. . . that is a question I’ve been asked (and pondered over) many times during my career as a professional speaker. If you have to give presentations, you’ve probably wrestled with this too. Even when I attended my first National Speaker’s Associations’ Annual Convention I noticed that there was a mix of excellent speakers who did and didn’t use PowerPoint.
Well, for the past few years I’ve been studying the subject of human behavior; particularly what motivates us to remember and how emotions affect our decisions. In the process, I’ve uncovered some recent and not so recent findings that have helped me decide when I should use PowerPoint and what the slides should include.
Vision is by far our most dominant sense, taking up half of our brain’s resources. So, if you had to choose a sense to stimulate to get and keep attention, seeing is the most potent. (The scientific term for this dominance is called the pictorial superiority effect or PSE.) Our other senses play an major role in memory and attention of course, but when comes to noticing and remembering 3-D objects and 2-D pictures vision rakes in the highest score.
The more visual the input becomes, the more likely it is to be recognized—and recalled, unless it is text. We process text differently and are way less likely to remember a slide full of text than one with a picture. I often include PowerPoint slides in my presentations; I just make sure they don’t include much text but do include plenty of colorful objects and scenes. (Animation and video are also powerful provided they apply directly to the topic.)
I don’t let my slides or video dominate my message, but if done right, they are a fine way to stimulate your audiences’ sense of sight. A final tip: you can still have an intimate time with your audience while telling stories. Just include a blank black slide or get a remote with a blank-out button and “shut off” your slides when you want all the attention on you. Sometimes this adds contrast that will stir your audience to pay even more attention to what you’re saying.
Do you have any PPT tips or thoughts? I’d love to hear about them.
‘till next time.
Richard
PS: One of the service I provide is to take average or boring slides and make them “POP!” Send me one of your slides and I’ll show you how I can transform it for free. richard@makesafetyfun.com
