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Maximizing Your Presentation Timing
Most presentations are created for delivery within a specific time frame. An experienced and effective presenter crafts the presentation with a very specific goal in mind:
To ensure that both the audience and the presenter feel comfortable with the information presented within the time constraints.
This is a whole lot easier said than done. But good preparation can help you fulfill this objective. Making good use of the time you have is the first big skill you need to build.
Have you ever watched a presentation where the person at the front of the room interrupts himself to declare, “We don’t have time to look at these slides, so I’m going to skip ahead to the conclusion...?� I’ve been at both the front of the room and the back of the room in this scenario. I know from experience just how deflating this can be. It positively screams: “Bad Planning!�
Allocate for Maximum Effectiveness
Your first objective should be to allocate your presentation time for maximum effectiveness. The following chart assumes a relatively short presentation, for example 90 minutes or less. Allocations change somewhat in longer presentations (the intro and wrap up sections are shorter), but you still need to budget time for all four functions. If you have been given a 30 minute agenda slot for a presentation, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to present for 30 minutes. If you’re smart, you’ll plan to present for only 10 minutes! This means presenting content clearly, powerfully, and succinctly.
Introducing a presentation takes time. So does laying a foundation of agreements. You want to tell your audience to 1) hold questions until the discussion time; or 2) feel free to ask questions as the presentation goes along. You should let people know exactly what you have been tasked to present. State the scope of your work: the subject of the presentation. This helps stem the possibility of the inevitable “Why didn’t you address this?� question that the annoying guy with the pocket protector in the front row always asks. I recommend allocating 15% of your time for introductions, housekeeping (turn your cell phones off), and for setting agreements. It’s time to let people settle and dial up their concentration.
The largest slice of time – I recommend 35% of the agenda slot – should be programmed for discussion. Most people process most effectively in a discussion following the presentation. For reasons that elude many of us, this means that people think best when they’re talking, not when the presenter is talking. It follows, then, if you want people to think about and engage the information you’re presenting, then you’ve got to let them discuss it. The time must be allocated in your overall presentation planning. A lively discussion signals success. It says “Mission Accomplished.� It won’t happen if you don’t make time for it.
Finally, plan for the “Wrap-up and Next Steps� section of the presentation. If you presented successfully, your work will lead to something else: an action response. By making room for your peers and for those who are senior to you to address next steps, you’re allowing for closure. You’re making room for the implicit expectations in the room to become explicit. More to the point: you’re making sure that all your hard work really does make a difference. In a 30-minute agenda slot, six minutes would be allocated to creating closure and talking about next steps. In organizational advancement terms, this is a high priority. Plan for it.
Give yourself all the time you can afford to prepare your presentation. You are likely to find that you wish you had more time to prepare, no matter how much time you allot.
Complexity and Simplicity
Preparation time is fundamentally a function of two important variables:
1) The complexity and density of the information to be presented;
2) The amount of time allotted for the presentation.
The hardest presentations I’ve ever developed are both substantively complex and brief in their time allotment. I’ve never prepared a presentation like this without feeling that “life is unfair.�
The following diagram illustrates the relationship of time and complexity. The darker the blue is, the more time is needed in preparation. As I implied earlier, the toughest presentations are both short and complex. Long and complex is also difficult. If you have a lot of time – and need a lot of time – you can easily dull your audiences’ senses with complexity. Other design issues like pacing, narrative, and visual design come into play. In any event, complexity always creates greater preparation needs.
You’re probably wondering, what kinds of presentation could be both long and simple? Those presentations where the presentation is both process and substance, for example team-building presentations. Lots of time is allocated to facilitate a relaxed, yet focused engagement. These presentations can be difficult substantively, but relatively straightforward to design and present.
Making a presentation boils down to creating an informational outline or script that is accompanied by a set of slides that illustrate the concepts presented in order to enrich the audience’s understanding. Effective presentations are intended to evoke meaning, then prompt an action-response.
The big question is, “How many slides should comprise a presentation?�
There are so many styles of presentation and approaches to presenting information available that it is difficult to adopt a rule-of-thumb about how many slides your presentation should have. Many people plan using a one-minute-per-slide approach. Though this is a better guideline than no guideline at all, I don’t find it that useful.
A colleague and I gave a presentation in Los Angeles last month that had 179 slides! The presentation took 38 of the allotted 90 minutes. According to this formula, the presentation would have taken three plus hours – and the discussion would still be going on. That’s why this one-minute-per-slide approach has never made much sense to me. Some slides require ten seconds and others require three to five minutes. The time required per slide is a function of the density of information presented on the slide.
For example, a slide that introduces or summarizes key presentation points will take longer than a slide created to illustrate one key point. There is really only one way to create a bullet-proof timing plan for a presentation. That’s to craft a presentation script that is written to length, based on the presenter’s average rate-of-speech.
Research suggests that a speech rate of about 144 words per minute leads to the greatest comprehension on the part of the listener. Professional communicators are trained to speak at this rate to help ensure that those people who are listening to them understand what is being communicated.
When I write a script for a presentation, I write to length based on this speech rate. I’ve practiced long and hard to adjust my spoken delivery so that it conforms to this rate. If my script has 72 words for a particular slide, I know that my delivery will take 30 seconds.
If you’re like most people, you’re thinking that writing a script for a presentation is a lot of work – too much work, probably. Consider this: if you’re not an experienced presenter, writing and rehearsing a presentation script (or very detailed outline) may boost both your confidence and your comprehensibility. When you’re clear and confident, your audience will be more at ease with you. They will listen and retain better.
Or, maybe you think that this much prep isn’t warranted. You’ll just do what you’ve seen others do: you’ll opt to use your presentation software to create an outline. In fact, your outline and your slides may be one and the same (with perhaps a few charts, graphs, and tables thrown in for good measure). You plan to expound on that outline from the front of the room. You may even commit the Presenter’s cardinal sin: reading the slides to your audience.
If you do this, I can guarantee that:
1) You will annoy your audience. They can read the slides without you. This is not second grade reading.
2) Your audience will begin to pay attention to whether you’re reading them exactly as written, taking liberties, or mis-reading. Either way, they’ll be diverging from the point of the presentation. They retain less.
3) As you expand on your outline, you’re likely to take far more time than you’ve planned.
4) Your digressions from the words on your slides will ensure that your audience is splitting their focus between your speech and the slides on the screen. Neither will be remembered.
We all go through stages of learning as we try to master presentation skills. I used to build my presentations, then rehearse them from outlines in order to find out how long they would take. Inevitably, I would initially create far more content than I would have time to present. I’d start cutting slides, combining slides together (this can be disastrous), and eliminating introductory or background informational slides (this can be very disastrous) to get the presentation “in the zone.� I’d use the presentation development process in lieu of thinking things through. I don’t recommend this.
Sometimes, I’d just be lazy and run over. I’d show a complete lack of respect for my boss, client, sponsor, and audience. Or I just wouldn’t get through it all, leaving my audience confused or exasperated. Obviously, these aren’t success strategies.
Working within time constraints requires clarity. It requires understanding what you want to say. As Steve Martin’s character in “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles� says to John Candy’s character, “Here’s an idea. Have a point!�
Summary
If you want to work effectively, you’re better off thinking about time than you are words or slides. You can accelerate the pace of your slide delivery and speech, but you can’t speed the mental processes of your audience. It is critically important that you allot time for their processing – time that extends beyond your showing-and-telling time.
A great presentation is like great scotch whisky. The information within is distilled to its essence. Anybody who has ever tasted great scotch knows that time adds value – in both quality of taste and costliness. When you craft your presentation, you are like that master distiller. You are combining many ingredients (information), then distilling them over time to produce a concentrated essence (and powerful effect).
The master distiller does not expect his connoisseurs to improve their scotch-tasting experience by sipping longer. Mediocre scotch doesn’t improve the longer you sip it. Great taste is a front-loaded design and process result. Value produced over a series of insight-producing moments – like a great scotch experience - cannot be unpacked in the moment. That’s why presentation planning, research, preparation, strategy, and design are what will make you effective, as opposed to relying on your good looks, charm, and scintillating personality.
Posted on June 18, 2006 06:53 PM | Permalink
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