Show and tell – How Everybody Can Make Extraordinary Presentations

Author: Dan Roam

Publisher: Penguin

Reviewer: Nikki Scrivener, director, Fourth Day PR

Dan Roam’s latest book, entitled How Everybody Can Make Extraordinary Presentations, examines the three golden rules of great presentations – tell the truth, tell it with a story, tell the story with pictures.

I’m a big fan of telling the truth and of using images to do that, but Dan Roam is just a bit too visual for me. I need a bit more meat on the bones.

For example, in his explanation of the bucket rule Roam suggests that all presentations should acknowledge three elements: our idea (picture of a box), us (picture of a stick man) and our audience (picture of floating heads).

He then draws three buckets to signify ‘my idea’, ‘my self’ and ‘my audience’. These buckets are then filled with various truths. When it comes to crafting our story stick man re-appears carrying two buckets on his shoulders and one on his head. Confused? You will be.

If you can look beyond the copious amounts of imagery there are some handy tips in there. Keeping a storyline going throughout a presentation definitely resonates, as does the idea of only representing one idea in each slide.

The most succinct and useful element of the book for me is the breaking down of presentations into four distinct categories – ‘the report’, ‘the explanation’, ‘the pitch’ and ‘the drama’. Respectively these presentations attempt to change an audience’s information, knowledge, actions or beliefs.

The problem is, I can’t help feeling that Roam thinks he’s hit on a good idea and is milking it to within an inch of its life. The arbitrary PUMA acronym (Presentation’s Underlying Message Architecture) complete with repeated drawings of a puma was a step too far for me.

This isn’t bedtime reading, neither is it a cover to cover type of book. But if you’re preparing for a presentation and want to find a few nuggets to help you prepare then there’s probably a little something for everyone in here.

Star rating:

2/5

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