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Think
about
some
of
the
presentations
you’ve
seen
that
were,
shall
we
say,
less
than
ideal.
I’m
going
to
guess
the
problems
fell
into
one
of
four
areas:
1.
Dull
delivery.
The
speaker
was
BOring.
Perhaps
she
read
verbatim
from
a
script.
She
may
have
talked
in
a
monotone
or
stood
rigid
at
the
lectern,
no
energy
or
enthusiasm
for
her
topic
or
audience.
2.
Wordy
wanderlust.
The
speaker
essentially
liked
to
hear
himself
talk.
He
went
on
and
on,
eventually
violating
the
time
limit
he’d
been
given.
3.
PowerPoint
poisoning.
The
speaker
committed
murder
by
PowerPoint.
He
had
dozens
or
scores
or
even
hundreds
of
PowerPoint
slides,
all
of
them
wordy
and
overdone,
or
maybe
gimmicky
to
the
point
of
distraction—you
know,
flying
bullets,
sound
effects,
twinkling
slide
transitions.
4.
Inappropriate
information.
What
the
speaker
had
to
say
you
found
uninformative
or
offensive
or
unbelievable.
She
talked
over
your
head
or
insulted
your
intelligence
by
talking
beneath
you.
At
first
blush,
it’s
probably
not
clear
what
these
areas
have
in
common,
other
than
they
all
have
the
potential
to
sabotage
your
presentation’s
success.
What’s
the
common
culprit,
or
more
importantly,
the
common
solution?
In
a
word,
purposeful.
Let’s
look
at
how
applying
that
adjective
can
solve
each
of
these
problems.
1.
Purposeful
delivery.
When
gripped
with
the
anxiety
that’s
so
common
with
public
speaking,
a
speaker
can
often
just
shut
down.
But
if
your
delivery
has
purpose,
you
become
much
more
powerful.
Purposeful
delivery
means:
You
look
at
and
talk
to
individual
members
of
the
audience
as
if
your
purpose
was
to
have
a
one-on-one
conversation
with
each
of
them.
You
use
purposeful
gestures,
painting
pictures
with
your
hands
and
highlighting
or
underscoring
points.
You
use
props
for
demonstration
purposes.
You
have
purposeful
movement
where
you
stride
across
the
front
of
the
room,
not
pace.
You
step
to
the
screen
to
refer
to
something
specific
on
a
slide.
You
put
purposeful
inflection
in
your
voice—by
varying
your
rate,
volume,
and
inflection.
You
minimize
the
uhs
and
ums,
because
they
have
no
purpose.
2.
Organization
gives
content
purpose.
The
speaker
who
rambles
on
and
on
may
know
his
subject
matter
and
feel
most
comfortable
if
he
can
talk
off
the
cuff.
But
very
few
people
sitting
in
an
audience
enjoy
listening
to
a
speaker
go
on
aimlessly,
especially
if
he
goes
over
his
time
limit.
The
antidote
is
purposeful
organization,
which
means
you’ll
be
more
coherent
and
the
audience
can
follow
along
more
easily.
Identify
the
key
points
you
need
to
get
across.
Then
consider
how
much
time
you
have.
You
would
be
able
to
elaborate
and
expound
more
on
each
point
for
a
30-minute
talk
than
for
a
15-minute
one.
The
mark
of
a
good
presenter
is
honoring
time
limits.
Identify
your
main
points,
then
decide
how
much
you
can
embellish
or
edit
each
one
depending
on
your
time
allotment.
3.
Purposeful
PowerPoint,
please.
If
every
PowerPoint
slide
in
the
world
were
purposeful,
we’d
probably
cut
out
90%
of
the
slides
currently
in
use.
Here’s
a
great
test
to
apply
to
determine
if
your
visual
has
purpose—the
UR
rule:
Does
it
help
the
audience
Understand
or
Remember
anything?
If
it
doesn’t,
it
has
no
purpose,
and
therefore
is
unnecessary.
A
simple
example
would
be
a
slide
that
says
“Guidelines
for
Visual
Aids.”
What
purpose
does
that
serve?
Nothing.
It
doesn’t
help
the
audience
understand
or
remember
anything.
If,
on
the
other
hand,
that
title
was
at
the
top
of
a
slide,
and
then
there
were
five
points
of
guidelines
below
it,
that
would
help
the
audience
understand
or
remember
the
guidelines.
It
would
have
purpose.
Please
consider
that
you
don’t
have
to
have
a
visual
up
all
the
time.
When
it
would
serve
no
purpose
in
helping
the
audience
understand
or
remember,
insert
a
black
slide
so
the
screen
goes
dark
and
you
can
put
the
focus
on
you.
4.
Purpose
that
fits
the
audience.
A
speaker
whose
content
is
inappropriate
or
irrelevant
to
the
audience
has
obviously
not
done
her
homework
in
learning
about
her
audience.
If
you
know
thy
audience,
you
can
structure
the
purpose
of
your
talk
to
fit
that
group.
For
example,
a
talk
to
a
group
of
grade-school
students
on
electrical
safety
would
be
entirely
different
than
one
to
a
group
of
construction
workers.
If
you
make
everything
about
your
presentation
purposeful,
you
will
be
a
more
engaging,
interesting
speaker.
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Barbara
Busey
is
the
president
of
Presentation
Dynamics,
a
training
firm
that
specializes
in
the
dynamics
of
how
people
present
themselves.
She
has
16
years
of
experience
training,
speaking
and
writing
on
different
types
of
communication
skills.
Her
clients
include
Bank
of
America,
Belk,
The
Charlotte
Observer,
McColl
School
of
Business
at
Queens
University,
and
Transamerica
Reinsurance.
She
is
the
author
of
Stand
Out
When
You
Stand
Up—An
A
to
Z
Guide
to
Powerful
Presentations,
and
has
produced
an
audio
CD—The
Compelling
Speaker—and
a
DVD—How
to
be
a
More
Dynamic
SPEAKER.
www.presentationdynamics.net
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