-
There
are three steps to making an IBM
presentation:???
Plan
It
offers
advice
on
organizing
your
message,
sharpening
your
focus
on
what
you want to say, and
arranging it in a manner that audiences can
follow.
Prepare
It
is
a
resource
for
constructing
graphic
support
materials
in
Freelance
Graphics (PowerPoint is also
supported).
You will find instructions
on how to
include elements such as
text, charts and graphs in a style that will be
consistent
to all
our
audiences
-
an
the same way
that our
advertising and
marketing materials have a distinct appearance.
Present It
offers tips on how to deliver what you've prepared
effectively to
an audience.
Presentations are not about showing a series of
slides; they are
about
you,
communicating
a
message,
with
visual
elements
in
a
supporting
role.
Where to begin
Here's what you do first: Stop. Take
some
In her book
Secrets of
time. As Thomas Watson Sr. used to
advise,
Power Presentations
,
Micki
famously: Think.
Holliday suggests answering
the following questions as a
first start to organizing
You are about to mount an argument.
What do
your presentation:
you need? Don't succumb to the
temptation of
collecting every
apparently relevant item
into a jumble
and then trying to reshuffle
them into
a coherent order. (
? What
does
the
audience
need
to know?
chart on
this, and Lisa has some good market
?
What
does
the
audience
want
data, I'll get
those.
technique behind many of the more
overblown,
leaden presentations you've
ever dozed
through. That's working
backwards. Instead,
start with
nothing... and work forward.
? What
are the possible
benefits of a
successful
meeting for this audience?
(
?
What questions might the
Ask yourself
this: What is my point? Every
audience
have?
presentation is an
attempt to communicate
to
know?
something. It may be a
complex topic, with
lots
of
supporting
data,
but
fundamentally
there
will
always
be
something
simple
you
want
to
say.
It
might
be
understands
your
business,
or
technology
is the
best
for
our
requirements
more
time to do
this job right.
Figure out what you're trying to
communicate, in its simplest,
clearest,
most
concise
form.
Write
it
down,
in
one
sentence.
Does
it
make
sense?
Does
it
really
cut to the heart of
what you need to convey? If not, rewrite it.
If you only could deliver
this one sentence to your audience, with no charts
or any supporting information, would
this be the one you'd choose?
Composing
this
basic
sentence
might
take
two
minutes,
or
it
might
take
an
hour.
It doesn't really
matter which. Just get it right. Without a clear
point of
view, you are navigating
without direction.
Get it
wrong, and you'll struggle the rest of the way.
Get it right, and the
pieces will begin falling naturally into place
behind
it.
Build
your case
OK, you're clear
about the point you need to convey. But it's safe
to assume
that
your
audience
is
not
prepared
to
accept
your
message
on
faith.
After
all,
if
everyone in the room already knew what you wanted
to tell them, and agreed
with it, there
would be no point whatever to your standing up and
talking.
The purpose of
your talk is to move your audience to your point
of view. So
you will have to build your
case. You need to organize your argument.
Make
a
rough
flow
chart
of
the
information
you
are
going
to
present.
Just
sketch
it
out
on
paper
-
this
isn't
going
to
be
a
chart
you'll
show,
and
you'll
probably
have to revise it a
few times anyway.
The
organizing
principle
behind
this
is
a
pyramid:
each
statement
you
make
will
have
one, or more likely several, supporting pieces of
information under it.
As
you
build
your
presentation
in
this
outline
form,
a
pyramid
will
form,
with
your basic statement at the top and
everything else arrayed beneath it. Don't
worry
yet
about
the
order
in
which
you'll
actually
present
each
item.
Just
get
them all down on paper
to look at.
The
Pyramid Principle
book
listed in our recommended reading list is devoted
to
this
method
of
organization,
and
it's
a
useful
resource.
But
the
basic
idea
is really common
sense, merely
a way of
laying out your
information
so
you can
arrange and,
later on, present it logically.
Let's take a look at a hypothetical
presentation and how you might organize
its various elements, using this
technique.
From the top
down
Let's assume your basic
point is: IBM's solution is your best option,
because
its
combination
of
products
and
services
is
integrated
and
flexible,
and
because
we understand your
business challenges.
Now,
put
yourself
in
your
audience's
position.
They
want
to
know
why
they
should
believe this. They expect proof.
You
have,
let's
assume,
four
reasons.
First,
IBM
products
work
together.
Second,
IBM
offers
the
flexibility
of
open
systems.
Third,
IBM
services
tie
everything
together. Fourth,
IBM has experience in the customer's industry.
This is the heart and
framework of your pitch. Lay it out graphically.
You
now see that you're going to open by stating your
main point, and you're
going
to
proceed
through
your
presentation
by
offering
facts
and
data
in
these
four areas. Don't
worry yet about which will come first.
Take each of your
supporting arguments and do the same again. Build
another
pyramid under each of the four.
Under
information about each of the
elements in the solution: servers, middleware,
storage. You might want to talk about
inter-divisional efforts in IBM to
integrate
technologies
across
our
product
lines.
It would
look something
like
this:
Fallen
Pyramids
Some
people
find
it
helpful
to
use
a
pyramid
on
its
side,
with
the topic in the left-most
box, and building the pyramid
out to the right, instead of
below it. If you use this
method,
you'll
notice
that
the
For this example, we don't need to
bother
creating all the pyramids that
build
pyramid more closely
resembles a classic outline
downward,
but
you
will
want
to
do
this
for
your
structure.
Unlike
an
outline,
entire
presentation. Organize all the
however,
the relative
information that you might
want to include.
equality of the boxes
make it
You
will
then
have
a
pyramid
that
encompasses
much
easier
to
restructure
and
everything you need to convey.
re-order your presentation
and establish new
relationships
to
item
without
Now,
play with it. Look at the big picture.
altering the entire
See
what's most important. Take out things
organization,
as
often
occurs
that, while you might think they're
important, just won't resonate with or
be
when
creating an outline.
understood by your
audience. Move things
around.
Add
or
delete,
but
keep
the
organizing
structure intact.
Once
you
have
a
pyramid
that
seems
to
represent
your
theme
and
the
various
points
you need to get across, you're ready to
start creating the materials you will
actually show people: bullet points,
charts, graphs. Instead of organizing
on-the-fly, you've organized first.
Congratulations: you now have a clear
picture - literally - of what
information is relevant to your presentation,
what points it supports, and where it
should go. Unfortunately, many people
don't bother to begin with this formal,
structured approach.
Although
you
haven't
even
created
your
first
slide,
the
most
critical
(and
often
botched) work in creating your
presentation is complete.
If this all seems too plodding, too
restrictive and structured, don't worry:
it isn't. By the time you have a
presentation ready to show, the underlying
organization
will
fade
from
view,
leaving
behind
merely
a
framework
that
helps
your
audience
focus
more
easily
on
your
message,
and
enhances
your
own
mastery
of the material,
since you understand thoroughly how it all fits
together.
Now, let's take
your graphical, pyramid outline and prepare a
presentation.
Where to
begin
Visual elements such
as
graphs, charts, and text can
enhance your ability to
communicate, helping your
audience follow your message and
quickly understand various types of
information.
Used thoughtfully, they can be valuable
tools.
Used
indiscriminately, or constructed poorly, however,
they can actually
detract
from
your
message.
They
can
clutter
your
presentation
and
confuse
your
audience.
This
template will facilitate the preparation of your
presentation and will
help to continue
establishing you as one of the best expressions of
the IBM
brand.
It reflects IBM's corporate design
style, which also influences our
advertising and marketing materials. It
is straightforward, clean, and
simple.
It's flexible
enough to accommodate a variety of uses. Some may
use it
with little or no graphic
elements, while others might need to convey
far more complicated data.
It's simple to use.
Although communications specialists and graphic
designers have worked to create this
template, anyone in IBM should be
able
to use it without any special skills or software
beyond what is
already available.
Don't automatically assume
you need to use presentation software to make your
presentation!
Some of the most effective sales jobs are done
just by speaking directly,
sincerely
and informatively about the subject, without
hiding behind charts.
In Say It With
Presentations, noted presentation designer Gene
Zelazny gives
three
basic
types
of
media
you
should
consider
if
you
need
visuals
to
help
convey
your
message:
Lap
visuals,
so
called
because
each
member
of
the
audience
receives
his
or
her
own
copy of
the
materials
at
the
start
of the
meeting,
if not before. Best
for
small groups, their use can open up
discussion and help everyone participate
as equal partners. The downside is that
they may read ahead and start asking
questions you would prefer to deal with
later in the discussion. And you can
also miss opportunities for eye contact
if everyone is looking down reading.
Easels or white boards. Great for
increasing interactivity among 15 or fewer
people,
since
you're
recording
the
audience's
ideas
as
they
come
up.
Downsides:
Avoid spending
all your time with your back to the audience;
perhaps deputize
a member of the
meeting to help write down points so you can
concentrate on
their comments and
reactions to you and each other.
On-screen
presentations.
While
less
personable
than
the
other
two
methods,
this
is
by far the most polished and suitable for large
audiences. Since this is
also the
medium with the greatest pitfalls, this is the
type of presentation
we'll be working
on in this section.
Title screen
By
using a standard title chart and following the
style consistently, we will
add a
professional touch not only to our individual
presentations but
collectively to all
of IBM's face-to-face communications.
The
title
slide
is
a
straightforward
element,
and
generally
requires
only
that
you include your name,
IBM organization, and speaking topic in the places
provided. However, the template allows
for other elements that might be
required,
and
it's
important
to
follow
the
guidelines
if
you
will
be
using
these.
More
text (if you must)
The
template also provides a format for longer blocks
of text. You should use
blocks of text
very sparingly. Yes, once in a while there might
be a longer
passage that is relevant,
and valuable. For instance, you might have a quote
from an analyst or customer that is
particularly striking:
If you are going to make
your audience read
something,
make
sure
it's
worth
their time and
effort. More important,
make
sure
it's
worth
your
time,
since you don't
have much available and
you've just turned some of it into a small reading
assignment.
Don't overdo it
Before you begin, keep in mind some key
points:
Visuals
are not your presentation.
You are the
presentation. Your
audience has not
gathered for the purpose of reading your Freelance
(or
PowerPoint) pages; they have come
to hear you communicate. Use visuals
to
support your message.
Less
is
more.
A
graph
that
shows
(for
example)
levels
of
customer
spending
on
certain
technologies
can
reveal
at
a
glance
trends
in
the
market,
but
it remains your task to explain that
data's relevance to your audience.
A
single, well-constructed graphic, supported by
your thoughtful
explanation,
is
more
effective
than
a
series
of
charts
that
the
audience
must
decipher.
Projected visuals have severe
limits.
They are constrained by the
resolution
of
a
computer
screen,
which
is
far
lower
than
the
printed
page.
They are limited further by being
projected onto a screen that people
must
read
from
a
distance.
For
this
reason,
we
want
to
keep
visuals
simple
and
bold.
More
complex
graphics
are
better
suited
for
inclusion
in
printed
materials.
Let's take a look at the
main elements of the IBM Presentation Template
that
you might need to include. More
possibilities and variations are available in
the presentation templates themselves.
But understanding which you need, and
when, is the first step.
Bullet-point text
Your
audience is
ready
to listen
and to look,
but they don't
want to
read long
passages
of text on a screen. And you don't want them too,
either
—
reading
takes their attention away from what
you are saying.
The most
effective way to use text is with short phrases
that can be read at
a glance. Presented
this way, text can remind people of your key
points, or
help them follow the
progress of your presentation. Here's an example
of text
poorly used:
That isn't a
bad-looking page, and it isn't too difficult to
read. But it can
be improved. This
would be even better:
The first example tries to
present your message. The second example merely
provides cues to the messages you are
discussing. It engages the audience's
time only for a moment, and demands
that they listen to what you're saying as
you explain the points.
Of
course,
even
when
you
reduce
your
message
to
a
bullet-point
phrase,
you
can
still defeat yourself by cramming too
many onto a single page. That's why you
should
limit
any
page
of
text
to
no
more
than
five
items
(and
even
five
is
pushing
it).
You'll see that the template reflects this limit.
This limit of five is not a
matter of how much text will fit onto a page while
remaining both legible and visually
pleasing, although these are important
considerations. Rather, it's a question
of how much information someone can
easily retain at one time, especially
while listening to you speak.
But what if you have more than three or
even five points to make about IBM
servers?
Perhaps
you
want
to
talk
about
the
technologies
that
give
our
servers
their
price-performance
edge,
and
cite
some
benchmark
studies
as
evidence.
You
have more to say about management
capabilities, too. It simply won't fit into
five lines.
No
problem. If you examine your information, you are
likely to find that it
will arrange
itself into groups of details that support more
general points.
(If you'd prepared your
information carefully, according to the pyramid
structure described in the 'Plan It'
module, this should already be clear.)
The solution is to create another page
which focuses in greater detail on one
of your topics. In our current example,
you might progress to this:
Here again, you
are giving your audience a limited, manageable
amount of
information
at
any
one
time.
If
you
have
benchmark
data
(in
this
example)
that
simply demands a
graphic treatment, don't cram it onto this page
unless it's
a very simple graphic. Make
another page, devoted to that.
When
you've
finished
with
your
information
about
price-performance,
return
to
your
list and
the second
point. Your next
page
might list the key points about
IBM
servers'
advanced
management
capabilities,
followed
by
one
with
more
detail
on
Linux and open standards.
If those other topics don't have as
much supporting detail, you might simply
show your first page about IBM servers
again, perhaps with your next point
highlighted:
You would then proceed to
discuss the advanced management features. Your
audience has a clear and quick visual
cue that you're moving on to the second
point, along with a reminder that a
third one will follow.
It's perfectly okay to repeat pages in
this manner. Repeating pages can help
your audience follow the presentation,
without requiring a lot of their
attention
to
do
so.
While
it's
true
that
is
more
on
any
single
page
(and
even for visuals in general) so long as
your pages are brief and direct,
repeating pages in order to highlight
the progress of your presentation is an
effective use of supporting visuals. In
this instance, more can be more. Just
don't
get carried
away: you
don't need
a
line
on
the screen
to
summarize
every
single thing you're going to say.
(If you are preparing a
printed version of your pitch to distribute to
your
audience,
you
will
probably
include
a
page
only
once,
and
remove
any
highlighted
and repeated
pages.)
Charts &
graphs
Chartware
If
your
presentations
require
greater
use
of
a
wider
variety
of
charts,
you
can
find
a
more
detailed exploration of the
Charts
and
graphs
can
be
very
effective
tools.
topic
in
Say
it
With
Charts
,
by
They
can
also
be
annoyingly
clumsy,
obscuring
Gene
Zelazny,
one
of
the
books
the very information they're intended
to
in our recommended reading
communicate. Like other tools, they
must be
list. For an even deeper
used when the task requires them, and
with
examination of visual
care.
communication,
Envisioning
Information
by
Edward
Tufte
is
excellent, though not as
Our
template calls for charts stripped clean
directly
relevant
to
business
of
extraneous clutter, free from such visual
presentations.
gimmickry as three-dimensional effects,
and
restrained in their use of color.
If your information is relevant to your
audience, it shouldn't be obscured by
this sort of distraction. If your
information isn't relevant, it
shouldn't be on the screen at all.
This introduction to the simplest, most
common and effective types of charts
used
in
presentations
should
help
you
develop
the
basic
skills
you
need
to
decide
when
to
use
a graph, how
to select
the type
most appropriate to
your data, and
how
to
create
it
using
the
software
you
already
have
available,
in
a
style
that
will
blend harmoniously into the IBM template.
Before
you even
begin creating
charts,
there
are
a few
points to
keep in mind.
Charts must be
read. They don't convey information, but rather
present
it
in
a
visual
way
that
makes
understanding
it
easy.
Still,
your
audience
is
going to have to extract the message of a chart by
looking at it, by
aspects.
The
simpler a chart is, the more clear and direct its
message will be.
Complex charts of
simple information are failures. Simple charts of
complex information are achievements.
When
data
demands
complex
charts,
they
are
nearly
always
better
presented
on a printed
handout. We will work around these limits as best
we can,
but you must be aware of them
and strive for simplicity.
In the hands of skilled people trained
in presenting information
visually,
there
are
software
tools
capable
of
transforming
complex
data
into elegant and
effective charts. But these often require
specialized
skills.
You'll
find
all
sorts
of
examples
of
charts
and
graphs
in
the
.
Once
you've got
your
presentation
prepared,
however,
you're ready
to
It
—
which just
happens to be the subject of the third and final
section of
the IBM Presentation
Methodology.
The
template
The IBM
Presentation Template (someone reading this has
already mentally
shortened it to
from. Inside of the blue bands (the
black background with white text or a
white background with black text. You
can have background imagery on the
title slide inside the letterbox or in the
blue bands.
A
few things you shouldn't change however:
The color or
size of the blue bands, except between the two
variations
given as options in the
template and for the style of the bands in the
printable black-and-white version.
The font, which
is Arial. (Arial is one of the sans-serif fonts,
which
are
generally
considered
easier
to
read
projected
on
a
monitor
or
screen,
or
when
printed
on
dark
backgrounds.
Serif
fonts,
such
as
Times
New
Roman
and Bodoni, are
generally considered easier to read in print on
white
or light-colored paper.)
The
size,
position,
or
other
attributes
of
the
IBM
logo
in
the
upper
right.
The color
palette.
The
minimum
The
position of such elements as
presentation, the page numbering if you
use it.
When you use the
template, you'll see more guidelines in the non-
displaying