Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter)

Long before there was PowerPoint, most presentations contained more columns of numbers and bullet points than pictures. PowerPoint seemed designed to capture the essence of those transparencies and make it faster to create them . . . while adding color. Compared to those ugly transparencies, PowerPoint seemed like an improvement.

By comparison, my dentist has always covered his walls with beautiful bleed images of gorgeous places combined with intriguing sayings about life. Those posters are the only uplifting thing about my trips to the dentist's office. He doesn't tell me any entertaining stories.

In presentationzen, Garr Reynolds shares with us that today's audiences like a standard PowerPoint presentation about as much as I like going to the dentist (I doubt if you are surprised by that). His prescription is to turn the typical presentation into a series of stories aided by exhibits that remind me of those dental posters while being very responsive (present . . . in his terminology) to the audience.

The book's main strength, and one that makes it well worth reading and following, is in describing a process that can be used to create a presentation that will be compelling. Even when I see a presentation that I like, I don't learn much from the example because the presenter doesn't share the process behind the result.

The examples almost all showed someone in a black turtle neck, black pants, and black shoes who looked like a Steve Jobs acolyte. As a result, there's an Apple versus Microsoft tone to the book that didn't match any environment where I ever see or give presentations (usually board rooms and senior corporate conference rooms).

Most presentations should be much shorter, should have a lot less material, and should be much easier to grasp. This book will help you if that's the way you want to go. Beware, however, that you don't go over the edge into becoming an "artiste" in your presentations. This book will probably push you a little too far in that direction.

For those who cannot imagine how an image might fit into a presentation, this book will be a great breath of fresh air. To those who want to copy the advice closely, keep your audience in mind. You might try to take them places where they don't want to go.

In my 30-plus years of presentation experience, I find that the story is the key to success. One good story will more than carry the day. You can draw on a chalk board with your fingernails for graphics and a good story will still work just fine. To me, the weakness of this book is that it doesn't pay enough to the story telling aspect of successful presentations.

I recommend Stephen Denning's books on story telling to help you with that aspect of presentations.

Garr Reynolds has succinctly grasped a pernicious nettle and dislodged a few hoary myths about effective communication in his new book presentationzen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery. Realising '... that something needed to be done to end the scourge of bad PowerPoint slides and the lifeless narration that accompanies them.' (p. 6), he sets out to illustrate a simpler and more effective approach to communication through presentations.

Keep in mind that the whole thing is about communication: what you need to do and, perhaps more importantly, not do, to make communication effective.

The ten chapters are logically grouped into five areas - introduction, preparation, design, delivery and the next step.

Depending on your philosophical leanings, don't get too caught up or distracted by the 'Zen' context in which he sets out his ideas - look instead at the key ideas themselves.

In the context of planning a presentation I liked his idea of what he called "going analog" (p. 45). Get away from your computer to think about the bigger context in which your presentation is to be made, to identify your key messages and generally tease out your ideas.

One of his key points with which I heartily agree is the need to avoid inadvertently becoming a slave to the software you are using (especially PowerPoint) with its own inherent structural and process constraints.

In discussing at length presentation design (comprising some 20% of the book), Reynolds provides an extensive set of before/after examples to illustrate the key points about the use of text, images, graphics, the interaction between text and images, use of white space, balance, grids and the rule of thirds. The latter will be familiar to readers who are photographers.

A particularly helpful feature comprising Chapter 7: Sample Slides, are examples used by real world presenters , including links to relevant websites. A couple at which I have had a quick look were very worthwhile.

The only downside I struck occurred in the delivery phase of the book where I thought the extensive Zen references and context tended to dominate the key messages he was trying to get across.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who has to present something to an audience.

I can't do better than reiterate Reynolds' own advice - enjoy the journey!

(Readers interested in following Reynolds' ideas further should have a look at his website www.presentationzen.com)

Reviewed by Greg Davies
The Apple Users' Society of Melbourne (AUSOM)
www.ausom.net.au

To say "Presentation Zen" is the best book on creating an effective presentation since Jerry Weissman's "Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story" is an understatement. What Garr Reynolds' book accomplishes is to furnish presenters with the tools to make presentations fun and enjoyable again.

Armed with an arsenal against the use of bullets and an army of arguments for the use of compelling visuals, Reynolds walks the talk by making his own book very visually oriented, starting with the presentation-based preface by Guy Kawasaki.

After reading it, I was able to transform a presentation I was going to deliver later this month, packing the essentials of my pitch into 7 slides, none of which had bullets and most of which contained powerful visuals that support the story I will be telling the audience. This change was possible thanks to the advice on this book, so I highly recommend it to any presenter or teacher who wants to breathe life into a presentation.

It doesn't matter what your job is, this is a must read.

We so often forget that the simplest thing is often the best. This book shows how people can get back to basic. I love the fact that this book captures the essence of why effective presenters are so good!

this is truly a great book. Very inspiring. Most presentations today are boring, uninspiring, not to the point. This book truly motivates you to focus on the parts that matter in your presentation, the points that you want to get across. Concise book with good pictures, graphs etc. I also recommend Garr's blog www.presentationzen.com - that's how I became aware of the book in the first place. Definitely worth the read!