Planning and making a presentation is a multifaceted process, made more complicated when your audience is from a different culture than your own. I have trained and coached hundreds, perhaps thousands of people to make more effective presentations and today I would like to share some of the things you need to consider when planning your presentation.
First, you need to be clear about your objective. It is not enough to think that you are going to “talk about” x. What do your want to happen in the minds of the audience when the presentation is over? Don’t forget that fact at any point in your presentation.
Then you need to focus your presentation from the audience perspective. It cannot be about what you want, but rather about what you want them to do. You might complete this sentence for yourself: “At the end of my presentation, you (the audience) will ….”
Keep in mind that people from different cultures expect different behaviors from the presenter. Germans want detail. Americans want the big picture, and a little entertainment in the process. British want tradition while French want a “French connection” to what you are discussing.
For that reason, a presentation to Germans can last longer than one to Americans, as much as twice as long. Nothing important should be left out when presenting to Germans. For Americans, hit your important points more than once and leave time for the audience to ask about the additional items that interest them. It isn’t uncommon to leave as much as 1/3 of the time for Q&A when presenting to Americans.
The Americans will readily accept some hyperbole, but avoid that when speaking to Germans.
The most complex task is when presenting to a multicultural audience. If you are speaking, for example to a mix of Germans and Americans you must fulfill the needs of both groups. You might say, “So that’s the big picture, but for those of you who want more detail let me explain….”
Be aware that different segments of your own company should be seen as different cultures. Engineers have different needs from sales or marketing people. And senior management has yet a different need.
But fundamentally, the success of your presentation will be based on having a single idea you are driving home. To explain this, I invite you to watch a TED Talk about giving presentations by TED curator Chris Anderson.
Happy presenting!
- Herb