Giving Feedback On A Presentation

I received a call to swing by someone's office and provide some feedback on a presentation that "is a lot like ones that you do!"

That got me interested so I leaped up and power walked over to this individuals office.  While I walked I reminded myself of my "Rules for Giving Feedback."

1. Very few people really want feedback - Most want you to tell them they are amazing.
2. When you find someone that actually wants your feedback DO NOT overwhelm them with 83 items.
3. Think two great items and one item that will improve the presentation
4. Finally, DO NOT talk about small things like where they put their hands, pacing, saying "uh" etc.  Give the individual something BIG that can really help them.

I arrived at the office and my colleague pulled up the presentation and started walking through it.  I looked at their face and saw how excited they were, which was my first clue on how much feedback to give and how blunt to be. (A tiny bit and be kind)

The presentation was very good and was on par with the principles of Presentation Zen  by Garr Reynolds.  I started talking about how exciting it was to see a fellow convert and how sharp the pictures were.  I asked, "How many total slides do you have?"  They answered, "28 right now."  I asked, "How long is the presentation?"  They said, "40 minutes."  

28 slides in 40 minutes is a filmstrip.  If the individual giving the presentation slows down at all they are going to fall behind, realize that they are behind, rush several slides and blow the end.

My rule is 10 slides per hour.

Yup! 10 SLIDES PER HOUR

I asked who was giving the presentation and found out it was someone I knew that did a very good job.  They told great stories and held the audience's attention.  

With all this data in my head I made my move with a question.

"Joe (not real name) is a great in front of an audience, why does he feel he needs the 8-10 slides with graph's and charts on them?"

This was my tiny attempt to warn my friend about the feedback that was coming.

"Well, they are in front of a crowd that sees them as an expert so this data will confirm that."

I said, "But they are already billed as the expert, so why don't we cut this down to 10 of the best slides and go with that?"

Their response was a teaching moment for me: "They are giving the presentation today, and we don't have time to change it.  Plus they like these charts and graphs."

I blew that - I should have asked one more question before giving some feedback.

I should have said, "This is really great. I enjoying working with people who understand the importance of building presentations that educate."

Then I would leave.

Instead I continued to blow it by saying, "Why don't you take the final chart, slim it down to it's most educational elements and use it, instead of using three slides that progressively add data?"

That comment flustered the individual and caused them to get defensive and repeat back to my why they created the presentation a certain way.

The Lesson


Before giving feedback ask enough questions to understand if you are in a true feedback environment.

Creating A Story Update

The other day I posted an entry entitled Creating A Story.  I wanted to give you an update about how the individuals in the crowd that day reacted.

A couple of days after the presentation I was talking to four or five folks about the Chick-Fil-A story I told.  One individual cut me off and said, "I knew it was Chick-Fil-A as soon as you said The Dwarf House."  Another said, "The Dwarf House?" "Yeah, like on the walls of the store when you go eat."

Someone else jumped in and said, "I knew it when he said Truett."

Yet another said, "I knew it when you mentioned Hapeville, GA near the Ford plant.  Did you know Truett Cathy bought the last Taurus that the plant built?"

The final person said, "I was thinking it was Chick-Fil-A when you mentioned that the business was closed on Sunday."

It was a fun conversation because the group was playing the "In the Know" game and was excited to talk about when they understood what restaurant I was talking about.  Notice also that they thought of the name of the restaurant at different times using different clues, and that they had additional details to throw into the group conversation that I rejected when I built the story.

Making your point with stories can be a blast if you are careful and work hard.

PowerPoint Bullets Kill

The New York Times ran an article this morning about the above PowerPoint slide.  It was used in a military briefing to "help" leadership see our current strategy in Afghanistan.

The Enemy is PowerPoint

Seth Godin then wrote a nice blog post about how bullet points are used by almost everyone in the same manner: poorly.

In order to break from the pack I have worked hard to do two things.

1) Use big pictures and very few words in PowerPoint or Keynote to make my points.  I use just enough to set the stage for the information or story I will tell.  This approach comes from the book Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds.

2) The second approach is voiced in Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson.  He takes a storyboard approach to scripting out your presentation.  This is very interesting as it helps you tell a visual story which really connects to the audience.  Levenger makes some nice desk pads for storyboarding.

So there you go - move away from the PowerPoint, reach out and learn some new ways to present information and don't forget, "You are the show, not the slides!"

New Hires - How to Handle Those Who Play "Stump The Chump"

The Situation

Today I presented a small seminar to a class of new hire financial advisors. I arrived about 45 minutes early so I could sit in the back of the room and learn a couple of things.

• Name of as many of the participants as possible. Everyone loves the sound of their own name.
• What type of questions are being asked, and who asks the most/least.
• Who is trying to dazzle their fellow advisors with all they know.
• Who is really trying to learn.

My colleague was up in the front of the room talking about how to treat clients in the first few minutes of the advisors first meeting. She was doing a nice job until the questions started to come.

"Can I start asking for the client to roll their assets to our firm in the first appointment? I saw a financial advisor in my office do this."

"Can I start presenting options or solutions that will help the client in the first meeting? The advisors in my office do this."

These questions are quite common as new hires try to balance what the learning folks are teaching, with what they see going on in their local offices.

The Solution

• Have you ever noticed that in today's corporate environment no answer is wrong? We must always start with, "That's a great question Tom, and you are right..." We never say, "That is totally wrong"
• Have you also noticed that the questioner will keep hammering away until you say "in rare cases you can do X or Y or Z." They then say, "so we can do that...great!" This blows the point you are trying to make. The individual is like a lawyer in court asking if it is possible for the sun to rise in the West. The individual on the stand has to say, "It's possible but not probable." Then the lawyer says, "so it is possible!"

Rather then go down these "rabbit holes" with class participants here are a couple of ways to stop the bleeding when this starts.

1. Whenever someone asks a question, have them attempt to answer it with their own experience. For example one class member asked "Should we have client's come to our office or should we go to theirs?". I said, "What is your experience in your local office?" The new advisor said, "Some advisors will do it once in awhile." I asked, "Under what conditions will they do this?" The advisor said, "When the client has a large account or when we need to show that we are flexible to win the business." I asked, "How often would that be?" The advisor said, "Rarely." I asked, "What is the cost to the rest of the business when you leave the office." The advisor said "when I am out of the office I am unavailable to handle the needs of all my clients." - The new advisor asked a question and by just asking a couple of questions in return, I was able to have him answer it. This avoids other members of the class piling on with their wild stories and one-time client meetings in out-of-the way places.
2. Keep the seminar moving and very focused - These questions come up when quick thinking folks have time to mentally wander. If your seminar or learning event is fast-paced you will keep the crowd focused on the learning and not on one-off situations.
3. Anticipate the questions and answer them as part of the seminar. "I know many of you may be tempted to say "yes" to a client that want's to meet at their home. This will only happen rarely and you need to weigh the cost in time and potential business lost with the assets/referrals the client could bring in."
4. Finally - You could also tell a story at the start of the seminar that emphasizes the importance of being crisp and precise when learning and then allowing best practices to creep in with experience.

Creating a Story

The Challenge


This past week I was tasked with creating a presentation that centered on melding business principles and moral values.  To start the presentation I needed a great story. I had just eaten at Chick-fil-A, and was inspired by the small portion of the company history that was printed on the bag.

Research


I went on the internet to look for the Chick-fil-A company story and found a good bit of information but not a super story line.  I like to try and find books that the founder has authored and ran across It's Easy to Succeed Than To Fail.  I did not have enough time to buy it and ship it to my house so I kept looking.

I finally found what I was looking for on a website called Funding Universe. I grabbed some chunks of material that represented the broad storyline.

"On May 23, 1946, 25-year-old Truett Cathy and his younger brother Ben opened a restaurant called the Dwarf House at 461 South Central Avenue in Hapeville, Georgia, a small town south of Atlanta. The Cathy brothers had begun the enterprise with $4,000 they were able to raise, partly by selling Truett's car, combined with $6,600 on loan from a bank, and for their money they had a restaurant only 50 feet wide and 150 feet deep--including the kitchen. To further enhance the difficulties facing them, the recent shift from a wartime to a peacetime economy had created supply problems that affected companies much bigger than their own."

"Ben went to fight in Europe, but Truett had relatively easy duty as a clerk, and never went further from home than Fort Lewis, Washington. Truett was discharged in 1944, and once Ben came home, the two brothers began to plan their future. They decided they would start a restaurant, and after spending some time as employees of a woman who promised to set them up in business but never did, they opened the Dwarf House.

Besides problems with supply, the Cathys had to deal with bureaucracy and other foibles, and they ended their first day with sales of $58.20--a modest beginning, but a beginning still. Most of their patronage came from employees of the nearby Ford plant, as well as the emerging Atlanta airport next to Hapeville, and many of these seemed to be repeat customers. The fact of this steady repeat clientele engendered in Truett an awareness of what would become a key element of Chick-fil-A's success: as he stated it in his 1989 book It's Easier to Succeed Than to Fail, "Word of mouth in the food business is more important than any other source of advertising. It's better to maintain your present customers than to spend a lot of time and expense replacing them with new ones."

"Another key element of the Chick-fil-A corporate identity was forged in those early days: the policy of operating six days a week, but "never on Sunday." The Dwarf House, in fact, was open 24 hours a day, but closed from midnight on Saturday night to midnight on Sunday night; and in more than five decades, the policy has not changed. In the beginning, Cathy said in a 1997 speech to the Newcomen Society, "it wasn't that we were holy--we were just tired!" But in fact Cathy's religious beliefs as a devout Christian informed not only this aspect of his business, which is based on the fourth of the Ten Commandments from the Bible, but many others. Yet Cathy did not set out to proselytize so much as to set an example: "I never intended to make a big issue out of being closed on Sunday," he told the Newcomen Society. "In fact, it always amazes me that other people bring up the subject so often." On a professional level, he has said, the policy helps him and his employees to stay fresh in body and soul, and thus it ultimately redounds to the company's benefit."

"In 1949, Ben Cathy was killed in a plane crash along with a third brother, Horace. Now Truett had to run Dwarf House on his own, and in 1951 he opened a second restaurant in the nearby town of Forest Park. For the next nine years, Cathy prospered as he and his wife Jeannette raised their family; then in 1960, another tragedy came when fire destroyed the Forest Park restaurant. "Without adequate insurance to rebuild the restaurant," Cathy said in his 1997 speech, "I faced some tough questions. Do I take a giant step back to just one restaurant, which would mean having to lay off employees? Do I incur more debt and rebuild the restaurant as it was? Or is it time for something new? I was convinced it was time for something new."

"Chick-fil-A Inc.  -- Company History." Connecting Angel Investors and Entrepreneurs. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2010. .

Narrow It Down


Here were the points I felt were important

• On May 23, 1946 a new restaurant called "The Dwarf House" opened in Hapeville, Georgia. It was 50X150.
• Hapeville is just North of the Atlanta-Hartsfield apart and very close to a Ford factory.
• The owners were two brothers named Truett and Ben.
• Business Principle - "Word of mouth in the food business is more important than any other source of advertising."
• First days receipts $58.20
• Moral Principle - "Being closed on Sunday helped them and their employees to stay fresh in body and soul."
• The brothers were not protected from death or fire
• Truett started franchising in 1967, and in 2009 his company, "Chick-fil-a" did over $3 Billion dollars in sales.
• 2 Brothers, 2 Values, 64 years of providing for their families and influencing their customers.

Rules for Storytelling

• Starting with the date and place allows the audience to check if they were alive, had ever been to the location and thus have some context for your story.  I had to look the town up, and call them to get the pronunciation of their town correct.  Once I did that I remember flying over the Ford Factory when I went in and out of Hartsfield.  If I remember that a couple of other people in the crowd will as well.
• Use the first names of the brothers.  Cathy is an unusual last night and might trigger "Chick-fil-A" before you build up the drama.
• Explain "The Dwarf House" as that is an interesting name, especially today.  
• I skipped the money the brothers gathered as you could lose your audience as they try and figure out if that was a lot of money, or a tiny bit of money in 1946.
• Don't mention Chicken anywhere yet
• Talk about the first business principle - that gets that crowd involved.  You could say something like, "they believed that word of mouth advertising about the cleanliness of their restaurant, the tastiness of the food, and how attentive the service was, would be the best possible advertising."  Anyone who has eaten out would agree
• $58.20 - No problem mentioning money here, we all know this isn't much for a days work, before expenses.
• Closed on Sunday - Bringing this in now creates some drama as the audience knows the brothers aren't making much and to shut down for 1/7th of the week would be a drain.
• Add in that being moral businessmen didn't get them a free pass, as Ben was killed a few years later and when Truett expanding to two restaurants, one burned down with little insurance.  
• Now the crowd feels like Truett is going to fail. No brother, no money, no second restaurant.
• Return to the business/moral principles, add hard work and "In 2009 Truett Cathy's restaurant, now called Chick-fil-A passed over $3 Billion dollars in sales." I had to find that number on their website.

The Conclusion


I used the "Narrow it Down" bullets to tell my story - I went over it about 20 times to get the story correct, the timing or pauses during the interesting parts of the story right, and to make sure I answered any questions that popped into my head as I heard the story out loud.

The story took about two minutes to tell and two hours to practice and create.  The payoff was that I had numerous people come up after the presentation with positive feedback.  Several wanted to let me know when they figured out it was Chick-fil-A.  Some wanted to let me know that they always love my stories, and some wanted to tell me how much they enjoyed the presentation.  I am looking to try and hold off the recognition for as long as possible, draw them into my presentation and have them walk away having learned something.

Presentations and the iPad

My iPad showed up on Saturday morning and I thought I would share how I am going to use it.

I would like for it to be my mobile brain while on business trips.  I will use the video's and books features while sitting in airports, hotels, and while dining alone.

When I visit with folks in an office here is what I envision.  I will use Evernote as my brain and store evaluation forms, items from my business toolkit, and articles and "fast facts" that can help individuals meet their goals.  I am putting together several quick hit presentations on Keynote in order to walk people through more difficult concepts, as most folks are visual learners.  I can follow up with an email containing the information from my iPhone.

I will also use Evernote in church to store manuals, talks and scriptures.

iPad Quick Hits

• It's heavy - My Kindle is much lighter (10 oz.)  I don't think it will be a problem but one-handed reading is a thing of the past, or at least I won't do it for long.
• The screen is glossy and gorgeous.
• iPad apps are amazing - I have Evernote, Flight Control, Keynote and iWork, iBooks, Kindle, IMDB, Bento, Netflix, Zinio, The NYTimes, USA Today and the WSJ.

The Secret Presentation Template

Today I am going to let you in on a presentation secret.  I recently had someone ask me how to prepare for a presentation and I provided the following template.

1. Start your presentation with what the audience is going to walk away with.  That means your challenge, your idea to make their lives easier, or your information. That should take one minute or less
2. Tell a story, create an analogy or use a quote to get the audience's attention
3. After the above, you should have the audience interested.  Start with the first of your three points around your topic.
4. Make point #2
5. Make point #3
6. Tie all the points together in a summary
7. Tie the summary back into the story
8. Leave the group with a final thought, or challenge.

That's it.

So when I prepare any presentation I follow the above.  I think of the point of my presentation, look for the story, create the three points, summarize and I am done.

It's pretty simple