Over on Richard Gayle’s Blog Spreading Science, I read a post entitled Scientists need to tell better stories. It touches on a point that has bothered me for a while now, and that is that the basic structure and discipline of the scientific method demands a particular style of documentation, and that style often carries over into presentations. Add to that the wonder of PowerPoint, and I’m sure we can all recount times when sitting in an auditorium, listening to a presentation, more attention was being paid to trying to stay awake, or wondering from which direction the next bullet point would appear. At the back of my concern is the difficulty that science has in communicating with non-scientists, and in particular conveying a convincing, reliable and articulate view of the scientific issue. When it comes to matters of significant interest, then of course, the media get in the way to add their own peculiar spin and the inevitable opening of a can of worms. (Which reminds me of Zymurgy’s First Law of Evolving Systems Dynamics, ‘Once you open a can of worms, the only way to re-can them is to use a larger can.’) Getting back to the point, and reinforcing Richard Gayle’s view, nobody needs be blinded by science if the material is presented as a story. And this applies whether the material is being presented to scientists or non-scientists. Now, this doesn’t mean dumbing down, or introducing dramatic Hollywood style sub-plots; constructing the article or presentation on creative writing techniques should do the job. But of course, as scientists, we were never taught how to do that!
The other thing I liked about Richard’s post was the last three paragraphs, which echo some thoughts that have appeared on this site:
Learning how to tell better stories, not just write good narratives, is something all researchers should learn how to do. But, whereas there is a real premium put on writing good papers, there is little pressure to speak well before a group.
That is why the best places to be at scientific conferences is usually not at the presentations but at the bars and pubs frequented by the conference goers. We get the real story there because every human being knows how to trade stories with others, even when the group is just a bunch of researchers.
Now if we could just get more researchers to adopt this approach to their public speaking trips, we might affect some real change.
I doubt that most people that work for companies would think to learn presentation skills, scientists or otherwise. As consultants, John and I would be aware of this because part of our job is to give effective presentations and we are in a group of people then who are likely to realize that we all present to a variety of audiences, we must all strive to reach the specific audience, and the presentation must be appropriate to the audience.
I’m not suggesting consultants don’t also give some terrible presentations, but just that we’re made aware of this issue because this is such an integral part of our job. But there are many things a person can do to make their topic more “reachable” and here are a few to add to “tell a story”:
1. Avoid jargon and science-specific language. If you’re not speaking to scientists, either replace the scientific word with a common word or, if that’s not possible or practical, make sure you define the term.
2. Don’t put everything you’re going to say on your slides. After all, not only will people be distracted reading it all while you’re trying to tell it to them, but if they can just read it, what do they need you there for?
3. Practice your presentation and work hard at putting it together, but don’t get too crazy about it. After all, it’s sometimes the mistakes you make that add a little personality and charm to your talk. Stop worrying about looking silly or making a mistake — it’s eventually going to happen if you give enough talks, anyway, so just do your best each time you do it.