I remember when I was first learning the material for a new job position. I was a Field Studies Instructor teaching various science courses in the United Arab Emirates. One of my courses was titled Squid Dissection, and it was precisely that. We dissected squids, so many squids. It was meant, however, to be an educational class, not just a lab full of students cutting open a poor deceased specimen. That, however, is precisely what happened when I started teaching the course. At the time I did not possess any education in marine science nor classification, so teaching the taxonomy of cephalopods and the anatomy of a squid was very new. While first conducting the material I am fairly certain I incorrectly explained the concept of taxonomy to 10-year-olds, confused the arms versus tentacles, and couldn't find all 3 hearts. These continuous slip-ups weren't exactly noticed by the students, but in my mind, the presentations fell flat as they were not anatomically correct nor of the best educational quality. After a few more tries, however, I nailed down the information and was able to conduct fun, interactive, AND educational presentations for the students. It soon became my favorite class to teach!
I have taught many different courses like this in which I must learn on the fly. Two lessons I always come away with: kids usually don't know the difference and practice really CAN make perfection!
I have definitely given my fair share of cringe-worthy presentations. My worst, while definitely very boring and unengaging, was horrible for other reasons. At work, I was asked to speak for a few minutes on an article I had written as part of a webinar that my company was hosting for an association. I had never heard of the association and wasn't too worried about it. I put together a slide or 2 on the article and figured I would just recap those slides..no big deal. In retrospect, I probably should have done more preparation, including asking about who would be attending and how many people there would be! After signing in to the webinar, I will never forget those feelings of panic as I watched the number of attendees climb well into the thousands. Turns out this webinar was for an association with well over 50,000 members in the US. Even with only around 10% of them attending, that was an exponentially bigger audience than I was used to or expecting. (I think the largest presentation I ever gave prior to that had 10-15 people. I naively was expecting this webinar to be similar in size.) When it was my turn to present, my body basically shut down. My vocal cords constricted to a point where I was basically just awkwardly whispering the words from the script I had created. People were typing into the meeting chat that they couldn't hear me, why was I speaking so softly, etc. At some point I gave up and just stopped talking mid-presentation, allowing people to think my connection had dropped so they would move on. Still mentally plagued by that moment whenever I have to speak to a large group of people I don't know, but hopefully, I'm making progress! Having solid and engaging content definitely helps!
Wow!! I can feel the terror just from reading your story here!! “Stage fright” is something we will discuss in more detail later this quarter but I’m curious if you can share any tactics you may have developed since that experience to help with future presentations?
Thanks so much for sharing this story, Steve! Well, you certainly know that presentations are not my greatest strength despite my background in theatre. It doesn't help that I add even more pressure on myself precisely because I have theatrical experience. I get nervous, I cave into social anxiety, and I completely blank on whatever it is I'm trying to say and often say things that I don't really mean. (Perhaps my impov background doesn't help in this context because I have learned how to invent things on the fly as a made-up character, which doesn't exactly work well when needing to present precise scientific information....) When I have the time to actually write out what I want to say and then practice a billion times, then I can give presentations that are ok, especially because I can focus more on my stage presence without worrying about my words. But, if I feel like I haven't practiced (or slept) enough, and my social anxiety is high, then I stumble, fall over my words, rely on my written script, and, as you know, mispronounce words because I'm anxious, which leads to more mispronunciations and embarrassment and so on... le sigh. Preparation, practice, confidence, and building that confidence from a strong start make all the difference.
Although it's not exactly the same, I did give an audition once that fell pretty flat because I was trying to remember the script word for word rather than speaking extemporaneously with authenticity. (I also was unnerved by having to use a microphone that amplified my voice in a huge auditorium.) I stumbled, asked to start over, messed up again, and ran out of time. Needless to say, I didn't get the part haha. Had I forgone the script and led from a place of authenticity and genuine connection, it likely would have gone better.
Side note: my roommate in college went on to work at Procopio for a few years! Small world!
Oh, I should mention that the audition was for Sea World, and I went into it overconfident that I would do fine because "I knew marine biology" ... ha.
Well, there was this one time when I gave a presentation during my first week at Scripps for a Marine Biodiversity and Conservation program...:). Seriously, there have been many where my presentation fell flat. Most often, it's when I am presenting on a topic that I don't know well and am trying to fill out the presentation with substantive points, but am failing to address the questions of "why is this topic important to the audience" and "what might they really want me to delve into in more detail?" Where I have been most successful with engaging my audience has been presentations on topics that I knew well and where I could really speak about the details of a case or series of cases off the cuff. In those presentations, I would often put up a photograph or map that set the scene and then discuss the facts that led to the ruling by the judge. My tone of voice will fluctuate as my enthusiasm builds towards explaining why I believed the judge ruled the way she/he did. My credibility is already high because the case is one that I argued and won, and therefore my confidence carries me through the presentation.
"this one time when I gave a presentation during my first week at Scripps for a Marine Biodiversity and Conservation program" ... HA!!! That's what that first day is all about!!
Thank you for sharing this experience with us Steve. I have also had presentations that were unengaging. I used to teach high school and would observe that during my first class of the day a lot of students would be dozing off and a very few would participate. I would have many notes on the slides, would not have a hook and would sometimes not demonstrate enough enthusiasm when teaching a certain topic. However, after seeing this I immediately changed my presentations and lesson plans so that my other classes would not be excruciating to me and my students. One thing that I have noticed is that it is really important to know your audience. Something that later improved my presentations would be contextualizing the science by making it relevant to students' lives and easier to understand. In addition, I would also implement the Activity Before Content strategy since students recall and understand the concepts a lot better when they experience and are able to develop their own understanding.
I'm also a huge fan of the Activity Before Content strategy ... this can work with certain professional audiences also but you really need to spend time planning it out and practicing it.
I have given many presentations that have definitely been boring and hard to watch. Public speaking has always been a challenge and nemesis for me and it is still something that I struggle with today. In Undergrad, even if I knew the material very well and had a good grasp of what I needed to do in order to give a compelling presentation, I often fell short because I got too nervous and would stumble over slides and words. I never really believed that public speaking would get easier with practice until starting this program and going through Made to Stick principles with you. Practice Practice Practice! I cannot stress enough how much your insights have helped me with my presentation skills. Writing out the script and then reducing that down into bullet points to trigger your memory has really been key for me. Another tip that has helped a lot is really making sure you can nail the first part of your presentation. This will keep you feeling confident and carry momentum through the entire presentation. I really enjoyed reading your post Steve and we can always keep working on and improving our presenter skills!
Thanks for sharing Steve. Glad to know we all have to start somewhere! I think being inspirational is one of the hardest parts of a presentation and I’ve failed to do that as well. One time that sticks out is my time at the College of Charleston working on a 10-week research project which concluded with a final presentation and manuscript. I had practiced my presentation more times than I can count, following the exact same script. I thought I was perfecting it but when it came down to it I fumbled. I’m not super comfortable with public speaking and my presentation came off really bland, slow, and scripted. This past summer definitely taught me that more practice with different audiences would have helped me get comfortable on stage and allow me to present with ease rather than just reading off my lines.
This resonates really well for me Melanie. When I first started focusing on making my presentations "stick" ... I would script them out. I would script EVERY SINGLE WORD. I thought I was practicing my talk but instead I was editing my script. I would focus on getting every word in the script just right.
Then - I would get up in front of the audience and read it.
Feedback was almost unanimous ... "Steve - that was a REALLY great talk!! But it'd be a lot better if you weren't reading..."
We'll discuss this more later in the quarter. I think it's very very valuable to write out your script because that helps you organize and get all the elements right. Then - it's equally important to practice enough so that you don't need to read from it when you're on stage.
Unfortunately, I also have had the experience of boring my audience as a presenter! During my time as an elementary school teacher, there were times that I watched my students' eyes glaze over, begin to fidget restlessly in their seats, and ultimately tune out whatever content was coming out of my mouth. I began to dread teaching, and I'm sure my students dreaded class too. I quickly realized teaching wasn't just about relaying the material to my students, rather, how necessary it was to find ways to engage them and to pique their interest. By incorporating games, activities, and storytelling into my lessons, not only did their comprehension of the content increase, but our enjoyment of teaching and learning together did as well. Through teaching third graders with very short attention spans, I learned that presentations are most effective when they are enjoyable for everyone.
Thanks for the reminder to keep presentations interesting and engaging– I really enjoyed the honesty of your article!
I have never learned how to make an effective presentation until this summer course. I studied the hard sciences for my undergrad and most presentations were dry and failed to understand the audience. So I thought that was just the standard! I have probably given many presentations that have been boring and dry for my audience, but that was just how everybody's presentations were in the science realm where I went to school. Learning how to effectively communicate science this summer has opened my eyes to how impactful those skills can be to enact change and get people to care about what you're saying. Thanks for sharing Steve!
A great reminder that everyone, even the attention-grabbing Steve Bennet, has had a presentation that didn't 'stick.' Note to self [and Steve back in the day]—focus on key slides/visuals and always think about how to best connect with a specific audience.
I remember when I was first learning the material for a new job position. I was a Field Studies Instructor teaching various science courses in the United Arab Emirates. One of my courses was titled Squid Dissection, and it was precisely that. We dissected squids, so many squids. It was meant, however, to be an educational class, not just a lab full of students cutting open a poor deceased specimen. That, however, is precisely what happened when I started teaching the course. At the time I did not possess any education in marine science nor classification, so teaching the taxonomy of cephalopods and the anatomy of a squid was very new. While first conducting the material I am fairly certain I incorrectly explained the concept of taxonomy to 10-year-olds, confused the arms versus tentacles, and couldn't find all 3 hearts. These continuous slip-ups weren't exactly noticed by the students, but in my mind, the presentations fell flat as they were not anatomically correct nor of the best educational quality. After a few more tries, however, I nailed down the information and was able to conduct fun, interactive, AND educational presentations for the students. It soon became my favorite class to teach!
I have taught many different courses like this in which I must learn on the fly. Two lessons I always come away with: kids usually don't know the difference and practice really CAN make perfection!
I have definitely given my fair share of cringe-worthy presentations. My worst, while definitely very boring and unengaging, was horrible for other reasons. At work, I was asked to speak for a few minutes on an article I had written as part of a webinar that my company was hosting for an association. I had never heard of the association and wasn't too worried about it. I put together a slide or 2 on the article and figured I would just recap those slides..no big deal. In retrospect, I probably should have done more preparation, including asking about who would be attending and how many people there would be! After signing in to the webinar, I will never forget those feelings of panic as I watched the number of attendees climb well into the thousands. Turns out this webinar was for an association with well over 50,000 members in the US. Even with only around 10% of them attending, that was an exponentially bigger audience than I was used to or expecting. (I think the largest presentation I ever gave prior to that had 10-15 people. I naively was expecting this webinar to be similar in size.) When it was my turn to present, my body basically shut down. My vocal cords constricted to a point where I was basically just awkwardly whispering the words from the script I had created. People were typing into the meeting chat that they couldn't hear me, why was I speaking so softly, etc. At some point I gave up and just stopped talking mid-presentation, allowing people to think my connection had dropped so they would move on. Still mentally plagued by that moment whenever I have to speak to a large group of people I don't know, but hopefully, I'm making progress! Having solid and engaging content definitely helps!
Wow!! I can feel the terror just from reading your story here!! “Stage fright” is something we will discuss in more detail later this quarter but I’m curious if you can share any tactics you may have developed since that experience to help with future presentations?
Thanks so much for sharing this story, Steve! Well, you certainly know that presentations are not my greatest strength despite my background in theatre. It doesn't help that I add even more pressure on myself precisely because I have theatrical experience. I get nervous, I cave into social anxiety, and I completely blank on whatever it is I'm trying to say and often say things that I don't really mean. (Perhaps my impov background doesn't help in this context because I have learned how to invent things on the fly as a made-up character, which doesn't exactly work well when needing to present precise scientific information....) When I have the time to actually write out what I want to say and then practice a billion times, then I can give presentations that are ok, especially because I can focus more on my stage presence without worrying about my words. But, if I feel like I haven't practiced (or slept) enough, and my social anxiety is high, then I stumble, fall over my words, rely on my written script, and, as you know, mispronounce words because I'm anxious, which leads to more mispronunciations and embarrassment and so on... le sigh. Preparation, practice, confidence, and building that confidence from a strong start make all the difference.
Although it's not exactly the same, I did give an audition once that fell pretty flat because I was trying to remember the script word for word rather than speaking extemporaneously with authenticity. (I also was unnerved by having to use a microphone that amplified my voice in a huge auditorium.) I stumbled, asked to start over, messed up again, and ran out of time. Needless to say, I didn't get the part haha. Had I forgone the script and led from a place of authenticity and genuine connection, it likely would have gone better.
Side note: my roommate in college went on to work at Procopio for a few years! Small world!
Small world indeed!!
Oh, I should mention that the audition was for Sea World, and I went into it overconfident that I would do fine because "I knew marine biology" ... ha.
Well, there was this one time when I gave a presentation during my first week at Scripps for a Marine Biodiversity and Conservation program...:). Seriously, there have been many where my presentation fell flat. Most often, it's when I am presenting on a topic that I don't know well and am trying to fill out the presentation with substantive points, but am failing to address the questions of "why is this topic important to the audience" and "what might they really want me to delve into in more detail?" Where I have been most successful with engaging my audience has been presentations on topics that I knew well and where I could really speak about the details of a case or series of cases off the cuff. In those presentations, I would often put up a photograph or map that set the scene and then discuss the facts that led to the ruling by the judge. My tone of voice will fluctuate as my enthusiasm builds towards explaining why I believed the judge ruled the way she/he did. My credibility is already high because the case is one that I argued and won, and therefore my confidence carries me through the presentation.
"this one time when I gave a presentation during my first week at Scripps for a Marine Biodiversity and Conservation program" ... HA!!! That's what that first day is all about!!
Thank you for sharing this experience with us Steve. I have also had presentations that were unengaging. I used to teach high school and would observe that during my first class of the day a lot of students would be dozing off and a very few would participate. I would have many notes on the slides, would not have a hook and would sometimes not demonstrate enough enthusiasm when teaching a certain topic. However, after seeing this I immediately changed my presentations and lesson plans so that my other classes would not be excruciating to me and my students. One thing that I have noticed is that it is really important to know your audience. Something that later improved my presentations would be contextualizing the science by making it relevant to students' lives and easier to understand. In addition, I would also implement the Activity Before Content strategy since students recall and understand the concepts a lot better when they experience and are able to develop their own understanding.
I'm also a huge fan of the Activity Before Content strategy ... this can work with certain professional audiences also but you really need to spend time planning it out and practicing it.
I have given many presentations that have definitely been boring and hard to watch. Public speaking has always been a challenge and nemesis for me and it is still something that I struggle with today. In Undergrad, even if I knew the material very well and had a good grasp of what I needed to do in order to give a compelling presentation, I often fell short because I got too nervous and would stumble over slides and words. I never really believed that public speaking would get easier with practice until starting this program and going through Made to Stick principles with you. Practice Practice Practice! I cannot stress enough how much your insights have helped me with my presentation skills. Writing out the script and then reducing that down into bullet points to trigger your memory has really been key for me. Another tip that has helped a lot is really making sure you can nail the first part of your presentation. This will keep you feeling confident and carry momentum through the entire presentation. I really enjoyed reading your post Steve and we can always keep working on and improving our presenter skills!
Thanks for sharing Steve. Glad to know we all have to start somewhere! I think being inspirational is one of the hardest parts of a presentation and I’ve failed to do that as well. One time that sticks out is my time at the College of Charleston working on a 10-week research project which concluded with a final presentation and manuscript. I had practiced my presentation more times than I can count, following the exact same script. I thought I was perfecting it but when it came down to it I fumbled. I’m not super comfortable with public speaking and my presentation came off really bland, slow, and scripted. This past summer definitely taught me that more practice with different audiences would have helped me get comfortable on stage and allow me to present with ease rather than just reading off my lines.
This resonates really well for me Melanie. When I first started focusing on making my presentations "stick" ... I would script them out. I would script EVERY SINGLE WORD. I thought I was practicing my talk but instead I was editing my script. I would focus on getting every word in the script just right.
Then - I would get up in front of the audience and read it.
Feedback was almost unanimous ... "Steve - that was a REALLY great talk!! But it'd be a lot better if you weren't reading..."
We'll discuss this more later in the quarter. I think it's very very valuable to write out your script because that helps you organize and get all the elements right. Then - it's equally important to practice enough so that you don't need to read from it when you're on stage.
More on this in a later post!
Unfortunately, I also have had the experience of boring my audience as a presenter! During my time as an elementary school teacher, there were times that I watched my students' eyes glaze over, begin to fidget restlessly in their seats, and ultimately tune out whatever content was coming out of my mouth. I began to dread teaching, and I'm sure my students dreaded class too. I quickly realized teaching wasn't just about relaying the material to my students, rather, how necessary it was to find ways to engage them and to pique their interest. By incorporating games, activities, and storytelling into my lessons, not only did their comprehension of the content increase, but our enjoyment of teaching and learning together did as well. Through teaching third graders with very short attention spans, I learned that presentations are most effective when they are enjoyable for everyone.
Thanks for the reminder to keep presentations interesting and engaging– I really enjoyed the honesty of your article!
I have never learned how to make an effective presentation until this summer course. I studied the hard sciences for my undergrad and most presentations were dry and failed to understand the audience. So I thought that was just the standard! I have probably given many presentations that have been boring and dry for my audience, but that was just how everybody's presentations were in the science realm where I went to school. Learning how to effectively communicate science this summer has opened my eyes to how impactful those skills can be to enact change and get people to care about what you're saying. Thanks for sharing Steve!
A great reminder that everyone, even the attention-grabbing Steve Bennet, has had a presentation that didn't 'stick.' Note to self [and Steve back in the day]—focus on key slides/visuals and always think about how to best connect with a specific audience.
“Have you ever read Made to Stick?” .. and the rest is history! Loved the article, Steve!