Effective Presentations

Effective Presentations Lessons from my residency (with special thanks to Dr. Harvey Goldman) Bruce R. Smoller, MD

Effective Presentations • Substance • Style

Substance • Organization • Presentation • Verbal • Visual

The “10 minute talk” • Much more difficult than the 1 hour presentation • Organization crucial - if you lose the listener, he/she cannot get back in • Every word counts • Cannot add too much detail • Speed does not increase effectiveness

Organization • Start with an introduction of yourself - making yourself a “person” helps attract listener attention • Highlight your main thesis: • “tell them what you are going to tell them” • “tell them” • “tell them what you just told them” • Adhere to outline rigorously!

Organization • Know the time allotted for the talk • Budget accordingly: • Introductory material • Study design • Results • Take home points • (Future studies)

Organization • Begin with a clear thesis: • What is the purpose of your talk? • What is the background that led you to this hypothesis? • Background information should be targeted to audience and sufficient to understand study, but not comprehensive - “HIT THE HIGHLIGHTS” • Define all terms VERY clearly

Organization • How do you plan to make this case? • What was the experimental design? • Know your audience: assume neither too little nor too much • Not necessary to present exact dilutions, times for incubation, etc. - “HIT THE HIGHLIGHTS” • Often good to mention controls (and rationale for choosing control groups)

Organization • What are the salient results? • If you cannot remember them without prompting, the audience won’t care or remember • Often good to present results compared with controls, if appropriate • Tabular data easy to follow • Not every result is salient: remember the initial thesis - only supporting or refuting data is salient! • “HIT THE HIGHLIGHTS”

Organization • “A picture is worth a thousand words” • Show high quality photomicrographs (if appropriate) of salient results • Sharp focus • Sharp contrast • Label (arrows) if subtle • Appropriate magnification

“Too Much of a Good Thing”

Organization (A Better Table)

Organization • How do we explain the results we obtained? • Put together a reasonable story that helps to hold the data together - why else would anyone want to remember what you said? • Simplify, concentrating only on the big picture - the minute details will “lose the forest for the trees”

Organization • What did we learn from this study? • Why do we care? • If you cannot tell them, the only appropriate audience response is, “So what?” • If you do not tell them, they may not understand - they have only had one pass through to try to understand your point

Organized Chaos

Organized Conclusions

Organization • Where do we go from here? • May be interesting to speculate on the next step - helps to put into perspective

Organization • Recapitulate! • “Tell them what you are going to tell them” • “Tell them” • “Tell them what you just told them”

Organization • Thank your co-workers • It only makes you look better • Thank your audience • It is arrogant to assume that the audience has nothing better to do than to listen to you (even if it is true!) • Solicit questions

Organization • Questions: Coda • Repeat the question for audience • Ensures all can hear • Stalls for time while you consider the answer • Compliment the questioner • “I don’t know” is a perfectly valid response; DO NOT BLUFF - you will be exposed! • Deferring to member of audience may be appropriate in certain circumstances

Organization • “Substance Abuse”: • “I need to hurry to get finished” • “I have a lot of material that I need to get through” - Why bother? For whom are you giving the talk? • Running over NEVER helps! • LESS IS MORE

Presentation • Verbal: • Do not read slides to audience • Elaborate on your bullets! • Vary tone of voice • Use appropriate volumes - articulate clearly! • Enthusiasm and eye contact are essential

Presentation • Verbal • Pauses, fumbling, going back to previous slides, prolonged pauses: • Loses interest for audience • Makes speaker appear incompetent and confused • PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE!!!

Presentation • Visual • Do not read slides to audience - “follow the bouncing ball” is distracting and boring • Bullet points • Large font with good contrast • Proof read - SPELLING MISTEAKS REFLECT POURLY ON YOU! • Busy slides do not improve presentation

Presentation - poor choices • Visual • Do not read slides to audience - “follow the bouncing ball” is distracting and boring • Bullet points • Large font with good contrast • Busy slides do not improve presentation

Presentation - poor choices • “Cutesy” is fine for some audiences, but not for formal presentations • KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE!

Style • Dress • Speech • Posture

Style • Dress: • It is ALWAYS better to over dress than to under dress • Scrubs are almost never a good choice • If you are presenting, you should always look professional!

Style • Speech • Use grammatically correct, concise and clear sentences • Finishing each sentence with, “Okay?” is only appropriate if you plan to take questions after each sentence • “Um”, “ya know”, “so” are placeholders that detract from the impression that you make • If “we know”, why are you telling us? • Slang terminology should be limited to appropriate, informal situations - assume a formal presentation until otherwise indicated

Style • Speech • Humor is wonderful, but should be temperate, moderate, and appropriate • Anecdotes are wonderful tools for reinforcement, if appropriate setting

Style • Posture • Stand upright • Appropriate hands: • Not in pockets (or nose) • Laser pointer is not a crutch • Convey confidence, but not arrogance

Style • “Out of style” • Um, like, ya know, I did this project thing with . .. .. Wait, let me go back a slide to show you guys . . . .

Summary • Substance: • Organization • Less is more • Style • Know your audience and be appropriate and gracious!

Thank you for your attention! I hope that some of that some of these pointers will be useful to you in the future!

Effective Presentations