You have a unique opportunity to change minds when you make a presentation. Unfortunately, it's an opportunity that is frequently wasted. Presentations are often a waste of effort for the presenter and a waste of time for the audience. Before subjecting your audience to a slow death by PowerPoint, consider the best way to engage them.
Start by asking yourself if you even need to make a presentation. Seth Godin notes that the best presentation is no presentation at all. If you can get by with a memo, send a memo. Alternatively, meet one on one, look the other person in the eye and make your case.
If you decide that a presentation is the best approach, make it interactive. You don't like to be talked at and neither does your audience. Frame the dialog by defining the questions that need to be discussed. Then let people ask questions. If this is not practical, pose rhetorical questions instead. Answer questions by telling stories and by providing relevant examples.
If you must use slides, keep them simple. One slide, one point. No bullets, just pictures. For great examples of this technique see Steve Jobs keynote presentations or this presentation by Stanford professor Larry Lessig.
When you present, speak from your heart not a script. Don't worry about trying to get the words exactly right. People remember scenarios not words. Your audience are more likely to be influenced by your passion and authenticity than by any particular choice of words. And finally, look at your audience when you speak, don't read from your slides. Your audience is quite capable of reading them. If you need to read from your slides, you are either unsure what your point is, or your slides are unclear.
Simply presenting one fact after another - slide after boring slide - is unlikely to change anyone's mind. We use metaphors to make sense of the world and most of our thinking is organized as stories. If you want to change minds, make an emotional appeal to your audience by telling compelling stories and by engaging them in a conversation.
