Make the Connection: Improve Your Communication at Work and at Home

61. Using PowerPoint? Better Have a Plan B

7. When you place your business calls is also critical. The best times I found are between 9 and 11:30 a.m. and between 2:30 and 5 p.m. 8. What about playing telephone tag? When e-mail is not an option and I’m trading calls with someone I really want to talk to, I leave a message listing several times that I will be available for a phone conversation. I then ask the other party to confirm one of those times. My limit is three messages for someone before I stop calling. Any more than that you look desperate. Another good telephone tip: If you do want to do business with someone, return calls within twenty-four hours. Chapter 61 USING POWERPOINT? BETTER HA VE A PLAN B Todd Edelson is a physical therapist and educator who has been making presentations for over fifteen years.He is also a dedicated student of communication who is fascinated by presentation tools and techniques that work, as well as those that fall short. Edelson is a big believer in low-tech communication that is simple and to the point. Recently, Edelson was scheduled to give a major presentation at a local university on the biomechanics of a disc. The dean in charge met Edelson before the presentation and asked what PowerPoint he intended to use. Edelson informed him that he had no PowerPoint presentation. “What about the university helping you to develop some slides or overheads ?” Edelson responded that all he needed were blank overheads that he could fill in during the presentation. “Just then I saw a bead of sweat coming down this guy’s forehead,” said Edelson. “I’m sure he thought, ‘This guy is totally unprepared.We made a big mistake bringing him in.’” At Work 127 Then Edelson showed the dean his“bag of toys”and informed him that it was all he needed for the presentation. He also invited the nervous administrator into the seminar, saying that if he didn’t like what he saw after half an hour, they could try a different approach. Incidentally, the bag of toys Edelson brought in were a bunch of cheap children’s toys known as a“boink”(the ninety-nine-cent finger trap you would find on the boardwalk). The boink was passed out to every seminar participant while Edelson explained how the mechanics of the boink mirrored the mechanics of the disc. It was simple, fun, and memorable. How’s that for low-tech? Many professionals have become enamored with high-tech bells and whistles, particularly PowerPoint. Some are convinced that the more high-tech, the better the presentation.Yet, low-tech communication isn’t only acceptable, it is often preferable. Even if they have a PowerPoint presentation, the really good communicators are prepared to move to plan B if and when the technology breaks down, which it often does. Todd Edelson tells of a time he attended a conference in Orlando, Florida, in which a nationally recognized expert on back pain was scheduled to give a presentation before 500 people. Right before the presentation began, Edelson turned to his associate and said,“I wonder what this guy would do if his PowerPoint didn’t work?” Just then, the presenter’s PowerPoint broke down. After the first slide, everything went blank. According to Edelson, the presenter immediately panicked and started fumbling with the technology , while continuing to apologize. For the next fifteen to twenty minutes, he decided to tell everyone what he was doing to“fix it.”Finally, the technology kicked in. By this point, the audience had checked out. Undaunted, the presenter sped through what was scheduled to be a thirty-minute PowerPoint presentation in less than five minutes and then concluded by saying, “Thank goodness I’ve had a lot of experience as an extemporaneous speaker.” Edelson thought, “You’ve got to be kidding . I’ve learned nothing from this.” Some people are confused in thinking that the message is in the technology. It’s not. The message is in you. What the presenter in Orlando should have done was tried once, maybe twice, to get the PowerPoint working and then made a humorous aside about it. Then, he could have stepped away from the technology, and talked directly to his audi128 MAKE THE CONNECTION ence. He should have had a simple, bulleted outline of key points. He should have had...