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Thinking about all the things you could say is rather different from sitting down and writing the presentation. Follow this four-step approach to writing a presentation.

Identify Your Big Idea and Three Main Points

Start with a ‘big idea’ and three main points that you want to make. An example of this would be a speech on Creative Intelligence with the main points being dynamic, diverse, and distinct. Notice the alliteration. It’s deliberate When spoken aloud, one after another, the repetition of the first letter gives a memory hook for the audience. It also gives you better recall later on.

Brainstorm Your Main Points

Now that I have decided on the important areas I am going to cover, I need to consider the sub-points I wish to make about each point. To do this, I use a sheet of blank paper and write down all the ideas that come to mind, around that topic. I then prioritize them. Below is the kind of list I would generate for each of my three Ds.

Dynamic

• Knowledge emerges socially from small teams
• Use feedback from customer, clients, and the audience for deeper insights
• Interactive communication is central

Diverse

• Tolerate mistakes
• Expect different styles of learning (oral, written, visual, kinesthetic)
• Find strengths in individuals

Distinct

• Delegate responsibilities and control
• Where is the niche, where are the opportunities?
• Organizations like people can not be good at everything

Develop Your Headings

Using these brainstormed ideas, the next step is to develop what you will say around each sub-point. The stories you develop around each point might be from your own experience, what you uncovered from research, or you a story that will help bring the point to life. Once you have expanded each point, you have the majority of your speech written. The next part of the process involves weaving your ideas together, so they make sense.

Find Your Journey

During a presentation we take the audience on a journey. By the end, they will have travelled with us. This is when we create a journey or a narrative for them to follow.

With the example we are using here, you could personalize the content and ‘attach’ it to a character, for example saying this is how Sara developed her creative intelligence. You might even be the main character with the tale of what you have learned along the way, taking care to be self-effacing enough to recognize that the journey has only just started. If you create a logical flow, if one element naturally follows another in the tale, you and your audience are much more likely to follow the thread of your presentation.

Depending on your line of work, you may be called upon to give a stress management presentation or organize a workshop. Usually, the person who gives a stress management workshop is a public speaker, physician, counselor, or Yoga teacher.

Who should be the speaker in a stress management seminar or workshop? You are looking for someone who is outgoing, knowledgeable, full of positive energy, works well with the public, and can communicate clearly. This same person should be able to give solutions to stress reduction “off the top of his or her head.”

Depending upon your familiarity with stress management, time for preparation, and how comfortable you are with giving a presentation, you may be the best qualified person for the task. Public speaking challenges are many, but all are manageable. Each component of a presentation can be prepared and refined, until you have a “masterpiece.” When you have given a few stress management presentations, you can refine any components that are “weak.” You will know what parts of a presentation are weak by the reactions of your audience.

Research and identify with the line of work. As an example: Health care workers, customer service, and manufacturers, each experience stress, but their jobs create unique stress situations. With this in mind, make yourself familiar with the every day stress situations that go with the particular jobs in your audience.

Preparation and research are part of every presentation, but after your first presentation on stress management, you will have a template to build on, improve, and constantly revise. You should speak in terms that will be familiar to your specific audience. For example: As collective groups, health care workers, teachers, and customer service representatives, have their own interests and jargon.

You will want to provoke interest, understanding, and participation. At the same time, you want your specific audience to respond favorably. You must also anticipate reaction to your presentation. Therefore, make sure that your points are reasonable and have credible resources; you will receive a favorable reaction from your target audience.

Your speaking voice can be worked for projection, clarity, and pitch. Many people are unhappy to hear the sound of their speaking voice played back through a recording device, but most of us can work our unique voice to get the most out of it. By using a mirror, audio recorder, digital recorder, or video recorder, you can get the most out of your voice.

© Copyright 2006 – Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

You have written your presentation and started to rehearse it in front of a sympathetic audience who can give you reliable feedback. At this stage you will be finding your own unique style of relating to an audience and presenting information.

Be as natural as possible and certainly do not try to copy someone else, or you will come across as false and your audience may also start to doubt the accuracy of the content.

Many people find at this stage that they unconsciously adopt a repetitive pattern of behaviour while speaking to an audience! A common characteristic of the inexperienced presenter is the use of ‘crutch’ words such as ‘you know’, ‘actually’ and ‘basically’. You may not normally use them to excess but nerves can produce all kinds of unexpected tics!

Or the behaviour may be physical, such as hand rubbing, pacing about or fiddling with hair. The Reluctant Nudist is uncomfortable about being the centre of attention and will cover himself up as much as possible, crossing arms, legs and displaying other defensive body language.

Have you ever spotted a Teapot? They stand with one hand on a hip while the other arm waves around or rests along the top of the flip chart. The Change Jangler is one of the most annoying – they dig deep into their pockets while rifling noisily through the contents.

You may well have spotted other bizarre, totally unconscious behaviour from presenters. Make sure you get some objective, honest feedback at the rehearsal stage – better to be told by a friend now than after the event! Practice will help you to become aware of any irritating habits and to correct them, so allow yourself time to rehearse, review and rehearse again.