Turning a Bad Presentation Around

You thought you had a winning presentation…right up until that opening joke about HR dropped like the Berlin Wall. Now eyes are glazing over, smartphones appear out of nowhere and you begin to wonder if your audience is really just scanning Facebook behind all those open laptops.

It’s time to face the truth: your presentation is going badly. The problem is, you’re just getting started, and you have a long way to go. We all know how it feels, and we’re all glad when it isn’t us.

Rule #1: Don’t give up! Once you accomplish that, read on for some tips for turning your bad presentation around.

Always know the room

Psychologists estimate that most adults will give something roughly 15-20 minutes of attention for free. So you better win them over in that timeframe, or they’re gone. If your listeners don’t like your presentation, they probably won’t get offended, disgusted or outraged (we’re giving you some credit here), they’ll just bring out their smartphones and politely distract themselves while you drone through your bullet points.

Don’t be too focused on what you’re presenting and therefore avoid gauging your audience. This can be especially tough for naturally nervous public speakers, but always be on the lookout for absent stares or open devices to know when it’s time to change things up.

If you need some attention back, here are some pointers:

• Stand up. Or sit down. Just…move.
• Be funny. You know you can.
• Speak louder if you’re soft spoken. Even better, speak very quietly. People love to hear what’s being whispered. (Yes, this really works.)

Don’t get too attached to what you had prepared

You were up half the night formatting text boxes, you spent ten full minutes deciding between 14 and 16 point font and you even went through the whole thing one more time in the bathroom, just to be sure. And yet, for whatever reason, it’s time for Plan B. You do have a Plan B, right?

You should never be too attached to what you had prepared to sum up some of the details, skip entire bullet points or click through some of those graphs you spent hours getting just right. As perfect as you think it is, it won’t matter if nobody is paying attention.

Make it a conversation

Ignoring some prefabbed PowerPoint is easy, but ignoring a real live person is not. If attention starts to flag, try taking steps to engage the room. You don’t need to wait until the end to open the floor for questions, and you can ask for comments and reactions throughout. Try altering your examples to star specific people in the room (“Say Molly here needs last month’s records, but Paul forgot to sign the approval…”), or if possible, invite listeners to share their own anecdotes. Their input might not add to your content as such, but it’s a good way to get people listening.

You probably encountered this trick in grade school when the teacher called on someone (those crafty teachers!): half the class tuned in because they wanted to share, while the other half tuned in because they might have to! And some just want to see how Paul reacts or what Molly has to say. Calling on people directly is a powerful attention-getter!

Give your audience things to see

Your English teacher said to show and not tell, but let’s be honest, that might not work for your project expense projections. We humans are suckers for stories, especially those with pictures and pop culture references. Don’t be afraid to come up with some on the fly if you find yourself losing a room. And make sure your presentation has pictures.

Sometimes even an irrelevant mental image can lure listeners away from their email and back to you. Try this one: tell the room, “Do not think about elephants!” Then ask them what they’re thinking about. Don’t wait for them to answer; they’ll get the point. And then you’ll have their attention back.

Just power through it

Sometimes a presentation just doesn’t hit. Do your best to turn things around, but try not to worry too much. You can’t win them all, and sometimes you don’t pick the subject matter.

The best way to make an audience finally give up on your presentation is to give up first. A few self-depreciating jokes are fine, but don’t waste time apologizing. After all, if you believe in your stuff hard enough, you can get an audience to believe in it too.