How to Speak by Patrick Winston (MIT)

Aug 11, 2020

In this story I want to reference an interesting YouTube video that I watched recently. This is an hour long video about effective presentation, storytelling, and content structure—How to Speak by Patrick Winston. I will list down the time code so that you can skip to the parts that interest you. I would, however, recommend watching the whole video as it’s educational.

A quick extract of the video before I get to the time codes. In this video, Patrick talks about the steps to an effective presentation. Presentation refers to both verbal and visual. Presenting a clear objective and giving the audience a reason to stay is one of the key focuses in this video, as he explains HOW TO START a presentation and why it is important to have topic landmarks so that the audience can get back on track as occasionally one might wonder off during the presentation.

In the part where he talks about tools, he elaborated on the Do’s and Don’ts when using slides in the presentation. For those of you who have attended my Amazing Sticky Presentations workshop will be familiar with many of the ideas that he mentioned in this segment of the video—less text, more images, don’t read your slides, keep slides content simple, remove clutter, stop using bullets, etc..

Another thing that he illustrated in this video was why he prefers using the chalkboard. He also demonstrated using props and other learning tools to engage the audience during a presentation.

Towards the end of the video he talks about HOW TO END the presentation. One thing that he touches on in this segment really resonates with me (and I had a good laugh) is that 'thank you', 'the end', and 'Q&A' are the 3 things we shouldn’t be putting on the final slide. I always talk about what not to put on the last slide in my workshops and I was pleasantly surprised and happy to hear this in his video.

** You might also want to check out my story titled "Do not show 'Thank you' on your last slide" ⟩⟩ here. **

This is an interesting video and I learned a lot from it. It was fun and educational. To those who present, I recommend watching it from start to finish. Even though if you are already a seasoned presenter, you will learn something from it that will help you in your next presentation.

Video link: How to Speak by Patrick Winston
https://youtu.be/Unzc731iCUY

Here are the time codes for your reference

00:00 Introduction - The Promise
03:15 Rule of engagement
04:20 How to start
10:20 Time and place
13:35 Tools - board, slides, body language, and props
23:50 The use of slides
29:38 The laser pointer crime
31:50 Other PowerPoint crimes, examples and reasoning
36:48 How to inspire
40:15 How to think
44:05 Job talk
48:18 Getting famous
53:10 How to stop (The final slide)
63:00 End

Reference: Youtube video - How to Speak by Patrick Winston (https://youtu.be/Unzc731iCUY)

The author, ANG Tian Teck is a coach, trainer, and speaker, specialising in inspiring organisations and business leaders to deliver high impact presentations. He has coached, trained, and infected over 10,000 individuals across the region with his Amazing Sticky Presentations approach. Tian Teck is also the author of two books, Sticky Presentations, and Spinning I.D.E.A.S.

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