1、There are three steps to making an IBM presentation:Plan It offers advice on organizing your message, sharpening your focus onwhat you want to say, and arranging it in a manner that audiences can follow.Prepare It is a resource for constructing graphic support materials in FreelanceGraphics (PowerPo

2、int is also supported). You will find instructions on how toinclude elements such as text, charts and graphs in a style that will beconsistent to all our audiences - an IBM look, in much the same way that ouradvertising and marketing materials have a distinct appearance.Present It offers tips on how

3、 to deliver what youve prepared effectively to anaudience. Presentations are not about showing a series of slides; they are aboutyou, communicating a message, with visual elements in a supporting role.Where to beginHeres what you do first: Stop. Take some time. AsThomas Watson Sr. used to advise, fa

4、mously:Think.You are about to mount an argument. What do youneed? Dont succumb to the temptation ofcollecting every apparently relevant item into ajumble and then trying to reshuffle them into acoherent order. (Jim has a nice chart on this, andLisa has some good market data, Ill get those.)Thats the

5、 flawed technique behind many of themore overblown, leaden presentations youve everdozed through. Thats working backwards. Instead,start with nothing. and work forward.Ask yourself this: What is my point? Everypresentation is an attempt to communicate something. It may be a complex topic, withlots o

6、f supporting data, but fundamentally there will always be something simple you wantto say. It might be IBM understands your business, or This technology is the best forour requirements or We need more time to do this job right.Figure out what youre trying to communicate, in its simplest, clearest, m

7、ost concise form.Write it down, in one sentence. Does it make sense? Does it really cut to the heart of whatyou need to convey? If not, rewrite it.If you only could deliver this one sentence to your audience, with no charts or anysupporting information, would this be the one youd choose?Composing th

8、is basic sentence might take two minutes, or it might take an hour. Itdoesnt really matter which. Just get it right. Without a clear point of view, you arenavigating without direction.Get it wrong, and youll struggle the rest of the way.Get it right, and the pieces will begin falling naturally into

9、place behind it.Build your caseOK, youre clear about the point you need to convey. But its safe to assume that yourIn her book Secrets of PowerPresentations, Micki Hollidaysuggests answering the followingquestions as a first start to organizingyour presentation:What does the audience need to know?Wh

10、at does the audience want to know?What are the possible benefits of asuccessful meeting for this audience?(Whats in it for me?)What questions might the audiencehave?audience is not prepared to accept your message on faith. After all, if everyone in theroom already knew what you wanted to tell them,

11、and agreed with it, there would be nopoint whatever to your standing up and talking.The purpose of your talk is to move your audience to your point of view. So you will haveto build your case. You need to organize your argument.Make a rough flow chart of the information you are going to present. Jus

12、t sketch it out onpaper - this isnt going to be a chart youll show, and youll probably have to revise it a fewtimes anyway.The organizing principle behind this is a pyramid: each statement you make will have one,or more likely several, supporting pieces of information under it. As you build yourpres

13、entation in this outline form, a pyramid will form, with your basic statement at the topand everything else arrayed beneath it. Dont worry yet about the order in which youllactually present each item. Just get them all down on paper to look at.The Pyramid Principle book listed in our recommended rea

14、ding list is devoted to thismethod of organization, and its a useful resource. But the basic idea is really commonsense, merely a way of laying out your information so you can arrange and, later on,present it logically.Lets take a look at a hypothetical presentation and how you might organize its va

15、riouselements, using this technique.From the top downLets assume your basic point is: IBMs solution is your best option, because itscombination of products and services is integrated and flexible, and because weunderstand your business challenges.Now, put yourself in your audiences position. They wa

16、nt to know why they should believethis. They expect proof.You have, lets assume, four reasons. First, IBM products work together. Second, IBMoffers the flexibility of open systems. Third, IBM services tie everything together. Fourth,IBM has experience in the customers industry.This is the heart and

17、framework of your pitch. Lay it out graphically.You now see that youre going to open by stating your main point, and youre going toproceed through your presentation by offering facts and data in these four areas. Dontworry yet about which will come first.Take each of your supporting arguments and do

18、 the same again. Build another pyramidunder each of the four. Under products work together you might have information abouteach of the elements in the solution: servers, middleware, storage. You might want to talkabout inter-divisional efforts in IBM to integrate technologies across our product line

19、s. Itwould look something like this:For this example, we dont need to bother creatingall the pyramids that build downward, but you willwant to do this for your entire presentation.Organize all the information that you might want toinclude. You will then have a pyramid thatencompasses everything you

20、need to convey.Now, play with it. Look at the big picture. Seewhats most important. Take out things that, whileyou might think theyre important, just wontresonate with or be understood by your audience.Move things around. Add or delete, but keep theorganizing structure intact.Once you have a pyramid

21、 that seems to representyour theme and the various points you need to getacross, youre ready to start creating the materialsyou will actually show people: bullet points, charts,graphs. Instead of organizing on-the-fly, youveorganized first. Congratulations: you now have a clear picture - literally -

22、 of whatinformation is relevant to your presentation, what points it supports, and where it shouldgo. Unfortunately, many people dont bother to begin with this formal, structuredapproach.Although you havent even created your first slide, the most critical (and often botched)work in creating your pre

23、sentation is complete.If this all seems too plodding, too restrictive and structured, dont worry: it isnt. By thetime you have a presentation ready to show, the underlying organization will fade fromview, leaving behind merely a framework that helps your audience focus more easily onyour message, an

24、d enhances your own mastery of the material, since you understandthoroughly how it all fits together.Now, lets take your graphical, pyramid outline and prepare a presentation.Fallen PyramidsSome people find it helpful to use apyramid on its side, with the topic in theleft-most box, and building the

25、pyramidout to the right, instead of below it. If youuse this method, youll notice that thepyramid more closely resembles a classicoutline structure. Unlike an outline,however, the relative equality of the boxesmake it much easier to restructure andre-order your presentation and establishnew relation

26、ships to item without alteringthe entire organization, as often occurswhen creating an outline.Where to beginVisual elements such asgraphs, charts, and text canenhance your ability tocommunicate, helping youraudience follow yourmessage and quicklyunderstand various types ofinformation.Used thoughtfu

27、lly, they canbe valuable tools.Used indiscriminately, or constructed poorly, however, they can actually detractfrom your message. They can clutter your presentation and confuse your audience.This template will facilitate the preparation of your presentation and will help tocontinue establishing you

28、as one of the best expressions of the IBM brand.It reflects IBMs corporate design style, which also influences our advertisingand marketing materials. It is straightforward, clean, and simple.Its flexible enough to accommodate a variety of uses. Some may use it withlittle or no graphic elements, whi

29、le others might need to convey far morecomplicated data.Its simple to use. Although communications specialists and graphicdesigners have worked to create this template, anyone in IBM should be ableto use it without any special skills or software beyond what is alreadyavailable.Dont automatically ass

30、ume you need to use presentation software to make yourpresentation!Some of the most effective sales jobs are done just by speaking directly, sincerelyand informatively about the subject, without hiding behind charts. In Say It WithPresentations, noted presentation designer Gene Zelazny gives three b

31、asic types ofmedia you should consider if you need visuals to help convey your message:Lap visuals, so called because each member of the audience receives his or her owncopy of the materials at the start of the meeting, if not before. Best for small groups,their use can open up discussion and help e

32、veryone participate as equal partners.The downside is that they may read ahead and start asking questions you wouldprefer to deal with later in the discussion. And you can also miss opportunities foreye contact if everyone is looking down reading.Easels or white boards. Great for increasing interact

33、ivity among 15 or fewer people,since youre recording the audiences ideas as they come up. Downsides: Avoidspending all your time with your back to the audience; perhaps deputize a memberof the meeting to help write down points so you can concentrate on their commentsand reactions to you and each oth

34、er.On-screen presentations. While less personable than the other two methods, this isby far the most polished and suitable for large audiences. Since this is also themedium with the greatest pitfalls, this is the type of presentation well be workingon in this section.Title screenBy using a standard

35、title chart and following the style consistently, we will add aprofessional touch not only to our individual presentations but collectively to all ofIBMs face-to-face communications.The title slide is a straightforward element, and generally requires only that youinclude your name, IBM organization,

36、 and speaking topic in the places provided.However, the template allows for other elements that might be required, and itsimportant to follow the guidelines if you will be using these.More text (if you must)The template also provides a format for longer blocks of text. You should use blocksof text v

37、ery sparingly. Yes, once in a while there might be a longer passage that isrelevant, and valuable. For instance, you might have a quote from an analyst orcustomer that is particularly striking:If you are going tomake your audienceread something,make sure its worththeir time and effort.More important

38、,make sure its worthyour time, since youdont have muchavailable and youvejust turned some of itinto a small readingassignment.Dont overdo itBefore you begin, keep in mind some key points:Visuals are not your presentation. You are the presentation. Youraudience has not gathered for the purpose of rea

39、ding your Freelance (orPowerPoint) pages; they have come to hear you communicate. Use visualsto support your message.Less is more. A graph that shows (for example) levels of customerspending on certain technologies can reveal at a glance trends in the market,but it remains your task to explain that

40、datas relevance to your audience. Asingle, well-constructed graphic, supported by your thoughtful explanation,is more effective than a series of charts that the audience must decipher.Projected visuals have severe limits. They are constrained by theresolution of a computer screen, which is far lower

41、 than the printed page.They are limited further by being projected onto a screen that people mustread from a distance. For this reason, we want to keep visuals simple andbold. More complex graphics are better suited for inclusion in printedmaterials.Lets take a look at the main elements of the IBM P

42、resentation Template that youmight need to include. More possibilities and variations are available in thepresentation templates themselves. But understanding which you need, and when,is the first step.Bullet-point textYour audience is ready to listen and to look, but they dont want to read longpass

43、ages of text on a screen. And you dont want them too, either reading takestheir attention away from what you are saying.The most effective way to use text is with short phrases that can be read at a glance.Presented this way, text can remind people of your key points, or help them followthe progress

44、 of your presentation. Heres an example of text poorly used:That isnt a bad-looking page, and it isnt too difficult to read. But it can beimproved. This would be even better:The first example tries to present your message. The second example merelyprovides cues to the messages you are discussing. It

45、 engages the audiences timeonly for a moment, and demands that they listen to what youre saying as youexplain the points.Of course, even when you reduce your message to a bullet-point phrase, you canstill defeat yourself by cramming too many onto a single page. Thats why youshould limit any page of

46、text to no more than five items (and even five is pushing it).Youll see that the template reflects this limit.This limit of five is not a matter of how much text will fit onto a page while remainingboth legible and visually pleasing, although these are important considerations.Rather, its a question

47、 of how much information someone can easily retain at onetime, especially while listening to you speak.But what if you have more than three or even five points to make about IBMservers? Perhaps you want to talk about the technologies that give our servers theirprice-performance edge, and cite some b

48、enchmark studies as evidence. You havemore to say about management capabilities, too. It simply wont fit into five lines.No problem. If you examine your information, you are likely to find that it willarrange itself into groups of details that support more general points. (If youdprepared your infor

49、mation carefully, according to the pyramid structure describedin the Plan It module, this should already be clear.) The solution is to createanother page which focuses in greater detail on one of your topics. In our currentexample, you might progress to this:Here again, you are giving your audience

50、a limited, manageable amount ofinformation at any one time. If you have benchmark data (in this example) thatsimply demands a graphic treatment, dont cram it onto this page unless its a verysimple graphic. Make another page, devoted to that.When youve finished with your information about price-perfo

51、rmance, return toyour list and the second point. Your next page might list the key points about IBMservers advanced management capabilities, followed by one with more detail onLinux and open standards.If those other topics dont have as much supporting detail, you might simply showyour first page abo

52、ut IBM servers again, perhaps with your next point highlighted:You would then proceed to discuss the advanced management features. Youraudience has a clear and quick visual cue that youre moving on to the second point,along with a reminder that a third one will follow.Its perfectly okay to repeat pa

53、ges in this manner. Repeating pages can help youraudience follow the presentation, without requiring a lot of their attention to do so.While its true that less is more on any single page (and even for visuals ingeneral) so long as your pages are brief and direct, repeating pages in order tohighlight

54、 the progress of your presentation is an effective use of supporting visuals.In this instance, more can be more. Just dont get carried away: you dont need aline on the screen to summarize every single thing youre going to say.(If you are preparing a printed version of your pitch to distribute to you

55、r audience,you will probably include a page only once, and remove any highlighted andrepeated pages.)Charts & graphsCharts and graphs can be very effectivetools. They can also be annoyingly clumsy,obscuring the very information theyreintended to communicate. Like other tools,they must be used when t

56、he task requiresthem, and with care.Our template calls for charts stripped cleanof extraneous clutter, free from such visualgimmickry as three-dimensional effects, andrestrained in their use of color. If yourinformation is relevant to your audience, itshouldnt be obscured by this sort ofdistraction.

57、 If your information isnt relevant,it shouldnt be on the screen at all.This introduction to the simplest, most common and effective types of charts usedin presentations should help you develop the basic skills you need to decide when touse a graph, how to select the type most appropriate to your dat

58、a, and how tocreate it using the software you already have available, in a style that will blendharmoniously into the IBM template.Before you even begin creating charts, there are a few points to keep in mind.Charts must be read. They dont convey information, but rather present it ina visual way tha

59、t makes understanding it easy. Still, your audience is goingto have to extract the message of a chart by looking at it, by reading it,possibly with your assistance in pointing out its key aspects.The simpler a chart is, the more clear and direct its message will be.Complex charts of simple informati

60、on are failures. Simple charts of complexinformation are achievements.When data demands complex charts, they are nearly always betterpresented on a printed handout. We will work around these limits as best wecan, but you must be aware of them and strive for simplicity.In the hands of skilled people