2. The term noise is defined as unwanted
sounds. Ranging from air conditioners
humming to cars.
Background noise!
3. Prepare the room or meeting hall that you will be
presenting in beforehand!
Remove/ switch off sources of the background
noises, Close doors and windows, which could help
drown out the sounds of traffic.
An IT related way to avoiding background noise would
be to wear noise cancelling headphones and have the
presenter communicate through the headsets.
Sennheiser HD 202 Closed Back On-ear Stereo
Headphone, price is £29.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sennheiser-HD-202-Closed-
Headphone/dp/B003LPTAYI/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&i
e=UTF8&qid=1323855960&sr=1-1
How to avoid background noises?
4. Forms of distraction:
- Arriving late
- Leaving early
- Mobile Phones
- Other sources of unwanted noise.
Distractions.
5. Remind the audiences to switch off their mobile phones
Wait a little bit at the beginning for late comers
Remind those that have to leave early to leave silently and don’t
distract those that are staying.
An IT way to avoid distraction would be to use some tablet
technology, the person would be able to interact with the
presentation and would be less likely to be distracted.
Prices range from £70 and above and the make is
A1CS X220 TABLET
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004F33FJ6/ref=s9_bbs_
bw_d0_g147_ir01?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center
-
2&pf_rd_r=11G51H41CJPN5AXCDJX4&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=2
68138327&pf_rd_i=429892031
How to avoid distractions.
6. Presentations being to long.
Having a lot of difficult information to take in all at once
Having a presentation that is boring which doesn’t
involve the audience.
Loss of concentration
7. Keep your presentations short and only reveal key
information and one source to back it up.
Keep the audiences involved by asking open and probing
questions to them, and avoid reading from PowerPoint
slides word for word
IT ways to avoid distraction would be to use an improved
form of presenting software, by upgrading the software it will
give the user more possibilities to hold concentration. Prices
are around £90 and this is for Microsoft PowerPoint.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-PowerPoint-2010-PC-
DVD/dp/B0039L2XSO
How to avoid loss of concentration
8. Not using correct terminology can cause
confusion and loss of interest.
Correct technical terminology should be
relevant to the presentation
Terminology
9. Hand out leaflets to reduce barriers involving
terminology.
Use a simple but professional level of terminology.
One way to increase the terminology of a
presentation would be to do it via an Ipad 2 and have
the ability to check over the oresentation.
Prices start from £416
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-iPad-2-16gb-
WiFi/dp/B004TW8XHC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=132
3859576&sr=8-2
Terminology
10. Hiring an interpreter or using a translating
dictionary can lower the language barriers
Learn what certain hand gestures mean in
other cultures.
Cultural differences
11. Language barriers can be hard to overcome.
Certain hand gestures could mean different things in
different cultures.
Another way to over come cultural differences would be
to use a translating dictionary. Prices start from £20
and the make is Franklin TWE-118 Pocket 5 language
Euro translator.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Franklin-TWE-118-Pocket-
language-
translator/dp/B00005MMOS/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=
1323856897&sr=8-6
Cultural differences
12. Key points might not get across if there
are spelling and grammar mistakes.
Spelling and grammar
13. Proof read and spell check all your work before presenting.
Getting a second opinion on your works grammar and
spelling.
Electronic dictionaries are useful ways of helping you to
check your work for spelling mistakes and the thesaurus
can be used to improve your grammer The Seiko Concise
Oxford Dictionary: Thesaurus and Spellchecker is £40 to
buy.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seiko-Concise-Oxford-
Dictionary-
Spellchecker/dp/B000IUP6ZG/ref=sr_1_1?s=officeproduct
&ie=UTF8&qid=1323857941&sr=1-1
Spelling and grammar
14. Pressure to meet deadlines can reduce
communication.
Messages can be partially given and key
information not re-laid.
Time pressures
15. Organise time so that key information wont be
missed
Allow time for correcting work and meeting
deadlines
One way to improve your time management and
low the pressures of dead lines would be to use
Apps for a smart phone, to periodically remind
you of deadline hand ins, evernote app is good
for this and is Free
http://www.evernote.com/
Time pressures
16. Not including the audiences cause loss of
interest.
Boring issues and incorrect terminology
can cause loss of interest.
Loss of interest
17. Keep the audiences involved by asking regular open and
probing questions.
Use interesting slides, videos and pictures to hold interest.
One way to increase the interest of a presentation would
be to do it via an kindle and have the audience interact
with the presentation after uploading it to the device.
Prices start from £89
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0051QVF7A/?tag=googhydr-
21&hvadid=10014279886&ref=pd_sl_8zhzag4q85_e
Loss of interest
18. Emotions can mean the audience
misinterpret the information.
emotions
19. Try to relate emotion to key points I.E if it is a
negative point relate with anger.
Ways of overcoming emotional issues that would be a
barrier to your communications would be to use a
type of stress relieving CD, the CD invokes calming
and stress relieving emotions in the user, and would
be useful to listen to before a presentation.
Natural Stress Relief prices start at £23
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Natural-Stress-Relief-Dan-
Gibson/dp/B00004U4UT/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1
323858539&sr=8-2
emotions
20. Being inconsistent can cause confusion
during presentations.
It could lead to repetition of key points or
confusion
Inconsistency
21. By reading over your work and proof reading it
you can avoid being inconsistent.
To avoid inconsistency you could use project
planning types of software that allow you to plan
ahead. Microsoft project is a type of project
planning software and is priced at £500
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Z9V-00008-
Project-2010-
PC/dp/B003FO0QJ8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1
323858874&sr=8-3
Inconsistency
Before you start your presentation it would be a smart idea to go and inspect the area you will be presenting in, when you get there you could listen for background noises that could interrupt or distract the audiences. If the traffic from outside is loud you could try closing doors and windows to help drown out the noises. If there is an air-conditioning unit that is humming loudly then you could switch it off for the duration of the presentation.
There are many forms of distractions that could occur during a presentation which may interrupt the flow of thoughts of the audience. IE: People leaving/arriving late, Mobile phone beeping. [Refer to Background Noises]
A lot of the time distractions are out of control of the person doing the presentation, mobile phones can be reduced by reminding the audience to switch them off at the start of the presentation.You could maybe wait about 5 minutes at the beginning of the presentation if some one is running a little late else you could just start it and when you could remind those that have to leave early to do it quickly and quietly and try their best not to distract others around them.
Having a presentation that is really long would mean that eventually the audiences would start to lose concentration and you would just be speaking in vain, having the presentation short with key points and one example would be enough to get your point across.Using lots of technical terms for that the general public might not understand will cause loss of concentration very quickly, keeping your presentation suitable for all audiences and targets as if they understand what you are talking about then they will hold concentration longer.Just reading from the PowerPoint presentation is boring and dull and the audiences will lose concentration quickly, try to only keep key points on the subject you are presenting and elaborate on the key points, the audiences will then be more inclined to look and listen to you. You can also try using open and probing questions with the audiences to get them more involved in your presentations.
Not using the correct terminology can, not only cause confusion, but it can also cause complete loss of interest in the presentation that you are performing. If you use really vague terminology to relate to the presentation, such as stuff, thingy and example it can lead to others not being able to relate the work that you would be connecting correctly. Also if you are doing a professional presentation you should be trying to use technical terminology relevant to the topic of the presentation, failure to do so could cause a lack of interest and look bad on your behalf.
To prevent your audiences not understanding your terminology a good way would be to hand out leaflets at the beginning of a presentation that has basic terminology on it then just stick at that level of communication, another way would be to just use a basic level of terminology, but to keep it at a professional level.
A few ways to lower the language barriers would be to; have some knowledge of that persons languages already, hire an interpreter to translate for you or you could get a translating dictionary as well.Learn a little about other cultures, such as what and gestures are considered polite and what ones are considered offensive.
When doing a presentation it would be wise to remember that there will most likely be people there from other cultures. Hand gestures mean different things in other cultures, so what you thought was a polite gesture, it could offend people from other cultures. Communication could be hard if neither of the people speak the same language.
Spelling and grammar are vital to communicating effectively, if a vital message in your presentation is misspelled then the audiences might misinterpret it into something else and that key point of your presentation might not get across.
Effective ways to prevent spelling and grammar mistake would be to spellcheck all your work and to make sure that you proof read everything before presenting it, also getting a second opinion from a friend of co worker could reduce the chances of mistakes.
Deadlines often have to be met when at work and meeting these deadlines can be stressful, meaning that the work can sometimes be rushed. If work is rushed then that means it would be more likely for there to be mistakes in the work. When rushed messages could be shortened and key information in the messages could be interpreted wrong or not given atall.
Allowing yourself enough time to start and finish work efficiently is key to eliminating time pressures, if you allow yourself more time then key points wont be missed and information wont be re laid incorrectly.
Keeping the audiences interested in your presentation is difficult but can be achieved. Using a monotone voice when presenting, a boring subject and not including the audiences when presenting are all ways of losing interest in work that you are doing.
When presenting to an audience you should try and keep your slides interesting, this can be done by adding interesting videos pictures and clip arts, you can also use your voice to hold the attention of the audience. This is achieved by using different pitches and tones on the relevant subjects. You can also keep interest by asking questions at regular intervolves, by asking open and probing questions to the audiences they will get a sense of involvement meaning they will be interested in the subject.
When presenting work it would be good to not let emotions get involved, if the presenter is in a bad mood then the audience can interpret the message he is trying to relay as a bad one when its actually a good one, also if he doesn’t emphasise that a bad point is being made when in a good mood the audience might not get the severity of the point.
Try not to let your emotions interfere with work as this generally cause issues and can mean key messages and points getting misinterpreted. But if you effectively can relate an emotion to a message then it can have a good impact on the presentation, by being in a happy and clear minded mood when presenting a good point it invokes interest in the audiences.
