Blog Posts About: presenting

New Video: Clear Communication in Presentations

I'm sure you've sat through presentations and felt confused and unmotivated. Often, it's not the information, but how it is presented. We want to help by sharing specific steps anyone can take to make their presentations clearer and more understandable.

This video, 114th title, is now available for embedding, downloading, or displaying in the Common Craft video library.

Watch it in full for a limited time.

What it Teaches:

When presenting information, it’s easy to be focused on sharing the right information. The problem is that information isn’t useful unless it is communicated clearly. This video shares useful tips that will help any presentation become more understandable. It teaches:

  • Why your presentation’s mission will increase clarity
  • How to avoid audience confusion
  • Why background and context help your points shine
  • How to organize a presentation using an outline
  • How to use visuals to increase clarity
  • What you can do to prepare for your presentation

Watch the Video

 

Video Preview:

Watch a preview for the new video above that shares highlights and discusses why we made it and for whom. Watch it on YouTube.

Note: Each Common Craft video comes with a lesson plan that makes teaching easier. Curious? Download the lesson plan for the video above (PDF).

 

New Video: Presentation Planning Explained by Common Craft

Have you ever heard the term "Death by PowerPoint"? It's a reference to presentations that are disorganized and go on forever. It's a plague and we want to help.

Our latest video was suggested by members and is designed to teach students an essential 21st century skill: how to plan a presentation so that it's organized and easy to follow. 

What it Teaches:

All great presentations have one thing in common: they are well organized. This video illustrates how to plan your next presentation so that your audience easily understands what you have to say. It teaches:

  • Why effective presentations matter
  • How to organize and group ideas using sticky notes
  • How to use an outline to develop specific points
  • How to move your points into PowerPoint or Keynote slides
  • Why visuals are important and how to use them

Watch the full video now

A Call To Action - Become an Explanation Specialist

Imagine for a moment, the person sitting across from you in a meeting is introducing a new idea, but this time it’s different. She doesn’t start with a list of features or technical jargon.

Instead, she builds the idea. She starts with context and connects her idea with ideas the group already understands. She packages her idea with clear language and visuals that invite everyone to understand how it works and why it makes sense.  You can see the reactions - heads nod approvingly, relevant questions are asked and attention is unwavering.
This makes an impression on you. After the meeting you mention how easy it was to understand. Her response: “Thanks. I’ve been learning about explanation. It’s nice to hear my explanation skills are working!” 
 
Explanation skills. The thought has never occurred to most people, but I believe that explanation has been taken for granted for too long.  We do it so often that we never stop to think about how we explain ideas - explanations just...happen. And all too often, they fail.  Amazing ideas never get traction.  Business owners miss major opportunities. Salespeople lose potential deals. Ideas are stopped in their tracks because they’re not explained sufficiently.
 
This is a problem we can solve and it starts with a willingness to take a step back and rethink how you communicate. By learning explanation basics, we can give our ideas a better chance to flourish, to create change.  This is not about making videos. It’s about making ideas easier to understand in any medium. When we do, we’ll see that explanation is an untapped resource that has the power to make people care about what we have to say. 
 
So this is my call to action. We want to motivate and inspire people like you to focus on explanation as a skill and work to become an explanation specialist for your team, organization or class. I’ll be writing more about this idea and inviting your thoughts and feedback. I’ll be sharing a number of points from The Art of Explanation.
 
I believe it is possible to make the world a more understandable place to live and work through better explanations. Follow us and help us spread the word on Twitter or Facebook and invite more people to see the potential. We will be your guides to making ideas easier to understand.