The Presentation Diamond

Before You Start

Identify clearly what you want your presentation to achieve. Is the aim of your presentation

To inform – providing your audience with new information - eg about plans for a new computer system

To educate – equipping your audience with the knowledge and skills to operate the new computer system effectively

To persuade – convincing your audience that the new computer system is a good idea

Your approach will depend on what you are trying to achieve. An information-giving presentation is likely to be focused on you as the presenter, as the purpose is for you to convey information that the audience don’t yet have. The challenge with this type of presentation is to keep it interesting – remember that the average human being has an attention span of around 10 minutes!

Educational and persuasive presentations are more likely to involve the audience. A classic approach to an educational presentation is ‘Tell-show-do’ – tell them how to carry out a task on the new computer system, show them by demonstrating it yourself, then get them to have a go at doing it themselves. In this way the structure moves from being presenter-led to a more participative approach.

Persuasive presentations require interaction between the presenter and the audience. People will only be persuaded if you listen to their objections and concerns – so you have to build this into your structure. Remember to allow sufficient time for this – people will go away dissatisfied and frustrated if they feel their concerns have not been addressed.

The Presentation ‘Diamond’

The ‘Diamond’ provides a sound structure for most types of presentation. It opens with an introduction to yourself and your subject, broadens out into a discussion of the main points you have to get across, before narrowing down to a close with questions, a summary of the main points and identification of what action your audience will take following the presentation. One of the benefits of the Diamond is that you cover your main points three times:

· In the introduction – This is what I’m going to say
· In the main body of the presentation – You say it
· In the close – You summarise it

Some tips on using the Diamond:

Pay particular attention to the two points of the Diamond – the opening and the close. These are your points of maximum impact.

The opening – think carefully about the impact you want to make on your audience. Do you want to grab their attention with a funny remark or a witty anecdote, or will it be more beneficial for you to build rapport with them first. A lot of stand-up comedians start by chatting with their audiences – eg sharing their first impressions of the town, or talking about their journey – before moving into their act.

Another effective opening technique is to tantalise your audience with the benefits of staying with your presentation until the end. One colleague I work with promises to end her presentations by revealing the secret of eternal life, which grabs an audience’s interest no matter what the subject matter!

The close – many presenters make the mistake of slowly spluttering to a halt, like a car when it runs out of petrol. Audiences are most likely to remember the last thing you say, so make sure it’s something worth remembering! This might be an inspiring quotation, your vision for a brighter future, the punchline to a joke you started earlier in the presentation or even – in my colleague’s case – the secret of eternal life (if you promise it you have to deliver!).

The main body – write down the main points you want to cover then divide them into three categories:

· Must knows – the points which are essential to achieving your objectives

· Should knows – additional information that your audience will really benefit from hearing

· Could knows – anecdotes, stories and peripheral information that your audience will find interesting, but which is not fundamental to getting across your main message

And Finally…

‘In good communication,
People should be in no doubt that you have reached a conclusion’

(John Adair and Neil Thomas)

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