8 steps to successful business presentations in a short attention span world
While I am coaching senior executives, I often mention that an audience’s attention span is around 10 minutes. This means that when you deliver a business presentation you need to continually engage and interact with the audience.
Here is an article in the Times of India that shows another reason why younger audiences’ suffer from short attention spans. Read more.
Meditation can improve your concentration
With the need to multi-task and sift through a never-ending flow of information, we have adapted - with the help of technology - to become more skillful at darting our attention spans from point to point. From an email, to the mobile phone, to a web site, to a download, to a conversation. And so on.
While this adaption is an important part of being productive in a digital information age, it also impacts our ability to focus on one thing for a long period of time. Switching attention between tasks reduces effectiveness and hampers our ability to get things done in one sitting.
I recently attending a workshop and received a 25 minute meditation recording which I use at the end of the day to relax, unwind and calm my mind. One thing that surprised me was how difficult it is to focus for the complete 25 minutes. While listening to the guided meditation (basically someone’s voice), I noticed that my mind was drifting onto other thoughts. Even after pulling my attention back to the recording, my mind kept darting onto other topics.
Gradually, the more I meditate with the recording the longer I am able to focus my attention entirely. As we continue to plough through life with our numerous distractions, it’s good to remember that we can also “work out” our concentration and focus from time to time. Turn off the devices and just relax for 25 minutes. Your mind and attention span will appreciate it.
5 minute presentations
I am sure you have all sat through many teeth-grindingly long presentations with 89 PowerPoint slides. But what if the presentation was only 5 minutes long, with 20 slides and each slide automatically rotated after 15 seconds. Sounds great!
There are a number of new events springing up which ‘force’ presenters to be concise. I think this is a great thing. It is much harder to be concise and still remain compelling, but the philosophy of The One Minute Presenter is just this. With today’s short-attention span audiences, it is becoming more and more important to be concise.
If you cannot get along to one of Ignite’s events (Wiki page) - try this method when you are preparing for your next presentation. It will help you deliver a to-the-point message and finish on time.
Understanding your audience is essential to successful business presentations. Especially if you are presenting to audiences with short attention spans. Digital natives are regarded as having less patience for (traditional) presentations, so what can you do to adapt yourself to your audience?
Well a clue lies in a school in England whose headmaster claim that all teenagers need a lie-in and that classes should start at 11am. The claim is based on the way the teenage body clock is functioning which results in students falling asleep in class. In tests so far memory has improved and received (not surprisingly) good response from the students.
While you may not be faced with a teenage audience, business audiences today are just as distracted and likely to tune out if you cannot capture their attention. If it’s within your control think about the timing of your presentation. Just after lunch most people are sluggish and likely to drift off. Later in the afternoon people’s brains become tired and attention spans drop off. Mid to late mornings usually work well for most audiences. Also, be aware of spacing your content so that you don’t overload your audience with information. Add breaks every 10 minutes or so to allow your message to digest and for a different format of presenting like a video, a story or an activity.
One thing you can be sure about when you are delivering your next presentation. Your audience wish you would finish it quicker, get to the point sooner and wrap it up faster. Your audience don’t have unlimited time, attention or energy. So don’t present like they do.
If you see people’s eyes glazing over, notice sighs and hear yawns, you are in the “dead energy zone” from which no memories emerge. Your audience is switched off and waiting for you to finish. Those who are less polite will walk out.
To become a better presenter, you need to understand how memory works. One technique to learn is called spaced learning. Advocated by Dr John Medina in his book Brain Rules and put into practice in a school in the UK, spaced learning stops trying to force information on the brain. Instead it aligns with how memories are actually formed.
Spaced learning uses intense learning periods of 20 minutes, interspersed with 10 minute intervals of physical exercise that requires hand-eye coordination, such as juggling, basketball and plate spinning. Sounds barmy right? But the results are amazing. Students who took a 90 minute class on biology had a 58% pass rate. A year late taking another science subject and this time four months of conventional class study the pass rate went up to only 68%.
The technique is fast and uses “hooks” and visual cues to stimulate the learning points. How can you introduce gaps in your presentations where the audience can take abreak, move around and then be ready for a quick review when they return. You need different versions of your presentations. Insert “check slides” which have gaps in the key messages and ask the audience to fill in the missing words. Have handouts that ask key questions about the messages. Insert more five minute breaks (keep it to exactly 5 minutes though!) and don’t be afraid to go back to skim through your slides. Above all, dump your text-based slides for visuals that use pictures and slogans. Make your slides resemble billboards.
Toddlers, goldfish and puppies are not the most especially attentive of audiences. But you can learn a lot from their attention spans. There’s short. And they won’t hang around if they feel bored.
Does your audience ever feel bored? This often happens when you present too much information with not enough time to connect the dots with vivid examples and practical applications. The result? Very little digestion and a completely unmotivated audience.
Brain studies have shown that using graphics (images, charts, pictures) first while introducing a topic the retention and interest goes up. Digital natives - who have grown up with interactive technology (video games, internet) like to think in fast bursts. Use graphics to quickly show a path, overview a topic or summarise findings.
Goldfishes are not known for having long memories. But to be honest, today’s audiences can often resemble goldfishes. But that’s your fault. Test it. Ask someone who has listened to your presentation one week later, what some of the key messages were and you will be amazed if they even remember listening to the presentation. Boring information is like watching paint dry: it takes up some time and then you forget all about it. Instead of delivering a “watermelon” of information to your audience, use spaced learning techniques. Help your audience recall key points but going back to them during the presentation, refreshing them after breaks, inserting colorful summary slides or graphics and giving quick “Q&A quizzes” throughout the day. The more you create chances for your audience to deepen their understanding, the higher their memory retention.
(Wo)man’s best friend he may be, but a puppy can be a real handful. Puppies learn through play and massive amounts of interactivity. They bring a digital native attitude to learning. Growing up playing PlayStation, Xbox, and countlesss other handheld consoles, digital natives expect all experiences to be “fun”. Work and learning included.
Yes. It’s important to treat yourself seriously and be good at what you do. But don’t treat your presentation too seriously if you want your audience to stay engaged and remember what your key messages are. Humour works. But even if you are not that funny, high amounts of interactivity will help you keep your audience awake. Pop quizzes, short discussion, role plays, two-player face offs (PK games) will all help increase interaction and keep the energy alive!
According to media philosopher Marshall McLuhan, the average attention span for a TV viewer was four to five minutes. In 1976. Today’s action movies with digital editing create cuts every three to four seconds.
Killian Avertising report on a recent study that concluded the average American spends two hours every day watching television. Reading, on the other hand, occupies seven minutes. So why are you forcing your audience to read PowerPoint slides full of text?
If you are presenting to a group of people who are used to watch movies with fast-paced, quick-changing action. And you deliver slide after slide of data-heavy content in a dead-pan voice, how long are they going to stay with you? Three minutes, four tops?
So why do so many presenters present like their audiences have attention spans of three hours. One reason lies in the differences between digital natives and digital immigrants.
Find out if you are digital native or digital immigrant.
Learn more about digital natives here. And digital immigrants here.
According to Wiki, your attention span is the amount of time you can concentrate on a task without becoming distracted. Your ability to focus attention on a task is related to your success in achieving your goals.
As presenters we are relying on our audience’s attention to stay focused on our presentation, learn our key messages and act on our takeaways.
But just how realistic is this?
Not very. Take a look around. Nobody is listening. They are not paying attention to you. They are not focused on your presentation, your messages or takeaways. Their attention span is more like this:
It’s fragmented. In bits and pieces. And it’s not their fault. So what are you going to so about it? As a presenter of information you are responsible for getting your messages across. If the audience don’t get the point. It’s your fault. If they become distracted, bored or dis-engaged during your presentation. It’s your bad.
So what can you do to stop this (frightening) possibility from occurring. First, understand more about attention spans.
Read more tips and articles on attention spans here.
