3) Why they won’t. What are the main reasons they won’t do your DO? No time? Can’t be bothered? It isn’t part of their core job? They’re busy anyway? They feel your company always has Flavours of the Month, and your ideas will no doubt die down soon? No accountability, so nothing bad will happen if they don’t do it? (Your aim: find the main 1-2 reasons they won’t, then identify compelling counter-arguments to remove these) 

4) Build your skeleton. You now have the key components of your content. So slot them together. One good technique is the 4Ps: 

• Position – explain the current situation 
• Problem – explain the problem with this current situation. This could be bad things about it. Or it could be highlighting the opportunities of doing something else. [This P might include using 1-2 of your “why they will” reasons from your prep – for example, if they hate the way things are now] 
• Possibilities – list all the possible courses of action. For example, stay as we are, change a bit, change a lot, etc 
• Propose – give your recommendation, with your reasons [this will include all the “why they wills”, plus also your counter-arguments for the “why they won’ts”] 
• DO – now, ask them to do the DO 

5) Make it interesting. You know what audiences like in a presentation – interactivity, humour, stories, good visuals, pleasant surprises, quizzes, and so on. So include some of these – after all, if you don’t, you aren’t interesting 

This approach changed their conference. They realised their focus had been wrong – “what are the 21 key things we want to say?”, not “what are the 1-2 things we want them to happily DO differently?”

This exercise resulted in less presentations (two not seven), a shorter conference (two hours, not a full day) and – most importantly – everyone did the DO.

So, back to my question at the top of this Tip…

Action point

…Got a presentation today?

Use these five steps to make it better, shorter, more interesting, and more likely to work. 

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Written by NativeEnglish

Native English Spain is dedicated to make learning English simple, fun and affordable for Spanish people.