PRAISE: bringing your ideas to life

This is quite a long post.  But I've broken it into six manageable chunks, as you'll see.  Scroll your way through:  you'll soon see how it's organized, and you'll find what you're looking for.

The best presentations live in the minds of their audience. Many of us, however, have to present on dry, abstract topics. We know we have to bring such subjects to life; but how to do it?

Slides? 

Maybe.

But computer-generated slides have been sold as aids to make the presenter's life easier. And that's not the objective here.

The objective is to make the audience's life easier.

And the way to do that is to stimulate their imaginations. Directly. Immediately. Intimately. 

With the words we use.

Here's a checklist of techniques to help you bring your ideas to life. Remember it with the simple acronym:

PRAISE

That's:

Proverbs

Resonators

Attention-grabbers

Influencers

Stories

Emotions

Proverbs

How do we best deliver our take-home message? As a proverb.

Proverbs express abstract ideas in concrete terms. They generalize from a particular image, making it applicable in a wide range of situations. So, as well as being memorable, they can become platforms for novel thinking.   

A message expressed proverbially expresses a new idea as a variation on known experience.

Proverbs are often phrased memorably. Rhythm, alliteration, assonance and other forms of poetic language can help our message stick more effectively in the audience‘s mind.

Make your message/proverb action-centred. Reduce the options for action in your audience‘s mind. Uncertainty about what to do causes decision paralysis and inaction.

P is also for paradox.

A paradox is a true statement that embodies a contradiction.

For example:

Spend more to make more.

Whoever loses his life, shall find it.

An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today.

Make your take-home message a paradoxical proverb; then use the presentation to resolve the paradox.

 

Resonators

Proverbs often use resonators: concrete images that involve action or sensory information.

Concrete images resonate in the imagination by evoking memories (think of the phrase 'that rings a bell'.)   

But if concreteness is so powerful, why do we slip so easily into abstraction when we present?   

Because abstract thinking marks us out as the expert.

But abstract thinking requires from your audience a level of commitment and cognitive ‘bandwidth' that they may not be willing to offer.

Make an idea concrete and you will stimulate your audience‘s imagination. Once intrigued and engaged, they'll be more willing to think in abstract terms.

Invoking action 

If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.    (Isaac Newton)

Art is a form of lying in order to tell the truth.    (Pablo Picasso)

Now the trumpet summons us again.        (J F Kennedy)

It is more blessed to give than to receive.    (Acts 20:35)

That‘s one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind.    (Neil Armstrong)

You turn if you want to; the lady‘s not for turning.    (Margaret Thatcher)

The evil that men do lives after them;/ The good is oft interred with their bones.    (Shakespeare)

Stimulating the senses

Fish, to taste right, must swim 3 times - in water, in butter and in wine. (Polish proverb)

The best smell in the world is that of the man you love. (Jennifer Aniston)

I found this national debt, doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for me as I stepped into the Oval Office. (Barack Obama)

 

Attention-grabbers

Your first, last and only real objective as a presenter is to keep the audience's attention.

What attracts our attention?

Surprise.

Getting attention at the start

How can you surprise your audience at the start of your presentation?

Do something unexpected. Tell a story; make a controversial statement; ask a question.

Maintaining attention

Of course, surprise doesn‘t last. For our audience to continue to pay attention, we must continually generate new interest and new curiosity.

The simplest way to regain attention is by making a gesture. An effective speech builds regular ‘gestures’ into the text.

Structurally, this might mean building transitions into the speech. Obvious examples of transitions would be changing a slide on your screen, or manipulating a slide in some way. We can also gesture with the spoken material. Many of the gestural devices are like similar devices in music.

Vary the rhythm between sections. Just a piece of music varies fast and slow movements, vary the pace from section to section. Follow a section dense in information with another that is ‘information-light’.

Vary the “orchestration”. Use different colours: different types of discourse. Explain in one section; then switch to a story.

Use the element of surprise. Take an unexpected turn. This is the equivalent of changing key in music, or of modulating from major to minor.

Integrate your themes. If you have a key theme that you want the audience to remember, return to it frequently – sometimes in different ‘keys’ or ‘registers’. Musicians call this ‘recapitulation’.

End with a rousing ‘coda’. Make sure the audience is in no doubt when to applaud!

Stimulating curiosity

We pay attention to whatever makes us curious. Stimulate your audience‘s curiosity and you will engage their attention.

We can engage curiosity by systematically opening up gaps in their knowledge, and then filling those gaps.

Posing a mystery to be solved creates interest and holds attention. Mysteries are powerful because they create a need for closure. The ‘Aha!’ experience is much more satisfying when it is preceded by the ‘Huh?’ experience.

So: pose questions and don't answer them. Start a story and don't finish it. Create mystery and let it hang in the air.

And do remember to satisfy the audience's curiosity before you finish.

 

Influencers

Aristotle said that we can influence people artistically and non-artistically. Artistic influence is the influence we wield as a presenter. Non-artistic influence is the external influence we use: evidence, information, quotations from others and so on.

Making yourself credible

We believe people we find credible. You can build credibility with your audience by projecting a persona that they find attractive, and a stance that they consider acceptable.  

Your persona is the version of your personality that you display to your audience. What persona do you want to project? How could you project it?

Stance is your attitude to your material, to your audience, and to yourself. It’s the way you believe what you believe.

Stance relates closely to topic. Your topic is where you stand in relation to your subject; your stance is the way you stand.

Stance also relates closely to the audience. It displays your orientation towards the audience and your assumptions about them. Your audience decides what your stance is. Your task is to make sure that the audience reads the stance you want them to read. So you need to know something about how your audience is reading you, and adapt accordingly.

You can shift your stance during a presentation. Indeed, you may need to, if you want to avoid alienating your audience. But shifting your stance too strongly, or too often, will create the image of an inconsistent persona: very troubling to an audience because unpredictable and therefore dangerous.

What stance do you want to project? Here are some ideas.     

Devil’s Advocate

Mediator

Gadfly

Licensed Fool

Expert

Leader

Team Player

Mad Scientist

Wise Relative

Investigator

Friend

Dreamer

Grumpy Old Man

Making your material credible

Sources of credibility include:

• authoritative information 
• detail
• statistics
• exceptional examples

External authority can lend credibility to information; a wealth of statistics and dense data may not.  Exceptional examples will work better than typical ones.  But the most credible external information comes in the form of -

Stories

Stories allow your audience to relate to your ideas more directly by locating the ideas in a context they recognize.

We create a simulation of the stories we hear. When we hear a story, our minds move from scene to scene: we are inside the story.

Mental simulations are not quite as good as the real thing; but they are the next best thing. For example, mentally rehearsing a situation helps us perform better when we encounter that situation in the physical environment. Hearing stories can prepare us to respond more quickly and effectively. If you can place that situation in the past rather than in the future, it will be more credible – because your audience will believe that what could happen has actually happened.

Mental simulations also help us manage emotions. ‘Mirror neurons’ fire when we imagine or witness someone doing something; these mirror neurons create the same mental sensation as if we were performing the action ourselves.

Stories have other benefits, too.

They last longer than other forms of information.

They get passed around.

They are more credible than facts, statistics or data.

They help to define an audience's identity.

They cross cultural boundaries.

They can enhance the speaker's delivery.

And of course, stories have the great benefit of being entertaining.

If they're well told.

Here's a simple structure that will work for any story. Think of it as SPQR.

SITUATION

“Once upon a time…” What is the first thing you can say about the matter that you and your audience will agree is true?  The starting point is completely uncontroversial.

PROBLEM

What happened to alter the situation?  Perhaps something went wrong.  Maybe improvements are necessary.  Often the problem is that the audience is ignorant of something.

QUESTION

What question does the problem trigger in the audience’s mind? 

RESPONSE

The answer to that question should be the same as the point you are making.

Emotions

We act on emotion. That's why they're called emotions: they provoke motion. (They ‘move’ us – sometimes literally.)

We are wired to feel emotions for people, not for abstractions. Emotional connection to other people spurs action; thinking analytically reduces feelings.

So: your task - especially at the end of a presentation - is to stimulate the emotion that's appropriate to the action you want the audience to take.

Self-interest is the simplest source of emotional interest; we make people care by appealing to things that matter to them. And most people matter to themselves.

But self-interest isn‘t the whole story. Emotions help us to fulfil fundamental needs.

We all have a need for these things.

Security

Attention

A sense of autonomy and control

Emotional connections to others

Membership of a community

Friendship, fun, love, intimacy

A sense of status in social situations

A sense of competence and achievement

Meaning and purpose:

• people who need us 
• activities that stretch us (flow; peak experiences that focus our attention; being ‘in the zone‘ ) 
• a connection to a bigger picture

If you can say or do something that addresses one of these needs in your audience, you'll probably evoke a useful emotional response.

Six ways to bring your ideas to life.  PRAISE.

Try them out.