Chapter Page 1 of 12 How to Make Presentations that Teach and Transform by Robert J Garmston and Bruce M Wellman Table of Contents Chapter 1 How to Design for Learning This may be the most important chapter in this book because as we shall see all presentations are made twice first in the presenter s mind during the design stage and second during the actual presentation Eighty five percent of the quality of the second presentation is a product of the first The remaining 15 percent comes from personal energy charisma and our openness to serendipitous relationships with our audience In planning presentations we must remember the carpenter s adage Measure twice and cut once What You Must Know About Yourself The most important design questions are about you A presentation is a point in time within a relationship between a speaker and an audience Who you are not what you know is the dominant message in any presentation Who you are in relation to what you know is critically important self knowledge that helps you make decisions about what s important to communicate and how to communicate it This self knowledge gives your message congruence and credibility Of the four cornerstone questions of presentation design three are generic and applicable to all settings for which you may be planning a presentation Who are you About what do you care How much do you dare The fourth question is more audience specific What are your intended outcomes Who Are You Whenever you step before a group of people to persuade provide information or develop new learnings you unconsciously choose to bring certain parts of yourself into the relationship Which parts will you invite to the event in order to be multidimensionally present with the audience and more interesting and credible Are you a parent spouse daughter sports fan potter skier photographer or poet Are you a gardener only child gourmet cook speaker of several languages Your goal in selecting an answer to this question is to reduce the psychological distance between yourself and the audience Therefore the question Who are you can also be thought of as Who do you want to be with this particular audience In Speak Like a Pro Margaret Bedrosian 1987 suggests five stances from which presenters might choose to speak Each has a distinct base of power and a distinct approach Speakers may use more than one of these stances during a single presentation 1 Boss This stance is based on positional authority When speaking from this stance you support your ideas with the organization s history mission policies goals and procedures The downside of this stance is that many audience members will listen to the position more than the presentation Because of this your words and demeanor can have far more impact than you intend http www ascd org portal site ascd template chapter menuitem b71d101a2f7c208cdeb3f 10 29 2006 Chapter Page 2 of 12 2 Expert From this stance you share information and correct misinformation In order to present as an expert you must stay current in all the latest developments in your field Your power in this stance comes from being able to synthesize enormous amounts of information from your area of expertise and present it in tight coherent forms The downside of this stance is that the expert role is the one most vulnerable to attack 3 Colleague In this stance you reduce perceived distance between yourself and the members of your audience by being one of them As a colleague you present information while being open to discovering new information from others You refer to work experiences of your own that are similar to the audience s Your speech includes the collegial we and us You elicit data from the group and then extend the data Many presenters find that this is the most effective stance when presenting to their own faculties 4 Sister Brother In this stance you communicate concern and warmth You appeal to the family spirit of a healthy working team You share the ups and downs of your own learning journey This is often an effective stance for coaching individuals or groups to better performance You are more approachable than the boss or expert and let the audience members know you have a caring investment in their success A possible downside in this stance is that certain audience members may feel encouraged to share highly personal learning problems with the hope that you can help resolve them 5 Novice This stance is based on enthusiasm You share recent discoveries and their meaning with the audience While you admit to lacking a comprehensive background you must be well informed about recent discoveries and have immersed yourself in the topic at hand The freshness of your approach and your vitality can renew or awaken the interest of your audience About What Do You Care Who you are is predominantly related to your personal values To answer the question What do I care about you must identify what is important to you not as a laundry list of personal values but in a search for the core of what motivates and concerns you For example if you value classrooms as learning communities in which students are interactive learners invested in each other s success these values will permeate your presentation design and processes Elegant presenters have conscious access to such personal values and deliver presentations that are unusually powerful because of the congruence of both their message and metamessages How Much Do You Dare If you value risk taking what will you risk in the presentation a song a silly energizer a new design If you value certain psychological principles of learning will you speak your mind if your view is contrary to a newly adopted curriculum To know your own values and act on them you must engage in a feedback loop of continuous growth and self improvement trust your own capacity for self management and work to enhance your self esteem If you can trust you so can audiences and others You will generate a sense of personal efficacy How much should you dare When your personal risk quotient in any area is less than you like here is one way of checking to see if this is a common sense posture of personal security from which to operate Examine what rewards or punishments exist in the environment should you speak up for principles dear to you Then ask yourself about the degree of importance you attach to each reward and punishment Often you ll discover that you can t be hurt enough to deter you from acting on your values Other times you may