“The single most important thing you can do to dramatically improve your presentations is to have a story to tell before you work on your PowerPoint file.” —Cliff Atkinson, Beyond Bullet Points This slideshare focuses on four steps you can take to build your story and tell it in a way that encourages your audience to connect their thinking with yours and so increase your chances of delivering an engaging and influential presentation. The four steps are: 1 Consider the situation – who are your audience? What do they know? What are they expecting? What is the context of your presentation, what else does it connect with? 2 Establish the substance of your message. Can you distil it down to the one (or two) main ideas you want to leave people working with? 3 Put your message into a three act story so you have an engaging structure - a beginning that sets the scene; a middle that highlights a dramatic conflict and an ending that resolves the conflict. 4 When you have worked through the first three steps you can sort your slides – the bit of the presentation iceberg that shows above the surface.

1. the presentation iceberg

2. “The only reason to give a presentation is to
change the world”

3. The rise of networks and the decline of
hierarchy creates new windows for change

4. You open the way for change when you
outline your thinking in a way that connects
with their thinking...

5. 5
...but you don’t make
much progress when
your thinking doesn’t
connect with their
thinking

6. 6
16 January 2003: space shuttle Columbia
blasts off from Kennedy space centre

7. This foam ramp
broke off at launch.
But did it damage
any protective tiles
on the shuttle?

8. 8
Is it safe to re-enter the atmosphere?

9. The next slide was part of a report to
decision makers in NASA
What would you conclude?

10. Review of Test Data Indicates Conservatism for Tile
Penetration
• The existing SOFI on tile test data used to create Crater was
reviewed along with STS-107 Southwest Research data
– Crater overpredicted penetration of tile coating
significantly
• Initial penetration to described by normal velocity
• Varies with volume/mass of projectile (e.g., 200ft/sec for 3cu.
In)
• Significant energy is required for the softer SOFI particle to
penetrate the relatively hard tile coating
• Test results do show that it is possible at sufficient mass and
velocity
• Conversely, once tile is penetrated SOFI can cause significant
damage
• Minor variations in total energy (above penetration level) can
cause significant tile damage
– Flight condition is significantly outside of test database
• Volume of ramp is 1920cu in vs 3 cu in for test
2/21/03 6

12. To design a presentation that allows your
audience to connect with your thinking you
need to step away from the screen

13. Situation
Begin by working from their situation: are
they sitting comfortably? What’s the
experience of your audience? What’s the
context for your session?

14. Situation
Substance
What’s your substance - the essence of your
thinking? The one (or maybe two) ideas you
want them to work with?

15. Structure
Situation
Substance
Structure your thinking as a three act story
so the audience can connect your ideas
with theirs - the set up, the confrontation
and the resolution

16. Structure
Situation
Substance
Surface
Once the foundations are in place you are
ready to create the surface - flow and
sequence, images and text

17. Four layers of preparation help you stand
out from the crowd

18. “The only reason to give a speech is to change the world. The
only way to change the world in front of an audience is to change
the minds of the people in the audience - the minds that are still
awake, that is. And the only way to change the minds in the
audience is to take them on a decision-making journey.”
Nick Morgan

19. Jon Kendall
castletonconsulting.co.uk
@jon_kendall
jon.kendall@castletonconsulting.co.uk