An IT Presentation Disaster (and How to Avoid It)

I totally blew the presentation. It hurt my self-esteem, it hurt my image, and it hurt my chances of persuading the audience to adopt my recommendations.

But it also made me stronger--once I learned what went wrong and how to fix it.

The crazy thing is, I had done so much right...

I had great content and I knew my topic well. I was well-organized and I had great slides and helpful handouts. I had even rehearsed!

Here is what I did wrong that derailed all of that: I didn’t control the pace of the presentation.

I talked too fast. I diverged too far down errant paths trying to answer questions. I was unprepared for handling the varying levels of knowledge the executives in the room had with the content of my presentation.

As the presenter -- as the leader of the conversation, it was my job to set the pace and keep it.

While these challenges are true for all presenters, they can be particularly daunting for IT executives. Our topic area is filled with a perfect storm of pacing derailers: complex issues, lots of technical details, and large discrepancies in audience member knowledge.

Following are the lessons I learned in the years since that fateful day. They can help you to avoid a similar disaster.

The presenter's role

As the presenter, it’s your job to control the flow of the conversation. The audience is relying on you to keep things on track and to use good judgement as to where the group’s time and attention should be spent.

Embrace that role. It’s what the audience expects of you. It’s part of the presenter’s responsibility.

Curate your content

Having too much content is the number one reason presenters talk too fast. Too much information is also frustrating for the audience: they can’t figure out exactly where to focus.

Remember the golden rule of good communications: less is more.

When you give less information you open up the capacity to deliver your core ideas and to make key points more powerfully. This is why metaphors and analogies work so well. They package the idea more concisely without bogging it down in distracting details.

Don’t worry so much about what gets left on the cutting room floor. It is far easier to work that back into your talk on the fly than it is to edit it out on the fly.

Pause

Pause between sentences. Pause after you make a point. And definitely pause after you pose a question, even if it’s rhetorical.

Your audience needs time to absorb the content you are sharing. They need a moment to think. Give it to them.

Rushing ahead faster than they can listen effectively will throw off the pace of your presentation. A short pause--just a few seconds--will help tremendously.

Repeat yourself

Repetition is a very powerful rhetorical tool.

When you repeat a statement, it helps your audience in important ways. It gives them a little extra time to process your point. It signals very clearly that the point is important. And it helps them to be able to recall it later.

Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself. You are intimately familiar with your content, your audience is not. You are helping them by focusing time and attention on key points through repetition.

There’s a reason it’s been around for thousands of years: repetition is a very powerful rhetorical tool.

Check on the audience

One of the best ways to find out if you’re pace is good is to ask the audience.

You can "ask" indirectly by looking for body language clues. Are people looking downward, crossing their arms, slouching? Do they have a bland facial expression?

Or, are they squaring their shoulders toward you, leaning forward, holding their heads up? Do they have a curious or otherwise engaged facial expression?

Use those cues to adjust your delivery.

You can also ask them directly: Are you with me?, Is this making sense? Or better yet, ask a specific question related to the content that requires a little more engagement (not a simple yes/no question that can be easily scurried over).

Manage your question-time budget

Plan your presentation to be about 25% less than the time allotted. For a one-hour time slot, plan to present for no more than 45 minutes.

This is why the content curation step is so important -- you need room for a question-time budget. Use this time throughout your talk or at the end.

I can assure you that, if you finish early with all questions answered and time left over, nobody will complain!

Provide a quick and concise initial response to all questions. Defer those that require more time until the end or even after the presentation.

Set the pace

It can be difficult to find the perfect pace, but it’s worth trying. Being attentive to your audience’s needs in this area will go a long way toward making your presentation successful.