Being Mark Cohen

I was lucky enough to be one of the 200 people who gathered at The Wesley centre today to hear Garr do a presentation on Presentation Zen.  I think the entire presentation can be summed up as follows:  Your slides must look professional and be simple, clean and elegant.  You must know your material well.  You are not there to talk to your powerpoint or show what the technology can do.  You’re there to tell a story.

As Garr said, most of his content is already available through the website, my notes follow:

Intro

• Currently living in Japan. Some humorous talk about “Garr”
• From the US originally, from Oregon
• Touches on Manga and Kawaii culture
• Talks about the clutter and how busy things look in Japan, and contrasts buying a fridge which is so covered in promo material with buying a desk, where oyu can see the whole thing
• On ABC Radio National at 09h00 tomorrow (Saturday 5 July – I recomend tuning in to listen) 
• Used to work for Sumitomo Electric – A global Japanese corporation
• Today, he is a tenured professor of management at Kansai Gaidai University
• Also Runs “design matters” design group  in Osaka, like a mini-TED
• Also a Musician, plays in a jazz band for fun.
• Quotes Sir Ken Robinson “I always think of public speaking as a little bit like playing Jazz”
• Worked at Apple.  Learned to prepare his presentations away the computer there.  

On presentation, quotes: “Presentation is the ‘Killer Skill’ we take into the real world. It’s almost an unfair advantage” - Quoted from The McKinsey Mind

Defines the principle of “Presentation Zen” – basically “simple presentation”.  Remove the noise and clutter.

spoke about Duarte Design who turned this into a business.  They do Al Gore’s presentations.  Check out their website, it’s fantastic.

Has consulted at Microsoft.

Did a presentation as part of the Authors@Google series -his presentation from there is on YouTube and I have it on authority from the Delicate Genius that the content is similar to today’s (haven’t watched yet)

Mentioned Seth Godin and “The Idea Virus” – Garr’s Idea Virus is spreading the idea that bad powerpoint must go.  (My observation: Metcalfe’s law applied to ideas).  The value of the idea virus goes up exponentially with the number of people who have it.

Guy Kawasaki – “Eat like a bird, poop like an elephant” - “I poop therefore I am”.  What does this mean?  Go out, attend seminar and events and get ideas, then spread them around and make your world a better place.  “In the end, put a dent in the universe”

At Apple, Steve Jobs asks “who are you and what do you do for me” in the elevator, and you have to be able to answer.  If you know how to talk, to present, to pitch you would be able to do your elevator pitch and get out on your floor and still have a job

Genesis

• Garr started off playing in clubs at 17.  Also did his First multimedia presentation at 17
• Realised it’s about storytelling.  Images, narration, audio.  It’s about standing and delivering a story.  Using photographic slides was the original method.  Then digital tech meant you could use a computer, and have text overlays, transitions.  

“It’s not about tools” - it’s still about storytelling, not showing the audience what you can d with powerpoint.

• “Most ideas you can do pretty darn well with a stick in the sand” – Alan Kay, pioneer of object orientation
• “You can play a shoestring if youre sincere” – John Coltrane
• (Garr says he always uses very simple presentation technology, don’t want to get caught out when a tool fails)
• Went out for Bento, and saw a guy freaking out over a powerpoint deck.  Saw that his Ekiben was beautifully arranged with great content.  Thought this is how presentations should be.  And that was the birth of Presentation Zen
• Learned as a kid, “it’s about being in the moment”

“Be here now, be somewhere else later”

- Old Zen Riff

Presentation Zen is an approach, not a method.

It’s a “Do” – a way, a path..  there are many paths that go in the same way.  You may follow a different one to the same outcome.

Three principles:

1. Restraint
2. Simplicity
3. Naturalness

• “It’s hard to be simple”.  Restraint and simplicity take work to keep.
• Its really about telling a story.  Not about powerpoint.
• Recommended book: “The Back of the Napkin” 
• “Takahashi Method” – All white slides, super big letters, in black on plain white.
• Each case is different.  You don’t have to use slides at all.

Dont use MS style slides (refers to old photo of Bill Gates presenting, inserts Mr Burns from the Simpsons)

Example of waste in products �
- refers to starbucks with a few photos showing waste in masses of packaging.  Point is made that you “get it” vs a single slide of stats talking about waste.

Why it matters

• (Photo of Sumos)  In Sumo the difference between winning and losing is in the small details.
• “The little things matter” – Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan.  Carlos Ghosn learned to use chopsticks when he went to live in Japan.  Understood he may not speak Japanese but he needs to do what it takes to have the respect of his people.
• You need to differentiate.
• “Be interesting or be invisible” – Andy Sernovitz, in the book “Word of Mouth Marketing”

What makes you different?

• Purple Cow – Seth Godin, referenced as source of concept.  Nobody remembers seeing a cow.  Everyone remembers seeing a purple cow.
• Don’t be good – it’s not enough.  Great is not enough either.  You have to be insanely great.
• President of Toyota banned powerpoint for document creation.
• Look for little ways to make a difference.   One way is communication.  I f one way is presentation then Presentation Matters.
• “Most presentations are boring but most people are not boring”.  Most professionals are interesting and smart, but are boring when presenting.

<breakout – discussion of bad presentations and good presentations>

Bad points 

• Reading slides, presenting without knowing the presentation, turning the lights out (puts audience to sleep and breaks engagement)
•  Abuse of special effects and transitions
• Awful clipart, photo cliche’s
• Too much visual clutter on slides.  Too much detail in presentations.
• Too many fonts.  How many should you have?  “Enough”   Fonts matter.
• Misreading of the audience – pitching at the wrong level.  Must be able to drop the presentation and “change gears” if you find the audience at a different level to your presentation.  Some people say it’s about your story, Garr disagrees.
• Presenters talking to the screen or hiding behind the lectern.  You have to engage the audience -Referenced a concept in Japanese called “Hadaka no tsukiai” or “Naked communication”.

Good presentations:

• Lots of stories
• Personal but relevant
• Demonstrable expertise – the audience knows you know your subject
• Use of Metaphor – Book reference: A whole new mind
• Engaging the audience – asking them questions, even rhetorical questions.
• Being thought-provoking
• Presenters who don’t believe in what they are presenting
• Don’t over-deliver on the number of messages
• Audience comment: People generally remember the name of the presenters who gave good presentations
• Zoom out, zoom in to detail, zoom out to set context.  Give them the big picture, then zoom in.
• Good use of humour.  Garr says good presentation is like stand-up comedy.  Says Adam Hill is a great oone he has seen.  Doesn’t use a lot of vulgar language to be funny.
• A good presenter knows when to make the message more important than the messenger.

“The sound of one room napping”

- Shows slide with audience passed out, talks about boring the audience to sleep

Pet peeves about powerpoint

Common misuse #1: Using powerpoint as the handouts – “Killing two birds with one stone”.  Slides meant to be visuals, not handouts.  Page numbers on slides- useless

Common misuse #2 – as a report.  References Columbia disaster – “The board (find this quote)… re powerpoint as a documentation tool”

Common misuse #3: As a teleprompter

1-7-7 Rule: One idea per slide. 7 lines of text max. 7 words a line max.  Shows a slide with this applied and how it can go wrong.

Here’s a “Bright idea”: Put the ideas in the notes field.  Put a key graphic and just a few words in the slide.

Do not read the presentation.  Know it.  Practise it and know what comes next and when to cue to the next slide

Quotes Guy Kawasaki (I typed as much as I could get ) : “By having a 30 pt font … it forces you to have a lot less text.   If you need to have an 8pt font its because you dont know your material.  If you read your slides, your audience will think you’re a Bozo.  They’ll think I can read faster than this bozo speaks, I’m going to read ahead”

Death by powerpoint is so common its accepted as normal

Book reference: Brain Rules, and brainrules.net (all the content is apparently on the site)

Slideshare on Brain Rules by Garr Reynolds – Take-aways, what all presenters need to know

Book ref: Multimedia Learning.

“No visuals is better than bad visuals”.  John Sweller – visuals help people learn better.

Default powerpoint – who’s default is it anyway?

Keynote is inherently simpler than powerpoint (Garr says it’s better)

Suggestions for Microsoft and the Powerpoint team gathered on Presentation Zen blog: boil down to:

• Make it simpler
• Make it easier
• Remove distractions

Al Gore got help and got better at presenting.  As he got better he got taken that much more seriously.  He got help from Duarte Design, who do nothing but presentations.  They redefined Al Gore, and made him this much better.  Ref to inconvenient truth.  Not saying presenting will make you Al Gore, but it will make you get your message across better.

Simplify without dumbing down.  Hans Rosling – the data is out there (epidemiology).  It’s inacessible or its just plain boring

Talks about Steve Jobs – always stays front and centre, and keeps it simple, even when presenting technical content.

“Darth Vader Method”: death by powerpoint

“The Yoda method”: Front and centre, “Zen master” style.  start with a blank slate.

Preparation, Design, Delivery

(Garr says hes going to start skipping around because of time pressure)

Restraint <– preparation. 

• Control, moderation.  
• Like a Zen Garden.  Whats there looks accidental, but its by specific design.
• (shows the “If Microsoft designed the iPod package” video.  
• Garr’s comment as it plays “Don’t do this )

Bad Habits – we suffer from bad habits.  Clutter is a bad habit.  

Preparation:

• Focus on Simplicity
• Step back.  Find some alone time.  Get off the grid.
• “Multitasking, when it comes to paying attention, is a myth”

“Making the simle complicated is commonplace.  But making the complicated awesomely simple is pure genius”  - Charles Mingus

Sir Ken Robinson:

• “If you’re not prepared to be wrong you’ll never come up with anything original” – Sir Ken Robinson
• Sir Ken Robinson video from TED: He presents with no slides, and is very amusing 
• We run our companies like this – we stigmatize mistakes.  (makes point that this thinking is getting into education)

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilies but in the experts mind there are few” – Shunrya Suzuki

Dr Jill Bolte-Taylor’s TED presentation – Memorable because she does something so unexpected.  she brings a real human brain on to stage

Book Reference: Heath Brothers’ book – Made to Stick – what makes ideas sticky

• Simplicity
• Unexpectedness
• Concreteness
• Credibility
• Emotion
• Story