Presentation Zen * Garr Reynolds * Chapters 1 and 2

I have a very hard time with presentations. Not giving them (although once upon a time, I had to memorize my speeches because I would get so nervous waiting that I would shred my notecards), suffering through them. This is primarily because so many of them are so godawful boring: either a gazillion words on a slide or slide after slide of mind-numbing bullet points.

Enter Garr Reynolds' book: "Presentation Zen". I'm two chapters in and have decided Reynolds is my presentation soulmate. Chapter one, Presenting in Today's World, discusses what went wrong with PowerPoint (aka: words, words, words). He references Daniel Pink's six aptitudes (Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play and Meaning. Reference Pink's book: "A Whole New Mind") and dicusses their application to a whole new approach and way of thinking regarding PowerPoint. Chapter two, Creativity, Limitations and Constraints, has an overriding message that I love, say it out loud with me: WE ARE ALL CREATIVE.

Three things I loved in Chapter 2:

• the Brenda Ueland quote he provides: "Let her go! Be careless, reckless! Be a lion. Be a pirate!". We can all use the reminder to let go long enough to take the risk.
• the reminder not to force it. Reynolds provides a list of suggestions on how to get away from work long enough to let the creativity come. As if I need to have an excuse for a walk on the beach or a long sit at a coffee shop with a paper!
• the insistence to put your love, passion, imagination and spirit into everything you do.