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Jeff Van West
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An Interview with Jeff Van West
Interviewed by Geetesh Bajaj, May 27th 2006
Jeff Van West (pictured to the left) puts his
get-the-job-done philosophy into practice in training movies on Effective
Presentations which is available online from Lynda.com.
Other movies cover Home
and Small Office Networking and Illustrator
CS2. He is also the author of several books, articles, and
custom training curricula for software, hardware, and aircraft
systems.
For information about custom training, seminars,
or presentation development, contact Jeff directly through his site...
Geetesh:
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Tell me more about yourself and your Effective Presentations
title.
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Jeff:
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In 1998, I was working for a science museum in Seattle,
Wa., delivering science and technology workshops for classroom
teachers. I used a highly interactive approach and I found
myself mixing presentation tools — usually PowerPoint — with
activities, handouts, games, and storytelling. The results
were excellent, and I thought, “Hey, this comprehensive
approach would work for just about any presentation.”
I left the science museum and struck
out on my own getting contracts to develop curricula in computers
and aviation
technology (I’m also a flight instructor). All the
while I searched for a publisher for a book on the Effective
Presentations style I used. Despite the fact that I had three
other books published on computers and software, no one was
interested. At that time, the concept of a “computer” book
focusing on how to use software effectively, rather than
on just the how-to of the program, was a radical idea.
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Geetesh:
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What’s the single, most important thing people
could do to improve their presentations?
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Jeff:
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Clarify the mission and the goals before you do anything
else. The mission of the presentation is a one-sentence
statement of what you hope to accomplish with your presentation.
A mission can be many things, but there is one thing it
cannot be: It cannot be something within your control.
The whole point of giving a presentation is that the audience
has some power that you do not have yourself and you’re
trying to harness that power and get them to act — to
do, to buy, to invest, to learn, to use correctly, to understand — and
your presentation is a tool to make that happen.
Next you clarify what presentation goals you have that support
the mission. These are the items you do have control over — exploring
a chart, leading an exercise, showing a video clip, evoking
an emotion — that you must cover during your presentation.
This process leads to far more effective presentations. They’re
also often shorter by being more focused. It also takes the
pressure off the slides for carrying all the weight of the
presentation. Invariably, some of the goals that you’ll
generate are things you can do before the presentation even
happens or are better served by handouts or follow-up materials.
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Geetesh: |
Tell us more about your PowerPoint experiences — the
limitations and frustrations, and the solutions and workarounds.
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Jeff: |
PowerPoint does one thing — and arguably only one
thing — well. It focuses your audience’s attention.
When you have a slide on the screen at least some of your
audience is looking there at any given time. Effective use
of PowerPoint leverages this strength by either strengthening
your words or by offering a visual representation that accompanies
your words, or, occasionally, your silence.
For example, if I have a complex spreadsheet in my handout
but I want to call attention to some key features, I can
use PowerPoint to zoom in on those features over several
slides. Another example might be my speaking about my company’s
new biofuel technology while showing high prices at gas pumps
and lines of frustrated people. In that case, my words are
appealing to people logically, but my visuals are connecting
to them emotionally.
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Geetesh:
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How important is it for PowerPoint creators to have
knowledge of design, color, typography, etc? |
Jeff:
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Ever notice how some people always look well-dressed or
write great memos or speak well at meetings? These folks
either intuitively understand or have learned what colors,
words, or styles make them look good.
Applying good design to your presentation works the same
way. Almost 600 years of printing and almost 100 years of
radio and video have honed how we communicate with words,
sounds, and images. If you apply these techniques to your
work, it’s like dressing your presentation in a sharp,
stylish suit. People will pay closer attention and get more
out of your work because the design, colors, and typography
make it easy and comfortable for them. Ignore these standards
and you may get something that works fine, or you may end
up with the typographic equivalent of a polka-dot tie and
plaid pants.
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Geetesh:
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Working PowerPoint with other programs such as Word,
Excel, PDF, Flash, sounds and video files — these are
problems everyday PowerPoint users face all the time. What
can they do to resolve or reduce their problems?
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Jeff:
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Adding complexity always adds some risk that it
won’t work. Obviously, you’ll want to test it
out well beforehand and work out any bugs.
When it comes time to set up for a specific presentation,
restart your machine and then quit any programs that automatically
launched but you don’t need. Computers are so complex
these days with so many processes running that predicting
how well a given program will work on a given day is like
predicting the weather. Reduce variables by running fewer
things. Next, launch all the programs you’ll switch
between and test them out before you present. With practice,
you should be able to switch smoothly between what programs
you need using Alt+Tab (Cmd+Tab on the Mac).
There are some other oddities, such as plugging in your
laptop when you present so the processor runs at full
speed rather
than a battery-saving low speed. I cover many of these
in my videos.
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Geetesh:
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Can you share any trivia about an unconventional use of
PowerPoint, or just anything you would like to share with Indezine
readers?
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Jeff:
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Once you break out of the paradigm that PowerPoint is a tool
for showing slides and recast it as a tool for directing
people’s attention, anything is possible. I’ve
used PowerPoint as white board, facilitation tool, brainstorming
aid, game show board, backdrop for improv — you name
it.
The key is to take the pressure off your slides. They don’t
have to do everything. Want to set a mood with slides while
you give supporting data? No problem. Want to show all the
steps in a process for reference while you demonstrate each
individual one? Go for it. The only limits are the ones you
set.
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