I recently received an e-mail from a Communi-keys reader who was planning his first major presentation for senior management at his company. He said he was floundering a bit and asked for any tips I might give him. I gave him a broad overview of the 5-step process I teach in my presentation skills workshops, and since I thought it might also benefit other Communi-keys readers, I’m repeating it here.

Step 1: Define your objective. Complete the following statement: “At the end of this presentation, I want …”, drilling down until you find your own true, meaningful objective. What do you want your audience to do, to think, to know, to feel, to believe as a result of your presentation? What reaction do you want from your audience? When you know that, you’ll have the hook on which to hang your message.

Step 2: Analyze the audience. Your knowledge of the people to whom you are presenting will help you use the right language and frame your message in the most persuasive way. Do you know them and do they know you? Are they familiar with the subject matter? What are their demographics, i.e. age, gender, culture etc.? Are they likely to ask questions? The more you know about the audience, the more you can tailor your presentation.

Step 3: Formulate your strategy. Your strategy is the approach you will take, based on objective and audience. Do you need to do anything before the presentation, perhaps to make sure key players are on side? Will you focus on logic (for IT people, for example) or use emotional appeals (perhaps for sales people)? Will you give them lots of statistics or rely on words? Can you use humour? How will you organize your material?

Step 4: Create the content. First, create your ending, based on your objective. Next, create an opening that will catch the audience’s attention and give them a reason to listen. Finally, build the body. Break the content into bite-size pieces, and resist the temptation to tell them everything you know. People can only absorb so much information.

Step 5: Rehearse! Rehearse! Rehearse! Rehearse the whole presentation, timing each segment so that you can correctly allocate the time you are given to present your message. Remember, a superficial glance over your notes and a guess at timing is not nearly as helpful to you or your audience as a proper rehearsal, so please don’t skimp on this step.

Used well, this simple process can form the basis of any presentation you must make.

If you would like to explore having me deliver this workshop at your organization, please give me a call at 416-966-5023 or drop me a line by e-mail at hwilkie@mhwcom.com

In my last post I promised to write about creating an outline for a longer written message. This could be a report, a letter, a memo or any other document that will be longer than a couple of pages. Starting to write such a piece without an outline is like setting off on a journey to a strange place without a map.

If you like to map out your content on your computer, try the outline function of Microsoft Word. If you take time to do it effectively, typing your draft is like pouring jelly into a mold.

However, I use a different, more low-tech method of creating an outline. I teach it to my students and I use it myself. Here’s a broad summary of how it works.

Step 1: brainstorming. Take a pad of Post-It Notes™, and jot down phrases that describe any ideas you will include. Use one note for each, and keep them in the original pad. Do this whether you are pulling the ideas from your head or consulting a file or research notes.

Step 2: organize. Separate your note sheets into groups by subject matter. Stick them on letter-size sheets, one sheet for each topic. Spread the sheets out in front of you and lay the sticky notes on the appropriate pages until you have none left in the pad.

Step 3: label. Write a title (which will become a heading) on each page to identify the topic of the section.

Step 4: review. Check to see that all the sticky notes are in the correct section. If not, simply move them around until they are.

Step 5: order. Put the sheets in the order they will appear in the final communication.

Step 6: draft. Now you are ready to write your first draft. As you elaborate on each point, take that sticky note off the sheet and throw it away. As long as you have a sticky note on the page, you still have something to write on that subject. When the last one is gone, your draft is done.

This method helps eliminate writer’s block, and enables you to write a first draft that’s ready for the important final step: editing.

These steps form part of my own DESIGN IT™ method of writing reports. Report writing, including DESIGN IT™, is one complete module in my Business Writing Course on CD, in which I illustrate exactly how to create well-written reports that communicate their message effectively.

A common complaint from people in my writing workshops is that they take too long to write drafts. My experience tells me the main reason for this is that they write and edit at the same time. Writing and editing are two distinct functions and should be kept separate.

Because we are working on computers, it’s easy to write a couple of sentences, read them over and go back to make changes. However, this is not good practice. When you do this, you’ll get stuck trying to find the right word, you’ll take twice as long to write your draft as you need to and you’ll end up frustrated.

The purpose of a draft is to get your thoughts down on paper or on the computer screen. Don’t concern yourself about the finer points of sentence or paragraph structure, or even punctuation. All these can be corrected and improved when you are editing your finished draft. Simply follow your outline, typing your ideas in as you come to them. What, you don’t have an outline?? Well that’s a subject for another post — let’s wait till next week for that.

When you have all the points in your outline down, print your draft and put it away for a while. If you can, leave it until next day. If you can’t do that, at least do something else and take a break from it for a while. The reason is that if you start editing right after you finish your draft, you’ll come to it with the same mindset as you had when you wrote it, and you won’t easily see how to improve it. If you leave it for a while, though, the editing process will be much easier.

So in writing your draft, take the advice of the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, “Start at the beginning and when you get to the end — stop.”

And please take my advice too, “When drafting — don’t edit, don’t edit, don’t edit!”

By the way, if you’d like to know more about report writing, you might enjoy my audio program, “10 Minutes for $10 on Report Writing the DESIGN IT™ Way”.

Today’s issue of The Globe and Mail (for readers outside Canada, this is Canada’s leading business newspaper) contains an op-ed piece headed Too smart for our own good. The writer’s tongue-in-cheek premise is that we should punish the clever and reward the dumb, which he equates with those who can write and those who cannot write. I take issue with this connection.

As many readers know, one of my main services is conducting in-house business writing workshops for clients, often for participants who are highly educated, clever professionals. They are, however, often sadly lacking in the skills of business writing. This doesn’t make them stupid; it does, however, limit their ability to communicate effectively in writing. There’s nothing wrong with using instant messaging textspeak to connect socially with friends, but communicating in the workplace as part of the job demands more. Written messages must often be filed away as part of the business record, perhaps to be read many months or years down the road. They must, therefore, be able to carry the message independently of their present context, which requires that they be written in clear, concise business terms.

These skills have nothing to do with inherent intelligence. They are simply skills, and can be learned by anyone with the will and the opportunity to do so.

If your organization has highly intelligent people who could nonetheless benefit from improved business writing skills, give me a call at 416-966-5023 or drop me a line at hwilkie@mhwcom.com and let’s explore how I can help.

If you would prefer to improve your writing skills on your own, at your own pace and in private, have a look at my self-study course at http://www.business-writing-course-on-cd.com

Happy Writing!

“I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn’t wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.”—Bertrand Russell, author and philosopher