Point Taken Spring Newsletter 2009: Issue 23

The snow is melting and flowers are blooming which can only mean one thing, its Spring Time! Time for fresh new beginnings, and new approaches.

Like most people, Point Taken trainers are often faced with presenting primarily as individuals, not as a member of a group. However, what happens when you add another person to that presentation, or even a whole team? How do you share presentation time and make an effective impression as a group?

Here are a few simple key tips on how to give a great presentation involving your whole team:

Introduce all of your team members, even if you think your audience already knows them. This will ensure a great first impression
Allow the first presenter enough room to use any additional resources such as power point or a flip chart, without other team members standing in the way
Establish team signals, so you can mange the flow of the entire presentation without having to interrupt one of your team members
When switching from one teammate to another, use transitions. A good transition provides a broad over view of what the next person will be talking about, and gives a reason to listen
Finally, always leave enough time for questions

Quote of the month:

"Good, better, best. Never let it rest until your good is better, and your better is best."
– Tim Duncan

Got any points you want taken?

Send us an email at askatrainer@PointTaken.net
and you may see your comments in the next newsletter.

Her Point Exactly:

A message from the president

Meetings get a ‘bad rap’. Everyone complains about the time, expense, and sheer boredom of a perceived meeting overload. There are even websites devoted to calculating the costs of time wasted in meetings. So why not ban them completely? Well, there are some surprising positives that come out of having meetings.

First, meetings reduce the complexity of communication (and the potential for miscommunication) by replacing a large number of one-on-one communications with one large communication venue. Meetings are often better venues for some topics than email, voice mail or memos. Those channels are asynchronous, meaning the sending of the message and the receiving of the message do not happen at the same time, or in the same place. This introduces a potential for miscommunication to happen inadvertently, and without either party being aware of the separation. However, meetings are synchronous, which allows for any confusion to be resolved while all parties are together. It’s even better if all parties are together in the same place, since face-to-face meetings provide a richness not found in the virtual meeting space.

So, what can we do to make meetings and team presentations more effective? As meeting leaders and facilitators, we have to work harder to ensure that time spent in meetings is valuable and worth it for all participants. Our skills have to get sharper, and our goals more targeted, so we can really make meetings work.

~Beth Rogers