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Viva La PowerPoint!

Last week, a subject matter expert in the marketing and social media industry asked for my advice on presentation software for a course they are developing. They were hesitant about using Microsoft’s PowerPoint application and were looking for alternatives, having heard about the phenomenon commonly known as Death by PowerPoint.

To be sure, there are alternatives.

And concerns about this horrible affliction are valid. Many of us have fallen victim to the condition.

There are countless articles and online commentary, books, even comedic videos and cartoon depictions for the ghastly ennui that plagues so many seminars.

Presentation decks with text-heavy slides and the ineffective use of display settings, animations, and transitions, paired with a facilitator who then feels obliged to read each slide, word for word, can elicit participant boredom and downright disengagement.

But PowerPoint doesn’t have to be a ‘death’ sentence.

In fact, I love it....

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Need (FREE) Pictures For Your Presentation? Avoid Getting Sued With These Practical Tips.

Research has proven time and again that incorporating imagery is beneficial for learning. Because of that, and the ease with which we can access a vast array of creative work, presentations often show up on screen with pictures and graphics.

So, we agree? Presenting with visuals is good?

Good. End of blog.

Wait, what’s this now? You freely use whatever images you find online? They’re in the public domain and no one will ever know if you use them, you say, so what’s the big deal?

Lawyers, photographers, graphic designers, and other subject matter experts inform that you may be delving into the world of copyright infringement. And that’s kind of a big deal.

Let’s be honest. You cannot simply search Google for images and haphazardly copy them into your presentation slide deck. Well, technically, you can, but you shouldn’t. It’s illegal.

Whaaa…aaa…aat?! Copyright infringement is against the law?

Yes. 

Open Google, and search...

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3 Simple Networking Strategies That Will Make You a People Magnet

In those first few precious seconds of meeting someone new, they have already made dozens of assumptions about you.

Some of them might even be accurate.

Our amygdala, that part of our brain responsible for fight-or-flight, is wired to make decisions about our surroundings before our sensible thoughts can catch up. We immediately decide whether we like someone or whether we want to run away from them. We subconsciously calculate personal risks to our wellbeing and forecast various hypothetical scenarios in our minds based on very little information. Because of that, according to a large body of scientific research, our first impressions are most often inaccurate.

If people we meet are drawing conclusions about who we are and what we are like, wouldn’t you agree that it’s important to increase self-awareness of our non-verbal signals, our body language and facial expressions?  

At a networking event, attendees are sizing up folks in the crowd,...

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What's Your First Question?

As creators and curators of content, we trainers (read: all terms associated with, including presenters, facilitators, performance professionals, learning advocates, instructors, teachers, keynote speakers, talent developers, subject matter experts, etc.) tend to amass a hefty toolkit of tips and tricks over the years – some by trial and error, some gleaned from others.

Recently, one of my contemporaries asked me on Twitter to contribute a tip. The one he shared, I thought, was brilliant, suggesting tiny reminder notes written in pencil on flip charts that only the facilitator can see. Not only does this ease the pressure on recall, it’s a better option than index cards which can find themselves out of order…on the floor.

I thought back to my first plunge at the podium in 1995. During that inaugural inexperience, I spoke matter-of-factly, stuck to the slated points, peered over the crowd to feign eye-contact, and moved efficiently from open to topic to...

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The Artful Pause

Scenario A: You are attending a workshop and the facilitator glances passively to the audience, asks for questions; then, after a second or two of silence, moves immediately to the next topic.

Scenario B: You are attending a workshop and the facilitator asks for questions, to which they receive multiple participant responses.

 

So, what is happening in Scenario A to illicit no response? Possibly a host of things, including timing. In my experience, and with due respect to Scenario A attendees, they quite likely don’t even know if they have a question within the allowable two-second timeframe, let alone have the time to ask it. That’s the reality of our cerebral capacity.

There is a lot going on during the learning process. Learning is not simply depositing knowledge in a memory bank or neatly stacking the library shelves of our minds. There is, instead, this entangled web of synapses firing in multi-directional waves. A sea of information mixing into itself.

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