What’s Hot.
Useful sections cover all aspects of planning and delivering presentations. Many examples of the good, the bad and the ugly clearly explain how to best streamline your projects.
What’s Not.
Readers uninterested in learning about Zen philosophy might become annoyed with Reynold’s sometimes long explanations of it.
The bottom line.
Presentation Zen will undoubtedly help you simplify your presentations and hone your delivery skills so that you effectively communicate a message that your audiences will actually remember.
If you’ve Feng Shui’ed your apartment, why not Zen your presentation? Through his new book, Presentation Zen, Garr Reynolds aims to simplify our lives by teaching readers how to focus their presentations and communicate with audiences in a compelling way.
Essentially, Reynolds has written a book that combines the art of storytelling with the business of presentation. As a Southerner, I like anything that involves a story, but simplicity rarely factors into a story down here. We start rambling as one image evokes another that reminds us of an event that occurred 5 years prior that can only be explained by going back another 2 years, and before anyone realizes it, the porch party has gone through a handle of Jack Daniels and the storyteller hasn’t even made it back around to the original point. Reynolds would be appalled.
To Reynolds, simplicity is the key. He instructs readers to define a central message to convey and asserts that everything in the presentation should support that one idea. To begin, Reynolds stresses that presenters be compelling themselves. The audience should value you so that they will also value your story. Presentation Zen emphasizes the use of visuals as a support system for your story. A picture is worth a thousand words, after all. Images, he argues, should never distract from your presentation and they should always convey the emotion that you desire your audience to feel.
The book itself is divided into three main sections – preparation, design and delivery. Reynolds includes many helpful examples of best practices as well as examples of what not to do. To begin, Reynolds tells readers to step away from the computer and hammer out a storyline by hand. Put the fancy background image search on hold until you have a clear idea of the message you want to articulate. Think of yourself as a mini-novelist and start by creating a story that will engage your audience. Throughout Presentation Zen, Reynolds works to help us strip away the meaningless parts of most every presentation. Slides, notes and handouts should all work together, he says, and wordy information should be included on handouts only, not on slides. Finally, Reynolds covers delivery methods that allow presenters to connect with audiences in a conversational way.
The thought of presenting still stressing you out? Pick up Presentation Zen and write the cost off as therapy because many readers report that the book itself has a calming effect. Indeed, the book’s cover, with its tranquil blue background and carefully stacked stones, makes me feel instantly better about the world. Given that the book is, at the most basic level, about communicating effectively with those around you, you just might pass on a little Zen to the world after reading it yourself.
