Knowing How the Brain Works

• Knowing How the Brain Works

• In order to best convey our ideas to our audience, we have to take a moment to understand how they think. Especially how their brains work... indeed how all our brains work. Specifically, we need to understand how people process information and remember it long-term.

Knowing Your Aim

• Introduction to Knowing Your Aim

• This course will help you avoid the dreaded “death by Powerpoint”. By practicing the Triple-A method of creating your slides, you’ll be able to deliver messages that are clear, interesting and memorable.

• Stating Your Aim

• Before you write anything ask yourself: what am I trying to do? And write down in the answer in a sentence, including an active verb. “I need to persuade my manager to adopt this new process.”

• Deciding How You Want Them to Feel

• When you’re thinking about why you’re presenting, you also need to think about how you might want your audience to feel about your message.

• Putting Your Bottom Line On Top

• Bottom Line on Top is about stating your Aim at the beginning of your presentation. AND at the top of each slide. (We’ll talk more about effective Headlines in another video.)

Knowing Your Audience

• Introduction to Knowing Your Audience

• No two people are alike. So it follows that no two audiences will be alike. So you need to take a moment to consider who you’re presenting to, before creating your slide decks.

• Creating an Audience Profile

• It can be helpful to create an audience profile before you start drafting your slide deck. It will tell you what content is going to be necessary, what language you might use, what tone you might take with them, and what level of detail you might go into.

• Doing Your Research

• If you’re having trouble creating an audience profile, or answering the questions from the previous section, that means you have more homework to do.

• Writing for the Four Personality Types

• We all fall into one of 4 personality types based on how Extroverted versus Introverted and how Task-Oriented versus People Oriented we are. Our personality type will often determine how we like to communicate and what type of information we like to process.

• Writing for Expressives

• Expressive personality types tend to be the big idea people. You might find them in the Sales and Marketing departments. They are often big-picture thinkers, and effective team builders. Personal rapport is very important to an Expressive.

• Writing for Analyticals

• Analytical personalities tend to be detail-oriented. They prefer to have a lot of information so they can fully understand a situation. They also need time to process all of the data before they feel comfortable taking action or making a decision.

• Writing for Drivers

• Drivers tend to be very task-oriented people. They’re decisive and like to be the ones in control. They don’t need a lot of personal rapport in order to get business done. They also don’t need much detail in order make their decisions.

• Writing for Amiables

• The Amiable Personality Type tends to be non-confrontational. They are friendly and often a quieter presence in the office. They’ll chat about life outside the office with you, and will likely make requests in a softer, less direct style.

Approach - Section 1

• Taking the Right Approach

• We’ve talked about knowing your Aim and your Audience. This section is about streamlining your Approach to the creation of the slides themselves. We’ll give you some tips to make drafting your presentation easier and faster.

• Drafting What Not to Do

• Trying to get started on a big presentation can be daunting. The two biggest obstacles we face are not knowing where to begin, and wanting to create the Perfect First Draft. This list of Do’s and Don’ts will help you get past those obstacles and on your way to creating your slide deck faster.

• Drafting What to Do

• Here are a few more things you can do to help you draft more efficiently, and set yourself up to succeed.

• Creating an Outline

• Now that you’ve collected all of your ideas about a presentation, you can now start to organise them by putting them into an outline form.

• Slides Using the Do's and Don'ts - Part 1

• We're going to show you some slides and ask you if you think you can tell what they mean and what the key points are...

• Slides Using the Do's and Don'ts - Part 2

• We looked at the Do’s in the last video. Now here are some Don’ts...

• Deciding to Use Visuals

• A picture is worth a thousand words. Or so the saying goes. But Is that true?

• SHAIK-ing it Up

• Here are some simple guidelines to help you create clear and memorable slides, and to avoid information overload. To help you remember them, we’re using the acronym SHAIK.

Approach - Section 2

• Devising a Storyline

• Why are we hearing so much about creating stories for business? Because our brains are wired to process information better in story form. We need a logical series of facts and events that teach us some kind of lesson.

• Introducing Your Story

• Humans process information very efficiently when it’s presented as a story. No-one knows exactly why, but something about the narrative structure of a story is memorable, appealing and clear. Here is one way to create a story line using four steps.

• Writing Strong Headlines

• There are three questions we’re trying to answer for our audience as quickly as we can: What are the facts? What do they mean? What do we do next?

• Being Specific

• It’s common for us to use vague language in slide decks. Of course, you know what you mean, but depending on your audience, it might create confusion.

• Using Plain Language

• Einstein said “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.” And while we’re not typically presenting to anyone quite that young at work, it’s really helpful to be reminded of the value of simple, plain language.

• Making Slides Look Good

• You’ve probably heard the principle ‘Less Is More’. In other words, keeping things as simple and clear as possible. Uncluttered visual design is just as important as well-edited content.

• Creating White Space

• Having white space on your slides is crucial to making your slides readable, and your audience engaged. This video shows you how to create white space in your presentations.

• Creating Summary Slides

• Delegates often ask us about the ‘magic bullet’ of slide creation: how to create a single slide that will satisfy those audience members who love detail, and those who emphatically don’t. This video shows you how to satisfy both requirements.

Actions

• Actions

• This final video is a quick reminder of everything you've learned on the course. Now you know the principles for creating a clear and engaging slide deck, it’s time to PRACTISE. Take time to define your Aim. Think about your Audience. Create an audience profile and look at past slide decks to see how they measure up to the principles covered on this course, that are reviewed here...