This week’s blog is hosted by a guest writer who is an expert in conducting effective meetings. Annet Noordik, based in the Netherlands, is a Certified Professional Facilitor by the International Association of Facilitators (IAF). She is author of the book ‘Hartelijk Gefaciliteerd’ on how to conduct smarter and more effective meetings and interactions. She trains and facilitates many companies to come to a better dialogue.
Annet Noordik
Presenting with impact. Here’s how to do it! Three tips
Summer’s nearly over again. Before you know it, we’re full speed ahead with discussions, meetings and workshops. Perhaps you, too, have to give a presentation sometime soon. What simple measures you can take to interact better with your audience? How can you get your core message across effectively? Three tips.
The top three challenges in presenting
In our interactive skills training courses, we notice that participants often have the greatest difficulties with:
- sustained interaction during the presentation without running into overtime
- captivating the meeting participants from the very beginning
- conveying the core message: “I often want to talk too much”
Three tips for presenting with impact
All of us know that some people have greater natural ability to speak in front of a group, whereas other have a better intonation or more charisma. However, everyone has the ability to give a talk that can retain the attention of others. Here are three tips on how to do it:
1. Getting off to a good start is crucial
First, people want to feel at ease. They simply would like to know what your intention or aim is before starting and diving straight into the subject matter. So act on this when you’re the host. A pre-meeting warm-up is a great exercise: get people “buzzing” about the topic. For instance: how does the topic (or the presentation) relate to you? Get them discussing it in pairs (that’s what we call “buzzing”). Then ask a couple of people to briefly give some feedback on what they’ve been hearing, so others can hear it as well. Then you can pick up the feedback and relay this back to how the topic relates to as presenter, and what you are aiming for with the talk. An important spin-off of this is that you, as presenter, increase affinity with the group and therefore connect better with them.
2. Use interactive methods
Divide your presentation into three parts: the start, the in-depth part and the rounding off. Choose a working method for each part. For the start, we’ve just given an example. For the in-depth part, you could work with a ‘thermometer’. This involves putting a statement or proposition onto a flip-chart with a thermometer next to it, against which people indicate to what extent they agree with the statement or proposition. That gets the conversation going!
3. Putting your audience’s key questions into words
How well do you know the people you are presenting to? Try speaking to a couple of people personally before the presentation and ask them what concerns they have in relation to your topic. So pick up your phone or go and have a cup of coffee with them. That way, you’ll find out the most important questions you’ll have to respond to during your presentation. These so-called key questions form the outline of your talk.
For our Dutch blog followers:
Mocht je meer tips zoeken of zin hebben in een leuke inspiratie sessie of training, kijk dan eens op deze links van Annet Noordik.
1. gratis checklist voor workshops: www.hartelijkgefaciliteerd.nl
2. Op 17 oktober – interactieve sessie over hoe je interactie ontwerpt en realiseert in groepen. In de middag in Utrecht. info op deze pagina.
3. Op 30 oktober – compacte training Interactief Presenteren 11.00 – 15.00 uur in Utrecht.
Copyright: http://www.hartelijkgefaciliteerd.nl/
