Edward de Bono ponders the human need for PowerPoint.

I’ve never been chased down the street by an angry lynch mob of AV technicians before, bent on stringing me up from a lamp post with multicore cable, wrists and ankles securely gaffer-taped together. But I think that’s what’s going to happen when they read this.

The Rules of Presentation

Presentations have rules, just like everything else.

You have to learn the rules. Then sometimes, it helps to just ignore every damn one of them, just as Picasso binned his freakish realistic portrait skills and decided that eyes don’t have to be on either side of the nose.

Consider Edward de Bono. He’s the man who invented the term ‘lateral thinking’, long before it became a conference cliché (“Hey, let’s all think outside the box. No, wait, we’re air traffic controllers, let’s not.”).

He’s written lots of best-selling books on how to think better, sometimes with the aid of colored hats.

Presenting in a parallel universe

De Bono is a highly sought-after presenter. And he operates in a parallel presentation universe, where all the conventional ideas of what makes a good speaker are turned upside down.

Stand at the front of the stage, engaging with your audience? Not for de Bono, who sits next his overhead projector, sideways to the audience.

Next to his what, you say? Yes, the overhead, curse of AV technicians the world over, an embarrassing teacher-style medium you all thought was dead.

Overheads: Time for a Comeback?

For those with a long memory, early PowerPoint was hailed as a great, professional-looking alternative to scratchy overhead projector images. It’ll help you stand out, people said.

Now that everyone uses it, PowerPoint has the stand-out value of a white business shirt. And Mr de Bono is left looking… quite interesting.

Drawings are Appealing, Even Bad Ones.

Watch him in action. His little squiggly drawings work in a way that sterile PowerPoint can’t. And bear in mind that he can’t draw any better than you or I. But we know what a stick figure means.

And because nobody else does it, hand-drawn stuff stands out. It feels warm, human and individual when everything else is cold, electronic and mass produced. There’s a sense of occasion, because no two hand-drawn presentations are alike.

Handwriting Is Cool

When you open the mail, which envelope gets you more excited? The laser-addressed, window envelope one or the handwritten one? Handwriting is an attractive medium because it feels personal and there isn’t much of it about these days.

Staying On Track

Best of all, it’s easy for the audience to stay on track. With PowerPoint, the  audience is never sure where to look unless you do a lot of laser pointing.

For de Bono’s audience, it’s easy to follow his train of thought, because it’s right where the pen is, emerging in front of your eyes, even if it’s in a scruffy fashion.

Great Idea! Should I Use it For My Next Presentation?

Maybe not. Don’t present your company’s financial update this way, or you’ll look like you’re making it up as you go. And you’re not doing that, are you? OK, don’t answer that.

Plus de Bono’s achievements allow him to get away with being a bit eccentric with his presentation methods.

But if you’re doing a smaller, less formal presentation, perhaps on a subject involving some kind of human behavior, get a whiteboard or overhead and give drawing a try. You might engage them on levels you’d never expect.

Someone recently asked me who was the best speaker I’d ever seen.

I’m not a big fan of the holy-rollin’, pump-‘em-up, Nine Steps to Success school of speaker. They’re all the same, every last one of them.

I prefer presenters that break with the conventional templates, like Edward de Bono slumped over in his chair in the middle of the stage drawing squiggles, the Tom Waits of the overhead projector.

The best speaker I ever saw, coincidentally at the same conference as de Bono, was Noel Pearson, Director of the Cape York Institute, lawyer and aboriginal activist.

His passion is ending the handout mentality among his people, built up through years of good intentions from government and welfare agencies. He believes passive welfare is at the root of the social deterioration of indigenous people, and speaks of the balance between rights and responsibilities.

Not a standard topic for a conference on current business issues, rather than social ones, with an audience of overwhelmingly white finance and marketing types. He had the audience spellbound for an hour, without raising his voice or leaving the lectern. He painted a vivid picture of a world that few of us know or understand, and methodically explained how well-meaning actions can have the opposite effect.

If you define the success of a presentation by how effectively it changes the way the  audience thinks, then this was up there with the best. It was a stunning display of… reasonableness.

Some lessons from Noel Pearson’s presentation style:

The Power of Not Being What They Expect

Pearson was calm, reasonable, and logical, which was not what the audience expected from an aboriginal activist. That instantly changed their willingness to listen. Kind of like Barack Obama’s success in escaping the stereotype of the Jesse Jackson-style firebrand.

Without wanting to trivialize what Pearson or Obama have overcome, we all have our stereotypes when we get up to present: Self-Indulgent Marketing Guy, Out-Of-Touch-With-Customers Finance Woman, Dandruffy IT Man. If you can break these expectations, their minds open up to your message.

You Don’t Have to Shout

A lot of speakers are really concerned about being ‘energized’, and that’s generally a good thing. But if you’re energetic all the time, there’s no light and shade. Speaking quietly and calmly can draw people in, making it seem more like a conversation than a broadcast. It creates intimacy, even in a large hotel ballroom.

Eye Contact: Show You Know Your Stuff

Pearson rarely looks down, even when he’s delivering a really complex message. Obviously his legal background helps. Apart from the non-verbal benefits of looking the audience in the eye, it shows that he knows his material, and he believes in it. When you see politicians reading from a script, you tend to think: “She doesn’t really believe that. She’s just reading something one of her staffers wrote.” If you’re really passionate about your topic, you should know your material.

The clip below shows Pearson speaking at a breakfast. He gets off to a nervous start, with lots of ums and face-touching. But once he gets the flow going, he has a superb command of language. It’s a compelling demonstration of the delicate art of telling people their views are wrong without causing offence.