You can only concentrate on one thing at a time!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Your conscious mind has a very obvious limit: ONE.<\/p>\n Many people feel like they can multitask well. What those people are really doing is flipping attention back and forth between more than one target every few seconds. Despite feeling competent at multitasking, studies show that it decreases performance. Your audience is not filled with multitask-capable alien mutants.<\/p>\n In other words, if the audience\u00a0is reading your slide, they are not listening to you, and if the audience\u00a0is listening to you, they are not reading your slide–at least not at the same time.<\/p>\n And here’s the dirty little secret: It’s easier to read the slide than listen to you. The\u00a0path of least resistance is to NOT listen!<\/p>\n That means that most of the time when you show a slide with words, people are not actually listening to you.\u00a0The only exception is when you are so charismatic and entertaining that it is easier to listen than read. Don’t bet on it!<\/p>\n The end result of most slide presentations is that the audience watches the slides and ignores you.<\/p>\n The following two rules are part of my\u00a0SpeechDeck Public Speaking Skills system<\/a> under the principle of “Manage the Theater.”\u00a0This principle is all about managing the space around you.<\/p>\n We’ve all heard about left brain \/ right brain. The left brain is the verbal and logical part of our brain, and the right brain is the creative and visual part.<\/p>\n While the actual scientific basis for this distinction is dubious, the concept helps me explain my rule.<\/p>\n It’s very natural to assume that great PowerPoint slides will entice the “right” brain. You might think you want creative slides and beautiful pictures to sooth the visual right brain. Wrong!<\/p>\n Of course there is nothing necessarily wrong with creative, beautiful slides, but the listener’s “right” brain doesn’t “need” it.<\/p>\n You can show my right brain a beautiful beach vacation, or you can just say the words “beautiful beach vacation.” Guess what, if you DON’T show my right brain a picture, it will picture an imaginary “beach” than is better than anything you can possibly photograph.<\/p>\n Right brain slides are always optional! “Right” brain slides are optional, and left brain slides are “right.”<\/p>\n The “right” brain doesn’t need help. The left brain is the conscious part that tries to figure out language, chronology, facts, statistics, and logic.<\/p>\n Even a simple misunderstanding in left-brain logic might upset your entire message.\u00a0When you need me to understand something with precision (left brain) that’s when you should show me a slide, picture, or prop.<\/p>\n For example, the odds of winning the lottery are\u00a01 in 13,983,816. You can help me understand by giving me a mental and\/or physical picture. For example:<\/p>\n You can buy 560 fully loaded Honda Accords or play the lottery long enough to “maybe” win:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The visual helps give the left brain perspective.\u00a0That’s why rule number one is about helping the left brain understand:<\/p>\n Rule 1:<\/strong> Eliminate the visual unless is 1) reinforces<\/strong> the verbal message OR 2) helps you understand\u00a0<\/strong>the verbal message<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The only way words on a slide will not compete with you is if they are exactly the same as the words from your mouth (reinforce<\/strong>). If you need no words, show a visual only to help the left brain understand<\/strong>.<\/p>\n I first introduced this rule in a previous post on\u00a0Why PowerPoint makes you a worse speaker<\/a><\/p>\n Bottom line: Showing visuals to the “left” brain is the “right” way.<\/p>\n![\"Source](\"http:\/\/michaelspeaks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/multitask.jpg\")
<\/a>Rule 1: Visuals are for the left brain<\/h3>\n
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\nThe left brain\u00a0DOES need help.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nRule 2: Keep it simple<\/h3>\n