I conducted a presentation class for 9 newly-joined management trainees in our firm. They are mostly fresh undergraduates i.e. they are all at their early 20s. It means that they were born at around 1989!! They are really young!
Most of them presents well. Above all, they are very good with their visual aid. They draw great flipchart - colourful and of big fonts. See an example below:
They also make engaging powerpoint - lot of pictures but very few words. For example, one just shows a picture of a hiking trail crossroad. He then engages the audience in discussing about how to plan for your career. Well done.
What would then be their common challenge on presentation skills? I would say it is the 'reality'. As I told them, the challenge is for them to maintain the same presentation quality even though when the 'reality' later hits them. The 'reality' at work includes the unreasonably-limited preparation time, too much content with too little presentation time, content full of dry fact e.g. regulation... etc.
From the training perspective, it is about how to train someone to tackle challenges which they have not experienced before. Thinking retrospectively, I should have made them feel the challenge concretely during the class. For example, get them to present the latest anti-money laundering policies. This will build more "accurate WIIFM", and thus create more appropriate learning!
