See Say

Recently, a co-worker asked a few of us to sit in for a dry run of her presentation for a local chapter of a professional network. While it was super engaging (including “industry-specific remixes” to Ice Ice Baby and Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls), it fell victim to one of the most common traps presenters fall into: they inadvertently create a disconnection between their slides and their talk track.

Often, presenters have too much content on the slides themselves (which could serve as the talk track). This wasn’t the case in my example. However, it’s just as important if the content is minimal, but what is verbalized is different or additional to the content on the slide. This leaves viewers to decide: Do I read? Or do I listen? And if I listen, how is what I’m hearing reinforced by what I’m seeing? When audience members try to do both, they’re left with little value from the point(s) the presenter hoped to drive home.

Creating an effective presentation involves more than just organizing your content into a compelling narrative (more on that from a previous post here); it requires a direct connection between the content (words & images) on your slides and the words coming out of your mouth. (And not like conceptually aligned or related. Aligned. Word for word.) When your slides match your talk track, you enhance audience understanding and retention and make it easier for yourself to present.

Here are key strategies to ensure alignment

Keep it simple. Do not include your talk track on your slide. Rehearse the content enough to become familiar with it instead of using the slide as a crutch. Then, on the slide itself, use bullet points—or even better—images and diagrams that directly relate to your key points and enhance clarity.

Assess your cadence. Are you talking to one slide for minutes on end? If so, you may be losing the audience. Conversely, do you have 85 slides for a 10-minute presentation? Clicking through slides at warp speed is just as dangerous. While, of course, there are exceptions to every rule (or different formats to prepare for, like a Pecha Kucha), generally, you want to speak to a slide for no more than 2 minutes.

Start by writing the talk track. Writing your talk track before designing slides ensures a clear and coherent narrative. By outlining your key points and the flow in advance, you can create slides that complement your message rather than distract from it. Jumping into slide design before you have a narrative might give you pretty visuals, but your story will be hard to follow, and the audience will check out quickly.

Time content to appear when you say the words. More comfortable slide creators can use animation timing, while those less comfortable should put subsequent content on new slides and click when those words are said to appear simultaneously.

Aligning the content of your slides with your talk track is essential to leave a lasting impression and ensure your message resonates.