The “Whole Brain” approach to Presentation Excellence
What we can learn from a surgeon, a voice coach and a comedian.
In our quest for “Presentation Excellence”, we often think about, well, how people THINK.
We’re far from being neuroscientists, but inevitably this has required a bit of research to investigate just how the brain’s basic neurons work and how they affect human behavior, emotions and decision-making.
The brain is divided into a left and right “hemisphere” or side. The left hemisphere is associated with logical, analytical thinking, speech and language processing while the right hemisphere controls creativity, spatial ability and musical skills.
The best presenters leverage both sides of their brain not only to tell a story but elevate it to a place where it’s memorable and brings people to action.
After producing over 100 episodes (and counting) of our Presentation Thinking podcast, we’ve spoken with many presentation designers, speakers, and marketers that are experts in their craft.
We’ve also been in conversation with surgeons, professors, voice coaches, NYT illustrators, improv actors and more. These are people that aren’t necessarily working in slideware day-in/day-out but there’s shared foundational skills that are core to presentation excellence and simply being able to communicate well.
Presenting well is not just about the message, but how it’s delivered to the audience. It requires verbal and non-verbal techniques that rely on different sides of the brain—in other words, it takes a “whole-brain” approach.
Let’s take a look.
Translate for your audience
In Episode 113, surgeon in residence TJ Schaid shares how much of his job includes presenting and speaking on his research in trauma surgery. However, as he says, “it’s not just science up there.”
“Having the pictures really keeps them engaged. And the images and the videos—that's a huge thing, even for medical talks, I think for really any talk. ”
—TJ Schaid
Translating complex concepts and data-heavy research into slides for the stage is something that comes up a lot on Presentation Thinking. We know that “Death By PowerPoint” is a disease and too much text is the symptom—strategic visuals go a long way!
But how do you make it engaging to an audience that might already know some of your concepts or, even trickier, an audience that doesn’t have any background or expertise in this area?
“What makes it really interesting for the clinician is ‘How could this change how we treat patients?’ And a lot of my work was basic science stuff, so it's, it's not immediately translatable to the bedside, right? It's, you know, I'm dealing with cells and things under the microscope and things like that…So what really will engage somebody is making it clinically relevant, relevant to what they're going to do for their patient in front of them.”
—TJ Schaid
Even surgeons want to be able to keep things relevant and easy to digest in their presentations! The right message delivered poorly, fails. You wouldn’t give a university-level curriculum to toddlers.
Your story must be catered to your audience—use their terms, understand a bit about their world—to make it memorable.
Your voice is an instrument
Pacing, tone and delivery of a presentation can also help.
It’s not just about the words you say but how you say them.
Voice coach and actress Michelle Siracusa emphasizes that vocal delivery is an instrument, one you can train in Episode 130:
“A lot of my methods are rooted in both arts training and psychology. So once you understand that you're an instrument and you can look and sound however you want, you can kind of cater your presentation or your subject matter to your audiences to better achieve your end goals.”
—Michelle Siracusa
There is presentation power in knowing how to utilize your voice.
Appealing to the audience with your voice, your pacing and strategic visuals are all tools of presentation excellence!
Establish one clear goal
Lianna Patch, a comedic copywriter with a standup comedy background, speaks to the holistic nature of presentations in Episode 39, and the need to “zoom out” on a clear goal.
“To me, Presentation Thinking is more about the holistic experience of the talk—not just what it looks like and how it sounds, but what are people going to take away? Where does it fit in the ecosystem of what they already know and what they will know? What does it say about you as a brand? And what do you want them to do with you or at you next? So it seems much more thoughtful than just talking.”
—Lianna Patch
Not unlike standup comedy where there’s a “through line” story connecting a series of anecdotal bits, presenting requires immaculate planning. And practice.
Think of your favorite actor or comic, TED Talk, famous speech or even a friend you find especially captivating when they talk. What about their delivery, emphasis, the way visuals are used or the way comedy is integrated makes their “presentation” skills so impactful?
What do you want the audience to take away from your talk? It should all come back to that one clear goal.
Onwards, towards Presentation Excellence
With this much “podcast data”, we’ve learned that Presentation Thinking doesn’t just come explicitly from PowerPoints and keynotes. An integrated, whole-brain approach to storytelling can be found in so many facets of life and work.
We learn something new with every episode of Presentation Thinking and are becoming less and less surprised to realize presentations really are all around us, in every facet of media, art and culture.
Making complex subjects translatable and relevant to the audience, leveraging delivery and planning ahead to convey one strong message to take away are all foundational tools for presentation excellence.
It lights up both Left-Brain and Right-Brain to better communicate—and elevate your story to one that sticks.
About The Author
Molly Geoghegan is a writer, organizer, and film school dropout. She hikes frequently with her dog, Guinness, and signs up for too many email newsletters. Having lived in Chicago, Paris, Dublin and Galway, Molly has van-lifed her way to the Pacific Northwest and calls Oregon home.
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