How ever good you are at your job, your reputation, as a Trainer, will always find its way back to how you perform in the training room. You might be considered something of an authority in your chosen area of expertise. But if you can’t present information in an interesting, imaginative and involving way, your delegates are unlikely to ‘take it on board’; and, if they do, are likely forget it, anyway, when they leave the training room.
And so, is there a formula for a successful presentation? Let’s recognise that you must have the basic skills and knowledge to conduct an effective presentation; the ‘standard fare’ that’s served up on ‘Effective Presentations’ programs. However, I would like to share some tips with you that, I believe, will make your programs stand out from the rest.
Firstly, there is the training area itself; the space in which you are going to ‘work your magic’. When working with a Client, we don’t, always, get the opportunity to choose. We must work in the environment provided. I have conducted presentations in a real variety of places; from a builders’ hut to a 600-seater auditorium.
Above all, you must feel at ease in the atmosphere and ambiance of the training room. It has a powerful influence, for good or ill, on how you perform.
A general personal confidence is, of course, an essential prerequisite of your training role. However, your confidence and quality of performance is in direct proportion to your understanding of the presentation subject. Actually, ‘knowing your stuff’, sets you free. A good understanding of your subject means that you don’t have to be trapped, behind your notes, at the front of your delegate group. Being able to move about, in a wider teaching space, puts you in immediate and constant contact with your delegates.
What makes a really enjoyable program, for all concerned, is the element of surprise. For example, in the practical sessions of a recruitment and selection program, don’t submit your delegates to the artificial role play of interviewing each other. It takes very little effort and cost to bring in complete strangers. After all, that’s exactly what happens in real life.
A noteworthy reality ‘coup’ that we pulled off was on a residential management program that we ran for Financial Consultant Branch Managers, at a country house down in a Kent village. I wanted to create a ‘live’ setting for the ‘Effective Presentations’ segment of the program.
A couple of months before the program, I engaged the help of the local vicar. I explained that I wanted to bring a true sense of reality to the experience of conducting a presentation, for my delegates. I asked whether some of his parishioners might be prepared to attend a presentation on a new product being launched by my Client, in exchange for a £5 per head contribution to parish funds. I also arranged to hire the village hall for the presentation. He, readily, agreed.
On the day, 115 people turned up. We video-recorded delegates’ individual presentations and audience reactions. We, also, asked those attending to complete evaluation forms, on the delegates’ performances. The video material and written feedback provided the basis for an excellent debriefing and learning opportunities’ session, later.
An unexpected benefit, of the village hall presentations, was that nine of our invited parishioners, actually, applied for and, subsequently purchased the product presented, which was a fixed term investment bond. The exercise turned out to be, completely, self-funding, as well as, positively, validating the delegate group’s performance.
There are a number of other tips that I would have liked to have included here, but space did not permit.
‘Tune in, next time’
‘Presentation Skills’ is on our list of Training Package subjects, planned for future development.