Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, 2nd Edition (Ira Katz's Library) (2 page)

Because this is a book about presenting better with slides, I thought it would be appropriate to show the foreword as a slide presentation. As far as I know, this is the first foreword in history presented in a book as a series of presentation slides. Now, good slides should
enhance
a live talk; slides are not meant to tell the whole story without you there. But from the slides on the next page, I think you can get my point. If I were to give a live talk about why you should buy this book, the slides would look something like this.

Guy Kawasaki
Author of
Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions
, and former chief evangelist of Apple
www.guykawasaki.com

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

—Leonardo da Vinci

With successful presentations in Tokyo behind me, I boarded the 5:03 p.m. Super Express bound for Osaka complete with my
ekiben
(a special kind of Japanese lunch box or
bento
sold at train stations) and a can of Asahi beer in hand. The quintessential “Japan experience” for me is zipping through the Japanese countryside aboard cutting-edge rail technology while sampling traditional Japanese delicacies with my chopsticks, sipping Japanese beer, and catching glimpses of temples, shrines, and even Mount Fuji outside the spacious side window. It’s a wonderful juxtaposition of the old and the new—and a pleasant way to end the day.

While in the midst of savoring the contents of my bento, I glanced across the aisle to see a Japanese businessman with a pensive look on his face as he reviewed a printed deck of PowerPoint slides. Two slides per page, one page after another filled with boxes crammed with reams of Japanese text in several different colors. No empty space. No graphics except for the company logo at the top of each slide box. Just slide after slide of text, subject titles, bullet points, and logos.

Were these slides the visual support for a live oral presentation? If so, I sympathized with the audience. Since when can an audience read and listen to someone talk at the same time (even if they could actually see the 12-point text on the screen well enough to read it)? Were the slides used merely as a kind of document printed in PowerPoint? If so, I pitied both the author and the reader because PowerPoint is not a tool for document creation. Boxes of bullet points and logos do not make for a good handout or report. And judging by the way the man flipped back and forth between the printed slides, perhaps frustrated by the ambiguity of the content, this was becoming apparent to him.

What a contrast in the presentation of content, I thought to myself: The beautifully efficient, well-designed Japanese bento before me containing nothing superfluous, compared with the poorly designed, difficult-to-understand deck of printed PowerPoint slides across the aisle. Why couldn’t the design
and presentation of business and technical content for a live talk have more in common with the spirit of the simple bentos sold at Japanese train stations? For example, the Japanese bento contains appropriate content arranged in the most efficient, graceful manner. The bento is presented in a simple, beautiful, and balanced way. Nothing lacking. Nothing superfluous. Not decorated, but wonderfully designed. It looks good, and it
is
good. A satisfying, inspiring, and fulfilling way to spend 20 minutes. When was the last time you could say the same about a presentation you saw?

A delicious Japanese bento and a slide presentation may seem to have nothing in common. But it was at that moment, rolling across Japan at 200 miles an hour many years ago, that I had a realization: something needed to be done to end the scourge of bad PowerPoint slides and the lifeless narration that accompanies them—and I could do something to help. In Japan, just like everywhere else in the world, professionals suffer through poorly designed presentations on a daily basis. Presentations in which the slides often do more harm than good. It is not enjoyable, and it is not effective. I knew that if I could begin to help others look at preparation, design, and delivery of so-called “PowerPoint presentations” in a different way, perhaps I could do my small part to help others communicate far more effectively. That moment on the Bullet Train—somewhere between Yokohama and Nagoya—was when I began writing this book. I started by sharing my thoughts on the Presentation Zen website, a blog that would go on to become the world’s most visited site on presentation design.

This book has three sections: Preparation, Design, and Delivery. Along the way, I’ll provide a good balance of principles and concepts, inspiration, and practical examples. I’ll even show you before-and-after photos of the actual bento box that was the inspiration for this book. Before reviewing the current state of presentations today—and why presentations matter now more than ever before—let’s first look at what is meant by “Presentation Zen.”

This is not a book about Zen. This is a book about communication and about seeing presentations in a slightly different way, a way that is in tune with our times. Although I make several references to Zen and the Zen arts along the way, my references are far more in the realm of an analogy than the literal. Literally, the tradition of Zen or Zen practice has nothing to do directly with the art of presenting in today’s world. However, our professional activities—especially professional communications—can share the same ethos as Zen. That is, the essence or the spirit of many principles found in Zen concerning aesthetics, mindfulness, connectedness, and so on can be applied to our daily activities, including presentations.

A teacher for one who seeks enlightenment would say that the first step for the student is to truly see that life is somehow out-of-sync or off-kilter, that there is “suffering” if you will. And that this “out-of-kilterness” is a consequence of our own attachment to things that are inconsequential. Likewise, the first step to creating and designing great presentations is to be mindful of the current state of what passes for “normal” presentations and that what is “normal” today is off-kilter with how people actually learn and communicate.

Each situation is different. But we all know, through our own experiences, that presentations in business and academia can cause a good degree of “suffering” for audiences and presenters alike. If we want to communicate with more clarity, integrity, beauty, and intelligence, then we must move beyond what is considered to be “normal” to something different and far more effective. The principles I am most mindful of through every step of the presentation process are restraint, simplicity, and naturalness: Restraint in preparation. Simplicity in design. Naturalness in delivery. All of which, in the end, lead to greater clarity for us and for our audiences.

In many ways, few of the basics have changed since the time of Aristotle some 2,300 years ago, or from the basic advice given by Dale Carnegie in the 1930s. But what may seem like common sense regarding presentations is not common practice. The Presentation Zen approach challenges the conventional wisdom of making slide presentations in today’s world and encourages people to think differently about the design and delivery of their presentations.

Presentation Zen is an approach, not a method. Method implies a step-by-step, systematic, planned, and linear process. Method suggests a definite and proven procedure that you can pick off a shelf and follow from A to Z in a logical, orderly fashion. As an approach, Presentation Zen suggests a road, a direction, a frame of mind—perhaps even a philosophy—but not a formula of proven rules to be followed. Methods are important and necessary. But there are no panaceas, and I offer no prescriptions for success. Success depends on you and your own unique situation. However, I do offer guidelines and some things to think about that may run contrary to conventional wisdom on how to make live presentations with multimedia.

Similarly, Zen itself is an approach to life and a way of being rather than a set of rules or dogma to be followed by all in the same way. Indeed, there are many paths to enlightenment. At the heart of Zen is the need for personal awareness and the ability to see and discover. Zen is practical. It’s concerned with the here and now. And the practical and the here and now are also our concern with presentations. The aim of this book is to help professionals free themselves from the pain of creating and delivering presentations by helping them see presentations in a way that is different, simpler, more visual, more natural, and ultimately far more meaningful.

Not all presentation situations are appropriate for using multimedia. For example, if you have a small audience and data-intensive materials to discuss, a handout of the materials with a give-and-take discussion is usually more appropriate. In many situations, a whiteboard, flipcharts, or a paper with detailed figures would make for better support. Each case is different. The discussions in this book, however, center on those presentations for which multimedia is a good fit for your unique situation.