Movies on appliedthinking

Sometimes I get confused between when my gut is telling me to do something (or make a particular decision) and when it is my head. Case in point: Tuesday evening I was asked to speak at a local entrepreneur group near my home town. Weeks ago, and in preparation, I purchased the book Presentation Zen. Even though it just came out, this book had been on my “gotta read it” list for some time. In it, Garr Reynolds gives some basic, no nonsense advise about preparing for presentations. Things like:

• Be concise
• Be enthusiastic when you speak
• And know the answer to this: What is my absolutely central point?

Not rocket science by any means, but certainly stuff it’s healthy to be reminded of. The entire book is filled with insights like this, but more so it provides a really great method for thinking about speaking and preparing presentations (so go out and buy this book now!).

Somewhere in the text, or between the lines, Reynolds creates the impression that a great presentation is half method/preparation and half the not-so-simple task of knowing your self. I think he specifically talks about unleashing the creativity we all have, but I equate this to knowing thy self - knowing your abilities and bounds free you to think creatively within those limits.

With that in mind, I certainly didn’t listen to my gut nor did I leverage my personal strengths to their fullest extent for this presentation. What was my gut saying? It was telling me to go in with the single slide above. No multi-slide presentation, just a simple one that would leave me with the ability to speak about my passions and riff on a subject. This is what I do best (I think): listen to my audience and tailor my conversation directly to them. No detailed outline and step-by-step dialog to get in the way.

But no…my head told me that I needed more slides by way of introduction of me and Spout to my audience. As a result, I talked more about the details of Spout, had problems following my slide progression and talked less about what I really wanted to discuss. This doesn’t mean the presentation wasn’t a success. But it certainly wasn’t as good as I could have made it. Next time, I’ll listen to myself AND my gut.

Anyone need a speaker?

Tags: presentation-zen,, garr-reynolds,, garr