Pitch Perfect – Presentation Skills and Solutions

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If you are in business the chances are that you will have to do a presentation at some stage. They’re hard to avoid. From relatively low-key pitches in front of small groups, through to all-singing and all-dancing keynote speeches in front of hundreds of people, giving presentations is a fact of business life.

You might think that giving a good presentation relies on the aids you use – whether it’s software solutions like PowerPoint or Keynote, or it’s a presentation binder, or it’s physical props and samples.

And yes, those things used wisely can enhance a presentation… but they don’t make it.

The heart of any good presentation is the presenter. That means it’s about what you say and how you say it. The very thought of this may get your heart racing with adrenaline, but don’t panic. It’s a lot easier than you think.

There’s a quick and easy step-by-step guide to presenting outlined below.

But first a story

In my first ‘proper’ job I found myself having to give over 40 presentations a year. I did that every year for 12 years and it’s fair to say that I got pretty used to talking to big groups of people (the audience sizes typically varied between 50 and around 300, but I also had to do a bunch of intense and complex pitches to smaller groups of financiers and executive boards). By the end of those 12 years I had chalked up around 500 presentations. Since then I have had another five years of practice, presenting to groups of all shapes and sizes made up of colleagues, customers, suppliers… the variety is endless!

That’s a lot of practice and I like to think that somewhere along the way I got quite good at it. I certainly got a lot more confident.

But it wasn’t always the case.

I can still remember the first time I had to speak in front of people. I had written out what I wanted to say in a script, and I had it on a lectern in front of me. It was all of, I don’t know, maybe 500 words? Barely enough to keep me on stage for five minutes.

I remember it felt like the longest five minutes of my life was stretching out in front of me.

So, I had my head down, not daring to make eye contact with anyone in the audience. My knuckles were gripping that lectern like it was the grab-bar on a roller coaster ride. I read that script out, completely verbatim, at something approaching Warp Factor Nine and then screeched to an ungainly halt at the end, panting and out of breath. The allotted five minutes was probably four minutes more than I needed, I spoke so damn quickly.

In other words, it was a total train wreck. I can honestly say that the worst presentation I have ever attended was one that I gave; that first one.

So, take heart. If I can do it anyone can!

Use Common Sense

There are a few things that I have picked up over the last 17 years of standing up and giving presentations to people. None of it is rocket science. In fact, all of it is common sense.

The very best piece of advice I was ever given is simple - stick to what you know. Don’t make stuff up or extemporise too much. If you don’t know something, admit it. Nothing undermines you more than getting caught out.

The other thing that people always say to you when you’re starting out with your first presentations is ‘be yourself’.

This is kind of a glib thing to say and so, if you’re anything like me, you will find it a bit irritating. But if you take it to mean that you should be the best version of yourself, and try to project a positive and outgoing version of your day-to-day personality then it isn’t a bad piece of advice.

One of the more important elements of ‘being yourself’ is never, ever, try to show off how smart you are by using lots of long words that you don’t really understand. Only try to be as smart as you actually are and never try to be something you’re not.

Here’s a little example of how not to do it

I remember inwardly cringing once upon a time as I witnessed a relatively senior executive, someone in my team, presenting to the board. He used the word ‘incumbent’ three times in his presentation, but each time he used it to refer to an incoming (new) employee, not an existing employee. I can only imagine that he thought that because ‘incumbent’ sounds a little bit like ‘incoming’, that perhaps that is what it means.

Needless to say, it doesn’t. He made himself look like a bit of an idiot.

So, here’s a Quick Step-by-Step Guide to Presenting

·       Prepare – honestly, it seems obvious but this one cannot be stressed enough. Preparation time is essential; even if you are a seasoned veteran and wholly at home getting up and talking in front of other people, having a clear idea of what you want to say and how you want to say it is essential.

·       Rehearse – this may be a luxury that you don’t get to indulge in with every single presentation but it can be helpful, in particular if you are going to be presenting somewhere unfamiliar and to a larger audience. It is a great idea to get into the space in which you are going to be presenting. Have a quick run through what you are going to say. Even if you don’t have the opportunity to do a full rehearsal, getting yourself comfortable with the environment can pay dividends later in your confidence levels.

·       Excitement – for most of us, getting up in front of other people gets the blood pumping… it’s nervous energy and stage fright can be a real problem. An old trick from Neuro Linguistic Programming is to tell yourself that it’s excitement, not fear, that has caused all that adrenaline to be coursing through your veins!

·       Socialise – it’s a good idea to mingle with a few members of the audience beforehand. Having a chat with people before you get up and talk to them makes you seem more likeable and relatable when you are up on stage, and if you make sure that you ask them a few questions and listen to the answers you are given you might even get a couple of golden nuggets that you can weave into the presentation, making your talk seem more personal and more spontaneous.

·       Entertain and engage – there is nothing worse than a dull presentation. If you want your audience to be engaged with what you are saying, try to be a entertaining. You don’t have to be a stand-up comedian, but a couple of jokes or slightly humorous asides really won’t hurt. Keep your content concise and well-structured so the presentation flows well and doesn’t get tedious. Make sure you invite feedback to keep your audience actively involved – don’t just talk at them – your content will land a lot more effectively if your audience feels like it is participating. This doesn’t have to be anything complicated - just asking for a show of hands on something or inviting a couple of questions from the floor is all it takes.

·       Natural speaking - not too quick! The biggest mistake most rooky presenters make is gabbling; talking so quickly that they become unintelligible. The worst thing about this mistake is it is so easy to spiral out of control – just like my first time on stage I have seen other presenters so overcome with nerves that their mouths start going like a runaway train, building up increasing speed as the nerves ramp up higher and higher until the dry mouth kicks in, and the inevitable train crash happens. The best thing about this mistake, though, is it is so easy to deal with. Just stop talking. Shut up. A two second pause on stage may feel like a lifetime to you but to the audience it feels like… well, a two second pause. And those two seconds allow the audience a chance to consider what you have just said, whilst you sip some water and remind them (and yourself) that you are in total control of the situation and of what you are talking about.

·       Take questions – when you get to the end of what you wanted to talk about give your audience the chance to ask a few questions. George Bernard Shaw once famously said that the single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place. If you don’t invite feedback at the end of the presentation you are missing your best, perhaps only, opportunity to nail down any misunderstandings or confusion.

And Now You Are Ready…

…to start thinking about the peripheral stuff. That means you can now think about PowerPoint slides, the props and any other paraphernalia that you might want to use to augment what you are saying.

Remember, make the presentation about what you are saying and how you are saying it; don’t use the peripheral stuff as a crutch to lean on.

Good luck!

Thanks for reading, and if you think that this information will be of use to someone else you know, please don’t hesitate to click on the link below to share it.

Take Note!

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Writing Your Own Success – How the Art of Taking Notes Can Improve Understanding, Retention and Recall of Key Information

Whether you are in a business meeting, a student lecture theatre, or you are in a school classroom the ability to take in, understand, and recall information is a key skill. Consensus amongst educators is that taking notes improves the recollection and retention of facts and concepts by somewhere between 20% and 30%.

Here’s the deal:

You want to be more effective as a member of a team, an employee, a student or even as a boss or a teacher? The answer is simple – take notes!

Taking notes adds an active participatory element – you are not just sitting there passively listening.

When you take notes you ‘have’ to listen properly and process what is being said so you can write down the salient parts. This makes for more effective cognitive processing – in short, you are making your brain take an active part in the meeting or the lecture by adding a manual element to the listening process. You can’t accidently ‘tune out’ or let your attention wander.

This is called ‘generative’ note taking where you are having to process and summarise information as you listen. As you read this, you might be thinking that it sounds kind of similar to kinaesthetic learning (which is skills based learning – having a preference for ‘learning by doing’) and, depending on your preferred style of note taking (mind mapping or whatever) it can be heavily related to it, but it’s not quite the same thing.

That’s not all:

From classroom to boardroom it sometimes feels like handwriting might be in danger of becoming a lost art; the proliferation of laptops, tablets and smartphones means that it’s far more usual to see someone tapping away on a keyboard than it is to see them scribbling furiously with pen and paper.

But there’s a catch

Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer of Princeton University and UCLA Los Angeles discovered that students who write out their notes by hand actually learn more than those to type their notes on laptops.

That’s right – handwriting produced better results than typing!

Over the course of several experiments, Mueller and Oppenheimer tested students’ memories for factual detail, conceptual comprehension, and ability to synthesise new conclusions after half of them took notes ‘the old-fashioned way’ and the other half took notes digitally.

Whilst it’s true that the students who used laptops churned out more content (more words) than the handwriters, this seemed to be a case of quantity over quality; the students who used pen and paper wrote less, but they ended up with a stronger conceptual understanding across the board.

Mueller and Oppenheimer concluded that, because generally speaking people type faster than they can write, the tendency on a laptop was to take notes ‘verbatim’. This is non-generative note taking, which means it is missing the active element of cognitive processing (where you summarise the information as you are listening to it so you only have to write down the salient points).

Not only that, but also how many times have you sat round a meeting table and seen the backs of a bunch of laptop screens? How many times, as a lecturer or teacher, do you find yourself greeted by a similar sight? And then there is the sound of dozens of keyboards being tapped simultaneously.

Using digital media to take notes might be the current trend, but it can be potentially disruptive and off-putting. 

So old-fashioned pen and paper are always best?

Not for everything, no. We should not suddenly throw out our laptops and start investing in parchment and quill.

Typing notes on a screen does have some benefits. For example, electronic documents can lend themselves to better organisation which is useful when it comes time to revisit electronic notes later. On a laptop, notetakers can delete, reorder, and build on ideas with a simple click or keystroke.

What is really clear is the importance of note-taking overall. A couple of decades ago, cognitive psychologist Robert Bjork called this phenomenon ‘desirable difficulty’ which referred to the concept that information retention is increased if there is a reasonable level of active participation or ‘difficulty’ on behalf of the recipient.

So, with that in mind, it’s also important to think about the best way to structure your notes, not simply whether you’re typing or writing.

But I just write it down, right?

Well, you can be a bit more systematic than that. There are basically two styles of note-taking - linear and non-linear.

Linear note-taking is writing in a format similar to a normal written text. Non-linear styles use graphical elements and might organise content in an unconventional fashion, although still systematic. Non-linear notes might be difficult for others to understand but work very well for the individual. Piolat et al. (2005) argue that non-linear styles of note-taking are more effective than linear styles because non-linear styles facilitate the process of making connections between idea units, which enhances learning through deeper processing and strengthens long-term retention of content. 

The Cornell Method

Here are four examples of structured methods of taking notes:

·       The Cornell Method – create a margin of around 60mm-70mm on the left-hand side of the page. Take notes in the wider part of the page (the right-hand side) and then afterwards go through and put a ‘cue’ (a keyword) in the left-hand margin for each significant piece of information. The ‘cue’ keyword helps to act as a trigger for your memory.

The Outlining Method

·       The Outlining Method – start with general information justified to the left-hand side of the page. Each more specific fact is indented below it, like a bullet-pointed list. Relationships between different pieces of information are maintained through indenting.

The Mapping Method

·       The Mapping Method – this is based around relating all the facts and ideas to one another in a graphic representation of the information. It maximises your active participation, because you are actively synthesising the information into a new format as you listen to it.

·       The Charting Method – this works well if you are handling distinct logical data sets (like dates and times). It is effectively just drawing a table and filling in the information in a tabular format.

The Charting Method

Summing up…

Michael C. Friedman of the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching wrote a paper entitled ‘Notes on Note-Taking: Review of Research and Insights for Students and Instructors’. In it he gives a handy synopsis of tips for when you’re taking notes. Basically, he suggests:

1.       Avoid transcribing notes (writing every word). Write condensed notes in your own words.

2.       Think about what style of note-taking works for you, and for the information you are taking notes on (linear vs. non-linear).

3.       Review your notes on the same day you created them.

4.       Test yourself on the content of your notes. Testing yourself informs you what you do not yet know from your notes.

5.       Carefully consider whether to take notes on pen and paper or with a laptop.

6.       Avoid the misperception that you know content better than you do.

Thanks for reading, and if you think that this information will be of use to someone else you know, please don’t hesitate to click on the link below to share it. Check out our range of note pads, books and journals for all of your note-taking needs!

The Colour of Success

How Colours Affect Mood, Productivity, and Behaviour

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Colours have a massive effect on our psyche.

Did you know:

·       84.7% of consumers cite colour as a primary reason why they buy a product.

·       Research shows that the people make a sub-conscious judgement about an environment within 90 seconds of initially seeing it. Between 62% and 90% of that judgement is based on colour alone.

·       Colour can improve understanding and comprehension by up to 73%.

·       Colour can improve learning (retention and recall of information) by up to 68%.

·       Adverts that are in colour are read 42% more often on average than adverts in black & white.

·       80% of people think that colour improves brand recognition.

This is an important thing to consider in business, and in the rest of your life. But here’s the weird thing - what we perceive as ‘colour’ isn’t something that ‘belongs’ to the objects we see. It’s just different wavelengths of light.

Yeah, I know, I know. It sounds like the sort of crazy nonsense that you might expect to hear from an ageing acid casualty celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the Summer of Love, doesn’t it?

But here’s the thing.

The science and the numbers back up the hippies on this one.

Even the physics and biology of this sound a little bit trippy. A hard fact for you. Colour is not an inherent attribute of an object or the environment – it’s a highly complex human physiological and psychological reaction to electromagnetic radiation (light waves).  

Okay… How does that work?

In simple terms, objects around us absorb the light wavelengths that match their atomic structure. Wavelengths that don’t match an object’s atomic structure are reflected away.

So, when we look at an object the light wavelengths that the object can absorb hit our eyes. In the human retina, there are three different types of photoreceptor cells each of which registers a range of light wavelengths.

The photoreceptor cells in our eyes convert the wavelengths they can ‘see’ into electric impulses, which are passed through the optic nerve into the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus, amongst other things, oversees the endocrine system, which produces hormones and thereby impacts on a lot of our behaviour and how we feel.

Okay. That’s all very interesting but what’s the deal? How can I use colour?

Well, how you use colour in the workplace can impact on your team’s productivity, happiness, and general sense of well-being.

How we use colour in branding, advertising, and in our selling channels (shops, websites and so on) will impact on how much we sell. How we use colour in our own lives can impact on our own behaviour.

So, in other words, smart use of colour has a direct impact on productivity, effectiveness, and success.

So, let’s talk about the impact of different colours on our brains

Let’s over-simplify things to start with by saying that, from a psychological point of view, there are four ‘primary’ colours.

Before you put a comment on the article, yes - you’re right; in normal terminology, there are only three primary colours.

In case you’re having trouble remembering your art classes from school, primary colours are those that can be used, through mixing and blending, to produce all other colours within our visual spectrum.

In terms of pigments the three ‘primaries’ are red, yellow, and blue (with secondary colours being green, purple, and orange). In terms of light the three ‘primary’ colours are red, green, and blue (hence the letters ‘RGB’ that you might have seen when looking at the colour balance on your TV).

Psychologically speaking, though, there are four colours that have a ‘primary’ impact on our psycho-physiological responses to our environment. These are red, blue, yellow and green, and we’ll look at each of them in a bit more detail below.

But first, here’s a little story.

There are solid evolutionary reasons why green is such an important colour to human beings. You can probably guess what those reasons are.

Did you know that the human eye can differentiate between more shades of green than any other colour? That’s why night vision goggles use green images.

If you think about it, the reason we can see more shades of green than, say, red, yellow, or blue is obvious.

Way back in our ancient genetic heritage our ape-like ancestors lived in predominantly green environments. Back then, being able to differentiate between foliage and a potential predator was kind of handy.

Being born with a mutation to be able to differentiate between more shades of green was a survival advantage to those ape-like creatures living in the forest, and therefore the sort of mutation that was naturally selected to be bred into the species.

After all, it’s kind of difficult to pass on a genetic trait if you have been killed by a predator; much easier to pass it on if you lived to fight (and procreate) another day.

Back to colour… Here’s a quick step-by-step guide

Looking at the four ‘psychological primary’ colours firstly:

Red

·       Evokes strong emotions; it physically stimulates you.

·       Encourages appetite (think of successful fast food and beverage brands that use a lot of red, like McDonalds, Coca Cola, and Pizza Hut).

·       Passion and intensity - increases heart rate and creates a sense of urgency (think of the number of times you see ‘sale’ and ‘clearance’ or ‘impulse’ purchase messages using a lot of red).

·       Associated with movement and excitement. It’s a ‘high energy’ colour and immediately pulls your focus.

Yellow

·       Stimulates the nervous system and mental processes, but makes babies cry.

·       Increases cheerfulness and warmth and encourages communication, but also causes strain on the eyes so increases fatigue.

·       From a marketing point of view, it’s a colour that represents optimism and cheerfulness, and is also used to denote ‘cheapness’.

Blue

·       If you do a quick Google search you will probably find that blue is usually viewed as the ‘most productive’ colour for a working environment. It is often said to increase concentration levels and focus.

·       It’s a conservative colour promoting a sense of security and trust.

·       There is a male bias, with more men than women saying that blue is their ‘favourite’ colour.

·       It is associated with water and peace and is often seen as representing calmness and serenity, however it can be cold and aloof when used on its own.

·       It curbs appetite and is a ‘non-invasive’ colour. Young people associate blue with maturity.

Green

·       Green is soothing and alleviates depression.

·       It promotes harmony in the brain, a balance between body and emotions.

·       Workers in a predominantly green environment have fewer stomach aches – fewer sick days!

·       It denotes nature and the environment, health and tranquillity, and it symbolises both wealth and fertility.

Beyond the colours that have a ‘primary’ psychological impact, there are a few others to be aware of that deserve your attention:

·       Purple – stimulates the problem-solving parts of the brain; is creative, imaginative and wise.

·       Orange – stimulates the logic centres of the brain and promotes enthusiasm; creates a good ‘call to action’ (e.g. - buy, sell, subscribe) and can be a good colour to use to generate ‘impulse’ purchases.

·       Black – can be overwhelming if over-used. Black signifies authority, power, stability and strength and is often used as a symbol of intelligence.

·       Grey – used too excess grey can lead to feelings of ‘nothingness’ but used sparingly it symbolises practicality, timelessness and solidarity.

·       White – associated with purity, cleanliness, and safety. It can be used to project messages of neutrality but, like black, it can be overwhelming if used to excess.

So, let’s cut all fluffy stuff; to be productive I just need to paint my office blue, right?

Well, if you’re working on the interior design for a firm of lawyers or accountants, that’s probably not a bad place to start. But, guess what? It would be a dreadful idea if you were decorating a marketing or design agency.

In that kind of creative environment, you need a workforce that is inspired to feats of imagination by colours like yellow and orange.

In a sales environment, you might want to use some red – big, bold, energising and passionate; exactly the things you might want in a sales force.  

And don’t rule out the positive impact that green can have, not only on your team’s sense of wellbeing but also on your customers’ feelings of calm and confidence – not a bad thing to remember in any environment where money might be changing hands!

Also, just to add another factor for you to consider… it’s not just the colour that impacts on our brain chemistry, it’s the shade. What impacts on whether a colour has a stimulating or soothing effect on us is the intensity of the shade – how saturated that colour is.

So, what’s the takeaway from all this?

Skilfully using different colours in the right shades and the right combinations with one another can have a significant impact on the overall environment.

The chances are you already understand this intuitively.

You know that your office can’t just be like an explosion in a paint factory – you need to have colours complementing one another and working together to produce the best results.

·       Understand what result you are looking for (what’s most important? Is it productivity, serenity, imagination? Is it passion, cheerfulness?) Use that to define your colour palette.

·       When you know what colours ought to be in your palette, design a colour scheme for your brand, your selling environment, or your working environment that best gets you to your end goal.

Thanks for reading, and if you think that this information will be of use to someone else you know, please don’t hesitate to click the link below to share it.