Email
RSS Reader
Mobile VersionMore Power to the Point
Thursday, February 7, 2008 at 10:41AM 
I do a lot of presentations in my line of work, and am always looking for ways to improve. A while back, I read the book "Beyond Bullet Points," by Cliff Atkinson, which provides a process that helps you dramatically increase the impact of your presentations. As the name implies, you get away from using bullet points in PowerPoint and use a storytelling approach to convey your points.
While I read the book a long time ago, I finally bit the bullet (so to speak) and decided to deliver my first presentation using this technique a couple of weeks ago in Las Vegas. I was nervous about trying this totally different approach, as I was presenting to a bunch of internal auditors at a conference, and there was considerably less hard data on my slides than usual.
I'm happy to say the presentation went quite well, and I had the chance to tighten up the story for another rendition of the presentation this week in Toronto.
Why am I such a big fan of this approach? As the book says, if your slides say everything you want to cover then why do they need you to show up? Also, the message becomes more memorable - and much more poignant - if you display mastery of your topic by adding personal stories and interpretation to the message.
Beyond Bullet Points provides a very straight-forward approach to organizing and expanding your presentation content using a
screenplay approach. You approach your presentation like you are writing a script, and you create levels of detail to fill 5, 15, 30, and 60 minutes. This is great because it gives you an effective way to tailor your presentation to fit the time allotted without feeling rushed and, most importantly, without leaving out major points.
Once you have your script created, you use a then storyboard process to build effective visuals to support your story. Since there is so much imagery involved, you may find yourself struggling to find good images to use on your slides. I used a combination of photos I took, a few I found on Google, and some that I found in a photo clip art collection from Hemera that I bought on Amazon.
The book also provides links to a web site where you can download free templates (in Word and Excel) to help you build your script, and a storyboard slide template for PowerPoint. These templates make it very easy to organize your thoughts and get into this new presentation process.
If you create and deliver presentations with any sort of frequency, I highly recommend you try the Beyond Bullet Points approach.
View Printer Friendly Version
Reader Comments (6)
I have always found that if you can tell a story, rather than make a presetation, you will always be more effective!
Why is this so? (I am glad you asked that question)...
People, in general, want to be engaged. When you are doing a presentation, you typically are "telling". Telling does not actively engage another individual's imagination and to a larger degree, an emotional connection to what you are trying to convey.
Stories (or scripted-presentations), lend a sense of involvement from the listener...and the more you paint a "visual" with your words and work the story to have a plot...a begining, a middle and a end (an end with purpose and with a moral) the better received your message will be.
I have been teaching for some time now, and one person called me: "Mr Metaphor". I took it as a compliment, as I am constantly refining the specificity of what I am saying as well as making it engaging at the same time!
Best of luck to you with your future presentations!
John
How do you approach building your library of stories?
As we say in Toastmasters... tell a story, make a point. You are the one on stage... not your powerpoint. For people who want to apply this strategy I would suggest setting a year goal at their local Toastmasters club. Do the first 10 speeches in the basic manual and you'll find an amazing difference in your presentation skills.
Congrats on a great presentation...
John
Presentation Zen: http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/Lessig: http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/10/the_lessig_meth.htmlOSCON: http://www.identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/
You asked me a question last week and I wanted to get back to you: "How do I approach building my library of stories?"
I would first say that I write for myself first and then for those who may reading it. That may sound selfish and maybe even in reverse order, but let me explain:
Writing for yourself means you write for the shear passion of expressing yourself and because it a thing which you enjoying doing. When you are doing something which you enjoy, the natural result will be something that is of your highest vision--essentially, the best you have to offer.
I then put a "filter" on what I write. What I mean by this is, I ask myself, "Is this a topic which other people can relate to? Is it something which they have experienced? Or, is it just unique to me?"
When I answer those questions honestly, I find out that most people reading my blog, really do not want to know what I did over the weekend (per se), but rather would like to read something which is universally relevant to their lives.
With that in mind, those are my starting points. Sometimes I work with a theme for months (as an idea) and when the time seems right, the words just seem to appear on a page.
My current post (Nov. 7) about "Suffering in Dignity" is an example of such a post. I have been working on this for months and it is a topic which is universal to everyone.
I hope some of my thoughts here, give you a few things which are helpful.
Have an excellent week!John