How to Make a Successful Presentation When There’s No Time to Prepare
You’ve been asked to give an impromptu presentation on the spot with little to no time to prepare. What do you do? How do you prepare for something like that out of nowhere? Before anything else, remember to gather yourself and be calm – it’s not that unusual to have to do a presentation with little notice. Perhaps the original speaker is sick, or maybe a new client has a penchant for requesting presentations on the fly. In either case, the person assigning you the presentation is likely aware that you did not have much time to prepare for the talk. That doesn’t mean you still can’t knock it out of the park though.
Here are a few steps we’ve compiled to help you develop and deliver a great impromptu presentation.
Impromptu vs. Unprepared
The entire concept of preparing for an impromptu meeting might seem contradictory, and in essence, it is. However, there’s a key difference between having little time to prepare and having done no preparation at all. Preparation is the best way to alleviate stage fright. If you are always expecting an impromptu report to pop up, you’re never caught completely off guard and will be able to follow certain protocol quickly to get the job done.
Rule of Threes
Organize your speech or presentation into three main categories: an opening, a body, and a closing. Managing these three pieces of the demonstration is a quick way to coordinate your information in a concise and simple way. Remember to use supporting visuals – pictures, graphs, media – and use technology to your advantage. For example, if you’re having trouble incorporating a video (a classic PowerPoint letdown), you can use plugins to insert video into PowerPoint for you. Taking the tech shortcuts allows you to speed the organization process up so you can focus on the actual content of your message.
Back to the structure. Your opening should be attention grabbing. Just because you’re on short notice doesn’t mean you should miss any opportunities to be humorous or witty. Chances are that if you’re asked to report on the fly, you’re going to do so on a specific subject—such as a status report on a remote team, or the progress of a particular project in your department. This knowledge should help you telescope your effort to contain only the most important information that you’ll place in the body of your message.
In the body of the meeting, you should plan to cover no more than three main pieces of information. It is generally regarded that people retain information better when it comes in chunks of three (A-B-C, 1-2-3, Three Blind Mice, Three Musketeers, etc.).
For example, in your body the three main points might be:
- This is where we are in the project
- These are our budget restrictions/concerns/roadblocks
- This is how we plan to traverse the roadblocks and move forward
If the information being covered in these three points seems unclear or needs further explanation, now is the time to clarify.
When wrapping up the presentation, remember to summarize your main points and end with a closing statement. For example, a powerful closing statement could reference your opening question or hook. Finish the presentation by calling the audience to action or reaffirming everyone’s commitment or role in the project.
Remember This Process
If you haven’t had to make an impromptu presentation before, use this time as an anchor to help secure any snap meetings that may happen in the future. This process is also a very approachable structure for any kind of speech – impromptu or otherwise.
