Posts Tagged ‘speaking’

Speakers and writers have the responsibility to convey an idea to another in a way they can understand and evaluate.

Grammatical mistakes interrupt readers as well. When a speaker says, “Jeff and me went to the store,” the listener immediately assumes he is undereducated. Learn to use syntax correctly and you will allow even the most erudite to listen easily.

Eliminate passive voice. Rather than  “The book was bought by me,” employ active voice by writing“I bought the book. ” While you can use passive voice, use it sparingly.  Run your writing through a grammar checker in a word processor to snuff out passive voice from your writing.

PowerPoint walked into the communication room like an 800-pound gorilla demanding its own way. It has become so ubiquitous that many people cannot speak, teach, or present without leaning on the electronic crutch.

The common PowerPoint presentation is a gray blob of words thrown on a page. Bullet points click off with monotonous precision. I have worked with communicators who can do nothing more than read off the screen what their audiences can read for themselves.

It has reached a melting point in one arena that demands extreme clarity-the United States Military. One military commander in Afghanistan, Brigadier General H. R. McMaster has now banned his commanders from using PowerPoint as a result of the slide shown above.
In a recent interview, McMaster said, “It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control. Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.”

Instead of throwing away PowerPoint, it is vital to use it properly. Here’s what I have learned.

Have a message before you touch the screen. If you cannot speak without the projector on, you will do worse with it on. Outline. Think. Revise. Get the message clear before clicking the PowerPoint icon.

Understand that people can listen or read–but they cannot do both at once. Too many presenters are “screen-readers.” They fill their screens with words which then get parroted back to the audience. STOP IT! If you want people to read it, print it out, pass out the pages and go home.

Use pictures and speak to the pictures. People think in pictures. They will see the picture quickly and then are ready to listen to explanation, the facts, or the opinion. See then say is the best avenue to follow.

I am thankful for PowerPoint but have grown irritated at how lazy it has made communicators. It’s not about slides, but ideas. Get clear and be clear in your presentations.

Making an Effective Mission Report

I’ve seen the yawns and the wiggles-and I’ve had them as well.

Over the years, I’ve endured hundreds of reports from mission fields. Most, if not all, had the interest of dust settling on an old table.

The problem was the focus.

• The focus was on the missionary. Inevitably, the theme was “look what I did…”
• The focus was on disasters. One missionary related how he had selected a place to worship associated with a cult in that town. Now, the church was suffering. Now, his lack of forethought was the devil’s fault.
• The focus was on the pictures. Many reports are glorified travelogues. The rhythm of the presentation are punctuated with the phrase, “this is a picture of…”

The result of this focus was a presentation out-of-focus!

In January of 2009, I was part of a medical mission to Nicaragua. The Waterview Church of Christ (where I serve as a staff minister) is a supporter of the church in that location. It came my time to give the report. I decided I would not repeat the mistakes I had heard many times.

Out of that experience, I learned what an effective mission report demands.

It demands organization.

Too many times, the only organization is putting pictures together. A great presentation is a story with a strong theme. It has points which are parallel. It is clear and moves in a direction. For my presentation, my story was how three different people saw our work in Nicaragua through their own eyes.

It demands knowing the audience.

My audience was church members who had heard some about our work, but did not feel the impact of the work on people. They needed more than data. They needed deep appreciation. My aim was not the subject but the audience.

It demands faces and feelings, not facts and figures.

My pictures were face shots. The eyes tell the story. As the faces appeared on the screen, I described pain, suffering, need, and yearning. The audience had to identify with the people they saw. They did not need to know the dates or the travel routes or the itinerary. Above all, avoid cluttered slides and bullet points. The strangle the life out of presentations.

It demands preparation.

I worked for over 12 hours on the presentation. I rehearsed and refined it 8 times. Every presentation to a new audience demands focusing on the needs of particular audience. Take time to learn about each audience. Canned presentations smell of opened tins of sardines.

The result of the presentation was humbling. Tears were shed. Hearts were changed. Wallets were opened. Souls were pricked. And hopefully, God felt the glory due him.

Does he demand anything else but that kind of presentation?

(To hear the presentation go to http://www.waterview.org/mp3/20090222pm.mp3