Common Ground

Rule 2: Authenticity Rules

First there was sleaze.  Then there was spin.  Finally there was Iraq.

The result has been a disintegration of trust in the spoken utterances of politicians, which has morphed slowly but surely into kneejerk distrust of any public pronouncement.

Your audience has developed a preternatural ability to detect fakery.  There is zero tolerance for corporate ventriloquism these days.  So if you have the temerity to speak words which you don't fully own - ones formulated for you by your PR agency or HR team - then pack a parachute.  You are certain to be shot down.

You must write your own presentations, regardless of whether you are the world's greatest wordsmith.  Richard Branson certainly isn't - in fact I don't think his presentation skills have improved one jot in all his years in business.  This is central to his appeal - he's not slick, but then the age is signally sick of slick.

Own the words you speak, and the way you speak them.  One way of doing this is to make them up on the spot.  If you have no script then you clearly haven't hired a scriptwriter.  Notes - of any kind - denote an amateur communicator or, worse, an inauthentic one.

If that is too scary, then find other ways to introduce some spontaneity.  Read and respond to your audience's reactions.  Speculate.  Go off-piste.

By conveying that this is a work in progress, not a finished product, you will be letting the audience know that the material is authentically yours.

Next time:  Design Matters

Rule 1: Insight Rocks (Information Sucks)

Most presentations are doomed before they start because presenters think their purpose is to inform.

But information is the world's most devalued currency.  There's more of it in circulation than any of us can handle - and you want to give people more of it?

Painful but true: there is no information you can present to your audience that they can't find out for themselves.

[Read that again - its implications are enormous, particularly if you trade in intellectual capital]

So you must treat your information as nothing more than raw material which you will mould, sculpt or weld together for your audience. Show us what we can't see, tell us what we can't hear.  What does your information mean.  [We all heard the stats about global warming for years, but it took Al Gore to show us why we should be as concerned about them as those paddling polar bears...]

To render raw information meaningful, you will need insight. Insight means having the ability to step back from your material and see it afresh, from the audience's perspective.  It means seeing what is not apparent (yet) as well as what is.  It means communicating your findings in the language of the chat room not the text book. 

Empathy.  Imagination.  Humility.  When did you last find that combination of traits on show in your lawyer, your FD or even your doctor?  That's because most professionals have yet to come to terms with the democratising impact of the world wide web.  No-one can base their reputation on what they know anymore, because we are all experts now.

It's not your information but what you do with it that counts.  Amaze us with it.  Inspire us.  Surprise us.  Just don't inform us.

Information + your interpretation = insight

Information - your interpretation = crap I've already forgotten

Next time: Authenticity Rules 

The Straight Talker's Manifesto

The word itself is an anachronism.  Why do we still talk of "presenting"?  Nineteenth century diplomats may have had to present their credentials at court; the same approach is unlikely to resonate for the ipod generation.

Instead of setting out to present, why not excite, stimulate or inspire instead?

Over the next couple of weeks I want to present a five point manifesto for transforiming the conventional and often mind-blowingly dull business presentation into something fit for its 21st century purpose.

For purpose it certainly has.  In an age where everyday communication is increasingly derisory - a bleep in your pocket, a buzz in your ear - a presentation ought to feel like the real deal.  You and your audience are, for once, together, same time, same space.  Genuine engagement should follow.  But most presenters are like the archetypal embarrassing parents, showing up with their bunch of scratched 45s hoping to impress an increasingly tech-savvy, sophisticated audience.

If you want to make an impact, if you set out to persuade, if you really want to engage hearts and minds when you speak, then you need to understand how a mixture of technology, politics and the emergence of generation Y have profoundly changed the rules for communicating with an audience.

We'll start tomorrow with point 1 - why insight rocks...and information sucks.