I came across this image the other day, showing retention rates of students by delivery form. A lecture is the worst, teaching others is the best. I am not sure about the accuracy of the exact percentages, but there is something to the overall hierarchy presented here. And presentations are definitely somewhere high up there.
But we can learn from this pyramid to make our presentations better.
- Audiovisual: This will not be a shocking new insight: use visual material in your presentation, avoid text
- Demonstration: Keep things highly practical, use case examples that people can relate to
- Discussion: Easy to do in a small setting, but harder for large audiences. In sales presentations for example, this would mean improvising your entire sales pitch on the client specific situation.
How could you get to teaching others in a presentation?