Public Speaking Enemy #1: The Bullet Slide - October 21, 2006

I am frequently asked, as one who in part makes a living in the public speaking sector, are public speakers born or made? They are made. To be sure, history records those who come by things naturally - Mozart for music and William Sidis for everything else - but for the rest of us time and effort is demanded to acquire a skill. Speaking in public is no exception.

The problem is few of us take time to do so. Probably because presenters believe data artfully displayed will lead an audience to a desired conclusion. And nothing accommodates this belief more than a computer based slide generation program. Further, presenters believe that limited rehearsal is required because the data on the projected slides also serve as notes to the speaker.

Nowhere are these beliefs more exhibited than on the most boring and destructive slide - the infamous bullet slide. One wonders why, with all the research given to accurate data gathering and slide preparation, no one recognizes the inherent failures of a bullet slide.

Human read rate is 5 to 6 times faster than speech rate.
People are compulsive readers. Advertisers know this; that's why they put ads everywhere including fruit and vegetables and taxicab hubcaps.

An audience will scan the entire contents of a bullet slide while the speaker is discussing bullet one. This is the equivalent of a comic projecting the punch line on the screen as the joke is being set up. Everyone knows where the speaker is going - they're just hoping he gets there quickly. Did you ever notice how frequently a speaker sensing uneasiness in the audience either skips a bullet to get to the next bullet or skips all of the remaining bullets?

People go deaf when they read.
When people read they turn off their ears. Check it out for yourself. The next time you join three others for lunch watch what happens as the waiter passes out menus and begins announcing the specials of the day. The first person to receive a menu will begin reading immediately and then ask the waiter, "what was that first thing you mentioned"?

Retention improves when the brain simultaneously records input from multiple channels.
Isn't the objective of a presentation to have the audience remember and take with them what it is you presented? To really place a message in to the minds of your audience you synchronize the words you are speaking as the audience reads them. This is impossible with a bullet slide - no one speaks as fast as the audience reads.

We live in a post literate world where sound and pictures influence us more than printed words. A reinforcing graphic with as few words as possible is not only an adequate reminder slide to a speaker who knows the subject; it is a crowd pleaser and a superior point maker.

There's a great deal more to knowing how to create persuasive presentations, but getting rid of bullet slides is an essential start.

Holster that gun!

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Comments | Permalink
By Robert Manna on October 21, 2006 11:19 AM to the Sculpture category.