Speaking off the cuff

‘Our CEO here doesn’t ever prepare for presentations. He just gets up and speaks off the cuff. If he can do it, why can’t I?!’

This is a regular justification I hear. There is always a person identified in the company who they believe doesn’t prepare and therefore they conclude preparation is not necessary. They also back this up with the argument that they themselves are in a senior position therefore it seems unnecessary for them to have to prepare at their level. Sound fair?

In most of the companies in which I have worked the person referred to as presenting off the cuff has spent between two and four hours with me preparing for the referenced presentation. They just didn’t tell anyone about it.

School girl error

When I was in school there was a girl in my class who told me she never studied for exams. Despite this assertion she used to get straight As. This baffled me because when I didn’t study I got Ds. I never questioned at the time she might be lying to me; in fact, I concluded she was smarter than me.

It took me a long time to realise my mistake. There is no such thing as a student who gets straight As and doesn’t study. Similarly, there is no such thing as a presenter who talks naturally (looks like they are talking off the cuff) and is successful at delivering their message without proper preparation. It is not possible. It may look off the cuff or natural but that is because the presenter has spent time preparing it to look that way.

A presenter must prepare and prepare effectively for the end result to be a success. I didn’t know this truth in school when I thought (or wished) you could get straight As without effort. I meet people every day who don’t understand this reality applies to presenting.

A study conducted by psychologist K. Anders Ericsson and two colleagues, with the help of professors at the Berlin Academy of Music (http://projects.ict.usc.edu/itw/gel/EricssonDeliberatePracticePR93.PDF), divided student violinists into three groups:

1. Potential to be world-class soloists
2. Good, but unlikely to succeed professionally
3. Would become music teachers

Each violinist was asked the same question: ‘Ever since you first picked up the violin, over the course of your entire career, how many hours have you practised?’

Everyone started playing the violin around five years old and during the first few years everyone practised on average two to three hours a week.

At age eight, the amount of practice changed for those who later became the best with the potential to be world-class soloists.

The ones who ended up with the potential to be the best increased their practice time from 3 hours a week to over 30 hours a week until the age of 20. By this time:

• These elite performers had each accumulated 10,000 hours of practice.
• The good violin students had totalled 8,000 hours.
• The future music teachers had totalled only 4,000 hours.

The same study was done comparing amateur pianists with professional pianists. The amateurs never practised more than 3 hours a week during childhood and by the age of 20 had totalled 2,000 hours. The professionals increased their practice over time until by the age of 20 they had reached 10,000 hours.

In Ericsson’s study there were no ‘naturals’, musicians who effortlessly floated to the top while practising less than others.

The research suggests that once a musician has enough ability to get into a music school, what distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That’s it.

How the media professionals prepare

Early in my career I worked as a presenter on the BBC show Live and Kicking. It was a live three-hour show that ran every Saturday for nine months from September to May. We presented on air for approximately two hours, allowing for other programmes we showed as part of the three-hour show.

We prepared in exactly the same way for the entire nine-month run. It went something like this.

Thursday

The Live and Kicking week began on a Thursday at midday. I, my co-host Steve, the producers and the editor would all sit in a meeting room and a detailed document called a running order of items would be handed out. This was literally how the show would run, what competitions, interviews and games we were doing and in what order. We would then go through each section in great detail and start to discuss how we would bring the text and items to life. The producers’ role was to come up with ideas to make each item work, but as presenters Steve and I had to figure out what we would personally and individually bring to an interview or item. This meeting ran for seven hours.

Thursday evening

On Thursday evening I would go home and start to put some structure on my items. I would work on how to introduce and end each section I was presenting. I worked on this for about two hours.

Friday

Friday was a full rehearsal day from 8am to 7pm. We went into the studio where the show was transmitted from and we literally walked and talked the entire show twice. Some sections were rehearsed more than that. Every single detail from the way we walked, the way we talked and the way we interacted was rehearsed and critiqued by the production team.

Friday evening

Friday evenings would consist of two hours of me sitting on my couch, speaking my scripts out loud, trying to link everything together and make sure it all flowed.

Saturday

After hair and make-up we did another full run-through of the show and even when we were on air we were continually rehearsing the upcoming items before we got to them.

After the show or the next day I would sit down and watch a recorded disc of the show in full. This was never easy to do and I rarely liked what I saw but it was essential to see myself as I was, rather than how I felt I was.

What always amazed me was how unreliable my feelings were. I had many Saturdays where I felt I was lacking in confidence and was very surprised watching myself back to see this was not visible to the audience. Equally I had Saturdays where I felt very self-assured, and again when I watched it back in fact I was lacking a spark on those days.

Monday

Our post-show meeting would begin at 2pm with the ratings for that week. We would get a breakdown of the 3-hour show in 15-minute segments and we would know exactly who watched which part. We would then go back over each section in detail to see why things did or didn’t work.

It was consistent

Each week, without exception, for nine months this was my routine for preparing for Live and Kicking. The reason I am telling you this is because I would like you to understand the consistent approach to preparation we took on a weekly basis while working in a professional presentation environment. At no time was it felt we could ease off because we knew our stuff or had been doing the show for a while.

2. Preparing the wrong way

Many people tell me they spend lots of time thinking about and planning their presentation and I get very excited before they explain all this preparation took place in their head! This is probably the worst place in the world to prepare.

In your head you will be clear on everything. You will never um and ah in your own head. You will never go blank in your own head. You will never get nervous in your own head. You will be brilliant in your own head.

Preparing a presentation in your head is like trying to learn to drive a car on a bicycle – completely crazy and ultimately futile.

Preparing a presentation in your head is not the only way you can prepare in the wrong way.

Another very common process is writing down every word you are going to say, like an essay, and then learning it off word for word. With this approach you will not be able to engage an audience as you will be too busy trying to remember every single word you learned, in the right order. Your biggest fear will be missing a word. Because you have prepared a written document and learned it off there is a very good chance this worse fear will be realised.

I don’t blame you

It is not your fault if you are preparing in the wrong way. We are not taught in school or university or even in our workplace the right way to prepare and deliver a presentation.

It is brilliant if you are putting in the time to prepare for yourself and your audience. The aim of this book is to make sure you are using that time effectively by giving you a three-step method to ensure your success.

3. I don’t have enough time

The no. 1 reason I hear for the absence of presentation preparation is a lack of time.

I know some of you reading this book work 12-hour days just to meet the demands of your day-to-day job. I know you have partners and children with whom you like to spend time in the evenings and at weekends. I know you want to prepare but the problem is time. Finding the time to prepare for a presentation is an enormous challenge for many professionals.

I can’t solve your workload problems but I can tell you if you are ploughing through presentations that aren’t working for you then you need to prepare properly. Preparing for your presentations must become a vital item on your to do list, not the thing you put on the long finger or leave to the last minute because you have too much else to do.

People tell me all the time that when they prepare properly they perform very well. A lot of the obstacles that arise with presenting become inconsequential with preparation.

Fundamental preparation steps like rehearsing your talk out loud a minimum of three times before you do it for real is vital for presentation success. If you don’t rehearse your presentation in full out loud it will be full of hesitation, ums, ahs and long drawn-out sentences. You will look unsure of your messages and as if you don’t know what you’re talking about.

I have devoted an entire chapter to presentation preparation in the hope of convincing you how worthwhile and essential preparation is. You can be a really great presenter, but you have to prepare.

The big question

How long do I need to spend preparing for my presentation?

Earlier in the book we looked at the three types of presentations – Everyday, Formal and Keynote

Everyday presentations – A small, informal presentation, as simple as a meeting to discuss the status of a project, or to present some research, strategy or inspiration. Many times these presentations are internal and often include only members of the team.

Formal presentations – These include the decision makers who’ll give the go ahead for the project to move forward. Often these presentations are offsite and require significant preparation. There is more at stake here because this type of presentation proves the presenter properly understood the problem and created great solutions.

Keynote presentations – This is where you speak to a larger audience, say over 20 people. There’s less interaction between the presenter and the audience. And the presentation is highly structured and choreographed.

Each of these will require a different level of preparation depending on the topic, the audience and how long the presentation is. For example, if you have a 40-minute presentation that means ideally you will need to find 3 × 40-minute pockets to rehearse as well as separate time to prepare the content.

Below are some guidelines on how to best use your time.

If you have...

My final word on this is, give yourself the best chance of success and use whatever time you have wisely.