Today we’re tackling a question that I get All. The. Time.
This question from Sandy is on a lot of people’s minds:
Hi Lauren – you’re a very energetic presenter, and I’m hoping you can help me inject some energy into my presentations. I’m an civil engineer and need make lots of technical presentations.
The content is very dry and is usually created by another department according to strict guidelines. I want to engage my audience more, but can’t change much about the content or the slides that I use in my presentations. How can bring energy and interest into these dry, boring presentations?
Thanks for your insight, Sandy
I’m of the belief that ANY topic can be interesting if we make the effort, so today I’m going to help Sandy and all of you transform your dry presentations into something interesting and engaging. We get into the nitty gritty of how to make dry, dull presentations more interesting and engaging. Learn how to discover your own spark of interest, make overwhelming or dense information easier for your audience to understand, and even inject some fun into your sawdust-dry content. It’s time to stop putting your audience to sleep and discover how interesting your “boring” content actually is!
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Now it’s over to you – do you have to talk on a subject that you find especially dry? What have you tried to boost up your audience’s interest and engagement? Tell me in the comments below or Tweet it out to @lsergy!
And remember to share the presentation joy and pass this video along to any friends or colleagues who may need a little boost to their own presentations.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Is it a little dry in here? It’s definitely dry for Sandy, who sent in this question:
Hi Lauren – you’re a very energetic presenter, and I’m hoping you can help me inject some energy into my presentations. I’m an civil engineer and need make lots of technical presentations.
The content is very dry and is usually created by another department according to strict guidelines. I want to engage my audience more, but can’t change much about the content or the slides that I use in my presentations. How can bring energy and interest into these dry, boring presentations?
Thanks for your insight, Sandy
The technical presenter’s dilemma! Sandy, your predicament is actually a very common one, especially with people working for large corporations or in very technically or legally dense fields like finance, engineering, health, insurance, and so on.
Often, in these fields, presentations need to follow specific formats and must present information in a very specific way. Presentations are often developed by one department and get presented by many different employees. These presentations are stamped with the Headquarters seal of approval, and individual presenters don’t have a lot of leeway to change them.
Even though you don’t have a lot of agency to change your presentations, Sandy, there are steps you can take to bring life to the content.
First, figure out what it is about that piece that sparks your own interest and excitement. Being able to be excited about the content or topic is going to help you show more energy in the presentation. When you show the audience that you’re excited, they take your lead and become more excited and interested yourself.
You don’t need to go completely over the top here, but you do have to put in the effort to project that enthusiasm, and this is easier to do if you’re genuinely interested in the content.
Sometimes you need to dig pretty deep to find that spark of interest, but you must dig. I once worked with a client in the oil and gas industry, and he had to give incredibly dry presentations on oil extraction methods. He wasn’t interested in this at at all, so we started to dig for something that was of interest to him.
He thought the process was dry as dust, and there wasn’t anything in there that he could be even remotely excited about, but he was really into fancy cars. And what’s one of the results of oil extraction? The gas we put into cars. We boiled it down to this mantra: This makes cars go, and that’s pretty cool. Whenever he found himself getting annoyed with his presentation or starting to take on a droning tone, he would repeat “this is what makes our cars go!” with as much enthusiasm as he could muster. Is it simplistic? Yes. But it was a genuine spark that helped him build up more interest in the content he was presenting.
Once you’ve identified that personal spark, hone in on what the audience needs to figure out the most, and work on making this information as easy and accessible as possible to them. This is where you make technical information more digestible to non-experts; dress up the presentation with analogies and stories to make the information more human and relatable.
Can you describe a complex system by comparing it to a crazy frat house party? Can you take a dry process and explain it like a football play? Can you illustrate the data using stories, fables, or metaphors? Get creative. Facts, figures, and statistics can be explained in many ways, so take some creative risks and get inventive with how you present the information.
Finally, offer the audience your personal insights on the information. Tell them what you find interesting, what you think is most useful, or any other thoughts you have on the material. Everyone has a unique interpretation based on our individual experiences, education, interests, and so on. What’s your unique insight or interpretation? Make that part of the conversation with the audience; this helps you make the content your own and shows the audience that they’re speaking with a real, engaged human being instead of some corporate drone.
The best part is that all of these steps can be done off-script and without changing a single slide.
So there’s your homework for your next presentation, Sandy. If you take these steps – identifying the info that excites you, using metaphors, stories, and analogies to explain dense information, and sharing your unique insights with the audience – I guarantee your next presentation will be more lively and enjoyable…for your audience AND yourself.
Now it’s over to you – what sort of boring information have you had to dress up to make it more interesting? Share your stories in the comments.
And please help spread the presentation joy by liking this channel, subscribe and hit that notice bell to stay up to date on my latest videos, and be sure to head to laurensergy.com and sign up for more great tips and resources that I only share via email.
Thanks for being here today, and I’ll see you next time!
