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How'd I Do? Evaluating Your Presentation
Ah, it's over! You just wrapped up your presentation to a group of potential partners on the ecological and economic advantages of alternative fibers. A controversial topic, but you were confident of your position, and you seem to have persuaded them.
But as they gather up their stuff to hit the lunch line, questions barrage your brain. How'd you do? Did they get it? What about that guy in the back with the scowl on his face?
If you really want to know how you did, don't leave it up to your neuroses. Ask the people who just watched you for the last 40 minutes.
Evaluation tools are important for measuring our effectiveness. We may think we did great, but if our audience doesn't agree, we might not have achieved our objective. For those of us who are self-critical, the opposite is even worse -- we dread we goofed big time. The point of a presentation is to be clear, keep people interested, and deliver the information. How do we know we did the trick?
Some Handy Evaluation Tools:
Handouts:
These can be Multiple choice, Short answer questions or a Rating scale. Whatever you do, keep it simple and short. And get people to fill them out before they leave the room. Once they walk out, your response rate drops more than 60%.Observer Questionnaire
Ask an impartial outsider who's not engaged in the topic at hand to concentrate on evaluating your style and material. Ahead of time, sit down with your chosen observer and define key points for feedback. Or have your observer fill out the standard handout that the rest of the group is getting, with added commentary on the back.Smile! You're in Pictures
A video doesn't lie (except the fact it'll add about 15 pounds to your figure). Get the neighbor kid who dreams of being the next Steven Spielberg to videotape you, or just set up your own with a tripod, either in a rehearsal of the presentation, or on the big day itself. This way you'll see what your audience saw.Asking the Right Questions
Whatever evaluation tools you use, ask the right questions. Ask questions that will help you improve. Don't just ask people to criticize -- they'll suddenly find fault even if there was none before. So be sure to find out what worked as well as what didn't. Except on rare occasions, most presentations don't deserve an Oscar and most don't fail altogether.Possible questions might be: Was the information presented useful? Were the hand-outs or slides clear and helpful? What info would you have liked explained in more detail? In less? Tailor your questions to what you want to know. Don't ask for more information than you really need.
The point of an evaluation is to tell us whether or not we did our job. We all have these critique tapes running in our head during and after our talk. So relax and save money on therapy by using evaluations instead of insecurities to measure your success.
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