Presenters (and Teachers) Shouldn't Make Excuses
Friday, April 11th, 2008
I was lucky to come across Sue Hershkowitz-Coore’s post, 4 Ways to Destroy Your Next Presentation just as I was planning for my session at CUE. Sue asks,
“Would you juice up your PowerPoint, and say, “I know you can’t see this but…”?
I just don’t get it. If you knew they wouldn’t be able to see it, why in the world would you plan to show it?
I’d like to take this a step further and say that presenters shouldn’t point out flaws in their own presentations.
It goes without saying that planning is extremely important when preparing lessons or professional development. However, inevitably something will go wrong. Presenters undermine their own credibility and make themselves seem unprepared by pointing out flaws in their own presentation.
This is basic piano recital rules. If you make a mistake, keep going. As a presenter the way you frame your mistake makes a big difference.
For example, let’s say you haven’t made enough copies. Don’t tell your audience, “I didn’t make enough copies because I didn’t know how many people would be here.” Your audience doesn’t care and they don’t believe you. You’ve pointed out to them that you messed up. You’re creating disappointment where there doesn’t need to be any.
Instead, you might say please write down your e-mail and I will send you copies or you can find copies on my web site. If you say this before people start to complain about there not being enough copies, it makes you seem organized and responsive instead of unprepared and sloppy.
I’ve heard teachers tell students we were going to (insert fun activity here) today but I forgot the candy bars at home today. Don’t tell them that. You’re creating disappointment in your students. Just present them with another engaging activity and present the candy bar lesson on the day you remember to bring the candy.
Keep your mistakes to yourself and tell your excuses to your close friends, spare your audience.
Back to Speaker Sue’s example of a presenter showing text on a powerpoint that can’t be read. First I’d make Don McMillan’s “Death by Powerpoint“, Scott Elias’s Taking Your Slidedeck to the Next Level, and Dan Meyer’s recent “Powerpoint: Do No Harm” required viewing to avoid such problems. However, let’s say you end up in a situation where the lighting is such that a particular font is unreadable (it’s happened to me). Rather than saying I know you can’t read this which makes an audience think as Sue did, “this guy’s an idiot” how about saying, “Let me read this to you..” or “As you can see in your hand-outs…”
Your goal every time should be to provide a positive interaction with your customer (your students, the audience, etc). Don’t point out your flaws or they’re not going to want your product.
Do you have any tips for presenters?
