Some Very Popular Myths About Presenting in Public

“Let thy speech be better than silence, or be silent.”

Dionysius Of Halicarnassus

Imagine yourself in a position where you have to give a presentation the very next day and all you have is short scenario and no experience whatsoever.

32 years ago, when I was 13 years young I was in a similar situation. I was the chosen kid which had to host the official event for the celebrations of the second Bulgarian astronaut in my home town.

I was very excited and really nervous at the same time.

I had to speak in front of more than 300 students and a dozen adults.

It was my first touch with the art of public speaking.

I remember still clearly how shaky I was before the beginning when some guy handed me over the microphone while telling me to stay away as much as possible from the speakers.

My voice was trembling, my body was sweating, but I was keen to carry on with the presentation.

It went relatively well.

By the end of this day I already knew that I have to practice more and learn all the important things that will help me become a very good presenter.

Nowadays the topic regarding presentation skills and public speaking is widely covered especially in our professional environment.

There are only a few basic rules we need to know in order to become a really good speaker.

But while you study them and train how to be a great presenter, it is very likely to come across some popular and some not so popular myths about presentations and public speaking (this is not an exhaustive list):

1. It is a Talent.

2. The Albert Mehrabian ratio.

3. Speak and Show at the same time.

4. Use Light background colours in your presentation ?

5. The More, The Better.

You have probably heard the expression:

“It is a God-given talent”.

In my opinion there is no such thing. Everything can be learned. And Public Speaking as well. Because it is a skill. And if we follow the rules and train hard, anyone can become a really great presenter.

The second myth in our list is widely known as Albert Mehrabian ratio. According to it 7% of our communication is verbal, 34% - paraverbal, 59% - nonverbal.

If that is true, then we are going to be able to understand a language we do not know without hearing the actual words of the speaker, just by observing the body language and tone of voice. We all know that this is impossible. Albert Mehrabian actually made a study in the late 60-ies and the ratio is true in face to face communication but only when the speaker talks about his feelings, likes or dislikes or attitude. In other words the study is limited. It does not affect every aspect of the communication therefore it cannot be applied to every situation in face to face communication and especially when presenting in public.

Actually what is important is that all aspects of our communication, especially when we are presenting in front of an audience, have to be congruent, to line up. If the words and body language or tone of voice are incongruent and disagree, people in the audience will believe the body language.

Our company very often does 5 modules 6 month long Train the Trainers programmes for the organizations we work with and one of the essential skills we teach all future trainers is how to be congruent and authentic.

The next myth is to speak and show/write simultaneously when you are using visual aid like Power Point presentation, flipchart etc.

The reality is to speak first and then show or show first and then speak, because otherwise you will confuse your audience where to focus and the information will be easily forgotten almost instantly. This is one of the forms of the so called "redundancy effect", which according to Cognitive Load Theory by John Sweller may result in overloading the working memory of the people in our audience.

Another widely popular myth is to use light background colours in our presentations. Which is the exact opposite of the correct rule. All humans tend to focus more easily on bright colours. Which means if we want our audience to remember the important information it must be in light and bright colours. Therefore it is a very good idea for the background colours to be dark. If the light and dark colours a carefully selected it will result in high contrast, greater visibility and it will enhance the effect of our presentation/speech.

The last myth in our non-exhaustive list is widely overused in practice and therefore makes most of the presentations and speeches in the real world filled with tones of information. The motto is “The more, the better”.

It is actually vice versa.

"Less is more".

According to one of the brightest minds in the field of presentation skills and public speaking David JP Philips it is much better to have more slides with less information each, rather than less slides with more information each, because if we practise the latter our audience will need many times more cognitive resources to remember the information.

Instead of overloading of the short-term memory of our audience we can enhance the effect by following the 5 ± 2 Rule regarding the quantity of the information and the key messages in a speech.

Not more than 7.

My suggestion is – not more than 5.

If you want to have the best possible effect - not more than 3.

That is why when doing a speech is better to have not more than 3 key messages, if we want of course our messages to be remembered.

So:

• Have fun

• Forget the myths

• Follow the rules

And Enjoy!