The Presentations Japan Series

It is very common to see panel discussions at business events. There is danger lurking in the shadows, though. The hosts invite a number of experts, usually around three to four, to interact with the MC. The idea is that a range of views will emerge and a richer resource of information will be provided this way, compared to the single speaker model. Sometimes, there will be a hybrid, where you might be asked to give a short burst on your subject and then join the rest of the panel for the discussion component.

The danger here is your personal and professional reputation is being put up for public evaluation. This is not just against an absolute standard, but also in a comparison with the other panel members. Some colleagues up on stage can be quite competitive, but you didn't get the memo. Your insights may come across as paltry, when ranked against another panellist's sterling efforts. Or you might struggle to give a meaningful reply to the MC's questions and come across as a "fake" expert. The other end of the problem are those panellists who just talk way too much and lack self-awareness. Technical people can often be like this. They ramble on and on and the MC has to publicly reign them in. This is not a good look, so be succinct in your answers.

When we are asked to give a talk, hopefully we prepare well for the occasion, and we should rehearse what we are going to present. With a panel discussion it is a bit illusory, because it doesn't seem to be a "presentation", but in fact it is. It is certainly judged that way by the audience. They don't say to themselves, "Oh, this is just a panel discussion, so I will suspend my usual cynicism, high expectations and unrealistic standards accordingly". No, they are in full beast, critic mode, as per normal.

Thinking of the panel talk answers as your own personal mini-presentation is a good starting point. This will drive you to prepare properly. What does that mean, though? We should know what the MC is going to ask us in advance and prepare our answers ahead of time, so that we are not struggling to come up with a response on the spot. It is always good to check with the MC on the day, because things may have moved since they sent you the email on the questions they were planning to ask.

We also have to be on the ball with paying close attention to the comments of the other panellists. The MC may suddenly ask us to match our comment to their remarks. If we are concentrating only on what we will say next, we may miss the cue and look frazzled. As the discussion moves, we have to be ready to make an unprepared comment and so we should be mentally manufacturing possible answers to any questions which may arise. We need to be constantly adjusting to the flow of the conversation in real time.

Being able to sprout statistics, references, quotes on the subject really adds weight to our reputation as an expert in this area. Normally, if we have a slide deck in a presentation, then all of the data is there and we don't have to remember any of it. On a panel, though, being able to quote the information from memory is very attractive and impressive to an audience. Opinions are cheap, but knowledge has to be gained and we need to demonstrate we have this subject firmly in our grasp.

Now having said that, it is not a bad thing to refer to some notes if the content is complex or challenging to recall. Don't worry, the audience won't rise as one and denounce you as a fraud for checking your notes or quoting from your notes. However, being able to unload the data unaided, elevates your level of credibility to a very great height. This is particularly useful if you are the only one of the panel who can pull off this magic trick.

I was chatting to a panellist before the action got underway and he was telling me about the public speaking training he had received at his legal firm, so I was expecting a good performance. Well, it was pretty average. Why? He ummed and ahhed his way through it and had negative vocal mannerisms such as saying "you know" way too often. That detracted from the believability of his comment content. What we say and how we say it matters.

The other big error was he ignored his audience. I could see he hadn't been on too many panel discussions. The MC was seated at the end of the row of experts. Our panellist would receive a question from the MC and, while solely looking at the MC, deliver the response. Amateur mistake. He had an entire audience there to speak to, but he chose to ignore them. He could give a six second blast to the MC and then work his eye contact on individual members of the audience.

In one minute he could make six seconds of direct connection with ten people each in the crowd. Generally, our answer takes three to four minutes, so there is a possibility of strongly engaging 40 members of the crowd per answer. That is a totally different result to ignoring the audience and just answering the MC's questions.

One other thing is posture. Women have this worked out, so they rarely ever make rookie mistakes. However, some male panellists slump in their chairs and look simply unprofessional. Guys, never kick your legs out like you were watching the sports on TV at home. You might think that wouldn't happen, but you will see it. I recall an MC himself doing this during the discussion. I couldn't believe it, but there he was, in full sight destroying his reputation.

Also, please spare us a ringside view of your hairy shins, because your socks are too short. When we are up on stage, we are elevated, so the eyeline of the audience is looking up at us and hence the brutal calf exposure no one needs to see. Sit up straight and tall, keep your knees together and remove all distractions from your message. Don't forget to use gestures which include the audience in your answers.

Remove the risk and danger from being a panellist and instead turn the opportunity into a triumph of personal and professional brand building.

The education system in Japan from the early stages, right the way through varsity to most corporate training, is based on the lecture model. The instructor provides the information, and the participants write it all down. It is a very one directional, passive approach. When we are presenting, what do we do when we are using the "inform" model? Where are we supposed to draw the line between just passing on valuable information to the audience and trying to engage the audience? Are these two aims mutually exclusive? Isn't the reason we are invited to speak is because we have valuable things to impart to the audience? Isn't the reason the audience has turned up is to gain insights, perspectives and information they don't already possess?

I am sure we all agree that the speaker has to provide value to the listeners otherwise what is the point of them paying the dough and investing their time to attend? The question becomes how to provide the required value? Can the speaker have excellent experience, clear insights, rich data and be engaging at the same time? The answer is yes and let me use a local example to make the point. Jesper Koll is a well-known economist here in Tokyo and he does a lot of public speaking. I am a fan and have attended maybe twenty of his presentations over the years. To my mind, they always hit the right combination of excellent experience, clear insights, rich data and are kept engaging.

What is Jesper doing which is working so well? He is always high energy, humorous, provides high quality statistics and data and most importantly, he has an intent to engage everyone in the crowd. Speaker intention is a key asset to be successful. He doesn't see his role is to just dump a lot of data on his audience and imagine his work is done. He is going for much more than that. He wants to get a strong reaction from his audience and he is always successful in that aim.

Storytelling is an asset for Jesper. Rather than just giving everyone a download of facts, he wraps them up in stories. This makes the information much easier to absorb, digest and recall. Think about what stories you have to thread your data through. The story sticks and therefore so does the data. Here is a simple example. Say the data showed that the number of young people in Japan aged 15-34 has halved in the last twenty years and is going to halve again in the next thirty-five years.

We could just state the facts or we could wrap it up in a story like this: "It was a snowy day in Tokyo and I was visiting my client in Otemachi. It was really miserable outside, so I was glad to get out of the cold and into the warmth of his office on the 23rd floor. We were sitting in their expensive, well-appointed leather and walnut Boardroom with his HR team and we were discussing the problems of recruiting and retaining staff. I didn't know these numbers, but on the huge monitor on the wall, his head of HR Ms. Inoue put up the demographic projections for Japan. In the last twenty years we have halved the number of people age 15-34. What was highlighted to me was that the projections showed we would lose another half again over the next 35years. I was silently wondering where we would find the staff we need to expand the business in the future". By using storytelling we have taken the audience to a place in their mind's eye, where they can see a snowy Otemachi, a gorgeous Boardroom, and a huge monitor showing the statistics. Threading the numbers into the story makes it more likely we will retain the data well after the talk and as speakers that is what we want isn't it, to be remembered as someone providing value.

Jesper also uses rhetorical questions very well. He will come and stand right in front of someone in the audience, towering over them and lay down the question. The victim is usually paralysed by fear at this point because (a) they think they have to provide an answer in public and (b) they don't know the answer. Just in the nick of time Jesper wades in to the rescue with the answer. At this point, the victim realises that this was a rhetorical question after all and not something they were obliged to answer. Floods of relief abound at this point.

The upshot is that he keeps his audience on their toes and engaged with the proceedings. Trust me, you don't want to be daydreaming when he is speaking, so he keeps everyone paying close attention to what he says. He is using his eye contact constantly with individuals in the crowd. This personalises the talk, rather than leaving it as the spray the eye contact everywhere, at the same time, alternative. That method engages precisely no one. Watch Japanese politicians. You will see they are masters of fakery, looking like they are making eye contact with the crowd, swivelling their heads to and fro, without managing to make any engagement with anyone.

Why is the lecture style of speech here so popular? As I mentioned this is the model most people have been exposed to since birth, so this has become the default standard. Anything else looks like heresy in a culture where conforming is the best path to safety. You get along in Japan by going along and so no rocking the boat. Does anyone audit the results of these lectures masquerading as speeches? No, so the crime against humanity continues from one generation to the next.

The reason this style of speech has reached its end use date is because of technology. The mobile phone instantly connects everyone to the lure of the internet. With advances in AI you can access data so quickly, we don't need to be told stuff anymore. Just data by itself isn't enough. We need insights, fresh perspectives, guides on how to apply the data and access to the experiences of others. We want to learn what we should do in a similar situation.

In the past, the moment the speaker looked boring, that is to say, started lecturing, the Japanese audience's traditional remedy was to fall asleep. I have seen plenty of that in my 39 years here. However today, the listeners are now wide awake and on their phone accessing the internet. The competition for mind space is relentless and getting harder, as concentration spans shrink, and distractions abound.

The speaker has to thread the needle between imparting valuable data and information and keeping the audience engaged and with them, so that the listeners can receive the key messages the speaker is trying to convey. As mentioned, we need to be energised and highly proactive to secure their engagement. Fresh data, insights, rhetorical questions, eye contact, voice modulation and storytelling are excellent tools for achieving that outcome.

At the start, I asked the questions, "When we are presenting, what do we do when we are using the "inform" model? Where are we supposed to draw the line between just passing on valuable information to the audience and trying to engage the audience? Are these two aims mutually exclusive?". The clear answer is they are not in opposition to each other. Take Jesper's example to heart and there will be no reason why we can't all have both.

There is a famous speech construct which we have all heard; "Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you just told them". Basically, this says open the talk by flagging what your central thesis is, expound on that thesis and then, in the summary, revisit the key points. There is nothing wrong with that approach, except that it is a bit basic and boring. Apart from that, it is fine! Given the bombardment we all face every day from the media, social media and advertising, we have to rise above the deluge and stand out or be washed away with the mass effluent.

How do we do that? Here is a simple formula we can use when constructing our talk. We can create our talk and involve some central characters. There will be the villain. It could be a person or a system or an issue or anything which is a danger to our getting done what needs to be accomplished. Also we need to add a bur under the saddle of the audience. We need to outline how bad things will become if we don't take the action we are suggesting and take that action right now. Make the audience the hero of this talk. For ourselves, we play the role of the wise sage, the guide suggesting what would be the best approach to overcome this issue. We outline the call to action and we clarify the plan. Finally, we need to make clear the benefits of the outcome we are suggesting.

A good place to start is with the villain. We need to open the talk in a way which will break through all the competing messages inside the mind of our listeners. Today, they have a lot going on. They are worried about things they cannot control which happened in the past. They are anxious about the things they need to be doing right now. Additionally, they are projecting forward to drag in concerns which will appear in the future. In the midst of this maelstrom, we innocently turn up to give our little talk.

The opening is designed to smash through all the noise and grab the audience by the throat. We need to force them to put their phone down, stop thinking about something else, and give us their full attention. Bad news sells. We know that because look at what we are served up by the media all of the time. "If it bleeds, it leads" is a classic headline filtering exercise by newspaper editors. So let's start strong with a big downside. For example, "We in business are all doomed, because we won't be able to recruit the staff we need due to the shortage of workers here in Japan". Hopefully, that start will set off a hundred "thuds", as mobile phones hit tables in the room and all eyes are fixed on you.

Having grabbed their attention, we now go into detail on how bad it is and will become. We must make a strong case that if we don't take action now, then Armageddon is just around the corner. For most people, doing nothing is thought to be a zero cost option, but we destroy that notion. The implications of no action have to be laid out in full. At this point, we need data, statistics, evidence, proof to make our point. Opinions are interesting, but so what? We want to know the facts to make up our own mind and this is when we give them to the listeners.

We make the audience the hero and we appeal to their better selves to make the right decision. Don't leave this to chance. We try to control their reaction to what we are saying by setting it up during the talk. Our explanation will include statements like, "I am sure now that you have heard the numbers you can see that…." and "Based on the data, I am sure we will all agree that…." and "I hate to be a bearer of bad news, but I am sure we would all prefer to be forearmed and forewarned for a difficult future. So you can see why I am giving this talk now and I invite you to take action today."

We as their wise guide come with the solution, outline what action they need to take in detail and save them all the work needed to fix the issue. Our plan is outlined comprehensively, and we include some "what if" scenarios. Do this because we must anticipate what the pushback will be from the audience before we give the talk. Don't allow any doubts or concerns about what we are saying to fester while we are giving the talk. We go after them during the talk. Try to completely crush these objections and do that inside your talk before you get to the Q&A.

The success they will have from taking our advice has to be concrete, simple and presented in a way which will make it doable for the audience to adopt. We try to have them visualise the changes they need to make inside their firm to adapt what we are outlining to make it their reality. Get them to see the benefits in their mind's eye through using word pictures.

When we parade these central characters in the story and arrange the talk using them, we create a presentation which will grip everyone's attention. We can do this despite all the temptations of the internet, which, by the way, is within easy grasp and only a few clicks away for everyone. Old formulas for talks are fading fast as audience attention spans shrink, patience disappears, and time is in shorter supply. As presenters, we must lift our game and go harder to breakthrough all the barriers to our messages. If we do this, then we will stand out from the crowd and our personal and professional brands will be not only protected, but enhanced.

"I want to be perfect when I speak". No, you don't! Let me tell you a tale of two CEO presenters with different approaches to addressing their audiences. One CEO used recent movies as his navigation for his speech. Actually, I had watched none of them, but he added enough context for me to get the point he was making about his own journey as a CEO, in a tough industry, in tough times. Actually, we all love a talk about hard times and woe, followed by ultimate success against the odds. This type of speech gives us a mix of empathy for the presenter and hope for ourselves. By the way, which version of a talk would you be more interested in – "How I made $20 million" or "How I lost $20 million"? Most of us would probably be more interested in the latter, because our risk averse natures are always looking for clues as to what we should avoid doing. The other CEO speaker was just perfect. The speech flowed beautifully, it was carefully crafted and manicured. The navigation was exact and it had no delivery blemishes. It simply failed.

Part of the difference was in the storytelling aspect of the two talks. The first CEO got us hooked on his struggles, his despair, his tale of redemption. He opened up the kimono to share his vulnerability, his imposter syndrome, his raw fears. It was painful and real. We had a context to gauge his ultimate success, because he took us to the bottom, to the depths. He helped us visualise, through his word pictures, his challenging ascent back into the fiscal black. The other speaker told a tale of solid progress, a stable journey onward and upward. It was hard to hear, because it sounded too foreign, too far removed from the reality of the last couple of years of struggle.

The delivery styles were also diametrically opposed. The first CEO stumbled over his words at times, had a foreign accent which frankly challenged my ears to comprehend certain terms. He used the movies selected as navigation and spoke to the point each one represented and stitched his own story into the narrative to make his points come alive. His hands were empty for gestures. He was relaxed and concentrated on engaging his audience by looking at us throughout the talk. He used the stage area to cover the room to the left and right, but he wasn't manic and aimlessly wandering around free range without purpose, like so many crazed speakers you see.

The second CEO sent a chill through my spine when I noticed he was bringing his iPad with him to the podium. Uh oh! Sure enough, he read that perfectly constructed speech to us all. He was a much more fluent speaker of English, had no pronunciation flaws and the construction of the talk and the navigation was excellent. He had clearly labored hard over the text to whip it into shape and make it as perfect as possible. That was the problem. It was perfect, but it lacked authenticity. He didn't feel engaging as a speaker. It was a canned speech and by choosing to read it to us; he disconnected himself from his audience. He looked down at the iPad to give that talk and that meant he wasn't 100% concentrated on his audience, unlike the first CEO.

We are not perfect when we speak, mispronouncing words and stumbling over cartain phrases. We have flaws and that is why we are appealing to our listeners. They know themselves that they are like that too. We forgive the speaker for our common flaws. There is a limit, though. Anyone who has had the misfortune to hear a speaker um and ah their way throughout the entire talk, says to themselves, "end this torture now please". That is at the other extreme of flaws which surpasses the audience's ability to bear the unbearable. By the way, if that is you, constantly uming and ahing, then please do the rest of us a favour and stop speaking in public, until you can string two words together without destroying our souls.

Counterintuitively, when the delivery is too perfect, we struggle to feel any great commonality with the speaker. They are a different animal to the rest of us. Reading the talk guarantees perfection, but it comes at a severe cost. It can easily become a lifeless, moribund and boring exercise.

My guess is that this second CEO speaker spent the entire preparation time working on the crafting of the text. Effort was spent on shuffling words around and working hard on the flow of the document. There seemed no idea in play of "how can I deliver this talk and really engage the audience when I read it?". Our word emphasis, phrasing, pauses, eye contact and gestures can still be employed when reading the text to bring it alive as much as possible. We can depart from the text to tell a side story or make a key point. Let's engage in eye contact with the crowd, so that it feels like we are talking directly to them. We have all the tools at our disposal and we need to be drawing on them.

My advice though is to avoid perfection and go for authenticity. Concentrate on your audience. They will forgive your few flaws and will gravitate to you when you speak. Think about it. It is exceedingly rare that someone reading a talk can hold the audience in the palm of their hand. Have you ever witnessed that phenomenon in actuality? Our first CEO achieved that breakthrough, because he made us the centerpiece of his talk, not his carefully crafted text, like the second CEO did. You don't need perfection – go for being truly authentic. If you are going to read it to me, word for word, then send it by email – that would be better.

The Master of Ceremony (MC) goes to the microphone to get the programme underway but the audience are simply oblivious, caught up in their own riveting conversations. The situation is much worse at receptions where alcohol is already flowing and the people down the back are generating a roar, a positive din, that drowns out the speakers. Apart from bona fide members of Imperial Families, everyone is fair game in the "let's ignore the speaker" stakes. Cabinet Ministers, eminent speakers, famous personalities all struggle to get the attention of the crowd. When it is our turn, what can we humble beings do about this?

Here are some ideas that will shut down the noisy rabble and provide a proper platform for the speaker to be heard.

Make sure to turn off the background music well before you are ready to start. Surprisingly, this is often forgotten by the organisers. Speakers should not try to compete with irritating white noise in the background, so check this will be done before you are due to launch forth.

Preferably always have someone else introduce you. Their job is to quiet the room in preparation for your presentation. This doesn't always go to plan though, because it can be a lucky draw on who introduces you. Usually, they are not skilled speakers themselves and so they may do a lame job at best.

If you are in the MC role yourself, about to introduce the programme speaker, avoid the charisma by-pass problem of no presence in the room. I recently saw a giant of a man, fulsomely mustachioed, boasting a hulking frame, draw up to the microphone and in a tiny faint voice try and call the assembled masses to order. He had absolutely no success, so even an imposing physical presence is no guarantee to cut through the clatter.

On the other hand, if you worry about speaking behind high podiums and appearing to your audience as a stylish coiffure just peaking above the water line, always arrive early and have the event staff provide a small raised dais behind the podium for you. We always want the audience to easily see our face. Even better, dismiss the podium altogether, because now we can use our body language to maximum effect. If you are using a laptop on the podium, turn it to the side, so that you can see the screen and stand facing the audience, so there are no barriers between you. The technology should be at our command and not commanding us.

As noted, voice projection is key for cutting through crowd noise. Today's microphone technology is very good, so you don't need to have a stentorian voice to be heard. However, placing the microphone too close to your mouth creates dissonance, making it harder to hear you. Mysteriously, some speakers have the opposite problem and hold the microphone so low that there is almost no sound being heard. These errors are easily avoided if you just hold the microphone about a hand's spread in front of your mouth and speak across the top of the microphone mesh.

When you face a challenging noisy crowd, make sure to hit the first few words very hard. To get things going, start with a strong "Ladies and Gentleman" with power invested into the first word and remember to draw that first word out slightly (Ladieeeeees). Elongate it for effect but don't overdo it . Now include a small pause before a strong finish to the phrase. This will generally shut the room down and gather everyone's focus on the speaker. If it doesn't produce that "hear a pin drop" silence, then go again with strong voicing of the next phrase, "May I have your attention please". Again, add a pause and let peer pressure quiet your audience. If it is still noisy, repeat this phrase once more and do not start until you have total silence.

I have seen speakers using assorted cutlery to bang on a glass, to create a chime that signals it is time to "shut up everyone and listen". It works, however, one word of warning - don't speak while pounding. Let the chime effect work for you and when the room pressure builds to a point where you have achieved silence, put the glass down, pause and then start. Why pause? This builds anticipation and curiosity, both of which work in our favour when trying to get attention to what we are saying. Using pauses during your talk is also powerful for focusing everyone on the message you are delivering

Similarly, you can also use powerful music to drown out the crowd's babble and make them listen to what is coming next. Just a short piece will do, as it signals action is about to commence and people will switch their gaze to you at the front of the room. After the music ends, again use a slight pause and then start.

We can't be effective communicators if people are not listening, so our first task is to quiet the room. Using these techniques will produce the right break in the chaos for your message to be heard. Some final advice, don't practice on your audience. Spend time rehearsing your talk, so that you are confident and comfortable that you can command the room from the very start.

Action steps

1. Turn off the BGM well before you start
2. Have someone else quiet the room for you
3. Don't allow the podium to dominate you
4. Practice with the microphones, so that you know the correct distance and angle of elevation to use
5. Hit the first word hard and elongate it slightly
6. Uses pauses – they add power to the speaker
7. If you strike a glass to produce a crowd-quieting chime, add a pause and then speak
8. A short burst of music can silence an audience and clear the way for you to start speaking

Best intentions, higher callings, righteousness – all good stuff but without good communication, our efforts fail. Instinctively, we all know storytelling is a great communication tool, but the word itself is a problem. We associate it with bedtime stories and therefore the idea sounds a bit childish. In the modern era, Hollywood talks about the arc of the story or in politics, the media punishes the lack of narrative. Actually, this is storytelling just dressed up in more formal attire.

The other problem with storytelling is that we are not very good at it. It seems too simple, so we gravitate to more complex solutions – frameworks, theories, models, four box quadrants, pyramids, Venn diagrams – anything to appear more convoluted and pseudo-intelligent. If we present something complex, we must be smart. On the other hand, anyone can tell a story. Ah…but can they?

How many really good business stories have you heard lately? Have you been captured by the speaker, as they have taken you into a story that has you emotionally and logically involved? In my observation, businesspeople are usually poor communicators. To ensure they never improve, they are invariably uninterested in "childish solutions" like becoming a great business storyteller. They totally miss the point. We can tell stories that are credible, relevant and absorbing. We do this by adding in colour, action, personalities, locations, situations – all manner of rich fabric to the story. We paint a powerful word picture that the listener can visualise in their mind's eye.

No matter what industry we are in, we have four main business communication objectives. It might be to increase credibility for our organisation or to inform an audience of some pertinent information. It might be to move people or it might just be for entertainment purposes. The Business Five Step Storytelling process focuses on moving people to action. We might tell this story from the point of view of our own experience in the first person or we may refer to the insights of someone else, told in the third person.

We begin by clarifying the "Why" it matters. The story draws out the immediacy and relevance for the audience of the problem or issue. This is a critical step, because everyone is surfing through hundreds of emails, Facebook and Twitter posts, LinkedIn updates, Instagram messages, etc. They are dealing with family, work, financial and health issues. There is a tremendous competition for the mind space of our audience. If we don't have a powerful "Why" to grab attention, game over right there. This is where storytelling is so powerful. We move straight into the world of the story, to highlight the gap, the failing, the challenge. Replacing the usual bromide beginnings of talks (Thank you for inviting me; It is a pleasure to speak to you today; etc.), we move straight into emotion and action: "The Marunouchi Board Room mood was dark and grim. As Jim stood up, looking at the faces around the table, he knew this was an all or nothing moment…." If you hear a talk with a start like that, you definitely want to hear what is going to happen next.

We now move straight on to the "What" – the information they need to know. This is knowledge they don't already have or have not sufficiently focused on as yet. This will bring forth data or perspectives, which are pertinent, immediate and grip our audience. Imparting key points, each linked with firm evidence, is essential today because we are all card carrying skeptics. There is so much false information floating around, we are permanently on guard against feeling cheated or foolish.

We must communicate to the audience what they need to do. This might be our own recommendation or we may relay that of the third person in the story. For example, "Bill told me the whole marketing team, Nakamura, Adam, Tanaka and Ohira had spent weeks working back late, almost missing the last train becoming a regular occurrence. Constantly refining the database, each time with a much sharper angle for the buyer's perspective, they were getting closer and closer to the key insight. Ohira mentioned to me the reems of paper generated were piling up on every flat surface in the office, they could hardly move but finally the answer became clear. Over a twelve month period, constant split testing and independent validation upon validation registered the same pattern. To produce the follow up communication sequence that will consistently produce the best results we need to…."

Having isolated out the issue, imparted some evidence to provide more compelling reasons to take this issue seriously, we now tell the "How" to move forward. This will explain in some detail what needs to be done, so that the listener can take immediate action: "The vendor's programmers needed to be involved with the marketing team, as they scope out the action steps. By the way, the flow chart map in our largest meeting room in the Otemachi office spanned across every wall, even the glass door, in some places three layers deep. It was complex but visually easy to follow. Mitsuo walked me through the paper covering the walls, tracking each iteration and step, emphasing the colour paths created by the red, green and blue marker pens. Step One was…."

To deal with any potential doubts or concerns, we head them off by exploring the "What Ifs". We join the listener in the conversation going on in their mind concerning the fears they might have, about what is being suggested. We address these in the story, so that there are no or few residual barriers to taking action: "There were doubts among the London Board members – plenty of them. What if the data was too old now, given the speed of change we were facing. In fact, we found that the constant split testing allowed us to keep updating our hypothesis, so we were always close to the buyer viewpoint".

Finally, we repeat the "Action Steps" we recommend, succinctly and clearly, so that these stay fresh in the mind. "After the wrap-up meeting was held over pizzas and beer back at the Toranomon Hill's office, we isolated out the Five Steps we found which worked best. In this specific order: Step One…." Compressing the steps into numbers like three, five or seven work best, as they tend to be easily recalled. Few people can hold elaborate data points in their head. Keep it short, keep it memorable.

Embed the key messages in a series of stories that we can follow along with you. Unfold the point of the talk with plenty of real people and real situations stitched into the telling. The richer the detail and the more real the story, the easier it will be to take our audience with us. Being dull and boring like everyone else is an option, just not a very good one. With a simple storyline embedded into the explanation, we will be so much more memorable and persuasive.

Action Steps

1. Explain Why it matters
2. Tell the audience What they need to know
3. Outline How to do it
4. Vanquish the What If objections before they arise
5. Detail the recommended Action Steps

Public speaking throws up many fears and challenges for all of us. As part of High Impact Presentations, one of our public speaking courses, we have been surveying the various participants for the last four years about the types of things they most want to improve. The most common request, from both Japanese and English speakers, is to "be clear when presenting". What do they mean by clear? The speakers want their message to get across to the audience, to be easy to follow, to have some impact from their efforts to get up in front of others and speak.

This is not easy, mainly because we keep snatching defeat from the jaws of victory! There are some errors we make which kill our ability to communicate with the audience. Here are some critical factors to make sure that situation never occurs.

Firstly, we should decide what is the purpose of our talk? Is it to Entertain people, so they leave feeling warm and fuzzy about us and our organization? Is it to Convince them or to Impress them that our organization is reliable and trustworthy? Is it to Persuade or Inspire them to take some action that we are recommending? Is it to just Inform them of some recent data or information that is relevant to their industry? We need to be crystal clear about what we are trying to do with our talk, before we even worry about the design, production and delivery.

Secondly, we need to thoroughly investigate beforehand just who will we be talking to? What is the generational mix, the age demographic, the male/female split? Are they experts, amateurs, dilettantes, critics, supporters, potential clients, etc.? We need to pitch our talk at the right level for the audience – no dumbing down to the exceedingly well informed, insulting them at every turn. We don't want to be an acronym heaven dweller or a specialist jargon snob, baffling the punters completely. We need to gauge our listener's level of comprehension and make sure we are talking to them at their level of expertise.

Thirdly, we should rehearse our talk before we give it. Sounds straight forward doesn't it, except that hardly anyone does this! In sales we always advise, "Never practice on the client". Presenters should heed the same sage like advice. If we prepare the talk in writing, we may find the cadence is different when we say the words out loud, compared to when we read it on a page. We also may find we have misjudged the time completely and be too long or too short. We need to start singling out key words we want to hit harder than others for emphasis. Speaking in a boring monotone is one of the most common errors of non-professional, non-competent speakers.

Some Japanese speakers have complained to me that they are at a permanent disadvantage with public speaking, because the Japanese language is a monotone, non-tonal language. True, it lacks the tonal variety of English but there are two simple changes we can make when speaking Japanese to break out of the monotony. Apply pace to speed up or slooow right down. Another variation is to add more power to a word or phrase or to speak in an audible whisper, removing the power altogether. Both of these techniques will help monotone speakers vary their presentation and maintain the interest of their audience.

Fourthly, get the mechanics of delivery right. The message cannot stand by itself; the quality of the content is not enough; the supreme value of the data is insufficient - if people can't hear you. Yes, physically they can hear you are speaking, but when the content and the delivery are not in harmony, only 7% of the message is actually getting through to the audience. That is a shockingly low number.

The research on this is quite well established and it makes sense. When the message content is not congruent with the way you deliver the message, we get distracted by how you are dressed, by your body language, by the tone of your voice. As an example, if I said , "I am really excited about the prospects for this new technology" in a totally flat, no energy, barely audible monotone voice, with a bored, unhappy expression on my face and delivered it while looking down at the lectern and not at my audience, only 7% of people would get the message. Many speakers make it hard for themselves because they talk to precisely no one. They look at their notes or the screen or the floor or the ceiling; anywhere, but at that sea of expectant faces carefully scrutinising them.

Engage your audience by using eye contact and keep each person's gaze for around 6 seconds to make the eye contact meaningful, without it becoming intrusive. Japanese friends tell me "In japan, we are taught not to make eye contact". That may be the case for normal conversation but once you have an audience, you are now in a different role. We need to step it up if we want to have the audience buy what we are saying or to keep interest in our message.

This is where making eye contact for 6 seconds works so well. The members of the audience feel we are speaking directly to them and they gravitate to us as a result, because we have engaged them. Also, get you face involved! If it is good news, then smile; if you suggest doubt, have a quizzical expression on your face; if the information is surprising, have an expression of wonder; if it is bad news look unhappy or concerned. A wooden face, totally devoid of expression is a tremendous waste, when we have so much potential to add power to our words with our facial expression. Japanese speakers can gain a lot here because often they fail to take advantage of the face as a medium of their message.

A well placed pause is a brilliant way to get the audience focused on what we have just said. Often when we are nervous we speed up and start running the ideas together. This makes it hard for the audience to digest the key points, because the points are rapidly overwhelming and replacing each other. A pause also gives us time to regroup our thoughts and calm down a bit, if we found we were getting a bit too fast in the delivery.

Throw in some gestures to add power to the words, but don't maintain the same gesture for longer than 15 seconds. Utilise your palms, so that they can be seen by the audience. Don't hide them behind your back, or lock them up protecting your groin or keep them hidden away in your pockets. This is the classic refuge of my fellow Aussie executives. They don't know what to do with their hands so one slip into the pocket. The really confused CEOs from "downunder" put both hands in their pockets for a stereo effect. A gesture made too low may not be able to be seen by parts of the audience, so make the gesture zone between chest height and head. The gestures should be natural and not Shakespearian or thespian. Leave acting to the experts, be natural, be your "professional" self.

When we know why and who we are speaking to; when we get voice, face and hands working in unison to add strength to what we are saying, we get 100% of the audience to clearly absorb our message. It is quite clear what we have to do isn't it!

Action Steps

1. Decide what is the purpose of your presentation at the very start and be clear about it
2. Carefully investigate who you will be talking to
3. Rehearse like crazy before you get up in front of the audience
4. Be a legend on the mechanics of presenting

It is a big crowd, yet the conversation suddenly dies and a hushed silence now sweeps through the room. All eyes are fixed forward, as the MC tears at the envelope and announces this year's award winner. Polite applause fills the air as the proud selectee stands up, glances around smiling, shakes hands and navigates between the maze of tables and chairs up to the podium. Receiving the prize, obediently posing for the photographer, our winner turns and begins to move gingerly towards the microphone. Facing the assembled crowd of industry peers, personal and organisational brands now begin to disintegrate.

They have that deer-in-the-headlights glazed look in the eye, as they contemplate a packed room full of searching, quizzical faces. Their throat suddenly seems Sahara parched, words struggle to get out, both legs feel weak, and the mind is a total whiteout.

What finally does come out of their mouths are strings of pathetic Ums and Ahs. There are particularly strained and embarrassing silences as they obviously struggle, thinking what they want to say. Their speech is incoherent, nervous, unconvincing and clearly killing them. In one minute they have gone from hero to zero in front of their industry peers. Some cowards even run from the microphone, declaring they will not take the opportunity to make any comment. Their general demeanor screams FEAR and their face looks particularly taut!

We are talking about a one minute acceptance speech here. An opportunity to promote your organization, promote yourself, thank the troops, etc. Why are so many people so poorly prepared to represent their organization in a public setting, where there is no excuse and every likelihood that you will have to get up and speak?

One speaker though, addressed the podium radiating confidence, stood up straight, and spoke with energy and clarity. It was short – maybe two minutes maximum, but it sounded so professional and competent. So it can be done – what is the difference?

The most telling point was the majority of speakers had obviously done zero preparation and this speaker had worked out what needed to be said. The majority had not considered what they might say, until they swung their torso around towards the microphone. That is not a lot of preparation time!

Actually, a short one or two minute speech is probably the most difficult talk we will ever give. It is so brief, we have to really plan it well. We also need to rehearse what we are going to say beforehand. Don't ramble on and please, let's not practice on our audience!

There are only a few points we can make when forced to be so brief, so we have to select the most powerful messages and dump the rest - there is no time for dross. As we say it has to be "all killer, no filler". We need to be projecting massive confidence, even if we are dying from nerves on the inside. By the way, only we know that is the case. Definitely choose and commit not to show it to the crowd, keep that vital information to yourself.

It is a good practice to hit the first word we speak hard, to eliminate any hesitancy. With that good energy level established , we should maintain our voice power, to project confidence to everyone in the room that we deserve to be up here, getting this award. Remember we all critics and we judge your entire organisation on you. If you rock, we think your whole organisation is great. If you are a dud, we assume everyone down at your shop is a numbskull.

When speaking to the audience, our eyes should be singling out specific individuals at each table to speak to directly, as if we were having a friendly chat over the backyard fence. We are only speaking to them for about six seconds though. More than that becomes intrusive and less doesn't allow for any meaningful engagement with that person. We then switch our gaze to another table across the room, repeat the process and start engaging someone sitting there. In a one minute speech we can engage ten tables in a room, which with around 8-10 guests at a table is pretty good coverage.

We also won't waste our chance in the limelight by applying a vice-like grip on the lectern. Instead we are going to free up our hands for gestures. We will accentuate particular thoughts and points, with the use of our hands. We will definitely slip in a pause after a key point, to really let it sink in. We will add extra voice strength to selected words, to give them added emphasis. We will use animation in our face to drive the key message hard.

If there is even the remotest chance you will have to get up and speak, be prepared, be "A Game" ready, be organised and be great. Rehearse what you will say many times, until it flows smoothly and convincingly. You may not win but if you do, you will be ready. Don't snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on the awards dais. Make it a personal and professional triumph instead.

We are such a judgmental lot aren't we! We form opinions about people within seconds of seeing them, often even before we hear them speak. We judge their dress, their body language, their style without knowing anything about them as a person. We are slow to unwind our first impression as well, so those first seconds of any interaction are vital.

We are all critics too, when it comes to presentations. We want the best, we want to be educated, entertained, wowed in our seats and we are usually disappointed. We carry that history of disappointment around with us like heavy baggage, to the next presentation. We shamelessly hold others to a level of accountability, we never wish imposed upon us!

The cold, hard reality is that Presentation Effectiveness can be a make or break skill in the workplace. At some point in your career you will be asked to present information to a group. It doesn't have to be a formal occasion. It might just mean answering a question or being invited to express a view or opinion. It is your job to ensure that you are ready to step up to the call. An individual who can present confidently and effectively immediately differentiates themselves from the rest of the group. Whether you are a pro or a beginner with presenting or public speaking, here are some practical tips for improving your presentation and communications skills.

Getting Rid of the Stress of Public Speaking

Many people are terrified of speaking in front of a group. Everyone is staring at you, your palms are sweating, your pulse is racing, strangely your throat feels suddenly dry and parched, your energy levels have dropped to precipitous levels, your knees might even be knocking as the fight or flight adrenalin kicks in.

Many of us can accomplish pulling off a presentation, but feel a certain amount of fear and stress. Speaking in front of groups does not have to be stressful or nerve racking; instead, the experience can help you stand out and get noticed.

Here are some tips that will help you fight through your anxiety and deliver an effective presentation:

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare

If you have a complete understanding of your material, it will definitely give you an advantage during your presentation. However, do not feel you have to memorize your material; you just need to be familiar with it.

You can read key points as mental prompts to help you keep the flow going in the best order, but don't read it if you can avoid it. Many people are wedded to their text. They spend the entire time making eye contact with their own words on the sheet in front of them, rather than with their audience and then wonder why nobody was impressed with their presentation. Look at your audience – talk to them as if it was fireside chat, be relaxed and engage with everyone. I recall a brilliant lecture I attended at Harvard Business School, as part of an Executive Education Programme. One of the Professors had written down a list of 10 words on the back wall behind the audience. This was his 3 hour lecture presented entirely without any visible notes. A list of key words you talk to can be your presentation too or you might use the slide deck as the navigation to move your talk along.

Open with Confidence.

Here is a big secret - only you know you are terrified. Unless you tell us, we will imagine you are competent, after all that is what we are expecting. Japan of course, loves to start a presentation with an apology, often mentioning what a hopeless speaker the individual is. No, no, no! If you are sick don't tell us. If you are nervous don't tell us. If you are sad because your cat died, don't tell us. Don't say anything about how you feel, because then the focus is on you and not where it should be - on your audience. Work the room instead – focus outward not inward.

Your opening gives your audience a first impression of your presentation. Make sure not to leave anything to chance. Your opening sets the tone for your entire presentation. No ums and ahs please!

Here is how to avoid the usual speaker opening kicking off with hesitation in the form of Ums and Ahs.

Select the first word of each sentence and hit it. Purse your lips once that sentence is completed and then hit the next sentence's first word. Once you finish the sentence purse your lips again. Keep doing this and hesitancy and timidity will disappear from your image as a speaker.

Also lift your speaking volume up to about 30%-50% higher than in normal conversation. This is not a normal conversation, so it needs a different approach. Stronger volume communicates greater confidence (even if you don't have any!). You usually have microphones so you don't have to shout but lift your energy.

If you have a reasonably strong voice and it is a small gathering, dispense with the microphone, so that your hands are free for using gestures.

Focus on a Few Key Points.

Know the major points you want to make. This will help ease your worry and increase your confidence. You should also use electronic visuals, note cards, or memory techniques to outline your key concepts. If you need some prompts then prepare them. If you are using a teleprompter make sure you can carry on without it.

Famous Hollywood Director Michael Bay just got started on his Samsung sponsored public presentation in Las Vegas. When the teleprompter failed, in short order so did he. You can see the disaster unfold on YouTube – it's sad to watch.

Remember, the slides, the flip chart, the teleprompter are all secondary to you – you are the message. Importantly, only Michael Bay and the host on stage knew what he was going to say that day. By abruptly walking off stage in shamed, burning silence he said to the entire audience that he had forgotten his message, that he failed. He could have carried on with his thoughts and we would never have known it wasn't the intended content.

Support Ideas with Evidence.

It is always important to provide evidence to support your main points. Supporting evidence will help your audience understand your points and will give you a chance to explain your points more fully. Point-evidence; point-evidence; point-evidence is the way to go. Just because you say it doesn't mean we believe it is true. Prove it!

Close with a Call to Action.

This will be the last impression your audience has of you and your presentation. It is important to ensure the closing reflects the purpose of the presentation. Your closing should summarize your content and give your audience a clear direction.

Don't forget that you must repeat your close again, after the end of Q&A. Most people lose control of the proceedings when they get to Q&A and many a meltdown has been witnessed at this vital last impression juncture.

Don't allow someone's random question content to define your final impression or final message for the audience. I remember I was giving a presentation in Japanese, to an audience of HR professionals about how great Dale Carnegie training was and teaching them how to use some of the key human relations principles.

It was going gangbusters until we got to the Q&A. This very charming, well dressed Japanese lady in her early 70s put her hand up to ask a question and for the next 10 minutes launched into her own speech!

You must stay in command of the messaging and so the show ain't over until you sing the last line of the wrap up after Q&A. Repeat your close so the last message they get is the one you want them to get. This is the mark of the pro!

Action Points

1. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare
2. Open with Confidence
3. Focus on a Few Key Points
4. Support Ideas with Evidence
5. Close with a Call to Action

There are a number of common structures for giving presentations and one of the most popular is the opening-key points/evidence-closing variety. We consider the length of the presentation, the audience, the purpose of our talk and then we pour the contents into this structure. Generally, in a 30 minute speech we can only consider a few key points we can cover, so we select the most powerful and then look for the evidence which will persuade our audience. This is where a lot of presentations suddenly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

The structure flow is a simple one. The analysis of the occasion is straightforward, but at this next stage we can get confused about what we are trying to achieve. We might become so engrossed in the evidence assembly component that we forget the crucial "WHY" aspect of this effort. We are not here to produce mounds of statistics, battalions of bar charts or proffer reams of text on a screen. Technically oriented presenters love to bludgeon their audience with detail, usually forcing the font or scale to be so small, it is barely visible on screen.

No, the WHY is all about persuading the audience to agree with our conclusion or way of thinking, This is communication skill rather than archeological or archival skill. Line charts, pie charts, comparison tables are trotted out to do battle with the perceptions and biases of the audience. The errors though include a presentation style where the actual detail is impenetrable and so is not fully accepted. The tendency to imagine that this superb, high quality data will stand by itself and not require the presenter to do much, is another grave error. "I don't have to be a good speaker, because the quality of my information is so valuable", is a typical, if somewhat pathetic excuse.

Another common error is to invest the vast majority of the available time for the presentation preparation on the accompanying slides for the talk. Digging up the data, tweeking the detail, creating the charts, arranging the order etc., keeps us quite busy. So busy, in fact, that we forget to practice the delivery of the talk. We find ourselves peering down at our audience, presenting the content for the first time up while at the podium. We are in fact practicing on our audience and this is definitely not a best practice.

How should we fix this approach? Some examples of evidence are really powerful when they are numbers, but instead of drowning our audience with too many numbers, we can select a gripper and use a very big font to isolate out that one number. We then talk to that number and explain what it means. If we want to use line charts or trend analysis, then one chart per slide is a good rule. We don't split the visual concentration of our audience. We speak to the significance of the trend, knowing that our audience can see the trend line for themselves.

To improve our communication effectiveness, we go one step further and we tell stories about these numbers. Who was involved, where, when and what happened. We recall stories more easily than masses of data, so the evidence and context are more easily transferred. This helps to get us around to the WHY of our talk, the key point we want the audience to absorb. And we practice the delivery over and over until we are comfortable we have the cadence right. We recall Professor Albert Mehrabian's study about the importance of not just what we say, but how we say it. Emphasising particular words, adding gestures for strengthening key points, engaging our audience by using eye contact, allowing pauses so ideas can sink in and reducing distractions so our actual words are absorbed.

Structure, rehearsal, storytelling and congruent delivery combine to create a powerful success formula for presentations.

Action Steps

1. Don't be consumed with the detail, keep the main message in mind
2. Don't be self-indulgent and think your supreme content excuses a poor delivery
3. Allocate sufficient time for rehearsals
4. Tell the stories behind the data
5. Remember what you say is important but how you say it is more important