There are three steps to making an IBM presentation:
Plan It offers advice on organizing your message, sharpening your focus on what you want to say,
and arranging it in a manner that audiences can follow.
Prepare It is a resource for constructing graphic support materials in Freelance Graphics
(PowerPoint is also supported). You will find instructions on how to include elements such as
text, charts and graphs in a style that will be consistent to all our audiences - an "IBM look," in
much the same way that our advertising and marketing materials have a distinct appearance.
Present It offers tips on how to deliver what you've prepared effectively to an audience.
Presentations are not about showing a series of slides; they are about you, communicating a
message, with visual elements in a supporting role.
Where to begin
Here's what you do first: Stop. Take some time. As Thomas
Watson Sr. used to advise, famously: Think.
You are about to mount an argument. What do you need? Don't
succumb to the temptation of collecting every apparently
relevant item into a jumble and then trying to reshuffle them
into a coherent order. ("Jim has a nice chart on this, and Lisa
has some good market data, I'll get those.") That's the flawed
technique behind many of the more overblown, leaden
presentations you've ever dozed through. That's working
backwards. Instead, start with nothing... and work forward.
Ask yourself this: What is my point? Every presentation is an
attempt to communicate something. It may be a complex topic, with lots of supporting data, but fundamentally
there will always be something simple you want to say. It might be "IBM understands your business," or "This
technology is the best for our requirements" or "We need more time to do this job right."
Figure out what you're trying to communicate, in its simplest, clearest, most concise form. Write it down, in
one sentence. Does it make sense? Does it really cut to the heart of what you need to convey? If not, rewrite it.
If you only could deliver this one sentence to your audience, with no charts or any supporting information,
would this be the one you'd choose?
Composing this basic sentence might take two minutes, or it might take an hour. It doesn't really matter which.
Just get it right. Without a clear point of view, you are navigating without direction.
Get it wrong, and you'll struggle the rest of the way.
Get it right, and the pieces will begin falling naturally into place behind it.
Build your case
OK, you're clear about the point you need to convey. But it's safe to assume that your audience is not prepared
to accept your message on faith. After all, if everyone in the room already knew what you wanted to tell them,
and agreed with it, there would be no point whatever to your standing up and talking.
The purpose of your talk is to move your audience to your point of view. So you will have to build your case.
You need to organize your argument.
Make a rough flow chart of the information you are going to present. Just sketch it out on paper - this isn't
going to be a chart you'll show, and you'll probably have to revise it a few times anyway.
In her book Secrets of Power Presentations,
Micki Holliday suggests answering the
following questions as a first start to organizing
your presentation:
What does the audience need to know?
What does the audience want to know?
What are the possible benefits of a successful
meeting for this audience? ("What's in it for me?")
What questions might the audience have?
The organizing principle behind this is a pyramid: each statement you make will have one, or more likely
several, supporting pieces of information under it. As you build your presentation in this outline form, a
pyramid will form, with your basic statement at the top and everything else arrayed beneath it. Don't worry yet
about the order in which you'll actually present each item. Just get them all down on paper to look at.
The Pyramid Principle book listed in our recommended reading list is devoted to this method of organization,
and it's a useful resource. But the basic idea is really common sense, merely a way of laying out your
information so you can arrange and, later on, present it logically.
Let's take a look at a hypothetical presentation and how you might organize its various elements, using this
technique.
From the top down
Let's assume your basic point is: IBM's solution is your best option, because its combination of products and
services is integrated and flexible, and because we understand your business challenges.
Now, put yourself in your audience's position. They want to know why they should believe this. They expect
proof.
You have, let's assume, four reasons. First, IBM products work together. Second, IBM offers the flexibility of
open systems. Third, IBM services tie everything together. Fourth, IBM has experience in the customer's
industry.
This is the heart and framework of your pitch. Lay it out graphically.
You now see that you're going to open by stating your main point, and you're going to proceed through your
presentation by offering facts and data in these four areas. Don't worry yet about which will come first.
Take each of your supporting arguments and do the same again. Build another pyramid under each of the four.
Under "products work together" you might have information about each of the elements in the solution:
servers, middleware, storage. You might want to talk about inter-divisional efforts in IBM to integrate
technologies across our product lines. It would look something like this:
For this example, we don't need to bother creating all the
pyramids that build downward, but you will want to do this for
your entire presentation. Organize all the information that you
might want to include. You will then have a pyramid that
encompasses everything you need to convey.
Now, play with it. Look at the big picture. See what's most
important. Take out things that, while you might think they're
important, just won't resonate with or be understood by your
audience. Move things around. Add or delete, but keep the
organizing structure intact.
Once you have a pyramid that seems to represent your theme
and the various points you need to get across, you're ready to
start creating the materials you will actually show people:
bullet points, charts, graphs. Instead of organizing on-the-fly,
you've organized first. Congratulations: you now have a clear
picture - literally - of what information is relevant to your presentation, what points it supports, and where it
should go. Unfortunately, many people don't bother to begin with this formal, structured approach.
Fallen Pyramids
Some people find it helpful to use a pyramid on its
side, with the topic in the left-most box, and
building the pyramid out to the right, instead of
below it. If you use this method, you'll notice that
the pyramid more closely resembles a classic outline
structure. Unlike an outline, however, the relative
equality of the boxes make it much easier to
restructure and re-order your presentation and
establish new relationships to item without altering
the entire organization, as often occurs when
creating an outline.
Although you haven't even created your first slide, the most critical (and often botched) work in creating your
presentation is complete.
If this all seems too plodding, too restrictive and structured, don't worry: it isn't. By the time you have a
presentation ready to show, the underlying organization will fade from view, leaving behind merely a
framework that helps your audience focus more easily on your message, and enhances your own mastery of the
material, since you understand thoroughly how it all fits together.
Now, let's take your graphical, pyramid outline and prepare a presentation.
Where to begin
Visual elements such as graphs,
charts, and text can enhance your
ability to communicate, helping
your audience follow your
message and quickly understand
various types of information.
Used thoughtfully, they can be
valuable tools.
Used indiscriminately, or
constructed poorly, however, they can actually detract from your message. They can clutter your
presentation and confuse your audience.
This template will facilitate the preparation of your presentation and will help to continue establishing
you as one of the best expressions of the IBM brand.
It reflects IBM's corporate design style, which also influences our advertising and marketing
materials. It is straightforward, clean, and simple.
It's flexible enough to accommodate a variety of uses. Some may use it with little or no
graphic elements, while others might need to convey far more complicated data.
It's simple to use. Although communications specialists and graphic designers have worked to
create this template, anyone in IBM should be able to use it without any special skills or
software beyond what is already available.
Don't automatically assume you need to use presentation software to make your presentation!
Some of the most effective sales jobs are done just by speaking directly, sincerely and informatively
about the subject, without hiding behind charts. In Say It With Presentations, noted presentation
designer Gene Zelazny gives three basic types of media you should consider if you need visuals to help
convey your message:
Lap visuals, so called because each member of the audience receives his or her own copy of the
materials at the start of the meeting, if not before. Best for small groups, their use can open up
discussion and help everyone participate as equal partners. The downside is that they may read ahead
and start asking questions you would prefer to deal with later in the discussion. And you can also miss
opportunities for eye contact if everyone is looking down reading.
Easels or white boards. Great for increasing interactivity among 15 or fewer people, since you're
recording the audience's ideas as they come up. Downsides: Avoid spending all your time with your
back to the audience; perhaps deputize a member of the meeting to help write down points so you can
concentrate on their comments and reactions to you and each other.
On-screen presentations. While less personable than the other two methods, this is by far the most
polished and suitable for large audiences. Since this is also the medium with the greatest pitfalls, this is
the type of presentation we'll be working on in this section.
Title screen
By using a standard title chart and following the style consistently, we will add a professional touch not
only to our individual presentations but collectively to all of IBM's face-to-face communications.
The title slide is a straightforward element, and generally requires only that you include your name,
IBM organization, and speaking topic in the places provided. However, the template allows for other
elements that might be required, and it's important to follow the guidelines if you will be using these.
More text (if you must)
The template also provides a
format for longer blocks of
text. You should use blocks
of text very sparingly. Yes,
once in a while there
might be a longer passage
that is relevant, and
valuable. For instance, you
might have a quote from
an analyst or customer that
is particularly striking:
If you are going to make
your audience read
something, make sure it's worth their time and effort. More important, make sure it's worth your
time, since you don't have much available and you've just turned some of it into a small reading
assignment.
Don't overdo it
Before you begin, keep in mind some key points:
Visuals are not your presentation. You are the presentation. Your audience has not gathered
for the purpose of reading your Freelance (or PowerPoint) pages; they have come to hear you
communicate. Use visuals to support your message.
Less is more. A graph that shows (for example) levels of customer spending on certain
technologies can reveal at a glance trends in the market, but it remains your task to explain
that data's relevance to your audience. A single, well-constructed graphic, supported by your
thoughtful explanation, is more effective than a series of charts that the audience must
decipher.
Projected visuals have severe limits. They are constrained by the resolution of a computer
screen, which is far lower than the printed page. They are limited further by being projected
onto a screen that people must read from a distance. For this reason, we want to keep visuals
simple and bold. More complex graphics are better suited for inclusion in printed materials.
Let's take a look at the main elements of the IBM Presentation Template that you might need to
include. More possibilities and variations are available in the presentation templates themselves. But
understanding which you need, and when, is the first step.
Bullet-point text
Your audience is ready to listen and to look, but they don't want to read long passages of text on a
screen. And you don't want them too, either — reading takes their attention away from what you are
saying.
The most effective way to use text is with short phrases that can be read at a glance. Presented this
way, text can remind people of your key points, or help them follow the progress of your presentation.
Here's an example of text poorly used:
That isn't a bad-looking page, and it isn't too difficult to read. But it can be improved. This would be
even better:
The first example tries to present your message. The second example merely provides cues to the
messages you are discussing. It engages the audience's time only for a moment, and demands that they
listen to what you're saying as you explain the points.
Of course, even when you reduce your message to a bullet-point phrase, you can still defeat yourself by
cramming too many onto a single page. That's why you should limit any page of text to no more than
five items (and even five is pushing it). You'll see that the template reflects this limit.
This limit of five is not a matter of how much text will fit onto a page while remaining both legible and
visually pleasing, although these are important considerations. Rather, it's a question of how much
information someone can easily retain at one time, especially while listening to you speak.
But what if you have more than three or even five points to make about IBM servers? Perhaps you
want to talk about the technologies that give our servers their price-performance edge, and cite some
benchmark studies as evidence. You have more to say about management capabilities, too. It simply
won't fit into five lines.
No problem. If you examine your information, you are likely to find that it will arrange itself into
groups of details that support more general points. (If you'd prepared your information carefully,
according to the pyramid structure described in the 'Plan It' module, this should already be clear.) The
solution is to create another page which focuses in greater detail on one of your topics. In our current
example, you might progress to this:
Here again, you are giving your audience a limited, manageable amount of information at any one
time. If you have benchmark data (in this example) that simply demands a graphic treatment, don't
cram it onto this page unless it's a very simple graphic. Make another page, devoted to that.
When you've finished with your information about price-performance, return to your list and the
second point. Your next page might list the key points about IBM servers' advanced management
capabilities, followed by one with more detail on Linux and open standards.
If those other topics don't have as much supporting detail, you might simply show your first page about
IBM servers again, perhaps with your next point highlighted:
You would then proceed to discuss the advanced management features. Your audience has a clear and
quick visual cue that you're moving on to the second point, along with a reminder that a third one will
follow.
It's perfectly okay to repeat pages in this manner. Repeating pages can help your audience follow the
presentation, without requiring a lot of their attention to do so. While it's true that "less is more" on any
single page (and even for visuals in general) so long as your pages are brief and direct, repeating pages
in order to highlight the progress of your presentation is an effective use of supporting visuals. In this
instance, more can be more. Just don't get carried away: you don't need a line on the screen to
summarize every single thing you're going to say.
(If you are preparing a printed version of your pitch to distribute to your audience, you will probably
include a page only once, and remove any highlighted and repeated pages.)
Charts & graphs
Chartware
If your presentations require greater use of a wider
variety of charts, you can find a more detailed
exploration of the topic in Say it With Charts, by
Gene Zelazny, one of the books in our
recommended reading list. For an even deeper
examination of visual communication, Envisioning
Information by Edward Tufte is excellent, though
Charts and graphs can be very effective tools. They can
also be annoyingly clumsy, obscuring the very
information they're intended to communicate. Like other tools, they must be used when the task
requires them, and with care.
Our template calls for charts stripped clean of extraneous clutter, free from such visual gimmickry as
three-dimensional effects, and restrained in their use of color. If your information is relevant to your
audience, it shouldn't be obscured by this sort of distraction. If your information isn't relevant, it
shouldn't be on the screen at all.
This introduction to the simplest, most common and effective types of charts used in presentations
should help you develop the basic skills you need to decide when to use a graph, how to select the type
most appropriate to your data, and how to create it using the software you already have available, in a
style that will blend harmoniously into the IBM template.
Before you even begin creating charts, there are a few points to keep in mind.
Charts must be read. They don't convey information, but rather present it in a visual way that
makes understanding it easy. Still, your audience is going to have to extract the message of a
chart by looking at it, by "reading" it, possibly with your assistance in pointing out its key
aspects.
The simpler a chart is, the more clear and direct its message will be. Complex charts of simple
information are failures. Simple charts of complex information are achievements.
When data demands complex charts, they are nearly always better presented on a printed
handout. We will work around these limits as best we can, but you must be aware of them and
strive for simplicity.
In the hands of skilled people trained in presenting information visually, there are software
tools capable of transforming complex data into elegant and effective charts. But these often
require specialized skills.
You'll find all sorts of examples of charts and graphs in the "Infographics" presentation templates.
Once you've got your presentation prepared, however, you're ready to "Present It" — which just
happens to be the subject of the third and final section of the IBM Presentation Methodology.
The template
The IBM Presentation Template (someone reading this has already mentally shortened it to "the IPT,"
no doubt) gives you a few basic options to choose from. Inside of the blue bands (the "letterbox" area),
you can either use a black background with white text or a white background with black text. You can
have background imagery on the title slide inside the letterbox or in the blue bands.
A few things you shouldn't change however:
not as directly relevant to business presentations.
The color or size of the blue bands, except between the two variations given as options in the
template and for the style of the bands in the printable black-and-white version.
The font, which is Arial. (Arial is one of the sans-serif fonts, which are generally considered
easier to read projected on a monitor or screen, or when printed on dark backgrounds. Serif
fonts, such as Times New Roman and Bodoni, are generally considered easier to read in print
on white or light-colored paper.)
The size, position, or other attributes of the IBM logo in the upper right.
The color palette.
The minimum "point" or font size of the various text elements.
The position of such elements as "IBM Confidential," the title of the presentation, the page
numbering if you use it.
When you use the template, you'll see more guidelines in the non-displaying margins of its slides, and
more detailed explanations are available from the template download menu. For now, we'll concern
ourselves with some of the most basic kinds of pages and how to use them most effectively.
Where to begin
Congratulations: You have a well-organized, concise, targeted presentation. You know the
material well enough to improvise if needed, and respond to questions. Your supporting visual
materials look sharp - and more important, they convey information to support your messages,
nothing more or less. You have created an edited version of your slides, reformatted for
black-and-white, and printed enough to hand out to your audience. You're thoroughly prepared.
Say It, Don't Just Play It
It's become an accepted part of the culture at IBM (and elsewhere) to e-mail a presentation
to someone, in lieu of presenting it in person or when an in-person presentation isn't
possible. While this can be a great cost-saver in terms of travel and time, realize that if your
charts are complete enough to stand all on their own without your thoughtful arguments and
explications, then you're probably forcing your in-person audience to read too much. And if
you've pared all the non-essentials from your visuals so that only the most important
elements are displayed, and they truly support your presentation instead of become your
presentation, then it probably isn't going to be able to stand on its own when you e-mail it
off to who-knows-what environment and audience.
If you have to e-mail a presentation you won't be delivering via phone concurrently to it
being viewed, consider recording your comments (Freelance and PowerPoint both have this
option, you need only to get a plug-in microphone for your computer if one isn't already
included.) If you can't record it, or that adds too much to the file size for e-mailing, create a
second, similar presentation and use the speaker notes function. Then you can encourage
your audience to print out the presentation with your speaker's notes or create an Adobe
Acrobat file of such a print-out, which is what you can then e-mail to them.
Speaking tips
There are many books, articles and seminars devoted to the skill of speaking to an audience. This isn't
meant to replace them, so if you're new to public speaking, you might want to browse the list of
recommended reading provided elsewhere. However, here are a few general pointers that apply to
novice and experienced presenters alike.
You Talking to Me?
Before you present, try to answer the following for yourself about the people you see in the room, based on what you know
about them or, if you have nothing else to go on, their expressions and the way others respond when they speak.
Who are the critical decision makers of the audience, whose yes or no may be all that matters ultimately? What are
their needs and priorities?
Who are the influencers in the audience, who seem to command a sense of authority and may be expected to make
recommendations to the critical decision makers?
Who are your allies? Not just friends or colleagues you may recognize in the audience, but the 20 percent who
appear most receptive to the points you are making and are probably generally supportive to most people
presenting to them.
While it may seem counterintuitive, present mostly to the people you see in the audience who obviously want you to succeed,
while being aware of the decision makers and influencers. Micki Holliday (Secrets of Power Presentations) says: "Presenters
tend to get distracted and controlled by the negative personality types. They try to convince, cajole, persuade that one person,
often to the detriment of the rest of the audience. It is usually a hopeless task."
Do not read your slides. Assuming the text (if any) on your slide is legible (as it should be), your
audience can read it faster than you can speak it. Few things are more annoying than watching
someone merely read or closely paraphrase page after page of text. People will either assume that you
don't know the topic very well and have nothing to add, or else that you're a novice presenter and too
nervous.
Explain your slides. Good supporting materials, on their own, will prompt questions in the audience's
mind - questions that you answer even before they are asked. For slides that present data (in graphs,
charts, etc) ask yourself: What does this information mean? Or, more critically: What do I want it to
mean to this audience?
For example, if you have a chart that shows an IBM product outperforming its competitors in a
benchmark, it's useless merely to tell your audience what they're looking at: "Look here - our software
is more powerful." Instead, use that as your cue to explain why it's more powerful, what critical
technologies are in the latest version, and why this particular benchmark is relevant to your audience.
Transition first, then change slides. This is one of the most effective practices you can adopt. Too
often, speakers will change the visuals first, everyone starts reading while the speaker starts a transition
to this subject, and the audience starts with a sense of confusion until the speaker's finished this
transition. At best, it will seem as if you need to see your own slides to remember what to tell people.
Transition verbally to the next slide first. Here's an example of the effective way to transition between
slides, given by Gene Zelazny in Say It With Presentations:
1. Continue eye contact with the audience as you finish discussing the previous slide. "As
we've just seen, the United States holds tremendous potential for . Ltd."
2. Hold the eye contact as you make the transition to the next slide. "But will . be able to
enter the . market? In fact, there are no insurmountable barriers to entry."
3. Be quiet -- stop talking -- as you replace the old visual with the new one.
4. Make eye contact once more as you begin to tell the story of the new visual. "Here are the
barriers you're familiar with, and the recommendations for overcoming them."
Change your own slides. While not always possible, depending on the presentation environment, you
should generally be prepared to change your own slides.
Sometimes, though, you have to have someone else running your slides, or perhaps the audience is
stepping through the slides themselves while you speak to them over the phone or in a Webcast. You'll
show a great deal of familiarity with your own presentation and manage to control the situation better if
you make it clear when to advance the slide each time: "Please go to slide six." After the first few
instances of this, the audience will barely notice your saying it. Just as when you're changing the slides
on your own, you should be quiet during the change of visuals, so that the audience can absorb the new
slide for half a second without also having to concentrate on what you're saying in the middle of it.
Finish early, follow up
There have been no studies to determine what percentage of business audiences are left wishing a
presentation had continued longer. Possibly this is because so many run long that there's rarely time for
a survey.
In any case, it's probably safe to assume that your audience will be pleased if you finish on time or even
early. And if you somehow leave them wanting more, then ironically you will have exceeded their
expectations.
If you will be taking questions, allow a realistic amount of time for that. If you don't plan to take
questions, allow a little time for them anyway.
As important as it is to deliver a good presentation, it's equally important to learn from the experience
and improve your skills. One way is by recording yourself and listening to it afterwards — probably
several days or a week later, when the experience is less fresh in your memory, and you can listen to
the recording more objectively.
It might also be useful, depending on the audience, to follow up informally and ask one or two of the
people who attended what they thought.
Definitely follow up with anyone who requested information you weren't able to give them off the top
of your head during the presentation, or with any materials or contacts you promised. And you'll make
far more allies than you thought possible if you'll take a few notes for yourself during the presentation
and schedule short 15- or 30-minute calls to discuss those topics for which you asked if "we could take
this off-line." That shows not only were you appreciative they listened to you, but you were listening to
them and their priorities, as well.
Whether you deliver presentations infrequently or as a regular part of your job, putting a little extra
thought and work into the process of planning, preparing and presenting them will make you more
effective at your job.
Practice makes perfect
Talk the Talk
In Secrets of Power Presentations, Holliday
offers this advice to make your presentation stand
out.
Speak lower and slower than normal. When you
slow down it drops the pitch of your voice and gives
the impression of authority and power. Speaking
slower will also allow those who are trying to take
notes to do so without missing your next point.
Watch your tone of voice. Remember, it's not only
what you say, but how you say it. No matter how
good the material is, if you speak in a demeaning,
soft-spoken or preachy tone of voice, you will lose
your credibility and probably your audience.
Deliver your presentation with confidence and
humility. No one likes to listen to an arrogant
speaker. No matter how knowledgeable you are, you
need to make your audience feel comfortable with
There are several good reasons to rehearse your
presentation. It helps you become comfortable with the
material and the flow of information. It helps you
determine how long your presentation will take, so you can adjust if necessary. And it might help you
spot any flaws or weak spots.
A rehearsal does not require an audience, though if it's an important presentation, having someone
listen to you might prove helpful.
A rehearsal doesn't necessarily mean you need to stand and pretend to be in a conference room or
auditorium - though if you aren't completely comfortable in front of an audience, this might help you
develop the physical rhythm of speaking, gesturing, changing slides in your presentation, and so forth.
A rehearsal does, however, need to be spoken aloud. Find someplace quiet, make sure you will not be
interrupted, and talk it all through. Don't skip or skim over your introductory remarks or summary
comments, and time it.
Talk it through at least twice to make sure your timing is consistent.
It's often a good idea to record yourself and play it back. Do you sound rushed, or too slow? Are there
words or phrases you use so often that they become distracting? Usually it's difficult to recognize these
flaws while you're speaking, because your concentration is on the process of delivering a speech, but
listening to yourself on a recording can help you spot them and improve.
Taking questions
Here are a few things to remember when responding to questions.
Repeat the question. This is a standard technique, and for good reason. In larger rooms, people often
cannot hear what has been asked. Repeating the question for the whole audience avoids confusion —
and helps you verify that you've heard the question correctly, too. If, however, the room is small
enough, the questioners have microphones or they ask their questions in a conference call, you don't
need to repeat the question just for the sake of doing so. (However, if it's a tough question, then
repeating it can buy you time to compose your thoughts.)
They aren't all winners. Years ago, someone came up with the idea of congratulating every questioner
on the brilliance of his inquiry. This was a subtle and effective psychological tactic until everyone
started doing it. If someone asks you when purple ThinkPads will be available, appearing delighted
with the question will only make you look insincere. By all means, comment on a question if you have
something to say ("A lot of customers have been asking that; I'm glad you brought it up.") but don't do
it as part of a question-taking formula.
Be direct. The beginning of any response to a question should be a short, simple sentence. If you're
asked whether IBM plans to offer ThinkPads in different colors (to pick an unlikely inquiry) do not
begin your answer by listing the many design awards our all-black line has received. Just say 'No,' and
you and the message you are presenting.
then expand on that if you feel it's necessary.
Answer and move on. It's usually the Q&A sessions that turn a 20-minute presentation into a
45-minute marathon. Yes, the give-and-take of a conversation with the audience can be extremely
valuable, so you should be listening closely for questions and issues that you hadn't anticipated. But
don't let the Q&A drift from topic to topic. Answer a question, confirm that you have provided a
satisfactory answer, and move on. Realize that for each person asking a question, there may be another
person in the audience who was ready to agree with you when you hit the last slide, and now you're just
annoying him or her by extending this presentation past its deadline or interest level.
You Gotta Love 'Em
People will be attending your presentation for a variety of reasons. Some truly want to hear what you have to say, others have
been told to hear what you have to say, and others think they know what you have to say and they don't want to hear it. It also
helps to be aware of some of the possible dynamics in the room; you may not be able to solve them all and produce an
armistice, but recognize that the mood of the room and behaviors and maturity of the attendees isn't solely your fault.
Devil's advocates. For some reason, some people like to play devil's advocate, but don't want to tell you so. (People who
genuinely are trying to understand or move the conversation along will generally say "Just to play devil's advocate..." which is
a different matter entirely.) They may even come across as slightly hostile or skeptical during the presentation, but later sidle
up to you to let you know they actually agreed with you all along, they just wanted to see what you had to say in response. By
flustering the speaker -- any speaker -- they may have earned points with their boss or peers, if that's the kind of culture they
work in.
Hidden agendas. The person who invited you to speak may have made enemies in the past, and they're sitting in the third
row, arms folded. Recognize that criticism of you or your presentation may be as much about existing politics as about
anything you have to say, and admit to the limitation of your subject matter expertise; you don't have to know everything
about everything. (You're probably not prepared to advocate a change in the parent company's accounting procedures if you're
just there to discuss their chip foundry needs.)
Threats. Whatever you're proposing or advocating may be seen as a threat by someone listening to you. Your solution may on
the surface (or actually) result in their job or department being eliminated. Or perhaps merely the spheres of influence and
power will shift in the heavens if your premise is taken to its logical conclusion. That's why it's good to think ahead of time, in
the planning stages, about what the audience needs to know and what they want to know. If you can determine ahead of time
-- or, at least, during the questioning -- what threats your presentation may represent, you can address their true concerns (the
want-to-knows), opening up the possibility of acceptance for the need-to-knows.
To download, click on the icons for your presentation software under the name, and select "Save to disk" to save it on your
desktop. Once it's downloaded, double-click on the file to decompress it, and follow instructions to save it on your hard
drive in the proper directory.
= Microsoft PowerPoint = Lotus Freelance Graphics
(Microsoft PowerPoint is part of the Microsoft® Office software suite. Lotus Freelance Graphics is part of the Lotus® SmartSuite software.
Both are available from the IBM Standard Software Installer.)
DeLuxe templates use background textures to add energy and polish. (More textures are available
below.)
Blue Onyx DeLuxe
25 Oct 02
Blue
Pearl
DeLuxe
25 Oct
02
Basic templates are good for demonstrating "work in progress" and quick status reports at small
meetings.
Blue Onyx Basic 25
Oct 02
Blue
Pearl
Basic 25
Oct 02
The Black-and-White template is for "print-only" or faxing purposes.
Black-and-White 25
Oct 02
Resources
For advanced users, try these additional resources to spark your presentation.
The Infographics templates give you starting-point examples for everything from tables and
column charts to more complex diagrams of value chains and flow charts.
Blue Onyx
Infographics 25
Oct 02
Blue Pearl
Infographics 25
Oct 02
The Textures templates give you variations on the background images used in the DeLuxe
templates. Changing the texture from one presentation to the next creates a subtle dynamic and
sense of flexibility.
Blue Onyx
Textures 25 Oct
02
Blue Pearl
Textures 25 Oct
02
There's a reason no one calls us "Big Greenish-Blue": our own brand consistency. Don't undercut
yourself by using colors that clash with your own or another IBMer's presentation. Here are the 20
colors (with their RGB values) you'll want to employ.
Color Palette
25 Oct 02
The IBM Presentation Series is a growing library of up-to-date presentations on cross-company,
strategic initiatives. Each presentation is available in either Lotus Freelance Graphics or Microsoft
PowerPoint format, and contains speaker's notes in Rich Text Format.
IBM's On Demand
Transformation:
Reinventing the Enterprise
08 Apr 03
IBM's e-business
transformation story and our
pursuit to becoming an on
demand enterprise
About IBM
25 April 03
Overview of the IBM
Corporation, including
company history, current
business operations, and
evolution of the IT industry
e-business on demand
03 Nov 02
The next phase of e-business
will take place in an
operating environment that's
integrated, open, virtualized
and autonomic.
Linux: The Game
Changer
30 April 03
Growth of the Linux
movement and IBM's
strategy for pursuing this
opportunity
Corporate Security
Challenges
25 Oct 02
What customers need to
know to manage their IT
security concerns
Grid Computing: The
Next Evolution of the
Internet
25 Oct 02
Explanation on how
customers' changing IT
requirements has led to a
greater need for accessing
and sharing of resources
and information, resulting
in emergence of Grid
Computing
