Author Archive: ffolliet

At work I'm a Consultant Paediatric Surgeon. That involves Surgical Oncology, Neonatal Surgery and Trauma. There's also a lot of teaching and mentoring. None of this actually makes me particularly clever. I'm pretty heavily into improving presentations and long for the world to lay down the weapon of bulletpoints and embrace creative and engaging presentations. I lead presentation workshops and am currently working up a book on presentations. I did a wee thing at TEDx Stuttgart in 2014 of which I'm quite proud https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFza3W87eDg Outside all of that I struggle to keep fit, cycle a bit and the odd triathlon. I'm a father, singer, laugher, learner, sharer, blogger, thinker, strummer and much more.

My boss won’t like it.

“I would love to change presentation style but my boss won’t like it,” is a familiar lament heard when considering improving presentations.This resistance may be perceived, explicit, limited or simply an expression of the presenter’s own reluctance to embrace change….
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One word for templates.

  One word for templates. No If you want to give a great presentation, don’t use a template. There are so many problems with templates that detract from a great presentation adding noise to the signal. The need for “branding”…
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It’s a presentation not a…

Take your phone out and have a look at it. You could use it to hammer in a nail. You could use it as a coaster for a hot coffee cup. You could pop it under a wobbly table leg…
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This is a presentation, not a reading.

If you are giving a presentation, do not use a script. All the excuses you may come up with are limitations to giving a great presentation. The best presentations are given without a script and yours should be the best….
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Consistency is the key

Consistency adds significantly to a presentation. If you can develop a theme, a motif or an emblem to which you frequently return during your presentation, this structure adds to a great presentation.Consistency of design strengthens this. The use of the…
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Less pies

The use of charts to visually display data is helpful in a presentation. Care is required to ensure that the correct message is transmitted. Pie charts are currently dominating presentation screens. Importantly they often (unintentionally) misrepresent data.Consider the following charts…
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Plan analogue

A major step forward in improving presentations is creative planning. The majority of presentations delivered are constructed within the presentation software; data is simply entered, re-organised and read out. The key to a successful presentation is in planning the message….
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Speaking in public terrifies me. Help?

For many, the hardest thing about giving a presentation is just that, giving the presentation. The p cubed approach recognises that great delivery (p3) of the presentation is essential and as such it is important to deal with the issue…
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How to “do” a short teaching session

One of the challenges of any talk is the wide experience of the audience. The same is true in writing this blog. I recently was privileged to be interviewed by @ccpractitioner for a blog post on presentation for beginners at http://www.criticalcarepractitioner.co.uk/…
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Herding chickens

The major drawback of text on screen is that the audience cannot help but read it. Mountain View Ca. They are hypnotised like a chicken. It is important in construction of p2 (the supportive media) to remember that one’s audience,…
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