When I ask people to share their personal experience on what made a great presentation “inspiring”, different from the many pointlessly disengaging presentations that we all experience, a word often shared first is “passion”. A great presenter presents with passion.
After more words like “story”, “simple”, “surprising”, someone sometimes says “authentic”. At this point I find myself pausing and smiling at the wise person who made the suggestion.
Today I am going to argue that while “passion” is hugely valuable, you should focus first on your “authenticity”. I want to convince you that we should all have an authentic action-orientated motivation for our presentations. We should 'mean it'.
First, we need to talk about a monkey watching a scientist eat a nut…
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A famous breakthrough in neuroscience was the discovery of mirror neurons. Scientists in the University of Parma had ‘placed’ electrodes into the brain of a macaque monkey to measure when specific action neurons fired, and under what circumstances. Looking at the very neurons that fire during the motions involved in picking up and eating for example a nut. The story goes that in a break, with the monkey still connected to the measuring instruments, one of the scientists Vittorio Gallese absentmindedly picked up and ate a nut in front of the watching monkey. When they crunched the numbers the data showed neurons in the monkey’s brain that fired when picking up and eating a nut, fired when watching Vittorio pick up and eat a nut. From this one event cascades key research and coalesced into what we now call Mirror Neurons.
“Mirror Neuron” refers to how the brain of the observer fires in a remarkably similar way to the performer. Not exactly the same, but similar in key ways. We are not talking here about in the centres of joy (emotion) or reasoning (rationality), but in the neurons directing action.
I will avoid overcalling where the science presently is. There is still scientific debate on the full implications of these and similar observations. What feels true is that we learn by reproducing the actions of others, and it makes intuitive sense that the brain’s motor neurons would fire as it learns. I can read in a book how to cook an omelette, but we all know I will learn the skills involved far better by watching and then mimicking a skilled chef complete the task.
The implications for us as presenters? At this point we could set-off towards interesting points about storytelling, or about the importance of movement in stagecraft, or plenty of other matters. But I want to dive one step further into connected scientific research and guide us towards how to be an authentic presenter.
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The way our brain works, there is an intention that appears before an action. Ok, breathing is mostly automatic, but picking up a nut to eat involves an intention to move your arm and pick-up the nut and to eat it.
The point is that the idea of mirror neurons holds here too, that we also mirror others’ ‘intentions’. As I observe you reaching to pick up a nut, my neurons mirror yours for the intention to act as well as the act itself. I recognise the desire to eat a nut. Put another way, I recognise whether your intention is to pick up a nut to eat it, or to throw it at me, or to pick up the nut to see if the monkey notices you doing it.
Imagine watching a scene in a TV drama – standing at a bar is a guy and a gal in conversation. The guy is boorishly and a drunkenly making a pass at her. Something about his manner means you suspect his intentions are not entirely gentlemanly. You observe something in her movements that means you can feel her discomfort and growing frustration. We experience the woman’s building intent to slap the guy before her arm swings around to administer the well-deserved blow.
The action itself does not even have to happen without us observing the intent. We can feel there is an intention to aggression with the aim of self-protection.
This all makes sense in purely evolutionary terms. An ability to recognise in others an intent to act is important. I recognise something that tells me the wild animal in front of me is about to attack, so I get in the first blow which means I get to go home to my tribe. I recognise something that tells me the deer standing in the clearing has become aware of me and is ready to flee, so I instinctively let fly my arrow, and so my family gets to eat that day.
We don’t just empathise in the feelings in others, or even just experience the actions they take, we also read the intentions and motivations behind their actions. And we have evolved this observer intuition for good reason.
Now we can connect back to our lives as inspirational presenters.
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All this is true when the observers are an audience watching your presentation. They are responding not just to what you are doing, but also to what you are intending to do. What you are trying to do.
Remember times when you have watched a presentation and you can feel the disconnect from the words they are saying and the meaning they are conveying. You can see them focusing hard on remembering their words, clicking to the next slide efficiently, finishing on time, avoiding embarrassing themselves. All actions we can understand and empathise with, but what we want them to focus on is engaging me and meaning what they say.
We have returned to the opening question – why authenticity is so important in a presentation.
I want the presenter in front of me to say what they mean and to mean what they say. This is not just as simple as believing in the validity of their argument, it is about having a strong intention towards the action of sharing.
When I first started at university we were given a lot information to guide us. This included a long list of comic definitions for university words like “library” and “tutor”. The one I remember a quarter-century later is the definition of a “lecture”.
“Lecture: the transfer of subject notes from the professor to the student, bypassing both brains”
This is exactly what I experienced with some lecturers. The intended action of the hour we spent together was for them to efficiently speak out their script of notes, and for us to feverishly note down as much as we could.
Why were some lectures and some presentations like this? It is because we are watching someone with the intention of completing the task of saying things, rather than in a purer purpose. It is easy as a presenter to be “going through the motions”, or just being distracted by the mechanics of delivering the presentation. This is understandable but then this is the “intention” and the “action” that the audience will respond to.
Some lectures were very different. They held me spellbound as fascinating scientific ideas in chemistry were explored in front of me. If you had asked student-me what the difference was I would likely have talked about “passion”. The lecturer showed much more passion in the subject. They were excited, they were curious, they were inspiring, they were passionate.
If you ask today-me what the difference was and I will talk about a clear intention, a motivation. They wanted to share with me the exciting ideas. They wanted to convince me of the importance of a new model. They were ensuring I comprehended the fundamental relevance of the topic.
Actors talk about this juggling-act between the mechanics of delivery (script and movement), character emotion, and character motivation. Their fundamental challenge is similar to ours as presenters: to recite a set of words and sentences - “To be or not to be…” - and portray pre-choreographed actions – stand and walk to stage left – in a way that feels real and truthful to the audience.
Our challenge as presenters: we need to explain our idea – “Our research shows that print media is our best marketing route” – and direct through our slide – indicate the point on the chart showing our core consumers read magazines” – in a way that feels sincere and authentic.
So how do actors look to create authenticity? How do they make sure watching Hamlet feels authentic in some way? The actor playing Hamlet has to recite over 1,400 lines of script – a herculean task in itself. How do they make sure the intent of the character in the drama comes through rather than the mechanics of an actor speaking the correct words in the correct order?
Actors focus on the motivation of Hamlet and the underlying action involved in each scene.
Jane Drake Brody puts it excellently in her book Acting, Archetype, and Neuroscience: “It is therefore intention to act that is read by the audience, whether the action is fulfilled or not.”
Jane Drake Brody connects to Stanislavski, the most famous practical teacher in the art of acting. In 1934 Stanislavski created a detailed diagram charting his 40 check-steps towards an effective performance for an actor. This was the basis of what others turned into a method. Forty steps makes a very long list. Thanks to Jeff Zinn’s translation from the original Russian, we can explore what Stanislavski thought. To give you an idea:
Number 7 is “Process of expressing your emotion”
Number 28 is “Relaxation”
Number 31 is “Diction”.
Consider what else could be on his checklist, and where in the order of things? For example where is “passion”?
Number 3 = “Truth of Feeling or Passion”
Where is a sense of motivation, of an intention to act?
Number 2 = “Action”.
Note: Stanislavski’s first focus for the actor was “Work on one’s self”, which links to the strong principle as presenters of “Dare to be Different – Dare to Be Yourself”. But that is a topic for a different blog.
For an actor to even start on the journey of creating an authentic performance, she must explore and answer the question “what is my character trying to do?” – what is their motivation? And Stanislavski sets this as being a step before exploring the character’s resulting emotion (passion).
I argue that it is the same for us as presenters. For a presenter to start on the journey of creating an authentic delivery of their presentation, she must explore and answer the question “what am I trying to do?” – what is my motivation?
Telling yourself that you are excited about the new launch is good. What is better is to set yourself the challenge to convince the audience that the new launch is good.
Showing the disappointment rise inside you as you review the poor business results from the last year will help put across your point. What will get your audience to help improve the numbers next year is intentionally wanting to make the them personally feel disappointed with the business results you share.
Feeling the sense of satisfaction of finishing your logical argument for why we need to change our IT systems will help keep the audience engaged. What will get them nodding their agreement is your determination to get them to work out for themselves why we must change our IT systems.
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As you consider the next presentation you need to make, think about what you are trying to do. Make an actual wish – rub the metaphorical genii lamp and make a wish. What are you trying to do? Focus on this action, and you will come across as authentic. This is where inspiration starts.
If you don’t? You are in danger of your audience hearing your words, seeing your actions, but not feeling the intent of your presentation.