The weekend has come and gone, and you’re faced with another Monday. As much as you love your job, it’s always a challenge to start a new work week with plenty of enthusiasm. It’s no wonder that “Rainy Days and Mondays” easily became a hit in 1971.
Perhaps, after a cup of coffee, you can easily plunge in to work mode. But the real challenge is getting through the dreaded Monday morning meetings. If you’re the one presenting, you’ll find yourself addressing a group of people longing to crawl back into their beds. To help, take note of these three presentation tips:
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Start with something fun
Stop people from dozing off by starting your presentation strong. Try to integrate an element of fun to get everyone excited. You can organize a quick activity, or try your hand at telling a few jokes. Be creative and try to come up with something that suits your topic and presentation delivery style. If you have to use slides for your meeting, don’t dim the lights until you’ve finished with the introduction. As we all know, a dark room is the perfect place for a nap.
Keep it quick and simple
A brief and concise presentation is always better for audience engagement, and it’s particularly crucial for Monday morning meetings. Give your audience a quick overview by outlining key points. Don’t let it drag out by focusing too much on the details. There’s plenty of time to tackle that during the rest of the week. For Monday meetings, you want to encourage your team to gear up and accomplish as much as they can. You can’t achieve that by overwhelming them with data.
Encourage dialogue and discussion
To get maximum engagement, you can also encourage the audience to take part in the discussion. Allow people to raise their points and concerns as you go along your presentation. With a non-linear structure, you can have a more organic conversation without disrupting the flow of ideas. Simply introduce the main points you want to discuss, and allow your conversation to navigate the direction of your presentation. You can make use of Prezi to create non-linear slide decks. You can also get a similar effect by using PowerPoint’s hyperlink function.
Give your audience the motivation they need for the rest of the work week. Make sure your Monday morning meetings are fueled with engaging and productive discussions.
READ MORE: Monday morning presentations – The Prezenter
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Featured Image: trophygeek via Flickr