The moment you click to a new slide, you will lose the connection with your audience for a moment.

• Reading bullet point 1, 2, 3, and 4
• Whoo, that is a pretty girl there in that picture, the colour of her sweater does not match her bag though.
• Is that graph sales in billions? No, growth in percentages. OK
• Why are these boxes not aligned? On purpose?

For a well-designed slide, this disconnect only lasts a few seconds. You glance at the visual, get the point, and move your attention back to the speaker.

But even for well-designed charts, I have heard the speaker going off track. The slide gets put up, and the speaker starts with an anecdote or a story (as every presentation expert is preaching to you to do), but there is a disconnect between the story and the visual. The audience is trying to make the connection between the blue square on the slide, and your anecdote involving 2 swans you saw when you were a child.

The solution is simple: quickly explain the big point of your slide (that blue square), and then feel free to wander of with your personal story.

Art: Rembrandt, Self portrait, 1630

Click here to subscribe to this blog