If you have come to this site to improve presentations, you’re doing great. That is NOT because I think all the knowledge of presentation skills is held here. You’re doing great because you have recognised that you want to improve your presentations. Any and every step you make in that regard will lead to improvement. That will be an example to others, and they will encourage you further. You’re doing great.
In mathematics the sigmoid function or logistics curve is achieved when a normal distribution with standard deviation describes the results of a series of measurements σ and expected value 0, then erf (a/σ √2) is the probability that the error of a single measurement lies between −a and +a, for positive a. Apparently.
I think it is a useful visualisation of what happens to the p cubed value of a presentation as presenters improve.
For the vast majority of presentations, the presenter is in the red area. Improvement comes by reducing the number of lines of bulletpoints, using proper images rather than clip art or AI and maybe only 3 images on a slide instead of 6. These are improvements but the increased value for the audience is minimal. In the orange area there is a dramatic and consistent increase in the p cubed value as improvement over improvement is made. These are the presenters who have planned their presentation, considered the needs of the audience and constructed a simple, single, memorable message. These are the presentations in which the weight that the p2 is trying to carry has been dramatically reduced, where there is clarity and consistency in the media and where the presenter is making use of blank slides to focus the audience. These are presenters who engage the audience, interact and inspire. Lastly, the green zone where significant effort is required by the presenter to improve as they already are an excellent presenter. The nuances of improvement noticed by the audience have taken time and research and planning that few will see or understand.
To every single one of those presenters I say, you’re doing great! Keep going! It does not matter which area you consider yourself to be in. Improving presentations is a journey not a destination and you cannot know who is inspired by the changes you have made. Be sure of this, if you are making changes to improve presentations, you’re doing great things. Thank you.
(If anyone actually understands the maths and can explain that, it would be helpful)