Tamsen Webster explains when slides actually help your presentation and when they hurt it. She warns against putting text verbatim on slides, and shows how to use blank slides or distinct visuals to emphasize key points and keep your audience focused on what matters.
Let's say you've been asked to make a presentation about your idea. You are giving a talk at a conference or maybe just an update in a meeting. Should you use slides? And if so, how? That's what we're talking about this week on Find the Red Thread. I'm your host, Tamsen Webster of TamsenWebster.com. Please remember to like and subscribe if you're so moved. There are few more polarizing topics than how and when to use slides or even to use them at all when presenting. Now, I am generally a fan of slides simply for the reason that our brains are fans of visuals. There's a lot of information about this, but what we can all find to be true is that the brain is wired to process visual information. And the more that we can pair what we're saying with what we're showing, the better. Now, we run into a problem though, and here I'm gonna quote E.M. Forster who said, "What is the good of the ear if it tells you the same thing as the eye?" So we run into problems when we put exactly the same thing up on screen that we're saying, because the minute we do that, we do not need to be there. But there are times when it makes a lot of sense to do that, And those are the times, I'm gonna argue, that when you wanna get across your most important points. Your most important points deserve to be treated differently on screen. And there's a couple ways to do that. But first, let's talk about why it's important to treat them differently on screen. Because your brain needs help understanding that this point is more important than this one. And if visually everything that you're talking about is treated the same, it's in the same size font, font, it either does or doesn't use images, you're using the same colors, whatever, if everything in your presentation on the slides is treated the same way, it's the visual equivalent of speaking in a monotone. And we hate listening to people speak in a monotone, and the same thing can happen with slides as well. We don't like watching something where we're like, "Oh yeah, here's another slide," because then we can just tune it out. So at the very least, consider doing something different on the main points of your talk. Now, if you've used the Red Thread to build your presentation, then I would recommend that at the very least, your problem, your idea or truth statement, and your change have their own slides, and nothing else in the talk is treated the same way as those three concepts. You can do this in two ways, as I mentioned in passing earlier. The first is to make sure that they are up on screen in a shortened format, kind of think about a proverb-like format, and treated differently than anything else so that when you say it, that is the one time where you do want it to be reinforced by what people also see. That's a way to tell the audience subtly, "This is a really important point." And also, by the way, if you're talking to an audience that's very socially inclined, make sure that you get a nice picture of you on stage with one of your big ideas. Ideas behind you. Now the other way to handle it that is just as effective is to go to no slide at all on those really big, really important points. By going to no slide at all, you are actually using that focus of attention to your advantage because there's nothing else for people to look at while you're saying that important thing. So where is their attention gonna go? Back to you. So by using a dark, a black, or some kind of neutral slide when you deliver your big important point, you can make sure that they are paying full attention to you and what you're saying at the moment that you're saying it. Now, after that, other than those— how you're going to handle those big points, how you use slides is completely up to you. And again, you don't have to use them at all. I tend to speak to a lot of marketing audiences and branding audiences. They tend to be socially savvy, so I tend to make sure that I have slides, mostly because it means that those slides and pictures of my presentation are much more likely to get shared. But slides are very, very personal, and ultimately what it comes down to is a choice, your choice, about how to make sure and your audience is paying attention the way you want them to, to you and the elements of your Red Thread, and thus to your big idea. So it really comes down to first, do you wanna use slides or not? That's a choice. And then if you've said yes, I do wanna use slides, think about how are you gonna make sure that those slides are serving your Red Thread as strongly as possible. If you want more help or more information on that, feel free to reach out to me at tamsenwebster.com/contact. I also occasionally do one-tay presentation intensive where we talk about the Red Thread method for presentations, so keep your eye open for that. As always, if you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe, and share, and I will see you next week.
