Show and Tell: How Everybody Can Make Extraordinary Presentations by Dan Roam
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Turns out there are several types of stories to tell in presentations. Dan speaks to the idea of understanding your audience, understanding your purpose for a presentation, understanding what goal you wish to achieve: informative report, imparting a skill, overcoming an obstacle, etc.
Dan writes (and I love this):
“When we tell the truth, we connect with our audience, we become passionate, and we find self-confidence. When we tell a story, we make complex concepts clear, we make ideas unforgettable, and we include everyone. When we use pictures, people see exactly what we mean, we captivate our audience’s mind, and we banish boredom.”
CMIO’s take? There are a number of good books on presentations, like Presentation Zen, Death by Powerpoint, and anything by Ed Tufte (starting with Visual Display of Quantitative Information). This book is a quick read. Powerpoint is DEATH unless we use it with skill. Most have no skill. This is a tiny book, a quick read. Get skills here.