Things that I learned about presentations and meetings
This week I'll share lessons I learned about preparing for a meeting both at school and at work.
Academia - What I've learned about delivering crucial presentations
As a student, I presented on big stages (to 200+ audiences) multiple times, with two high-stakes occasions: my PhD qualifying exam and thesis defense. Here are lessons I learned through these experiences:
Practice builds confidence. My presentations always evolve and converge to better versions through rehearsal. I continually clarify presentation content and improve the logical flow. Practice is the best way for me to manage nerves, as I know I've maximized my chances of success. I practice until my nerves feel manageable, which means everyone requires different amount of rehearsal. For my PhD qualifying exam (25-minute presentation), I practiced 20+ times and almost gained muscle memory. While this may not be necessary for everyone, it definitely helped me deliver a better presentation confidently.
Connect the audience with the content. I learned this lesson at a STEM summer camp before college. The lecturer demonstrated how to use intriguing stories to start each section, aiming to make people emotionally attached to the problem he was solving. While this may not apply to all presentation formats (e.g., it's challenging to make people emotionally attached to a robot control problem), the main idea still holds. We should help the audience connect with the content, whether by providing more context or introducing simplified versions of problems to help the audience grasp core ideas.
Work on transitions and logical flow. Presentations differ from going through bullet points; content should be organized with clear logic. This may seem simple but is often overlooked. For example, when presenting three problems and one solution, consider whether to discuss all problems first or interweave them with the solution explanation. The latter approach often maintains audience attention better by creating stronger connections between sections.
Know every detail. This is crucial. As presenters, we should remove any unimportant elements. For important aspects that we're unsure about, it's essential to study and comprehend them thoroughly. Ultimately, we bear full responsibility for our presentation's content and delivery.
Get feedback. I never realized how much room for improvement my presentations had until my mock PhD qualifying exam. Senior members from the same lab spent three hours giving me ideas to improve the PowerPoint I'd spent two weeks preparing. Many of the points I've shared here came from that discussion, demonstrating the value of feedback.
These rules apply to industry presentations as well. However, due to different contexts, there may be additional factors to consider. I'll share what I learn about those in the future!
Industry - Lessons learned about team meetings at work [part 1]
On Thursday, I worried about not having much “news” to write, but work never disappoints when it comes to learning opportunities. On Friday, our team and an adjacent team had a “planning” meeting that didn’t reach its original goal, led to two more meetings, and ended up discussing the definition of tasks we were originally planning timelines for. This was frustrating because we wasted time simply due to people not being on the same page. It reminded me of my first time hosting a meeting at work, which was also a mess. Since then, I've been contemplating “the art of meetings.”
Note that there are many different types of meetings. I use “team meeting” to refer to gatherings where a team tries to make decisions. (These differ from meetings where a team seeks buy-in for an idea from another team.) Here, I’ll share some ideas I’ve learned so far.
Align the goals of the meeting
I'll use my first disastrous meeting two years ago as an example. My manager wanted me to drive a decision about a software choice for the team. I called a meeting but failed to communicate the “decision-making” intent clearly in the invite. I then realized during the meeting that my team wasn’t ready to make a decision. Also, there was context around the topic I wasn’t aware of. The meeting turned into a brainstorming session. This wasn’t ideal because I wasted time preparing with insufficient information, my teammates wasted time reviewing irrelevant material, and the brainstorming wasn’t useful because the team wasn't prepared for this type of discussion.
This experience bothered me (partly because I get frustrated when things don’t go to plan). I started thinking about how to improve next time. Here are things I've implemented since:
Set clear goals. In every meeting I organize, I discuss the goal concretely. For example, when discussing team terminology definitions, I drew a table on the whiteboard and told the team our goal was to fill the 10 blanks. This helped maintain focus, and we managed to settle debates that had lingered for over a year. (Interestingly, I was the most junior person in that meeting, with four L7 attendees.) This encouraged me that implementing “mechanisms” can work.
Leverage offline communications. In any team, there are typically key decision-makers. Securing their buy-in before a meeting is invaluable. Offline discussions in smaller groups facilitate clearer communication of ideas and enable more constructive feedback. This approach helps refine ideas before presenting them to a larger audience. However, this method trades time for improved communication. For team leaders with broader scopes and responsibilities, time for such discussions may be limited. Consequently, we need to find the right balance to maximize the benefits of pre-meeting alignment while respecting time constraints.
This week, the big lesson I learned is:
Insist on high standards for clarity. In our recent meeting, we attempted to share plans for six development tasks. Our situation was complicated by several tricky factors, including frequently changing priorities and inter-group collaboration. To make matters worse, we lacked clear definitions for each task. This became a critical issue because we were behind schedule, making every decision more challenging and risky. Without sufficient detail, it's difficult to make informed decisions. The meeting shifted from task execution planning to discussions that revealed how much our assumptions differed. Reflecting on this, I realized I didn’t pay attention to clarity because I underestimated the importance of helping teammates fully understand the situation. I thought I could quickly run through the assumptions and move to timeline planning since I was assigned to execute the job. However, this approach caused me to miss the best opportunity to explain things clearly and resulted in more energy spent later addressing concerns I had inadvertently triggered. The key takeaway is to never overlook the importance of clarity at any stage. Clear communication is crucial, especially when dealing with complex projects and diverse teams.
There are still many topics I want to discuss, such as “Scoping the meeting” and “What makes a good attendee.” Let's explore these next time!