Technical Presentation Workbook: Winning Strategies for Effective Public Speaking
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About this ebook
Packed with tips, ideas, and examples, this book consists of proven step-by-step approaches to planning and delivering effective technical presentations. Includes information on how to: gear presentations to engineering meetings, briefings, conferences, and training sessions; zero in on a presentation's topic and purpose; analyze the audience; arrange the room to boost effectiveness; and know your support media options.
The Workbook's easy-to-follow worksheets, exercises, and checklists present the fundamental skills and advanced techniques that will help make every presentation successful. Best of all, the Workbook format allows the reader to work through each chapter or to jump directly to a specific skill.
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Technical Presentation Workbook - Richard L. Sullivan
Part I
Technical Presentation Skills
It usually takes more than three weeks
to prepare for a good impromptu speech.
— Mark Twain
1 Getting Started
AFTER READING THIS CHAPTER, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO:
Develop a creative presentation title
Determine the purpose of your presentation
Consider who will be attending your presentation
Determine when and where you will be delivering your presentation
Consider how you will make your presentation
Engineers are often asked to make presentations. These presentations might be delivered to colleagues during a project-review meeting, to managers as part of a briefing, to a group of engineers attending a conference, or to participants or students during a course. So what goes through many an engineer’s mind when he or she is asked to make a presentation? Well, many react like Tom, who just sits there staring at the electronic mail message on his computer screen. He reads it for the fifth time, and it still says the same thing.
Tom’s heart speeds up and his throat is suddenly very dry as he remembers the first time he made a technical presentation. And now someone wants him to do it again! Many thoughts run through his head:
To: Tom
From: Ellen
Re: Research Results
Tom, I just read a copy of your research report on failure prevention in pressure vessels. Because your results have possible implications for one of our new projects, I would like you to present your results to the other engineers and technicians. Because this is a high-priority project, I must ask you to please contact me immediately to set up a time for your presentation.
• What type of presentation do they want?
• What information are they looking for? Why do they need this information?
• Who will be attending? What is their background? How many will be attending?
• Where will I be delivering my presentation? What are the facilities like? Will I be able to use any audiovisuals?
• How long will they want me to talk? This report could take hours to cover. They may not want or need to hear the entire report.
• How should I deliver my presentation? Should I develop some notes to read? — No! Last time I read too much, and some people got up and left the room.
• After my last presentation someone commented that I should involve participants more. How can I do that?
MURPHY’S PRESENTATION LAW #1: If anything can go wrong during your presentation, it will go wrong.
• Will Murphy’s Laws apply?
Tom continues to sit there and stare at the screen. He wonders, Where do I begin?
Does this sound familiar? Studies have shown that public speaking is the number one fear of many people. That fear is activated when you are asked to give a presentation. This book will answer all of Tom’s questions and help prepare Tom — and you — to make winning presentations.
What Is Your Presentation Topic?
So you are about to make a presentation. Think of your presentation as the delivery or transfer of information or skills from you to those individuals in the audience. Millions of presentations varying in length from a few minutes for an informal briefing to longer, more formal presentations are given in business and industry and university classrooms each day. You can plan a technical presentation focusing on any number of areas. You might be presenting:
• Results of a research project
• Information about a new product
• Details regarding some new technology
• A report on the status of a project
• Implications of a design problem
• Budget reports
• Information about a new manufacturing process
• Principles of Thermodynamics
• Demonstrations showing how to operate new pieces of test equipment
• Information on how to reorganize your department
• Details concerning new design standards
The first step in planning your presentation is to identify or clarify your topic. What is the focus of your presentation? What is it that you want to share? What do those who will be attending want or need to know? Having a clear picture of your topic is critical to the success of your presentation. You must also consider why you are making this presentation. We will talk more about the purpose of your presentation later in this chapter. Right now, let’s consider your presentation topic.
The focus of your presentation most likely will be on topics that are primarily based on knowledge, skills, or attitudes. The majority of your technical presentations will be knowledge-based. That is, they focus on information participants need to know to better do their job. Here are some examples of technical topics that are primarily knowledge-based:
• Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing
• Cryogenic fundamentals
• Polymer processes
• Characteristics and applications of centrifugal pumps
• Piping flexibility analysis
Skill-based presentation topics focus on how to perform specific skills or procedures. Participants will observe your how to
demonstrations so they can develop the ability to perform the same skills or procedures. Skill-based topics typically involve equipment, tools, and machines. Here are some examples:
• Install and start a pump
• Replace hydraulic cylinders
• Conduct a pressure vessel test
• Install computer software
Attitude-based topics deal with attitudes and feelings and are found in presentations focusing on areas such as communications, diversity, values, stress management, and team building. Consider these examples:
• Safety management
• Leadership functions
• Empowerment
• Developing effective work teams
• Conflict resolution
• Listening and feedback skills
Many technical presentations contain all three elements — knowledge, skills, and attitudes. For example, a presentation on a newly designed pump could involve theory of operation (knowledge), a demonstration of pump installation procedures (skills), and a discussion of safety as it relates to pump operation (attitude). In this example, the majority of your presentation time may be devoted to the theory of operation, with some time allotted to deal with related skills and attitudes.
Guidelines for Choosing a Presentation Title
Several engineers are planning a presentation focusing on team building, to be delivered to their colleagues. After much discussion they develop two tentative titles:
Engineering Teams
and
Winning Season: Building Effective Engineering Teams
As a potential member of the audience, which one would you select? If you are like most people, you will select the presentation title that catches your interest, sounds intriguing, or piques your curiosity. Here are some guidelines for creating a title for your presentation:
• Be honest. Some presentation titles are misleading; so people show up expecting one topic, only to find something completely different.
• Be creative. Using appropriate creativity and humor to create your title communicates a positive image about your presentation before anyone walks through the door. For example, say you are planning a presentation on problems with fatigue and fracture calculations. The first title you develop is Fracture Mechanics.
After additional thought, you change the title to Cracked Up by Fracture Mechanics?
Your second title may attract more interest than the first. One caution however: if you use excessive humor you may give the appearance of not taking your presentation seriously.
• Think about your intended audience. What is it they need to know? What about your topic is of the most interest to them? Be sure this comes through in your title.
• Focus on the benefits of your presentation. Many times in business and industry the decision to attend a presentation is made in part by an individual’s supervisor. The question that usually arises is: How will attending this presentation benefit our department?
Therefore, the title of the presentation should provide an idea of the potential benefits of attending. Consider the following two titles for the same presentation. Note that the second title more clearly implies the benefits of attending.
Improving Product-Development Cycles
and Fast-Cycle Product Development: Putting Practical Tools into Action
• Use the K.I.S.S. approach. In other words, keep it short and simple. Here is an example of a presentation title that is too long and complicated:
An Overview of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers A17.3 Safety Code for Existing Elevators and Escalators
With a little work, the title might read:
ASME A17.3 Overview: The Ups and Downs of Elevators and Escalators
Why Are You Making This Presentation?
Early in the planning process you must determine the purpose of your presentation. In fact, the purpose of your presentation must be considered at the same time you are selecting your topic and creating your title. You will be making your presentation for one or more of seven basic reasons. Your purpose may be to:
• Inform
• Discuss
• Persuade
• Solve problems
• Inspire
• Instruct or train
• Entertain
The majority of technical presentations are designed to inform. This is the primary purpose of presentations delivered during a course. Your purpose is to share information with those attending your presentation. Numerous examples of informational presentations are given throughout this chapter.
The purpose of your presentation may be to discuss a specific issue, trend, or topic. For example, if you have recently returned from visiting several manufacturing plants, the purpose of a presentation to other engineers would be to share your observations and discuss the implications for current design projects.
Persuading colleagues to see a different point of view or to accept some organizational change is another purpose of a presentation. Assume engineers in your organization are considering several different computer-aided design software packages. You feel strongly that one of the packages offers the most benefits to your company. With this in mind, you prepare a presentation to first inform other engineers and then persuade them to select the package you are supporting.
Engineers will often get together to work on solving a problem. For example, let’s assume you and several other engineers are beginning a project that will involve the design of ceramic mechanical components. Because of the brittle nature of ceramic parts, reliability is a critical issue. You volunteer to do some research and give a presentation on the most commonly used fracture mechanics methods for predicting the reliability of ceramic components. The purpose at the beginning of your presentation is to inform your colleagues. Once you have provided some baseline information, the purpose of the presentation becomes to solve the team’s problems of designing these components.
Some presentations are meant to inspire those in attendance. We have all listened to motivational speakers whose primary purpose was to get us excited or enthused. To this end, a large engineering company recently asked a famous coach to kick off an annual meeting by comparing characteristics of winning athletic teams and winning engineering teams.
Many technical presentations are designed to instruct or train. For example, the primary purpose of a presentation on the use of magnetic particle equipment for performing nondestructive tests might be to train quality-control technicians to use such equipment for finding flaws, defects, or discontinuities in components.
The seventh purpose of a presentation is to entertain. Granted, most of your presentations should be somewhat entertaining. However, in some instances the entire purpose of a presentation is to entertain. This type of presentation usually occurs outside of typical business or education activities. For example, you are a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and attend a monthly meeting. A program speaker is selected for each meeting, with the topic and purpose of each presentation being different. A topic designed to entertain members would be Humor in the Workplace.
Critical to the success of your presentation is having a clear vision of your purpose. Consider these points regarding the purpose of your presentation:
• Many times your presentation will have more than one purpose. The beginning of a presentation may be designed to inform. The focus may then shift to a discussion. Following the discussion, your purpose may be to persuade those in attendance to support one position or another.
• The purpose of your presentation must be consistent with your topic and the expectations of your participants. Individuals attending a presentation entitled Computer-Aided Design
may be expecting to learn how to use a computer software package. Participants may be disappointed if the presenter’s purpose is to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a specific package being considered for use within the organization.
• The title of your presentation needs to reflect the purpose of your presentation. As you consider the purpose(s) of your presentation, you may find that you need to modify or change your presentation title. Determining that the purpose of the Computer-Aided Design
presentation mentioned above is to discuss the merits of a new package may be cause to change the title. The title CAD: Implications for Change
may be more indicative of the presentation’s real