Giving technical presentations to non-technical audiences; Part 3: magic questions.The interests of your non-technical audience will always be different from yours. You have been told to give a presentation on your project to people from different areas of the company. What is the first question you ask yourself? If you are like most people, it is: "What on earth am I going to tell them about it?" That question is the reason most presentations go off the rails. Why? Well, it sends the presenter straight to the subject of the talk to look for the most interesting or important details of it. And here is the sad part: The features that most fascinate the technical expert (you) are almost guaranteed to send the non-technical listeners (your audience) into loud, painful yawns. Say that your analysis of specks contaminating con·tam·i·nate tr.v. con·tam·i·nated, con·tam·i·nat·ing, con·tam·i·nates 1. To make impure or unclean by contact or mixture. 2. To expose to or permeate with radioactivity. adj. a recent sample of your company's top-selling paper showed a few of them to be bits of PQR PQR Procedure Qualification Record PQR Program Quality Review (educational institution assessment) PQR Personnel Qualification Record PQR Product Quality Report PQR Programa de Qualidade em Radioterapia (Portugese) instead of the usual XYZ XYZ interj. Informal Used to indicate to someone that the zipper of his or her pants is open. [ex(amine) y(our) z(ipper).] . This is most surprising to you, as it suggests the presence of certain unexpected minerals in the water used in pulping
How much do you think the sales representatives in your audience will care about these momentous mo·men·tous adj. Of utmost importance; of outstanding significance or consequence: a momentous occasion; a momentous decision. findings? Or the people from accounting? Gripping as they may be to you, the facts by themselves mean nothing to your listeners unless you can demonstrate how they affect their own lives and work. In fact, you can take it as given that the interests of your non-technical audience will always be different from yours. Those are the words that should guide you as you plan your talk. They will lead you to a different question. Instead of "What am I going to tell them about this?" you will ask, "What would they want to know about it?" ASK THE MAGIC QUESTIONS Put the subject of your presentation aside for a moment and focus exclusively on your potential audience. Who are they? What do they actually do? What departments do they represent? Why are they coming to your talk? Now select about five people from the audience. The number does not matter so much as the spectrum of interests they present. Try to get as broad a range as possible. One by one, imagine each of these people standing in front of you asking the following five questions: 1. What do you want to tell me? 2. Why does it matter to me? 3. How does it affect what I do? 4. How can it help me do my job better? 5. What do you want me to do with this information? If you answer these questions rigorously, in complete sentences, two things will happen. First, you will probably find that your answers to Questions 2 through 4 will cause you to modify your answer to Question 1, which will become the main message of your presentation. These subsequent questions may force you to sharpen sharp·en tr. & intr.v. sharp·ened, sharp·en·ing, sharp·ens To make or become sharp or sharper. sharp the focus of that main message or even to change it altogether if you cannot make it fit the interests of the listeners. Second, you will have the essence of a successful presentation in front of you. Your answers to your five listeners' questions will produce the core of an audience-driven presentation. Built on their interests and needs, it will naturally become a talk they will want to hear. THEIR LANGUAGE, NOT YOURS "That's all very well," you may be thinking. "But what if / have something I deeply want to tell these people, whether or not they want to hear it?" Our answer is simple. If you can show them that your message touches their lives, interests, work, or needs--positively or negatively--they will listen. If you can't, they won't won't Contraction of will not. won't will not won't will . Your challenge is to tell your story in their language. Next time, we will see how to begin doing just that. (Editor's Note Editor's Note (foaled in 1993 in Kentucky) is an American thoroughbred Stallion racehorse. He was sired by 1992 U.S. Champion 2 YO Colt Forty Niner, who in turn was a son of Champion sire Mr. Prospector and out of the mare, Beware Of The Cat. Trained by D. : Part 2 of this series appeared in the February February: see month. 2004 issue of Solutions! The next installment in the series is scheduled to be published in the June issue of Solutions!) ABOUT THE AUTHORS Cheryl and Peter Reimold have been teaching communication skills to engineers, scientists, and businesspeople for 20 years. Their latest book, The Short Road to Great Presentations (Wiley, 2003), is available in bookstores and from Amazon.com. Their consulting firm Noun 1. consulting firm - a firm of experts providing professional advice to an organization for a fee consulting company business firm, firm, house - the members of a business organization that owns or operates one or more establishments; "he worked for a , PERC PERC See: Preferred equity redemption stock Communications (phone: 1 914 725-1024, e-mail: perccom@aol.com), offers businesses consulting and writing services, as well as customized in-house In-house In the context of general equities, keeping an activity within the firm. For example, rather than go to the marketplace and sell a security for a client to anyone, an attempt is made to find a buyer to complete the transaction with the firm. courses on writing, presentation skills, and on-the-job communication skills. Visit their web site at www.allaboutcommunication.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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