Hello kids, it’s Mr Head-In-A-Box!

Successful presentations need a range of super-powers, all achievable by the average speaker with a bit of knowledge and practice. Energy, enthusiasm, openness, eye contact, a love of your topic, these are the things that make ‘em sit up and listen.

But there’s a benign-looking piece of furniture that’s purpose-built to kill these powers. It’s the lectern.

Lecterns might as well be made of kryptonite. Talk to the average person at a party and they’re alive and interesting. Put them behind a lectern and the deadly krypton rays sap their vitality in quick time.

“Can’t look up… feel so lethargic… can’t move my hands… now here are my bullet points.”

Here are five reasons why lecterns are bad for your presentation:

1. Lecterns are a physical barrier to communication
Non-verbal communication is a major part of your message. If half of you is covered up, and the other half is immobile because you’re pinned to the one spot, you’re going to look boring. Even if you have a fascinating story to tell, you’re struggling to overcome the audience’s preconceptions of a thousand boring lectern-huggers they’ve seen before.

The physical barrier effect is greater with American lecterns, immense mahogany monsters that cover all but your head and shoulders. They make you look like David Blaine doing some kind of coffin escape act.

2. Lecterns reduce your energy
The act of moving around adds energy to the way you look and sound. It’s a bit like the way you sound better on the phone if you’re stand rather than slumped in a desk chair. Paralysis starts with the legs and makes its way to your vocal cords.

3. Presenters cling to the life raft
For those who fear public speaking, being on stage is like being adrift in hostile, shark-infested waters. The lectern becomes their liferaft – something safe to hold onto. Tightly, with white knuckles and a nervous death-gaze at the fearsome audience.

4. Your eyes are down
Presenters who depend on lecterns spend a lot of time looking down, and shuffling their notes around. There are no successful presentations without eye contact.

5. Lecterns encourage you to read from scripts
Reading from a script can be done, if you’re really skilled and you do it a lot. But for most of us, a script makes your presentation stilted and over-formal, like you’re reading out a letter from your lawyer. Moving away from the script allows you to use a more conversational, human tone.

Next post – tips to help you break free of your lectern prison.

Posted by Ian on Thursday, August 21st, 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.