Nowadays the professional world we live in is demanding us to have great communication and presentation skills. As an employee, manager, teacher, trainer or professional communicator you need to sell your idea, explain a concept, sell your product and for doing that you need to be memorable. One of your objectives is that the audience remembers what you have explained to them. But how do we do this?
I still need to learn a lot in this area and what I have learnt is by practising and watching others doing it, reading and getting tips from professionals. So I thought if you want to improve this skill you might want to follow Matt Abraham´s advice:
Matt Abraham teaches Strategic comunication at Stanford University and he is a Communication coach.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2QLTdc2sTo
1.Sleep in remember more: this is a common sense advice and we all know that we need to make sure we eat right, sleep well and exercise. If we eat proteins and complex carbs, they will help us in memory formation and to retain ideas.You are more likely to recall information if you have had a good night sleep and also you will cope better with any speaking anxiety symptoms.
2.Make a roadmap before you build your presentation: your message needs to have a clear structure, if you don´t have it you can get lost and your audiences too, remember that people recall structured information 40% better than unstructured. You can use a sequential structure (1, 2, 3 etc) or the problem solution benefit structure, describing a problem and then detailing the solutions and after explaining the benefits of your approach.
3.Practicing out loud and standing up: the physical act of standing and speaking your presentation helps you to better remember what you intend to say. Mental rehearsal cements your message but physical practice prevents forgetting. When you rehearse you can use the chunking technique, this means you divide your presentation into distinct sections based on your structure (introduction, problem, solution, benefit, conclusion). After doing that you practice each section alone and then you begin to combine sections, you could practice first your conclusion followed by your introduction. This allows you to increase your familiarity with your speech without memorizing it. If you memorize only you are more focused on saying it right each time rather than communicating your message to your audience.
All of this advice is great but what do we do to make it memorable for those who listen to it?
The secret is to use 3 key tools– variation, relevance and emotion- this way you can help your audience to remember your content and call to action
4.Variation is the spice of life: the variety we talk about is the one that includes variation in your voice, visuals and evidence.
Vocal variety: adding variety in your volume and speaking rate helps to keep your audience engaged and motivates them to listen.
Evidence: if you favour only data evidence excluding others types (anecdotes, testimonials, definitions) you will not be compelling. So use multiple sources of evidence to reinforce your point.
Gestures and movements: your evidence can get distracted by your gestures and movements so record yourself giving the presentation and practice your walking and gestures.
Think visually: use google image search, type your idea and see what comes up rather than creating verbose slides, add images that you can use as helpful aid.
5.Relevance is key to memory: adjust your message to your audience´s needs, too often presenters introduce numeric data without context and relevance which makes it harder to understand. Try to use analogies, this way your new information will be linked to something they already know.
6.Emotion gets a response from audience: there is no need to be theatrical but we know that people remember emotional appeals much than factual ones, so work on having the emotional impact you desire. Emotions need to be authentic and credible. Even the most technical presentation can benefit, the best way of bringing emotions if focusing on benefits and implications.
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