The Art of Presenting

Have you ever wondered Why Business People speak like idiots? or Why most PowerPoint presentations suck? If yes, then read on.

The answer is not very straightforward but some hints can be located in the books by the same name. I personally have been very interested to figure out how to avoid death by PowerPoint. Strangely enough, not many people are aware of the simple fact that a good presentation will not just be appreciated by the audience (whose deafening cries during pathetic presentations indeed fall on deaf ears) but will also result in higher visibility with upper management and faster career growth for presenters. If only people can realize that they are questioning the basic intelligence and skills of their audience by reading through enormous matter in their slides, situation will improve drastically.

I would consider myself fortunate enough that within a couple of months of my professional life I came across Garr Reynolds. An ex-Apple design executive and currently a Professor in an Osaka University, he was invited to give a talk on Effective Presentations at our office. I still cannot get over with that one-hour presentation. We were showed around 300 slides (as per Garr at the end of the talk) which is still difficult to believe. His narrative captured my imagination and probably of everyone present in the hall. It was one of the most impacting presentations I ever sat through and since then I'm obsessed to improve upon my presentation skills.

Garr maintains a website called Presentation Zen. Apparently, it is one of the most visited presentation design websites in the world. It features his blog and tonnes of advice on how to communicate well. Based on the recommendations I purchased a few books (like Beyond Bullet Points, Presenting to Win, and Show me the numbers) which really made me look at how I was doing things and how I can do them better. However, the books published so far mulled on how to DO things better but not essentially on how to THINK better. Given that presenting is at least if not more an art and not only science, there has to be an element of creativity, philosophy and spiritualism to it. That's where Garr's new book (suitably titled Presentation Zen) fills in the gap. The moment I heard about its launch, the order was placed online. And I was not disappointed. Besides being very beautiful aesthetically, making it a pleasure to read, it works! It is not only about how to prepare better, design better, and deliver better. It is also about how the whole process can be thought through more holistically and how you can look for inspiration in the most unusual places (eg. comics, martial arts etc.). It also enlists numerous resources online which can help you with the content.

So if you are looking for some good advice and inspiration, buy this book. If Rs.1250 is a little too much for you, at least visit PZ website along with the ones like Duarte Design, TED, SlideShare and get enlightened.