The following seven steps will help you plan and prepare the most effective presentation:
1. “Establish the framework” – Weigh your objective, your “call to action,” against the makeup of your audience. Consider your audience’s stand “point A” and your objective “point B.” Persuasive communication centers on the movement from point A to point B.
2. “Brainstorm: Consider all the possibilities” – Write down all the information your presentation could include. Separate the good ideas from the bad ones, and the great ideas from the good ones. Organize the best concepts. Develop some primary themes.
3. “Find a mnemonic device for your main themes” – Ancient Roman orators used to deliver their lectures as they moved from one marble column to the next in the forum. Why? The wily speakers used the individual pillars as memorization aids: They assigned a primary point to each column. Develop your own mnemonic devices.
4. “Provide a road map” – Develop a “flow structure” (novelists and screenwriters term this the “story arc”) for your presentation. Tie the individual points and themes into a unified, organized whole.
5. “Use visual aids” – Make your graphics support your story arc. Unfortunately, many of today’s speakers focus on visual aids (particularly PowerPoint slides) as if they are the primary reason for their presentations. This is exactly backward. Use graphics sparingly. Do not let them dominate your speech.
6. “Ownership: Don’t pass the buck” – If you are speaking from material that someone else developed, such as a corporate speechwriter, being passionate is more difficult. Play an active role in preparing your take on the presentation.
7. “Practice the right way” – Rehearse the words of your speech over and over to discover how you want to emphasize and accent specific points. This will help you memorize your presentation or, at least, become deeply familiar with its primary concepts.