3 Things Most People Forget When Presenting Information

Let me get started immediately by saying that most people are doing 3 things very wrong when working on their presentation and delivering their presentation. These three problem areas can be called: Overview, Simplicity and Connection. In this short article I will let you know exactly what they mean and what you can do to make sure you can improve your presentations.

How Overview Affects Your Presentation
When people start to create a presentation most people want to deliver some sort of information. This can be the status update to your team members or study information to your students, or anything else. The goal is to deliver some piece of information.

Most people focus on one piece of information at a time. The sad thing about this is that you and your audience lose track of the big picture when you do this. You need to ask yourself this simple question: Is it at any moment in time clear where this information fits in with the rest of the information?

If not… you should clarify this in your presentation.

Believe me when I say that this is not only important for your audience. You should know this as well! The moment you lose overview, you are losing your audience. If you don’t know where you are going or where you are… your audience most certainly won’t understand it anymore.

The moment I started to use mindmaps to present my information… people started to understand much faster and much better what I was talking about. The reason for this is because I was able to structure my information better (using the mindmap) and to present the information in a clear fashion (using the mindmap).

But overview isn’t the only important part.

How Simplicity Improves Your Presentation
Yes, that’s right… KEEP IT SIMPLE! What I see often in presentations is that people try to create something which is looking most impressive. I still don’t know if they have either too much time at hand or they want to divert the audience’s attention to the fancy looking pictures and away from them and their story.

Either way, much of the message is lost because people are looking at the wrong information (certainly not the message!).

Keep It Simple! Don’t rely on big PowerPoint slides. The most powerful presentations I’ve given are done using a simple mindmap, nothing more.

I never transform my beautiful (or at least helpful) mindmap into a PowerPoint presentation. I know many tools can do this. The problem is that you lose the overview and simplicity when you go from one picture/mindmap to many slides. And that is something we want to prevent from now on!

When you keep the slides or mindmap simple, the audience understands much faster what you mean. You are well on your way to assist them in learning something new! You move beyond delivering just information. You start to create a connection in the minds of the people who are listening to you.

The Presentation Lacks Connection Between Audience And Presenter
Did you ever attend a presentation where someone would just talk, and talk, and talk, and talk, and talk? It probably was a giant stream of one-way information. I don’t like it at all when people are presenting this way. There must be interaction between the audience and the speaker.

When you use a mindmap, you give people an insight in your own mind. They are invited to learn from you and how you perceive the information. This creates a connection.

When you only have to use one mindmap, you are not spending a lot of your time to moving through many slides. You have time to ‘read’ the audience. You see their responses to what you are saying. You can connect with them. This will help you to become a much better presenter, lecturer and/or communicator.

The Result
Let’s keep it really simple (just like I told you before). Mindmaps will help you in creating your presentation and delivering them.

I usually spend less than one minute on creating the hand-out for people attending my workshops, training courses or presentations. Why? Because I don’t need any more time. People like the hand-outs and find them useful. So they serve their purpose.

I never spend more than 15 minutes creating my presentations (on topics I am familiar with that is, of course). Why? I only have to create one mindmap, with the right information.

Would you like to learn how your next presentation can be created in less than 30 minutes (including hand-out)?

Have a look at this practical manual now. It will explain to you in only a few steps how you can become more confident and super relaxed when delivering your presentations.

(or do you want to miss out on this opportunity and waste lots of time on your presentations?)

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