Managerial Psychology Presentation Skills

Strategies „ „ „ Preparing Presenting Pitfalls „ In particular, using slides effectively Preparing „ „ „ Preview your agenda and announce your main points. A successful talk is more explicit and emphatic than a written report: “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you’ve told them.” A successful talk has a clearly marked Introduction and Conclusion, and clear transitions between sections. Provide cues as you move from point to point: “Now that I’ve explained our rationale, Jenna will outline our experimental design.” Preparing „ „ „ „ In a short talk, limit yourself to 5 or fewer major sections or key points. Listeners can’t absorb as much as readers, so don’t deluge them with details. Plan the content and sequence of visuals while organizing the talk, not as a separate process. Leave time to revise text and graphics from your notes or paper into a form better suited for an oral presentation. Preparing Consider your audience: „ „ „ Audiences for talks often have less specialized knowledge than readers of journal articles, so remember to define specialized terms. Note the relevance of your talk for your audience. If you sound like you are interested in your topic, you have a better chance of interesting your audience. Presenting Before your talk: „ Rehearse by yourself and with your group. „ Check out the equipment and room. „ Check, and double check, timing. Presenting Right before your talk: „ Immerse yourself in your talking points. „ Check equipment again. „ Don’t drink a carbonated beverage. „ Breathe! Presenting During your talk: „ Straighten up „ Face the audience „ Smile. Show that you are happy to be here. „ Dare to speak (relatively) slowly and loudly. „ Accept that in the end, by giving a talk, you express who you are. (BRICS, U. of Aarhus, Denmark) Common pitfalls „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ Forgetting that a talk, like a paper, needs a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end Forgetting that your audience doesn’t know what you know about your work Concluding weakly Not timing overall talk and sections carefully Failing to check spelling Failing to anticipate questions Not using slides effectively Being mesmerized by your slides or the screen Addressing one pitfall A successful conclusion: „ „ „ „ Recaps main points; Reformulates key ideas rather than mechanically repeating them (“Save the best for last”); Concludes confidently: emphasize what worked! Looks to the future: Questions that remain, research that needs to be done, next steps that might be taken, implementation . . . Principles for effective graphics (1) „ „ „ „ „ Consider media other than electronic slides— Overheads, handouts, blackboard . . . Limit text and simplify graphics on slides. Match your visual “tone” to the tone and purpose of your talk. Keep template and border consistent. Keep format horizontal (even though most screens are square). Principles for effective graphics (2) Inform your audience; persuade them; but don’t overwhelm them: „ Figure on 45 seconds to 2 minutes per slide, i.e., about 8 slides for a 12 minute talk. “Most engineering students try to deal overheads like they’re dealing cards at a casino. Don’t. Your audience needs time to absorb a slide.” (U. of Toronto) „ Try to avoid talking right when you put up a new slide—this creates information overflow for your audience. Principles for effective graphics (3) Simplify graphics – 1 „ „ Avoid tables: aim for bar graphs, pie charts, simple diagrams, pictures, or lists. If you must use tables, limit the number of columns and rows, and clearly separate headings from results. Principles for effective graphics (4) Simplify graphics – 2 „ Make letters ≥ 20 points—even in diagrams. “Theorem: the fonts are always too small.” (BRICS, U. of Aarhus, Denmark) „ „ Use clean, simple fonts on slides; for graphics, use sans serif fonts like Lucida or Ariel. DON’T USE ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. Principles for effective graphics (5) Simplify graphics – 3 „ „ „ „ Use color strategically; link it to meaning. Be careful with red and green (color blindness) and cultural meanings of colors. Avoid pale colors (esp. yellow) and “knock-out” (reverse) colors—white on blue, green on black… Beware distracting backgrounds, fussy templates, and distracting animation.