Presenting your brand of Cheese

Here's an article on American Management Association's website, dated 2006, titled "Communicating Vision via a Winning Presentation." Most, but not all of the article is quoted here.

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Give some thought to the nature of your audience. The easy route is to work up the presentation and assume that it will fit any of the groups you’re likely to be talking with. The trouble with this approach is that your presentation might fit well with Group A and not at all with Group B.

Make your presentation personal and fun, if appropriate. If this is a presentation to your associates, such as an all-hands meeting, or a project team booster session, weave in some personal stories about the event, organization, project or key players. One leader made the event similar to Oscar Night, with a series of “attaboy”/”attagirl” awards to team members. Poking fun at yourself is another way to connect with the group, showing that you are human, not some remote executive. On the other hand, if the purpose of the meeting is to announce a major layoff, acknowledge the seriousness of the discussion.

Have a good ‘grabber’ to open your presentation. Open with a movie clip, recorded theme song, an interesting tale of success or woe—something that suits the meeting spirit and connects to the presentation theme. Be careful about opening with a joke, especially if you’re inclined to forget the punch line (as one CEO did before a significant industry audience).

Shape the presentation to convey the theme and core messages you want to communicate. Organize your presentation into four to five segments, with clear transitions to make it easy for listeners to follow, a quality often lacking in many presentations.

Reinforce your main points with material that will hold your audience’s interest. If a customer has praised your team, this makes a good testimonial. If a key team member met a critical challenge successfully, tell your audience the story and have that person stand up to be acknowledged by his or her peers. Refer to a recent news report or cartoon that adds currency and perhaps humor. Be careful with your choice of examples.

Don’t think it’s over until it really is--be ready for audience questions and comments. This is definitely an area for preparation, rehearsal and coaching. This is especially important when speaking to audiences likely to probe for additional information, such as stockholders and members of the press. If you are addressing your team, you may have to encourage them to ask questions. If they hold back, be prepared to start discussion with some questions of your own.

A presentation can be one of your best tools for conveying important messages and inspiring your workforce to move forward to achieve your vision. But you won’t achieve either if you haven’t organized your presentation well. That’s the first step to execution of your vision.

Link to the full article here.