Reflection on professional development

Reflection on professional development

1. What are the key elements of a successful group presentation?

Let's first acknowledge that in some ways, team and solo presentations are alike. Both rely on the same fundamentals—setting objectives, preparing, structuring, and then presenting with the right skills and techniques. (Sebenius, 2001) But the similarities pretty much end there, and the recognition that you're now part of a team becomes all-important.

To be successful, a team presentation must come off as just that: a team presentation. The team leader—and every team should have one—leads the team in deciding on the specific outcome to be achieved. Most important, the team leader should guide, not dictate. The leader's job really is to facilitate the process of deciding objectives and key messages. What response does the team want from its audience? If the team is successful, what will happen? It's also critical for the team to buy in to the team's goals and key messages. They should understand and accept that they will succeed as a team.

The team must have clear goals.

Narrow your list to those that are most important. A good rule is to focus on the three most essential goals you as a team want to achieve. You can build sub-sets of these, but everything should point to those priorities that the team together should be working toward. (Sebenius, 2001) From this, you can move to an overarching theme that ties the individual presentations together. You can then begin to see the unifying elements within the overall scheme and how they link to one another. The team now begins to get an idea of what each member will discuss.

Preparation is critical

Preparation is even more essential to a team than it is to a solo presentation. As you prepare, organize your individual presentations as if they were each part of one continuous presentation spoken by several people instead of one person. It may help to think of these as chapters in a book, with a story line running through the book leading to a specific end. (Sebenius, 2001) Deciding who should present what topics depends on your overall objectives and the command of the content each person has. Among close colleagues, that's usually an easy decision. In any case, consider the special knowledge and job experience of each member and how that fits into the overall scheme. That's more important than picking team members based on rank alone.

Your team preparation must include a careful analysis of your audience. What you don't know can hurt. (Sebenius, 2001) During this preparation phase, make sure the presentations are consistent. Obviously, nothing said by any team member should contradict or call into question something said by someone else. Consistency applies as well to the use of visuals. It's best to have a single template, with everyone following the same design guidelines. Use the same color coding and consistent font style and size throughout. And, of course, stick with the same graphics ...