One of the commonest questions I am asked when delivering polemic lectures or running presentation skills workshops is, “If you could suggest just one change we should make in our presentations, what would that be?” A wonderful question that gets to the heart of education. Change is difficult and new techniques feel overwhelming, so a simple, single change would be a great place to start. If you want to dramatically improve your presentations, if you could only make just one change I would stop making the presentation a data download.
The immediate response to any offered change is usually to present three obvious obstacles. (It is also a good way to construct a presentation or a blog post.) The obstacles to the statement, “stop making your presentation a data download” are usually as follows. It is what people expect. I need to do it. I don’t know any other way. The answer to all these obstacles is the same, those are just excuses, not reasons.
The reason we expect bad presentations is that is level we have all experienced. Everyone does it and so, by extension, it must be what people expect. If they expect to be disappointed, learn nothing and achieve the same standard of mediocrity as everyone else, then yes, that is what people expect. I believe audiences and presenters feel down don’t expect it aspire to that. I know this because I ask them. They want a message, they want to understand, they want to be inspired to investigate further and change. That will happen if you make just one change and stop trying to make a presentation a data download.
The reason we think that we “need to do it,” is of course complex. There is an erroneous belief that this is how we learn. It is effectively an extension of the fact that this is the only significant form of “education” we have received and that, as we are now more educated, that must have been part of the causation. Learning the difference between association and causation will help in this discussion but the very simplest test is to write down three facts from the last presentation you received. Let’s be clear that the presenter was likely to have held the same fundamental belief that they “need to do it” and deliver a mountain of data. Your reason for failing to retain that has to do with science, not you or them. As a presenter, if you make just one change and stop trying to make a presentation a data download then you will be on the road to a dramatic change in your educational impact as a presenter.
Finally, the suggestion that, “I don’t know any other way,” is also erroneous. If you were to close your eyes and make three wishes about how presentations could be improved, the wishes that you would make will actually be a reflection of your insights, disappointments and challenges in presentations. The things you desire to see done differently can (and should) be done. The disquiet the issues cause you is that they don’t work and the science of that is easily found. The reason they don’t happen is easily explained by understanding that we are attempting a data download. If you make just one change and stop trying to make a presentation a data download then you will have taken the red pill and the world of education will change dramatically.
I hope at this point in the blog post that you are left with more questions than answers. I have shared knowledge, you have understood it, analysed it and made evaluation. This is Bloom’s Taxonomy. You are now using higher order thinking to challenge your practice. How you change, is up to you. There are ideas on this site, in amazing books and live presentations. If you make just one change and stop trying to make a presentation a data download then you are on the journey. Go and change your world.