Use the Presentation Compass to keep your audience engaged

Many years ago, my son’s senior school invited us to a parents’ evening with a twist – it was to feature a presentation afterwards from an Olympic rower. We wandered the corridors of the school, lost like all the other mums and dads. Eventually, having waiting for ‘Johnny’s’ embarrassed parents to finish as he was being given a right rollocking, we got three minutes with our Jack to find out how he’d been getting on.

Then, it was on to the school hall, where parents and kids sat as the rower was introduced to huge applause. I forget his name (there’s a reason for that). He spoke for an hour, and I realised two things – this man could row, but present he could not. If I tell you that started off talking about his blue canoe, then his red canoe with the longer handles, and then explained that the blue canoe offered a slightly better shine, you are catapulted to where I was. Add to this his monotone voice, robot body status, and a general lack of personality… and I was bored out of my mind, disengaged and praying that Johnny would press the fire alarm for fun. He didn’t. Damn. Not even when I slipped him a tenner.

The rower knew his stuff, had got the t-shirt and was clearly excelling in his field, yet his content was boring, and he was not engaging.

Let’s look at the second part together – engagement. We have all been guilty of ‘just doing another presentation’ and slipping into talking at the audience with the content we want to share after days spent writing all the damn slides. Engagement is about how you engage first with your presentation. If you’re monotone, don’t move, and aren’t engaging, then it is likely that the audience won’t engage either.

The good news is that we can significantly improve our engagement by using the ‘Presentation Compass’. A simple model that will hopefully nag at you to make at least one change when you present next. Imagine a compass:

• North: Increase your volume – get louder.
• South: Decrease your volume – get quieter.
• East: Decrease your rate of words per minute.
• West: Increase your rate of words per minute.
• Centre: Pause.
• North east: Use your hands more.
• South west: Use your hands less.

Use the presentation compass to be more engaging, even if you own a shiny blue canoe!