Telling Ain’t Training is an outstanding book for trainers and educators on how to develop effective training. Published by the American Society for Training & Development, this is the best book that I’ve found in this speaking niche.

Our Six Minutes survey last fall indicated that a third of our readers are teachers, instructors, professors, or corporate trainers. If you are one of them, or if you would like to start delivering effective training sessions, you should read this book.

This article is one of a series of public speaking book reviews from Six Minutes.

• What’s Inside?
• The Price
• What I Loved
• How could it be better?
• What Others Think
• Verdict

What’s Inside?

Telling Ain’t Training is packed with outstanding content from cover to cover.

The first two sections are primarily learning theory, while the following sections are more practical. This is an oversimplification, however, since the first two sections also contain dozens of practical examples while the later sections provide ample theoretical guidance. The most accurate description may be to say that theory and practicality are mixed throughout!

Here’s the table of contents:

• Section 1: The Human Learner — What Research Tells Us
  • Chapter 1: Learning is Not Easy
  • Chapter 2: An Introduction to Some “Familiar Terms”
  • Chapter 3: The Human Learner
• Section 2: What You Must Know To Be a Better Trainer
  • Chapter 4: Getting Learners to Learn
  • Chapter 5: Adult Learning Principles
  • Chapter 6: A Five-Step Model for Creating Terrific Training Sessions
  • Chapter 7: Getting Learners to Remember
• Section 3: Applying What You Have Learned — Making Learning Research Work
  • Chapter 8: Training Approaches and a Cornucopia of Learning Activities
  • Chapter 9: Testing or Examining — What’s the Difference?
• Section 4: Training-Learning with Technology and Beyond
  • Chapter 10: Training and Technology
  • Chapter 11: Learning with Technology: Making it Work
• Section 5: Wrapping it Up
  • Chapter 12: Hit or Myth: What’s the Truth?
  • Chapter 13: Concluding Reflections on Telling Ain’t Training

I appreciate how the authors applied their own advice while writing the book. They illustrate many of their principles with:

• in-chapter quizzes,
• end-of-chapter reviews,
• attention-grabbing anecdotes,
• summary tables, diagrams, illustrations,
• worksheets, and
• much more…

Thus, the book is its own example of how to apply the knowledge you will gain from reading it. (In the same way that Garr Reynolds‘ writing style conveys a sense of calm that is consistent with his Presentation Zen brand, Telling Ain’t Training is itself a well-executed training resource.)

The Price

At the time of writing this review, you can get this book for only $35.08 from amazon.com. This is 10% off the list price.

What I Loved about Telling Ain’t Training

1. Learner-centric throughout.

I love the emphasis throughout the book on learning research and understanding how we learn. The authors devote much of the book to topics such as:

• motivating learners
• helping learners to remember what you teach them
• understanding different types of learners, and how to adapt to their needs

I’ve argued in the past that all speeches and presentations should be focused on the audience’s needs (not the speaker’s), and training sessions are no exception. This book provides both the theoretical basis and practical advice for designing training sessions around the needs of the learner.

2. Dozens of practical tips.

I love books which explain theories to me (and this book certainly delivers learning theory). But it’s even better when the book shows me how to apply the theories easily and directly.

Telling Ain’t Training gives dozens of practical tips that you can use immediately in your classes or training sessions. (This is very timely for me, as I’m in the process of refreshing some courses, and designing new ones.) While these ideas are found throughout, the longest chapter in the book (Chapter 8) is almost exclusively focused on describing a number of activities which can be incorporated into a wide variety of courses. Additionally, these activities are classified by suggested settings:

• Instructor-led large group
• Instructor-led small group
• Individual learning
• Peer learning
• On-the-job learning

I will reference this book often whenever I design training courses.

3. Detailed appendices point to additional resources.

A full 34 pages of endnotes provide background details and links to further resources, including dozens of books, academic papers, and other resources. This detailed bibliography accomplishes three things:

1. It allows the main chapter text to be relatively clean and free of sidebar diversions.
2. It offers a wealth of recommended reading, curated by experts in the field.
3. It adds immensely to the authors’ credibility. The theories upon which they base their core arguments are not flimsy, made-up theories — they are based upon decades of learning research.

How could it be better?

1. Instructors need feedback too.

There’s adequate coverage in the book about the importance of providing feedback to the learners. However, it’s important for trainers to receive feedback too, but this topic is not addressed in the book.

Perhaps this element was omitted because the book focuses on the learner, and evaluation of the trainer is considered secondary?

2. Wanted: supplementary materials.

There are so many great concepts, models, and practical tips in the book, and I would love to have even easier access to them after reading the book.

For example, I would love to see worksheets, 1-page summaries, “cheat sheets”, or other downloadable and printable resources made available to highlight the core principles discussed in the book. (I have created small wall posters to summarize the lessons in my PowerPoint design course, and my students love them!)

It’s possible that some of these are available in the supplementary book: Beyond Telling Ain’t Training Fieldbook . I don’t have a copy yet, so I’m merely speculating.

Listen to the Author

In this podcast from learningrevolution.net, one of the authors (Harold Stolovitch) discusses the core concepts in Telling Ain’t Training.

What Others Think

Ratings on amazon.com are very high: 29 out of 37 reviewers give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Julie Wilson:

This learner-centered book is a must-read for anyone designing and delivering training whether a novice or experienced trainer or developer.

Marie Wallace:

The authors are workplace learning and performance consultants and the co-editors of several other books. They share a common passion–”developing people” which comes through clearly in the book.

Mathieu Marechal:

Really interesting and very practical, I bought it because my company is launching a training programme and it enabled me to get good ideas on how to actually train our employees.

Verdict

I wish all trainers and educators would read Telling Ain’t Training. Reading this book is a fabulous investment.

This book has helped me design my training modules, and I believe it will help you too, whether you are just getting started or whether you’ve been training others for decades.

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When I was in high school, every teacher used an overhead projector regularly. Many years later, I can’t recall the last time I saw one used as meeting rooms are increasing equipped with digital projectors to display PowerPoint and Keynote slides. This is a clear technology upgrade, and I don’t miss the overhead projector at all.

Similarly, the flip chart is another device my teachers used often; sadly, it also gathers dust often in dark, neglected corners of meeting rooms. But flip charts are more than just relics; they remain one of the most versatile tools readily available to speakers.

In this article, we list the core benefits of using flip charts, and give several tips that will help you use this wonderful tool effectively.

Core Benefits of Flip Charts

Flip charts are both a static display tool (like slides or props) and a dynamic creation tool (like a whiteboard or the ubiquitous back of the napkin). This versatility offers many key benefits to speakers, including:

1. Writing or drawing on a flip chart is an active process, and energizes the speaker. Whenever I step up to the flip chart, my energy levels rise.
2. Audiences ask more questions. I don’t really know why, but perhaps it’s because the scribbles or sketches on a flip chart feel less permanent (than electronic slides), and thus more open to questioning and dialogue.
3. Writing takes time, and this provides healthy pauses for your audience to absorb information or take notes.
4. Flip charts and brainstorming go together like peanut butter and bananas (yummy!). One of my favorite training techniques is using a flip chart to record brainstorming sessions. I ask questions, and then speedily record responses shouted out by my audience.
5. Flip charts are low tech and analog. You don’t need to worry about passwords, projector bulbs, or extension cords — just present! (I’m not saying they are better than slides; rather, I think speakers should master both options.)

Flip Chart Do’s and Taboos

Using flip charts effectively is a basic skill every competent speaker must possess. You may not use flip charts in every presentation, but you should be able to wield one effectively when appropriate.

Here’s a few tips to help you:

1. Be prepared.
Check and double check that you have markers (and that they aren’t dried out) and enough paper.

2. Choose dark, saturated colors.
To maximize visibility all the way to the back of the room, stick to high contrast colors like black, blue, red, or dark green. Stay away from yellow or anything pastel-shaded.

3. Use colors consistently.
If you are using more than one color (you should), then use them consistently. I typically use black as my base color, but then use red or blue to emphasize key words, or annotate the text.

4. Position the flip chart to maximize visibility for your audience.
I’ve seen speakers use flip charts from exactly where they stood at the beginning of the session: in a far, dark corner. Don’t hesitate to move the flip chart to a more convenient location.

5. Minimize the time spent standing in front of the flip chart.
Lots of people advise standing to the side, even when writing. I find this difficult to do without compromising legibility. However, it is important to quickly move off to the side when you aren’t writing or drawing to avoid being an obstacle.

6. Be neat… it matters.
If nobody can read it, it’s pointless. Practice your penmanship. It’s not hard to do, but it does take practice as it is different than writing on a desk or table.

7. Print.
Don’t write.

8. Print large.
Make sure every word you print can be read by the person sitting in the back row of the room.

9. Print straight across.
Keep your words/phrases oriented straight along the page. Don’t dip down as if your words are tumbling down a waterfall. If you find this difficult, pre-trace some faint pencil lines along the flip chart pages.

10. Give the flip chart the focus.
If you are using both slides and a flip chart within the same presentation, consider whether the two are needed concurrently. If you don’t need your slides when using a flip chart, black out the slides (use the “B” key in PowerPoint to do this) to put the entire focus on the flip chart.

11. Don’t use flip charts for lengthy sentences.
Focus on single words or short phrases. This will keep the tempo quick and active — just what the flip chart should be.

12. Draw pictures. You don’t need to be an artist.
Of course flip charts are good for planned diagrams, but they shine when used for impromptu sketches. Use colors wisely.

13. Make tables, charts, or graphs.
Let your imagination go wild.

14. Pre-fill some pages, either in whole or in part.
It depends on your overall presentation plan, but sometimes it makes sense to pre-write or pre-draw some or all of the pages. On pages meant for brainstorming, I’ll often pre-write the column headings. When using diagrams, I’ll often draw out the main blocks using black marker before my session, and then add color labels and highlights during the presentation. If you do this, be sure to leave a blank page in between prepared pages so that the lines don’t show through.

15. Use pencil to give yourself invisible hints.
You can sketch diagrams in pencil beforehand, and nobody will be able to see them. (You can do this for an arbitrarily detailed figure by projecting it onto the flip chart and tracing in pencil.) Then, during your session, just draw over these invisible lines with markers. Alternatively, you can write reminders to yourself in the corner of the page in pencil. If you plan well, you can eliminate hand-held notes entirely, even for lengthy sessions.

16. Refer back to flip chart pages throughout your presentation.
Help your audience draw connections by referring back to relevant flip chart pages from earlier in your presentation. For example, I sometimes open by brainstorming some big picture questions the audience has about my topic. Then, as the presentation proceeds, I can refer back to those questions as they are answered. If necessary, rip off the pages and post them on the wall to ensure they are accessible.

17. Get your audience members at the flip chart.
You could have a volunteer act as a scribe for you, or you could have small-group activities planned using flip charts. There are endless training techniques you can employ… perhaps that’s another article.

Your Thoughts?

Do you have tips for using flip charts? Please share in the comments.

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Reading about audience analysis and talking about audience analysis is great… in theory.

But it’s much better if you are doing audience analysis, instead.

To help you make audience analysis a positive habit, I’m sharing a free audience analysis worksheet.

Audience Analysis Worksheet

Go for it… download a copy of this free audience analysis worksheet (PDF).

Why use a worksheet?

I’m a big believer in worksheets, templates, check lists, cheat sheets, etc. I use them professionally and personally for many tasks, including speech preparation. Worksheets help focus your energy and make a seemingly complex task simple to perform.

Here’s why I like this audience analysis worksheet:

• It’s short.
  Just a single page, double-sided.
• It includes a brief overview of the three primary dimensions: demographic, psychological, and contextual.
• It prompts you to probe into 28 common criteria to ask about your audience.
• For each question (given in the left column), you simply fill in:
  • A brief analysis of your audience (middle column), and
  • Tweaks you can make to your presentation to better align with your audience. These are practical actions that you can take to improve some aspect of your speech. (right column)

For example, you might fill in the first couple rows like this:

Note: Use “n/a” if you don’t feel that this particular criteria impacts your presentation.

Using and Sharing the Worksheet

I hope this worksheet helps you perform audience analysis for every presentation that you give. Once you make it a habit, you will find that your presentations will have greater impact with your audiences.

Feel free to share it with your friends and colleagues. Print copies and pass them around if you like.

As always, let me know if this resource can be made even more useful for you. Share your ideas in the comments.

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The first two articles in this audience analysis series have defined what audience analysis is (what questions to ask) and given strategies for how to conduct audience analysis (how to get those answers).

This begs the question — how do you capitalize on your audience analysis? That is, how do you reap the benefits to offset the time that you invested?

In this article, we examine how to improve your presentation based on your audience analysis.

8 Ways to Use Audience Analysis to Improve Any Presentation

We start by examining eight actions you can take to improve just about any presentation:

1. Dress like your audience, or maybe one notch above.
2. Choose a presentation format appropriate to your audience and the event.
3. Select the supporting points which will have greatest impact on this audience.
4. Use words which match your audience’s vocabulary.
5. Draw upon sources which your audience recognizes for statistics, quotations, examples, or other evidence.
6. Choose stories which will resonate with your audience.
7. Design visuals that impact your audience.
8. Customize your call-to-action for this audience.

1. Dress like your audience, or maybe one notch above.

This is usually an easy way to boost your ethos as your audience will like you more if you “fit in” with them. Dressing significantly better or significantly worse than your audience makes you appear like an outsider.

For other clothing tips, see How to Dress for Public Speaking.

2. Choose a presentation format appropriate to your audience and the event.

Sometimes slides are necessary; sometimes not. Sometimes you need a lengthy Q&A; sometimes not. Some audiences expect a traditional lecture style; some expect the opposite. Whatever you choose, you should be guided by the needs and expectations of your audience; don’t merely choose the format you are accustomed to delivering.

Note that this doesn’t mean you must always conform to audience expectations. In rare circumstances, you might deliberately shock the audience with a style that goes against what they expect. It’s risky, but in the right setting, it may pay off.

3. Select the supporting points which will have greatest impact on this audience.

While preparing, you will usually have a large number of potential supporting points, but you can’t present them all within your time constraints. When choosing which to keep and which to cut, consider those which this audience will find most persuasive.

Will this audience be persuaded more by a financial argument or an environmental one? Do they value simplicity more than convenience? Do they value security more than freedom?

4. Use words which match your audience’s vocabulary.

This applies both to your spoken words as well as words which appear on your visuals.

Don’t say “dollars” when you should be saying “euros.” Don’t use acronyms or technical jargon that your audience won’t understand. Similarly, don’t be sloppy with terms where your audience expects high precision. Do your homework!

5. Draw upon sources which your audience recognizes for statistics, quotations, examples, or other evidence.

To maximize the impact of quotations, examples, and other supporting material, draw from sources that your audience knows and (hopefully) respects.

For example, quote Bill Gates when speaking to entrepreneurs or CEOs. Quote Justin Bieber when talking to teen-aged girls.

6. Choose stories which will resonate with your audience.

Stories offer tremendous benefits in your presentations, but you’ll lose much of the impact if your audience doesn’t identify with the hero in some way.

For example, when speaking to community organizers, tell stories where a community organizer is the hero. When speaking to a school auditorium of parents, feature parenting heroes instead.

7. Design visuals that impact your audience.

If you want to trigger emotions, don’t necessarily select the images that you find most impressive; select those which impact your audience most.

If you are using charts or diagrams, choose those which will answer the questions your audience members have.

If your slides carry a theme throughout (e.g. Star Trek), make sure it is appropriate for your audience.

8. Customize your call-to-action for this audience.

To maximize the likelihood that your audience takes action, make sure your call-to-action is tailored for them given their strengths and resources.

Suppose you are speaking on behalf of Habitat for Humanity, an organization that provides affordable housing. If your audience is a group of wealthy CEOs, then the call-to-action might be asking for monetary donations or to get their employees engaged. If your audience is a group of service club members, however, your call-to-action might be to invite hands-on participation on a new home.

How to Handle Special Audiences

The guidelines above apply to just about every presentation, regardless of any particular audience characteristic.

Sometimes, though, your audience analysis will uncover a specific fact that will impact your choices. Consider the following special audiences:

• Mandatory attendance
  Overall, it’s much easier speaking to people who choose to attend, because their attendance demonstrates their motivation. So, when speaking to an audience where participation is mandatory, you’ll need to convince them that there is value for them.
• Hostile audience
  When your audience is predisposed to oppose your message, you’ll need to practice logical jujitsu to show them how their beliefs really do support your objectives. You are probably doomed if you fail to recognize this in your analysis.
• Fatigued audience
  When you are speaking late in the afternoon (or evening), or even just before lunch after a tiring morning, it is tough to keep your audience’s attention. Keep it short. Keep it upbeat and high-energy.
• Conference audience
  Whenever you are speaking at a larger event, do your homework on how your presentation fits with the material from other speakers. The more you can draw connections for the audience, the more valuable you’ll be.

What to do with a heterogeneous audience?

We’ve assumed so far that you have a homogeneous audience, with a single audience persona (i.e. everyone attending has similar background, knowledge level, key demographic characteristics, etc.). This keeps it simple, but is rarely realistic.

Often, your audience will be mixed in some critical aspect. For example:

• You are presenting to potential customers. The audience is split between senior management (managers, accountants, legal) and the technical team. These groups have very different backgrounds, different issues of concern, and different vocabularies.
• You are presenting at a civic government meeting on a controversial issue. The audience is comprised of people from the following groups: pro-business; environmentalists; pro-family; etc.
• You are speaking at the parent-teacher association meeting for your child’s school. The audience includes parents, teachers, and school board members.

So, what do you do when your audience is a mix of two or more distinct sub-groups?

There are three basic strategies:

1. Speak to only one sub-group of the audience and ignore the others. This is a risky strategy, but may be appropriate if, for example, the decision rests with a single person or a small group of people. It may make sense to focus your presentation on the decision-maker(s).
2. Address each of your audience sub-groups with different parts of your presentation. Part of your presentation might be aimed at sub-group A, while the next part may address the concerns of sub-group B, and then sub-group C, and so on. This is a strategy employed often by politicians.
3. Ignore the differences between audience members, and instead focus on common appeals. Although important differences exist between the sub-groups, you might choose to ignore these differences to avoid getting tangled up in opposing arguments. Your presentation can “stay above the fray” and focus instead on values, principles, and issues where there is common ground.

Depending on your situation, any of these strategies may be optimal for you.

Next in this Series…

In the next article, we’ll share a useful worksheet that can help you turn audience analysis into a positive, focused speaking habit.

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The previous article in this audience analysis series defined what audience analysis is, and the types of questions that you should ask about your audience.

Unfortunately, finding the answers to these questions is not as easy as searching Google or browsing Wikipedia. Where can you find these answers?

In this article, we review nine strategies to conduct audience analysis which will lead you to the answers you seek.

Audience Analysis Example Activities

You have many options when conducting audience analysis. The primary activities are listed here, and expanded on in the sections below:

1. Think about it.
2. Interview the event organizer.
3. Interview audience members.
4. Survey your audience members.
5. Poll people similar to your audience.
6. Study past event archives.
7. Review current event materials.
8. Make observations at the event itself.
9. Make observations during your presentation.

1. Think about it.

Find a quite space and analyze the audience on your own. Base your analysis on who you anticipate will attend your talk.

This step is the starting point for your audience analysis. Gaps in your knowledge about your audience will be exposed. These gaps should be the target for the remainder of your audience analysis activities.

2. Interview the event organizer.

For conferences or other events where you have been invited, your event organizer can be an incredible source of demographic, psychological, and contextual analysis.

The event organizer will usually be able to:

• describe the audience demographics;
• tell you about the level of knowledge in your audience;
• warn you of any taboo topics or themes; and
• explain the purpose of the event and how your presentation fits into it.

Arrange to meet in person, if possible, as this will likely reap the most information. If not, then a phone call or email can suffice.

3. Interview audience members.

Your audience members aren’t (usually) as accessible as your event organizer. If possible, however, try to interview 2 or 3 people from your audience.

Individual audience members may not be able to provide the demographic details you seek, but they will obviously be a wonderful source of information about what the audience knows and what they do not know. Asking direct questions like “What do you hope to take away from this session?” will prove invaluable to you as you prepare.

4. Survey your audience members.

An informal survey could be as simple as emailing a number of the audience members (something to do in lieu of a direct interview).

A formal survey can be used to gather responses to both closed questions (e.g. yes/no; multiple choice) and open questions (“What do you think about…?”) Numerous easy-to-use websites can help you do this.

For example, I frequently use Google Drive (previously called Google Docs) to create pre-event audience surveys. I used the same tool to create the Six Minutes Readers’ Survey.

When surveying your audience members before your talk, remember:

• Ask only focused questions relevant to your presentation; and
• Keep the survey short. Your audience is busy; respect their time.

5. Poll people similar to your audience.

If you can’t communicate directly with audience members, you can sometimes infer quite a bit from other surveys and polls where the participants share key demographic characteristics with your audience members.

For example, suppose you are speaking to an audience of parents about parenting. (This is likely to be a very diverse group, but they all share the most important characteristic — being a parent!) Surveys conducted by parenting magazines may prove to be valuable. Or, you can poll parents other than those who will be attending your presentation.

6. Study past event archives.

If you are speaking at a recurring event, you may be able to learn quite a bit by studying archived event information (e.g. old event videos) or talking to past attendees or previous speakers.

For example, I’ve never been to a TED conference in my life. Having seen countless TED talks on video, however, I have a pretty good idea about the nature of the talks and the audience.

7. Review current event materials.

If your event is being advertised, the marketing materials may provide clues as to what is important to your audience.

For example, suppose you are attending a conference which has chosen the theme “Innovation”. Your presentation will soar if you can incorporate this theme in a meaningful way.

8. Make observations at the event itself.

You can use the time before you speak to gather information on your audience. At this point, you can’t make large changes to your content, but you might be able to tweak a few key words or phrases to adapt to your audience.

9. Make observations during your presentation.

If your presentation is lengthy (e.g. an all-day seminar), then you may be able to analyze your audience early in the session, and then fine tune your material later in the session.

More likely, however, observations taken during your presentation will not allow you to substantially alter your content or delivery. But, they can help you for your next presentation!

For example, in courses that I teach, I frequently make notes about the specific questions and the types of questions that are asked.  These questions help me better understand where my audience has knowledge gaps, and where they would like to see more emphasis. I then use this knowledge to iteratively improve my courses for next time. (Note that I’m assuming my audience has a similar background from one course to the next.)

How much audience analysis is necessary?

It depends.

• For an impromptu speech, your audience analysis might be simply observing your audience, making a few educated assumptions, and going for it.
• For a very short speech like a class presentation or a routine presentation within your department, your audience analysis might consist of 15-30 minutes at the beginning of your speech preparation.
• For a longer presentation or one where the stakes are quite high, your audience analysis may take several days or more and require assistance from others.

Like all speech preparation tasks, your audience analysis should scale according to the importance of the speech.

Don’t skimp on the time you devote to audience analysis. The time you invest in audience analysis will save you time later on preparing your speech, and make you more effective when you present.

Next in this Series…

In the next article of this series, we look at how to incorporate what you learn to improve your presentations.

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Making eye contact with an audience is one of the most terrifying things about presenting a speech in public. Because it’s scary and difficult, several myths about eye contact exist to help us cope with our fears. These myths swirl around meeting rooms, conference halls, Toastmasters clubs, and classrooms, and if you listen closely, you might hear presenters whispering them to one another.

Unfortunately, none of these myths help a presenter’s delivery.

In this article, you will learn why these myths don’t work, and discover how you can move toward effective eye contact instead.

Myth #1: Above the audience

What’s the myth?

When I ask my students if they have heard any eye contact tricks, the first “tip” they bring up is to look at the back of the room. Instead of meeting the eyes of the audience, the first myth suggests that you should avoid eyes altogether and instead focus on a space on the back wall… above the audience’s heads.

Why is it wrong?

When I teach my students, I look each of them in the eyes during class time. When we talk about this specific eye contact myth, I demonstrate why it does not work by shifting my gaze from directly at them to a point at the back of the room. Whether I am presenting to a classroom with 6 or 60 students, they can all see the difference. They can tell that I am not looking at anyone because I am looking over the heads of the audience members.

No matter my motivations for following the myth — whether I’m afraid or disinterested – my delivery appears aloof and distant to my audience.

What should I do instead?

Often, an unprepared speaker will look up when he or she is searching for something to say. Unprepared presenters tend to look away from an audience for a large portion of their speech. Content should be well prepared in advance so that a speaker is focusing on delivery, as opposed to the message, on speech day.

How can you feel comfortable with your content so that you can focus on your audience during your presentation? Preparation and practice will go a long way. Nancy Duarte advises us to spend 36-90 hours preparing for a one-hour presentation. Scott Schwertly advises practicing a speech at least 8 times. Significant preparation and practice before the presentation means that on speech day, we can focus on delivery and eye contact.

Of course, you don’t have to spend your entire presentation staring into the eyes of your audience. Looking up, looking around the room, or looking away from your audience is absolutely fine. Just make sure you are meeting their eyes for most of your presentation.

Myth #2: Below the audience

What’s the myth?

You should look directly at your audience during your entire speech, because only liars avert their eyes and look around the room.

Why is it wrong?

Psychologists have determined that liars engage in more eye contact, not less.

During a presentation, most of us tend to look away from our audience because we’re afraid or nervous — not because we’re lying. If we accept the second eye contact myth, we believe looking down at our notes signals dishonesty or weakness. This is problematic because most of us need our notes to help keep our speech organized and on track. Refusing to look away from the audience can be damaging for the presenter.

What should I do instead?

Looking away from your audience once in a while during a presentation isn’t negative. You do not have to look at your audience for 100% of your presentation. Instead of forcing your eyes to remain on your audience, realize that it is okay to look down at your notes. It’s also okay to get a drink of water, to pick up a prop, to fix a technical issue, or to gather your thoughts. The key to strong eye contact is to remember that most of the time, your eyes should be focused on your audience.

It is true, though, that you do not want to write your entire speech out because you will be tempted to look down and to read from that script when presenting. Reading your speech is terrible. Instead, use an outline. Write only your main points and list them in bullet point fashion. You can also use note cards and write one main point on each card. This technique will help push you to meet the eyes of your audience but will ensure you have your content outlined just in case you need to fall back on it.

Myth #3: Wrong body part

What’s the myth?

If you’re afraid to look at your audience in the eye, look at their foreheads or at the top of their heads. This will help you avoid meeting their eyes, but they will think you’re looking at them.

Why is it wrong?

Imagine a one-on-one conversation with a co-worker. We can see and feel a difference when that person looks us in the eye versus when that person looks away – at the top of our head, down at our attire, or at our feet. People can tell when you’re looking at them and when you are not.

Looking at different body parts of your audience can be perceived as inappropriate. For example, you wouldn’t want to look at the legs or chest of an audience member. It is also confusing to your audience if you are looking at foreheads, shoulders, hands, or the space between two people.

What should I do instead?

Audiences want to feel a connection with speakers, and the only way to connect with someone is to look that person in the eye.

Eye contact is one of the most important elements of delivery. There is no “trick” to make this easy. It’s hard, and we’ve got to learn to stomach the butterflies and get over it. Look at your audience in the eyes. It’s scary. It’s hard. Do it anyway.

Instead of buying into myths or gimmicks, we must realize that delivery is difficult and cannot be achieved through shortcuts. We must also understand the basic goal of delivery during a presentation. The heart of delivery is an authentic, natural connection with an audience. If you focus on the hard work that comes with overcoming your public speaking fear and presentation anxiety, and if you put in the hours of necessary preparation and practice time, you will be able to focus on delivery — and especially on eye contact — the next time you present.

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Six Minutes weekend reviews bring the best public speaking articles to you.

This review features topics including:

• top presentation books;
• speech outline for demo speeches;
• organizing your speech around a story;
• emphasizing and sharpening your points;
• dealing with hecklers;
• and more!

Recently on Six Minutes

Our recent articles have received a great response. Thanks for all the wonderful feedback!

• Presentation Timing: 5 Tips to Stay on Time and Avoid Audience Wrath
  Advice to help you plan well and react on-the-fly to stay on time.
• Speech Analysis: Franklin Roosevelt’s Pearl Harbor Address
  Emphasizes how choosing words carefully enhances your message.
• Top 35 Presentation Books: Expert Ratings
  Results from a survey of speaking experts concerning the top books for content, delivery, and visuals.
• How to Master the Demonstration Speech
  A simple template for effective demonstration speeches.
• How the Grinch Stole PowerPoint
  A parody of the Dr. Seuss’ classic in which the Grinch steals PowerPoint from speakers on Conference Eve. [It's flattering to hear from readers who say they are reading this poem at their holiday parties at the office or at Toastmasters.]

Speechwriting

• Christopher Witt describes how to organize your speech as a story.

The story structure that works best is also the simplest one. It has two variations.

1. If you’re reporting on something that has already occurred (e.g., a discovery that has been made, an innovation that has been developed, an initiative that has been implemented), you can frame your story as “A Journey from Point 1 to Point 2 and How We Got There.”
2. If you’re recommending a future course of action (e.g., a research project to be undertaken, an innovation to be developed, an initiative to be implemented), you simply change the verb tense: “A Journey from Point 1 to Point 2 and How We Can Get There.”

• Tom Searcy provides tips for focusing on your audience and their needs.

Almost all of our clients turn up with the wrong information: 40 slides of bullet points listing the company statistics, capabilities, products, geographies, processes, systems and awards. This is all in an attempt to answer the question: “So… What do you do?”

But in reality, even though the prospect may have actually asked the question out loud (and many do), they don’t really care about any of that. Frankly the question they are trying to answer–but probably don’t verbalize–is, “What’s in this for me?”

Delivery Techniques

• Denise Graveline lists 9 techniques to emphasize your points.

Writers have highlighters. Mailers have express delivery. But what do speakers have to emphasize the points they’re trying to make? The answer: At least 9 tools to underscore their arguments, data and other key points.

PowerPoint and Visuals

• Gavin McMahon shows how to sharpen your point on a slide.

Every slide has a point. Even the bad ones. If you don’t make one, people will assume one. So half the battle in building slide decks, (and creating compelling messages) is figuring out what the point really is.

• Nolan Haims explains how to use gradient boxes to improve text contrast.

One of my favorite techniques in PowerPoint is to place a semi-transparent gradient box over full-page imagery. This is a way of “editing” the photo to make it fade out on an edge or to reduce the opacity over a part of the image and to allow for the placement of text on top of it.

Speaker Habits

• Claire Duffy offers advice for dealing with hecklers.

The most normal kind of interruption comes when you are  in some kind of official ‘controller’ capacity, as a discussion leader,  facilitator or panel moderator, and a speaker talks over you, or over another panellist. These interruptions, while often in the pursuit of a good point or a worthwhile discussion, shift the balance of power, and put the interrupter in charge. You need to get that role back. Depending where you are it can be tricky – the social dynamic  may need to be carefully navigated.

Resources for Speakers

• Nick Morgan suggests iPad apps for speakers.

I love the iPad for presenting.  I use it to create my notes, and then put them up on the comfort monitors in front of me but hidden from the audience. Or, if there are no monitors, then the iPad itself does the job, and allows me to keep an eye on the clock so that I end on time. I also use the iPad to show video.

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Last week, we published a list of the Top 35 Presentation Books based on expert ratings.

As my daughter looked at that article over my shoulder, I began thinking about the books I like reading to her the most. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss is definitely a favorite this time of year.

Inspired by the good Dr. Seuss (and since it has been too long since the 12 Days of Public Speaking Christmas), I offer this PowerPoint parody to you. I hope you enjoy it.

How the Grinch Stole PowerPoint, by Six Minutes

Every presenter at the conference liked speaking a lot…
But the Grinch, who preferred email and reports, did NOT!

The Grinch hated speaking — the whole act of presenting!
Now, please don’t ask why he was so unrelenting.
It could be that his head wasn’t screwed on quite right.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
But I think the main reason for his lack of brain fiber
May be that he wasn’t a Six Minutes subscriber!

But, whatever the reason — his head or his sneakers –
He stood there on Conference Eve, hating the speakers,
Staring down from his cave with sour, Grinchy gloom
At the warm lighted projectors below in their room.
For he knew every speaker at the conference, sure enough,
Was busy now, adding more PowerPoint fluff.

For tomorrow, he knew, each woman and man,
Would deliver their slides according to plan.
And then, oh, the bullets! Oh the big round black bullets!
That’s one thing he hated: those big round black bullets.

The speakers, young and old, would then start to talk!
And they’d talk! And they’d talk! And they’d talk, talk, talk, talk!
They would talk about this, and they’d talk about that,
Mostly reading their bullets, boring to look at.

Then the audience would do something he liked least of all!
Every audience member, the tall and the small,
Would rise from their chairs where they were all napping,
They’d put their hands up and politely start clapping.

They’d clap, and they’d clap. And they’d clap, clap, clap, clap!
And the more the Grinch thought of this nap and this clap…
The more the Grinch thought, “I must end all of that!
Why, for fifty-three years I’ve put up with it now!
I must stop the conference from starting… but how?”

Then he got an idea!
An awful idea!
The Grinch got a wonderful awful idea!

“I know just what to do!” The Grinch laughed in his throat.
And he made a quick janitor’s hat and a coat.
And he chuckled and clucked, and laughed a great belly laugh:
“With this coat and this hat, I look like cleaning staff!”

Then the Grinch jumped in his van with his mops and his brooms
Toward the hotel and all its dim conference rooms.
He parked in the back near the dark service gate,
And he slipped through the doors where they loaded the freight.

All their laptops were dark. Quiet fans filled the air.
All the speakers were dreaming sweet dreams without care.
When he came to the very first laptop charging there.

Then he slithered and slunk up and down on his trek
Around the whole room, deleting every PowerPoint deck!
Gone were the bullets, both the big and the small,
Gone were transitions, gratuitous and all.
Gone were every 3-dimensional pie chart
Gone were the light bulbs and other clip art.
All were deleted – there’d be no more clicks.
The backups went too, right off memory sticks.

Then (to be thorough) he deleted Keynote files too
Off the iMacs, and iPads, and those iPods – “Adieu!”
You would think that these actions would have sufficed,
But then he stole every single electronic device.

Then he found all the briefcases, purses and totes,
And proceeded to shred every last page of notes.
“No more reading out loud, no more eyes looking down,
They’ll be scared if they’re forced to look at the crowd!”

Then, he did the same thing in the other conference rooms.
All while pushing around his fake cleaning-up brooms.

He left the hotel, and sat out in his van
Giggling and smirking, with his ears up to scan.
“Pooh-pooh to the speakers” he was Grinch-ish-ly humming.
“They’re finding out now that no conference is coming.”

“They’re just waking up! I know just what they’ll do!
Their mouths will hang open a minute or two.
Then all the conference speakers will all cry ‘Boo-hoo!’”

“That’s a noise,” grinned the Grinch, ”that I simply must hear!”
So he paused. And the Grinch put a hand to his ear.
And he did hear a sound rising from the hotel.
It started in low. Then it started to swell…

But the sound wasn’t sad! Why, this sound sounded merry!
It couldn’t be so! But it WAS merry! VERY!

He peeked in at the conference. The Grinch popped his eyes!
Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise!

Every speaker at the conference, the tall and the small,
Was speaking! Without any PowerPoint at all!
They were making their points and being quite persuasive.
Their message was sticking and being quite pervasive.
He hadn’t stopped presentations at all. They came!
Somehow or other, they came just the same!

And the Grinch, from his brain right down to his toe,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?
It came without projectors with lecterns to the sides!
It came without PowerPoint bullets on slides.”

And he puzzled three hours, ‘till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe presenting,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a slide.”
“Maybe presenting… perhaps… comes from passion inside.”

And what happened then…? Well, at the conference they say
That the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day!
And the minute his heart didn’t feel quite so small,
He entered the building and walked down the hall.
Then he waited for the speaker to finish and pause…
And he — he himself — the Grinch led the applause.

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The demonstration speech is one of the fundamental types of presentations.

Demo speeches are ubiquitous. They are assigned to students in high school and college. They are a staple in corporate and other adult training environments. They are among the most common speeches given in Toastmaster clubs.

Due to the popularity of this speech form, the well-rounded speaker must master the demonstration speech. Despite this, many speakers don’t know the basics to delivering an effective demonstration speech. Do you?

In this article, we present a demonstration speech outline which gives the best chance for success, and discuss the necessary elements for a great demo speech.

Definition: The Demonstration Speech

A demonstration speech is a form of informative speech where the speaker’s primary purpose is to teach the audience how to complete a task (or process), and this is largely accomplished by demonstrating the task (or process) through a series of steps.

Demonstration speech topics are numerous, including all of the following:

• How to prepare a recipe (as in standard cooking shows)
• How to operate a software application
• How to tie a knot
• How to calculate a mortgage payment
• How to swim the back stroke
• How to process a purchase order
• How to throw a frisbee
• How to compose a photograph
• How to line dance
• How to write a limerick
• How to set up a blog
• How to make origami
• and many, many more

The Demonstration Speech Outline

Just as there are many demonstration speech topics, there are many ways to organize a demonstration speech. You will rarely go wrong, however, if you apply this basic speech outline:

1. Start with why
2. Give a brief overview of the entire process
3. Go through the steps, one-by-one
   • For each, describe it, then show it
4. (Optional) Discuss options, extras, or variations
5. Allow time for Q&A
6. Summarize briefly

1. Start with why

A demonstration speech is about training the audience to perform a task or complete a process. Just as with any educational task, it helps tremendously if your audience is motivated to learn.

This is why it’s important to tell your audience how they will benefit from the knowledge you are about to share. Once your audience knows why they are learning this new task, they will be motivated to learn.

Will learning this new task or process help your audience:

• Earn or save money?
• Earn a promotion?
• Build their range of skills?
• Save them time?
• Make their life easier?
• Provide enjoyment or satisfaction?
• Make them happy?

There are many ways to motivate your audience, but one of the best ways is to open with a story. Paint a picture of how their life will improve with this new knowledge.

2. Give a brief overview of the entire process

Before you dive too deep in the details, it is essential to present an overview of the overall task or process.

• A brief, high-level overview of the steps involved provides a mental framework for the audience upon which they can hang the details as you provide them later in the speech.
• When learning a new task, some people in your audience will fear that it is complicated. An early overview assures your audience that it is not overly complex. For example, “We’re going to discuss how to cook a quiche in just four easy steps…”
• If you fail to present an outline, it’s difficult for your audience to see how the steps will fit together later on. The audience won’t have the necessary context.

A great way to present the overview is with a diagram illustrating the steps of the task at a high level. You can refer to this diagram throughout.

Along with the overview, you should also list the prerequisites needed for the task, and any assumptions you are making. For example, what is needed before one begins this task? What supplies or resources are assumed?

3. Go through the steps, one-by-one

From a speaker’s perspective, one of the best things about a demonstration speech is that the core of your outline is prepared for you: you simply need to go through the steps of the task in sequential order.  (Occasionally, you may decide to present the steps in a different way, but be sure to let your audience know that you are breaking a convention.)

Keep the series of steps as simple as possible. Break the process down to the most essential steps that will lead your audience successfully from start to finish. There’s no “best” number of steps, but keep the number of steps as low as possible. Don’t present a 19-step process unless your goal is utter confusion.

Defer optional steps for later in your presentation (or, for the Q&A). It is best to avoid complicating matters on the first pass.

For each step, you should:

• Explain the purpose of the step (why is this step necessary)
• Explain the step in simple, straightforward language (what needs to be done)
• Show how to complete the step (how should it be done)

4. (Optional) Discuss options, extras, or variations

Now that your audience has seen the task or process demonstrated from start to finish, you can (if time permits) provide some additional options or variations.

For example, if you are explaining how to cook a certain recipe, start with the basic version first. After that’s done, you can discuss alternate ingredients, different flavours to try, and other ways to build on the basic recipe.

5. Allow time for Q&A

Many types of speeches benefit from taking questions from the audience and answering them, and a Q&A session is particularly well-suited for a demonstration speech. This allows the audience to seek clarification on any of the steps which were unclear.

Depending on your topic and the forum in which you are speaking, you may choose to take questions at the end, or you may invite questions throughout your demonstration. Either way, monitor your time.

6. Summarize briefly

Finally, you should summarize the process briefly, and recap the benefits which your audience will realize if they perform the desired process or task.

How to Elevate Your Demonstration Speech

Once you’ve mapped your topic onto the basic speech outline given above, there are many ways that you can elevate the quality of your content and the manner in which you present it to maximize the effectiveness for your audience:

A. If you can, get audience members doing it.

Your options for audience participation are often determined by how long your presentation is, the setting in which the demonstration takes place, and the availability of supplies which can be shared by the audience.

Having said this, it’s great if you can get the audience participating in the demonstration. Actively engaging the audience and having them perform the steps will improve the likelihood that they will remember the steps and be able to carry out the task or process independently long after your presentation.

If the situation doesn’t allow for you to involve the whole audience, try to get one or more audience members to help you out as volunteers.

B. Visuals are critical for a demonstration speech.

Nearly every demonstration speech can be made better by incorporating appropriate visuals to accompany your verbal descriptions and instructions.

You have many options:

• Your body is often the best visual.
  If your speech is about some physical task to perform (e.g. throwing a ball), then the most important visual is your own body. You can demonstrate each of the steps individually, and “animate” the process at various speeds to enhance the demonstration.
• Physical props make it real.
  There are two main types of props: “real” and models. Real props include the actual objects that are used when performing the task. Models include both “fake” versions of the real objects, as well as scaled-down versions.
• Use photographs or diagrams as necessary.
  If your body and props aren’t sufficient, use photographs and diagrams. As you present these, it sometimes helps to immerse yourself in the photograph or diagram to animate the action that would be involved.

Whatever visuals you choose to include, be sure that your audience can easily see them. If they cannot see your visual (if it is too small, or their view is obscured), their understanding will suffer.

C. Extend your demonstration by providing follow-up resources.

A single demonstration — whether it be a 5-minute speech, or a 5-hour training session — is often not enough to guarantee that the new knowledge is learned perfectly. To improve the likelihood that your audience will successfully practice the task or process, it helps to provide resources they can use after your demonstration is complete.

This includes (but is not limited to):

• Websites, books, pamphlets, or other expert sources which they can consult for deeper information, or more advanced training.
• Handouts you prepare which summarize the steps in the process, as well as diagrams or photographs which illustrate key details.
• Contact details so your audience can ask questions in the future as they try to apply the knowledge you have imparted.

What do you like or dislike about demonstration speeches?

Do you have any tips to share about how to give an excellent demonstration speech?

Or maybe you’ve witnessed some particularly good or bad demo speeches?

Please share in the comments.

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