This year I’ve spoken at about a dozen or so conferences and another dozen or so meetings or classes or gatherings.
What I’ve started to notice is that I’m better unprepared.
That doesn’t mean I go in without any idea of what I’m going to talk about. And it doesn’t mean I may not have some slides to support the ideas (although lately I’ve been speaking slide-free). But it does mean that I’ve stopped practicing.
Web 2.0 in NYC
This year I spoke at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York. I gave two talks — an hour talk on “The Things We’ve Learned at 37signals” in front of a few hundred people and a 15 minute keynote about “Software Curators” in front of a couple thousand.
I’ve sorta given the Things We’ve Learned talk before, but it had been many months. I didn’t practice at all. I had some slides prepared that I’d used before, but I didn’t review them prior to going on.
I’d never given the Software Curator talk before, so I practiced and practiced and practiced the night before. I was manic about it. I ran through it a few dozen times.
When it came time to give the “Things We’ve Learned” talk I was relaxed. I looked at the slides with everyone else and I just said what came to mind. I think it was one of my better talks.
When it came time to give the “Software Curator” talk, I was nervous. Not because I was speaking in front of a couple thousand people, but because I kept thinking about what I was supposed to say based on hours of practice. I kept reliving the practice, not living the moment. I keep reaching for the script in my mind instead of my current thoughts. I wasn’t happy with the talk at all.
IDEA
Last week I spoke at the IDEA conference in Chicago. I had no idea what I was going to talk about. The topic was just “Getting Real” so it was pretty open ended. I went up on stage, grabbed the mic, and just started talking. No idea what the next sentence would be. I wandered through a bunch of ideas that came to mind in the moment. I think it was one of my better talks.
BIF-4
And just yesterday I spoke at the BIF-4 conference. I spoke about the marketing inspiration we’ve taken from chefs who teach (cooking shows and cookbooks). We’ve written our own “cookbook” called Getting Real which shares everything we know with the reader like a chef who writes a cookbook shares their recipes with their audience. I didn’t really prepare for this talk either. I just took the mic, told a story, and let my thoughts flow freely. I think it was one of my better talks.
The more talks I give the more I notice that the less I prepare, the better the outcome. I think less about what I’ve told myself to say, and more about what I’m really thinking. I’m free to just say instead of just recite.
Of course you have to know your material. You have to believe in the stuff you’re saying. But if you know it, and you believe it, you may want to try not practicing it. Spontaneity, chance, flow, and a bit of fear may produce your best presentation. Being in the moment may surprise you.
Radoslav Stankov
on 16 Oct 08I think, you go unprepared because you got enough experience to do so. I remember the first time I speak in front of an audience ( I was unprepared too ) ... i wasn’t fun .. for me.
Patrick
on 16 Oct 08My best presentations are always on topics with which I’m 100% familiar and comfortable. If I’m that familiar and comfortable, I don’t need to rehearse and “memorize lines”. I think it’s great to have a general outline of a presentation, but nothing is more boring than a super well rehearsed recital presentation.
NewWorldOrder
on 16 Oct 08May be going in w/o rehearsing is more apt than saying going in unprepared. The hardest part of preparation is actually knowing the “stuff.”
Jan
on 16 Oct 08Preparing for a talk ensures you get your points across in the time given to you.
ML
on 16 Oct 08An audience can sense when a speaker is being spontaneous too. People are a lot more captivating when they’re speaking from the front of their minds vs. the back. When someone’s “in the moment,” you want to see what happens next.
Tanner Christensen
on 16 Oct 08Jason, just because you’re a great speaker doesn’t mean you should give advice on how to make everyone else a worse speaker.
Only joking, I think going in slightly unprepared means you focus more on your experience and own opinions while talking… which results in a friendly conversation, rather than a boring lecture.
Evan
on 16 Oct 08The key is to just have your information internalized. Don’t just know it for the speech with plans to forget it, but actually know it. Maybe sketch up an skeleton of the main points you want to get in, and about how much time you want to give to each.
I don’t have much public speaking experience, but the time I gave a presentation on F. Scott Fitzgerald in high school and just bucked the 3×5 note cards entirely was probably the best presentation I’ve given. It felt really natural, and I got a good grade for it.
Jay Owen
on 16 Oct 08I would agree with this to a certain extent, but would not call it “going in unprepared.” The preparation is the life experience that you bring with you into the talks. Just not the formal preparation that you mentioned with regards to the “Software Curator” talk.
I find this true in many business presentations – as long as you know your product or service well, it is your life and business experience that is best expressed without some predefined script or memorized story.
P-M Nordkvist
on 16 Oct 08Isn’t the trick to be prepared enough to sound like you’re improvising? Or is it that you actually are able to improvise? I think you reach a point where you feel secure enough to start improvising. Like a hockey forward. He won’t score by following a standard procedure. He scores when starts improvising.
But as mentioned earlier in the comments. It’s not the best way to start out on your first seminar. Trust me!
John
on 16 Oct 08“Control should be in process, not superimposed.” - F.M. Alexander
Keith
on 16 Oct 08I used to teach improv classes and I can tell you that improv is something you have or don’t have. However, people who “don’t have it” can learn some tricks to fool others into thinking they “have it.”
Being comfortable is the first trick. Just know that people are captivated by what you’re doing. In Jason’s case, he’s speaking to people eager to hear him.
Be decisive is the second trick. If you commit to your story, line of thought, or tone it will show through. In Jason’s example he spoke about the correlation between cookbooks and Getting Real.
Be accessible is the third trick. When you’re speaking, know what your audience knows and use it as a guide. In Jason’s example about IDEA he says, “I wandered through a bunch of ideas…” People were at IDEA to hear about information architecture and Jason used an architecture to build his talk.
Those three tricks can go a long way. They take practice. Jason’s done a lot of speaking. He participates actively in talking to clients, interviews, etc. about the topics he believes in and ultimately that’s all practice. Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes confidence and that’s the name of the game in public speaking….look at Gary V. ;)
Ryan Markel
on 16 Oct 08The best talks I have given have likewise been unrehearsed presentations. I had slides prepared in advance, and knew what I was going to say in general, but let the flow of the presentation and the dictates of the audience reaction determine how I was going to deliver the information.
If you are spontaneous, you can even skip parts of your presentation if you sense that the audience isn’t going to follow that portion or might not appreciate that information as much as the rest.
Audiences also appreciate the engaging nature of spontaneity. You can hold better eye contact. You can be more excitable about what you’re discussing – and you should – this is your job! Hopefully, it’s something about which you are passionate and want to evangelize to people, and that comes across.
Patricia Garcia
on 16 Oct 08I’m reminded of the book “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell speaks of rapid cognition which he means is the making of decisions in the first 2 seconds. But when I think of what you wrote here and I thought of the book, I was expanding Gladwells meaning to the ability to give a speech unprepared on what one knows well. What Gladwell talks about is basically intuition, but not from emotions. The kind we get when we just know a lot about a certain topic. It’s not knowledge we learned from books but knowledge we gather from living it and experiencing it. It’s the little nuances that you didn’t realize you knew, but somehow you do and can’t explain how.
You know your stuff, your unconscious mind has collected more information than you realize. You learn what works in your speech, what audiences respond to, what questions are asked. The fact you are so responsive is what is helping you to collect all this information and progressively get better.
StartBreakingFree.com
on 16 Oct 08I know what you mean Jason. There is a certain authenticity that comes from telling a story and speaking from the heart that audiences connect with.
Thanks for posting this, I will give it a shot at my next talk in a week or so.
Dave Giunta
on 16 Oct 08Although, I know this site doesn’t often delve into political commentary, considering this article is posted one day after the final presidential debates, I wondered if anyone had any thoughts for how preparation fed into the candidate’s performances. It seems to me, that Obama, often times is not “trying” to hit the bullet points, but rather is expressing the plan he truly believes in. Whereas, McCain is constantly reaching for the line his political advisors have written for him, filling time with a “my friends”, or an “I know how to…”.
I think that’s what leads to so much of his visible discomfort in the debate setting. I think it’s what makes Obama’s even-handed, cool-tempered appearance believable.
I wonder exactly how much these guys “practiced” before the debate last night. How much were they rehearsing good “lines” vs. reengaging passionately with their ideas.
Naturally, I don’t mean to devolve these comments into political bickering… I just thought the connection between preparedness, composure, comfort, and ease of delivering a message to such clear examples of both good, and bad executions was of merit.
Thanks for posting this, Jason. Good stuff as always.
nickd
on 16 Oct 08Jason, I saw your talk at AEA on Monday. It was a great talk, and much of it seemed spontaneous. How much did you prepare for that?
Mike
on 16 Oct 08As other people have said, it is about knowing your stuff. People will notice if you’re scripted and sound-biting (Sort of like the difference between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin).
Tim Jahn
on 16 Oct 08I saw you speak about a month ago at the Chicago New Media Summit and you were very comfortable and relaxed. I’m guessing you didn’t prepare much for that speaking and it was great.
Thanks for going slideless too! You stood out from the many others who used Powerpoints and such.
Ben Saunders
on 16 Oct 08As someone that speaks professionally (well, I lead polar expeditions professionally, but speaking pays most of the bills) I think there’s a subtle distinction between practicing and improving.
I’ve given 20-40 presentations per year for the past five years and though I no longer practice a talk, I’m constantly working to improve as a speaker.
Brandan Lennox
on 16 Oct 08I was just at a talk last night that I assumed would be about an hour and ended up being almost 3-1/2. In fact, your very own Mark Imbriaco was primarily responsible for getting the speaker off the PowerPoint slides and into more in-depth discussions. (Not complaining. I was interested the entire time.)
The speaker was definitely rehearsed and had lots of words on the screen, but he was also able to improvise when the topic of discussion wasn’t bulleted on one of his slides. Had he not been so knowledgeable, the discussions would have quickly tapered and the audience wouldn’t have gotten nearly as much out of the talk.
This is the biggest problem with public speaking courses in college, etc. Having to pick a topic — or worse, having a topic assigned to you — to research for a few weeks will not give you the depth of knowledge you need to give a really effective talk and feel comfortable doing it. Most of the nervousness I always felt was about saying something that was wrong or forgetting something important just because I hadn’t memorized every word in my entire speech.
Kurt
on 16 Oct 08I love the reference to a “cookbook” in the bit about the BIT-4 conference. I think cookbooks can be some of the clearest ways of presenting information in written form. I often use a cookbook format to present lessons to my students in online courses – courses which have nothing to do with cooking.
GeeIWonder
on 16 Oct 08Yeah good advice if you’re there.
I wouldn’t even use slides if I wasn’t presenting results that are astounding visually. I think slides are overused. People want to hear talks these days.
Again, though: don’t try this at home kids. Spend hours doing presentations, hours teaching, hours summarizing your work at meetings, hours doing Web conferences and you’ll get there.
Any environment people going to WEFTEC in Chi-town next week? You can catch me not practicing what I preach!
Greg Friese
on 16 Oct 08It was good to see reactions from an audience member in the comments.
I just finished reading Presentation Zen and you speak to finding a style that works for you and running with it. Audiences like authenticity and that always stands out – with or without slides.
Michael Kassing
on 17 Oct 08Greg,
Don’t you find that the audience is a bit confused if you don’t have any slides? It is almost like they expect you to have slides and keep them clicking the whole time.
Your thoughts?
Michael
Ani
on 17 Oct 08I have noticed that myself as well. The more I prepare, the worst the presentation. Although, I don’t do many professional presentations. But being in school often requires presenting your assignment/project work in front of the class.
And yes, knowing your material and believing in what you are saying are the keys to being able to talk freely with no script and still nail it.
Jason, I must say I really enjoy your conference talks as well as the live sessions w/ DHH—you guys appear truly “real”.
José Bonnet
on 17 Oct 08Jason, you’re completely wrong!
In one year, a new instance of your Software Curator talk would probably migrate towards teh list of ‘one of your better talks’.
I mean: preparation takes time. Time to merge with your other thoughts and ideas, which probably didn’t happen with this Software Curator talk, but did happen with the other talks.
It’s not ‘don’t prepare’, it’s ‘prepare with time’.
Thanks, jb
Jordan
on 17 Oct 08Every talk, presentation or pitch I’ve ever given follows the same rule. If I feel like I have to do loads of preparation, I must be talking about the wrong subject and/or under-qualified to talk about what I’m being asked to.
Barry
on 17 Oct 08I’ve done lots and lots of public speaking… and the more you do it the easier it gets.
There are certain guide-lines to follow etc, but the main thing is familiarity with your material, if you know it thoroughly, then all you need is an outline: A list of basic ideas to get your train of thought going.
This makes your speaking more natural and also gives the audience the feel that you know exactly what you are talking about. Also it’s much better than being over prepared to the point where missing a single point throws your entire train of though tout and leaves you grasping for words.
Reminds me of Mikhail Tal the magician of Riga. He was a tactical chess player, that took the world of chess by storm, by beating his opponents using spontaneous combinations and sacrifices. Many coaches then decided to stop teaching positional play and focused more on tactics etc. Kasparov noted though, that the reason Tal was able to play successfully in that fashion was because of applying solid positional principles!
In your case you have already completely familiar with your material(positional principles) and are able to deliver your seminars without much preparation(tactical play).
For people in other circumstances though, less familiarity with the material, advanced preparation is a must.
JF
on 17 Oct 08Don’t you find that the audience is a bit confused if you don’t have any slides? It is almost like they expect you to have slides and keep them clicking the whole time.
You’d have to ask them, but from what I can tell people seem to be better listeners and more engaged when there aren’t any slides. The questions I get at the end seem to be of higher quality when I speak slideless.
Serge Lescouarnec
on 17 Oct 08Jason
Keeping a dose of spontaneity in your presentation makes it more interesting, I think that presenters that are over rehearsed end up being like bands that play the same competent set over and over, professional yet bland.
Many Joe the Plumber, One Serge the Concierge
Martial
on 17 Oct 08I train trainers. I’m good at that partly because I’m a really good trainer. I’m a good trainer because I know my stuff. I know my stuff because I’ve been there and done that – and thought hard about it, every step of the way. You have to know your stuff and knowledge comes from experience.
Sure, I don’t need to practice to do my standard training. But my new trainers really, really ought to practice until they know their stuff. But what exactly do they need to practice to prove they know their stuff?
When I train trainers, the key thing they need to come away with (and what I emphasize hour after hour) is that their experience – their stories – is what connects with the participants/audience. I can teach them concepts, but only they can make the concepts their own. Once they do that, once they know how to tell the stories from their own lives that illustrate the ideas, the content of the training sells itself. (And, of course, the ability to tell a relevant story means that they, themselves, understand the content.)
Chris Bonney
on 17 Oct 08As a person that speaks frequently too, I understand your mojo. But you are an exception my friend.
Your post may have been better as a reflective piece more than instructive. Advising someone to give a talk without practicing and/or preparing is exactly what most people do. And that is why communication in business is so awful. Most people think they are great off-the-cuff and they are not.
The Truth About Winging It: http://bit.ly/3auWTc
JF
on 17 Oct 08Advising someone to give a talk without practicing and/or preparing is exactly what most people do. And that is why communication in business is so awful.
I don’t think lack of practice is why business communication is so awful, I think the material itself is so awful. Sanitized communications, buzz wordy stump speeches, lawyer vetted content, and dull read-from-the-cue-cards slide decks has a lot more to do with it than a lack of practice.
Mark Bottita
on 18 Oct 08The slides/no slides debate is not as simple as slides/no slides. I’ve taught speech in a program where the actual lecturer who “runs the Speech Program” gives all his lectures using PowerPoint slides from start to finish…the entire semester. He no doubt believes he is technologically savvy, and that this makes him a good lecturer. Sad. But beyond this, he is doing a disservice to students because most “speaking” situations they find themselves in throughout their careers will not necessitate the use of technology, or, worse, will not provide the means for it or access to it. This PPT jockey is deluding himself and students by making them believe that reading from slides is how good speaking is done. This is the guy directing the program! He’s a college “lecturer” who probably has no knowledge of (or no inclination to be concerned about) how technology for its own sake does not make education a rewarding experience for students. I’m certain he has never even heard of Edward Tufte, nor read his essay, “The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint.” I’ve always felt my best speech lectures were actually…were…wait for it…ACTUAL LECTURES!...where I was obligated to get up there and give them something to sink their teeth into without having to dim the lights and drone on using PPT slides as a crutch for myself. The results? Rave, substantive reviews (detailing what amounts to, in academia, as true learning and developmental outcomes; most students loved being there, they loved the class interaction, and they loved learning how to speak about topics of real interest to them. My reward as a Visiting Lecturer? Sorry, you’re not what we’re looking for, “it’s your experience…you seem more suited for media studies classes.” Bush now has eight years of executive experience (really one year of experience repeated seven times), so it’s not about actual experience, but the quality of that experience that matters.
Given that, even Tufte will make a good speaker realize that there are appropriate moments to use a limited amount of slides, such as his Boeing example of their explanation for the Columbia shuttle disaster, and their failure to test the breakdown of the shuttles spray-on foam insulation on a scale large enough to be useful (they tested a 3 cubic inch sample, and the actual piece determined to cause the real failure was 1800 cubic inches!) Boeing buried this detail as the last bullet point on a PPT slide with about 6 other bullets. Now that was a slide worth showing. Good times, good times.
Mark Bottita
on 18 Oct 08... PS, I do think 18 to 22-year-old college students do benefit from the structure of speech classes. They generally have neither the real-world experience nor depth of exposure to their worldly passions to just get up there and make it flow, and they almost always give poor speeches when they come in unprepared and try to wing it; even with topics they have chosen themselves and claimed to be passionate about. It’s like anything else, learn the ground rules before you set out to break them, you’ll be more credible. This seems to be true for great guitarists, stunt pilots, and brain surgeons, none of which I would like to see disregarding the established rules at 18 to 22….that just gets annoying and bloody. Was it Ringo that sang “Gotta pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues, and you know it don’t come easy” ?
Martial
on 19 Oct 08The teacher who taught me training used to say, “There is a dirty little secret in training: no matter how good you are you can’t train bad content; even a bad trainer can train great content. Always make sure you’re training great content.”
Vicky H
on 20 Oct 08I agree with everyone who is saying how important it is to know your content to be prepared, but I also think that their are certain individuals that break their content down into such easy terms that it can’t help but be understood by a wide audience. Somehow they can convey their message in terms that are widely understood by said audience and that is one of the things I think Jason is great at.
If you can consistantly go in front of audiences that range from web designers, to programmers, to sys admin’s, ect.. You have to have your message in a format that can span your audience and their knowledge levels. You can be a great speaker, know your stuff, and if it doesn’t resignate with the audience, it’s over.
I think Jason also has great non-verbal speaking skills and if you have the non-verbal skills to keep your audience enchanted, than I wouldn’t use slides either.
I have also noticed Jason is much more comfortable when he can move around and use his whole body, the times when he seemed a little nervous were those times he was in a chair.
I think he’s just found his strengths as a speaker and we should each look within our selves for our strengths also.
Olivia
on 21 Oct 08I tend to agree with Chris Bonney that for most people, practice and rehearsal is a good thing. With the software curator talk the problem may have been with the way that you rehearsed for it. I’ve written a post about it on my blog For more info on how to rehearse see http://www.speakingaboutpresenting.com/delivery/how-to-go-from-good-presenter-to-great-presenter/.
This discussion is closed.