InVisibleLight

How NOT To Start Your Presentation part two

25th May, 2010 - Posted by janebeard - No Comments

“I pulled a few slides from a deck I gave last week to the Board.”

Yikes. This speaker means one of three things, none of them good:
– “I talk to the Board and you DON’T,”
– “I prepared for them, but for you: leftovers. Deal with it.” OR
– “You can’t grade me hard here because it worked for the Board.”

Not a resourceful way to start, if you want your audience to feel like they matter to you.

If you have a reason for us to know that you gave this presentation to the Board, you have to be clear with yourself what that reason is…and the only legitimate reason to share has to support a way to empower the audience, rather than your reputation.

If you didn’t prepare, and this is a recycled presentation…why do you think that’s okay? You can prepare for the fancy people but not for the common folk?

Every audience deserves the best you have to offer – even if the audience is the people who attend your standing Team Meeting week after week. Don’t try to get away with not customizing your presentation for us by telling us it worked for someone else.

If time truly is short, and you can’t tailor a presentation for the next audience, for goodness sakes don’t start out with a blanket apology or admonition that we have to like it because your previous audience did. Just be with your audience, in this venue and circumstance, in this moment.