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2012 AAHPERD National Convention & Exposition, Boston
MA
Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and How To Fix Them
W. Leroy Fanning, Jamie Harvey, and Burch Oglesby
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and How To Fix Them
1. Too Freaking Long:Diagnosis: It presents way more than
anybody wants to know.Why It Happens: The speaker is “spraying and praying” in hope that
something works.What Results: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…How to Fix It: Always make your
presentation less than half as long as you think it should be.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them2. Complicated
GraphicsDiagnosis: It's full of busy graphics with lots of little details.
Why It Happens: One picture is worth a thousand words, right? (Uh, wrong.)
What Results: The audience stare glassy-eyed, then pulled out smart phones and started checking emails.
How to Fix It: Only include simple graphics; highlight the data point that’s important.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them3. Reading from Slides• Diagnosis: The speaker
reads aloud what everyone can read for themselves.
• Why It Happens: The speaker is unprepared and using slides as a memory-jogger.
• What Results: By the third slide, the audience is ready to kill the presenter.
• How to Fix It: Use slides to reinforce your message rather than to outline your data points.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them
• Diagnosis: The slides have fonts that are too fancy, too small or both.
• Why It Happens: The fonts looked great on the desktop screen; on the projector… not so much.
• What Results: The audience squints and peers and then gives up.
• How to Fix It: Use large fonts in simple faces (like Ariel); avoid boldface, italics and UPPERCASE.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them5. Redundant Content• Diagnosis: The presentation
has slides that everyone has already seen.
• Why It Happens: Somebody is trying to “standardize” on a standard presentation.
• What Results: The audience gets bored to death.
• How to Fix It: Never present the same material to the same audience twice.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them6. Busy Backgrounds
• Diagnosis: The slides have background templates that are distracting.
• Why It Happens: Somebody thought it would make the slides look more “professional.”
• What Results: The audience gets headaches trying to see what is actually on each slide.
• How to Fix It: Use a simple, single color background. Always.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them7. All Opinion, No Facts• Diagnosis: The presentation
is all opinions without any supporting data.
• Why It Happens: Laziness. It’s easy to claim “leadership”; it’s harder to actually be a leader.
• What Results: The speaker's credibility with the audience leaps down the toilet.
• How to Fix It: Only state opinions that you can back up with quantifiable data.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them8. Biz-Blab• Diagnosis: The presentation
is filled with tacky business buzzwords.
• Why It Happens: The speaker wrongly thinks that biz-blab sounds “business-like.”
• What Results: The audience assumes the speaker is 1) pompous, 2) crazy, or 3) talking in tongues.
• How to Fix It: Just stop it. Please. (The horror... The horror...)
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them9. Irrelevant Information• Diagnosis: The speaker
includes material that doesn’t really belong in the presentation.
• Why It Happens: The speaker isn't clear about the message that needs to be conveyed.
• What Results: The audience loses the train of thought.
• How to Fix It: Only include material that’s relevant to your overall message.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them10. Crappy Clip Art
• Diagnosis: It has graphics lifted directly from a low-grade clip art library.
• Why It Happens: Somebody was trying to save a few bucks and a few minutes.
• What Results: The audience figures that the speaker is too cheap to do it right.
• How to Fix It: If you've got to use clip art, buy the good stuff.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them11. Skipping Around
• Diagnosis: The speaker flips ahead to another slide, then flipped back.
• Why It Happens: The speaker is trying to edit the presentation real-time.
• What Results: The audience rightly figures the speaker isn't fully prepared.
• How to fix it: If you must improvise, do so within the structure of the presentation.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them12. Wrong Audience
• Diagnosis: The presentation is on a subject that isn't appropriate to the audience.
• Why It Happens: The presenter didn't bother to research the audience.
• What Results: The audience rightly concludes that the presenter doesn’t give a flying.
• How to Fix It: Always research your audience and customize a story to match.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them13. Technical Difficulties• Diagnosis: Something
happens that screws up the slides or the sound.
• Why It Happens: Nobody bothered to test the setup prior to the presentation.
• What Results: The audience rightly concludes that the presenter isn't prepared.
• How to Fix It: Always check, then double-check, the setup.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them14. Intro is Too Long
• Diagnosis: The first third of the presentation introduces the speaker, his firm and the topic.
• Why It Happens: The speaker is used to giving a longer presentation and didn’t shorten the intro.
• What Results: Eye rolling all around as everyone wonders when the speaker will come to the point.
• How to Fix It: Never spend more than 1 minute on your introduction. Never.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them15. Weak Attempts at Humor• Diagnosis: The speaker
tries to be a comedian but lacks the skills.
• Why It Happens: The speaker heard somewhere that humor will make a presentation better.
• What Results: Blank stares.
• How to Fix It: Unless you've got the skills, leave the humor to professional comedians.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them16. Overly Fancy Slides• Diagnosis: The presentation
is chockablock with special effects and visual jim-cracks.
• Why It Happens: The speaker was afraid that the audience would find him boring.
• What Results: Your audience watches the pretty pictures and misses the real message.
• How to Fix it: Use the minimum visuals that you need to tell the story.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them17. All Data, No Story• Diagnosis: It presents scads
of information without any context or meaning.
• Why It Happens: The speaker wrongly assumes the presentation was a lecture.
• What Results: The audience pulls out their smartphones by the time the fifth slide comes up.
• How to Fix It: Make your presentation tell a story, ideally with the audience as the heroes.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them18. Meandering • Diagnosis: The speaker
wanders off on a tangent rather than following a train of thought.
• Why It Happens: The speaker didn’t really take the time to think the presentation through.
• What Results: The audience rightly assumes the speaker is disjointed and disorganized.
• How to Fix It: Review your presentation with a colleague, make changes, then rehearse.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them19. Discussion Rat-holes• Diagnosis: The presentation
has a slide guaranteed to pitch the discussion down a rat-hole.
• Why It Happens: The speaker probably didn't realize that the rat-hole was there.
• What Results: The audience starts arguing about the slide, making the entire exercise useless.
• How to fix it: Think through the emotional impact of EVERY slide in your deck.
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them20. Wrong Time of Day• Diagnosis: The presentation
is scheduled for when everyone's mind was elsewhere.
• Why It Happens: The speaker wrongly believe his message is too important to wait.
• What Results: The audience barely hears what is said.
• How to Fix It: Schedule presentations for a time when people will give it proper attention.
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Simple Design Rules*
• 1 One point per slide
• 2 Few matching colors
• 3 Very few fonts
• 4 Photos, rather than clipart
• *Alexei Kapterev (Death by PowerPoint)pun intended
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Simple Design Rules*
• Presentation checklist:
• Significance
• Structure
• Simplicity
• Rehearsal
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Simple Design rules*
• Significance
•Why does it (the material) matter?
•How do I grab their attention?
•What do I want them to do?
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Simple Design Rules*
• Structure
•Convincing
•Memorable
•Scalable
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Simple Design Rules*
• Simplicity
• 1 point per slide
• Images whenever possible
• Few matching colors
•Very few fonts
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Simple Design Rules*
• Rehearsal
•Present it aloud
•Get feedback
•Room and equipment
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Top 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and
How To Fix Them
• Feedback?
• Questions/Answers???
• Thank you for your attention!
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Thank You For Your Attention