How to Deliver a Team Presentation
Get tips on how you and your co-presenters can successfully deliver a smooth team presentation.
This is a continuation from last week, /business-career/public-speaking/how-to-present-with-another-speaker. If you haven’t already listened or read part one, you might want to do that first.
Last week, I mentioned that one way to present with another person is to use the tag team approach–which is when one presenter follows another. But I also mentioned that presentations become much more interesting, energetic, and fun to watch when co-presenters work together—instead of using the tag team approach. Today, I’d like to focus on how to do that and explain the mechanics of delivering a presentation as a team.
When you follow the PEP model (that’s Point, Evidence, Point) it’s easy to split up the content between team members. You might remember that the PEP model reinforces main points by providing evidence. (Evidence can include analogies, comparisons, stories, statistics, questions, quotations, and examples.
How to Deliver a Team Presentation
So here’s how presenting with more than one person works. The first (or main) speaker makes a point, then a different speaker presents evidence to support that point, and then the first speaker summarizes the point again. If time allows, it works well to have two or three shorter forms of evidence so that you can appeal to logic, emotion, and character at the same time. One person can present all of the evidence or it can be done by multiple people. For example, one person might tell a supporting story and then another person might provide a statistic.
This approach works out particularly well when the presenters have different backgrounds and experience, because each can give supporting evidence or examples from his or her perspective–and that makes the point more interesting and stronger. So PEP becomes “PEEP”: Point, Evidence, Example, Point or Point, Evidence, Evidence, Point.
You Must Establish Clear Roles for the Presentation
Perhaps the most important part of co-presenting is deciding on the roles of the presenters. Will you present together? Or will you use a tag team approach? Will you take turns taking the lead? Do you want team members to jump in? If so, how?
It doesn’t matter what you decide, but you do need to decide ahead of time.
An Example of Co-Presenting
One time, my sister Debbie (I should say Dr. Deborah Boehm-Davis) and I co-presented at a psychology conference. She provided examples that were specific to her area of psychology while I supplied more general communication research and examples. We took turns delivering main points.
In our notes, Deb and I very clearly marked who was supposed to be talking when. When it’s an equal partner presentation, there are no verbal cues for transitions (like I talked about /business-career/public-speaking/how-to-present-with-another-speaker), yet the transitions still need to be seamless. So that means you have to discuss and agree on who will take the lead—and then practice. It’s almost like creating and rehearsing a script so that everyone knows when it’s their turn to speak.
Why Practicing a Co-Presentation Is Important
However, unlike a play, it’s also important to work out how you’ll respectfully interrupt each other. You don’t want to step on someone’s verbal toes. Because Deb and I knew we’d want to spontaneously jump in at times, we made up some signals. When we wanted to add something that was unplanned, for example, we would take a few steps closer to each other and make eye contact. We also had other signals worked out, like a upward palm, which meant “I can help if you need it” and a a not-so-subtle tapping of the wrist, to indicate that we needed to move on. (Both her and I have a tendency to over-communicate! What a surprise, right?)
How to Correct Your Co-Presenter During the Presentation
This should probably go without saying, but it’s also important to never undermine the credibility of your co-presenters. If you disagree with something said, think carefully about how important it is to make a public correction. If it’s not critical, then just make a mental note to correct your partner later. If, however, it is a critical error, then of course, it needs to be corrected, but please only make a correction if it is absolutely necessary. And of course, make it as tactfully as possible.
It is always important to remember that in a duet presentation you are both equal (no matter what your job titles say). Also, you’re not competing with your partner, you are supporting them. Your support should include giving your full attention when someone else speaks. Don’t look down at your notes or look distracted in any way. If he says something funny, then laugh; in fact, laugh generously. In the same way, if a teammate makes an important point, you can shake you head slightly in agreement.
How to Work Together During the Q&A
Along the same lines, if during question and answer period the audience is favoring one person over another (and again, it’s supposed to be an equal partner presentation), then the favored partner needs to bring the other partner in by redirecting a question to them. “Deb, what you do think about that?”
The opposite also needs to be considered. If, for example, a partner is beginning to flounder, the remaining team members should come to his aide by adding to the response. Again, the idea is to work together as a coordinated team to deliver the best presentation possible.
There is another form of co-presentation that I haven’t discussed that relies on audience members to be your co-presenters, but that’s a topic for another article.
With careful preparation and enough practice, co-presenting can be rewarding for both the audience and the presenters themselves.
Thanks again to reader Jill Christ for asking about co-presenting and Jill, please let me know over on the fan page how you and your colleague made out with your team presentation.
This is, Lisa B. Marshall, The Public Speaker. Passionate about communication, your success is my business.
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If you have a question, send email to publicspeaker@quickanddirtytips.com. For information about keynote speeches or workshops, visit lisabmarshall.com.
Presentation image courtesy of Shutterstock
About the Author
Lisa B. Marshall Lisa holds masters with duel degrees in interpersonal/intercultural communication and organizational communication. She’s the author of Smart Talk: The Public Speaker’s Guide to Success in Every Situation, as well as Ace Your Interview, Powerful Presenter, and Expert Presenter. Her work has been featured in CBS Money Watch, Ragan.com, Woman’s Day, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and many others. Her institutional clients include Johns Hopkins Medicine, Harvard University, NY Academy of Science, University of Pennsylvania, Genentech, and Roche.
