Presentations are one of the most important skills of the modern world. So, with so much advice on offer, how do we decide what is the best advice to take?

 

The Great Presentation Scandal

– John Townsend

Golden nuggets

"The basic reason why most presentations fail is that the speaker hasn’t asked ‘Why?’
Business presenters should ask themselves ‘Why?’ seven times before speaking".

For example – "Why should I present? Why should the audience be interested, why do they need to know?"

Our favourite quote

Visual Valium "Just about every visual aid that I’ve ever seen during a management presentation seemed to be designed to send me to sleep – a kind of visual valium. PowerPoint Prozak! Too many word; too busy; no attempt to use space properly; no images; little or no colour. After a couple, I simply can’t keep my eyes open."

Our Rating **** (4 out of 5)

Review This is the style of management book that I like. Easy to read and short enough that you can get through on a train journey. This is one in a series of Management Pocketbooks. It exposes the great presentation scandal – the fact that in most companies most presentations are boring and tie up a huge amount of time and resource – often for very little benefit. This is mainly due to ignorance, tradition and failing to ask the question ‘Why?’ It is quite thought provoking and starts to challenge our assumptions about why we present. It provides a number of useful tips about how to plan out the presentation as well as a number of vehicles for delivering the presentation.