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ASTD – ‘Can a trainer’s job be just delivery in the classroom?’

In a session of ‘Top 10 questions which trainers ask’, I asked Bob Pike who is a well known figure in the corporate training field a question – ‘How do trainers get good feedback on his / her effectiveness in the classroom?’ I asked this in the context that the happy sheet is often just a ritual at the end of the class – participants frequently do not care to put down their true thoughts for all sort of reasons. They are rushing to leave. Or they try to be nice…..especially in Asia.

Bob’s immediate response struck me ‘Trainers should be evaluated by the underlying value which the training intervention brought to the company, but not just their effectiveness in the class.’ I know that there is argument like this i.e. we should go for level 4 instead of level 1 or 2 evaluation, but I just do not expect he would answer my question with this…. Perhaps it is because I have been focusing myself in the classroom effectiveness since I joined the training field. It made think whether I have had the wrong focus at all.

I do not have a clear answer yet, but it surely makes me think. Whilst I do not have a final conclusion myself

• The sponsors or the employers pay for the intervention. It makes sense to evaluate the whole spending by looking at how much value e.g. increase in revenue, cut down in staff turnover brought by the intervention;
• It is however often difficult or costly (in terms of time and money) to measure level 4. For example, it takes time for the change to show, and control groups have to be arranged;
• If the course is paid by the participants e.g. a presentation training, it makes sense to just look at level 2 or 3 evaluation.

Perhaps I can have a better answer myself by looking into more Kirkpatrick’s thoughts on evaluation.

Anyway, re classroom effectiveness, Bob did give a good suggestion afterward and he modeled it as well. He is great. He promised to send us some bonus material if we send him an email after the session containing one paragraph about one key learning from that session. This is a good idea since it

• Extends learning beyond the classroom – enhance retention
• Checks for yourself your effectiveness
• Shows that you care

Good stuff!!

ASTD - Insights and Learning

I am now in the Chicago airport waiting for my connecting flight back to Shanghai. Finally, there is time for me to reflect.

Contrary to my original plan, I did not write my blog during the conference since I was so absorbed into the conference. It started early (6:30am on Wednesday!!) and sessions run back-to-back. In addition, there were so many people which I can talk to – heard that there were over 9,000 participants. Together with my jet-lag, I just did not do anything else.

Let me now take this blog to reflect on some insights and learning from the conference.

ASTD Conference in Atlanta

I will have the chance to go to the ASTD 2007 International Conference and Exposition this week in Atlanta. I very much look forward to experiencing it and sharing with what I see and hear!!

“What would happen in Taiwan?” – Different organizational culture

This was the question wandering in my head before my trip this week in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The background is that the organization I am working in acquired a local bank in Taiwan, and I went there to deliver a sales class. Before the trip, I felt both concerned yet excited. Concerned because:

• The participants are different from what I usually have. Culture in a local bank and an international bank can be very different. From my pre-course research with other trainers who delivered there, the comment is not very positive – conservative, skeptical, always on phone…. and needing lot of breaks to smoke!!

• The participants are not that well-versed in English, but the training material is in English;

• My class is the first non-technical training to them. In local bank, most trainings are technical one. In other words, non-technical ones are something they are not used to;

On the other hand, I was excited in the sense that I know I am helping them to make a big leap from selling in the local bank mentality to consultative selling….. It would be amazing if I can inspire at least a few to do it!!

With the above in mind, I have done a lot to prepare – talking to other global trainers who have been here, translating some essential content into Chinese, thinking of ways to make the content easier to be understood given their English level and lack of experience with foreign bank approach….. and try to sleep well the night before….

To my great delight, the course went well – much better than I expect!! The group even asked for ‘participation’ themselves when we set the group rule, and most of them were really risk-taking in asking questions or expressing their views during the class. And more importantly, I can feel that some souls were inspired. I am happy!!

Looking back, my learning is that:

• Most people come to the class with good intention to learn, and we as the trainers should believe in that;

• Preparation is everything. If your group is likely to be quiet, prepare ways to make the class participation easier for them e.g. having a mechanism where questions can be written on a post-in rather than asked on spot, having variety in delivery to keep the energy high, lightening up the atmosphere at the very start with music, ice-breakers and good content (how the participants feel in the first break is very important to determine their view for the rest of the class)… and most importantly, making yourself approachable – no one like to talk to a bossy trainer!!

• As always, never settle for sub-standard training facility – in this case, I believe that the better-than-normal venue in a good hotel helped. Firstly it gave the impression to the participants that this is a good training. People need to feel important themselves. More importantly, the venue does allow me to focus on the delivery rather than running around to find the break-out area!!!

”How to be a happy trainer?”

My simple answer is ‘Deliver something which you truly believe in.’ And this was exactly my reflection for the SPIN class which I delivered in Beijing last week. The class was a SPIN selling class and it was the 3^rd time which I ran it. With the experience of the previous 2 classes and late night preparation for this one, I did find myself mastering much more this skills. More importantly, I am more convinced that this is a concrete piece of skill which really works. And I know that it works because it did work when I delivered my class using SPIN methodology. Things like come together – as I immersed myself more and more in SPIN by reading more and thinking for more examples in class preparation, I used it for class delivery as well. Whenever I want to pass a message to the floor, I ask instead of tell. And I let them feel the ‘pain’ first before guide them to feel the ‘benefit’!!

Like selling, class delivery is a kind of persuasion – in short, you are persuading the others to ‘buy-in’ your ideas.

I used it, I know it works and thus I believe it. And I feel good to try to influence the others to use something I believe. It is engaging to myself. I enjoy the passion inside myself to try think of different ways to influence them!!

Love to do more!!

What is the focus - powerpoint, me (presenter) or them (participants)?

I always remind my presentation class participants that you should avoid letting the screen / powerpoint to be the focus of your presentation. Quite a lot of presenters commit this mistake - light dim, presenter sitting down, and then slides after slides after.... Instead, the presenters should take charge - stand up, project your energy, 'blacken' the screen when you speak, use powerpoint only to aid but not replace your message!! After all, human being rather than the mircosoft powerpoint can connect better to human being. And after all, if the latter can do better, we do not need to be physically organise a presentation!! Just send out the powerpoint file + voice tape.

However, if we include participants in the comparsion, the focus should shift further to them rather than the presenter!! Bearing this in mind will guide you to do a even better presentation. For example, you will 'cut' your message into managable size so that the participants can 'digest'. You will avoid long lecture, and instead you will introduce different delivery method.

Learning from the tour guide in Chengdu, China

We have spent a weekend in Chengdu, China last week for holiday. Whilst I once travelled there in 1993, there is almost no place I can recognize now. Well, partly bad memory, partly lot of development in this city.

Chengdu is an old city with lots of historical attractions. I am most impressive by the Dujiangyan Irrigation System 都江堰水利工程. It is simply amazing to imagine that someone built the system over 2,000 years ago, and the system has been working well to protect lives in Chengdu for so long!!! (See the photo on the left.)

Back to our blog topic - let me share with you all a piece of learning from the guide of the local one-day tour we joined there. She is called Little Li, an energetic and cheerful girl. On our way to the destination from Chengdu downtown, Little Li explained to us the tour logistics arrangement. What interested me most is how she introduced the 'ground rule' of the tour. The 'ground rule' in this setting is very much like what we have in training or facilitation environment - a commonly-agreed set of behaviours / non-behaviours.

Little Li said,'In the coming destination, if you smoke (which is very common in China!!), you will be fined for RMB100 by the tourist authority, or you have to wait on the spot until you find someone else smokes!! (She got some laugh.) We do not want people to smoke in our tour bus as well especially since it is air-conditioned. So, we will also impose fine if someone smokes in the bus. I will not keep the fine myself. Instead, we will all share it by buying extra dishes during lunch with the fine.'

Once I heard it, I found very familar - it is like our attempt to stop participants from using mobile phone in the class!! In addition, I was thinking to myself whether it is a good way to set the 'ground rule'. Perhaps somewhat different.

What I would say, 'In the coming destination, if you smoke, you will be fined for RMB100 by the tourist authority, or you have to wait on the spot until you find someone else smokes!! (To get some laugh) By the way, who do not smoke in our bus? Please kindly raise your hand if you do not smoke. (To create the group atmosphere that someone do not want the smoke) OK, I saw a few hands there. Perhaps we should have our rule here. Any suggestion what the person should do if he / she smokes in the bus? (Keep silence hopefully to get some participation though not very likely...) (If no) May I suggest.... (a consequence)?'

Why such change? I am always hesitated to use fine as the consequence of breaching the ground rule. Money could be a touchy subject. It would be quite odd if someone refuses to pay. You will also be in trouble if someone is willing to pay, but in the sense of buying the mis-behaviour e.g. saying 'OK, how much does it cost? RMB100 for each time I smoke, right? Here is RMB500 and I will keep on smoking....'.

Instead, I prefer to first use group pressure as the motivation - showing that somone do not want the mis-behaviour e.g. raising hand or inducing some discussion against the undesirable behaviour. Then, introduce a consequence (a non-monetary one) e.g. saying 'those who smoke in the bus will have to come out to do a performance for all of us, to our satisfaction!!' The fear of coming out in front of crowd can well be a consequence!!

"Please... don't do these" - more

I attended a briefing for new-joiners by the internal HR profession. The briefing is to both to give information and welcome them into the company. In one module, she introduced the company’s compensation and reward arrangement, and somehow she started by asking the audience, ‘Who is satisfied with your current reward package?’. Not surprisingly, the only response from the floor is silence….. and confused faces.

Whilst it is a good idea to use question to arouse interaction, the question itself is obviously bad. Let’s think in more details why:

Non-answerable – well, no one will say in front of the crowd to the HR people that he / she is not or is satisfied with the pay when he / she just joins the organization. The question just cannot arouse interaction;

Undesirable response – The HR profession definitely does not want to have someone answering ‘I am not happy with my pay’, which is possible response (if any response). Not only it is difficult to handle such a response, but also this will just ruin the party.

Creditability dropped – Sophisticated audience will see that this is a bad question. The HR profession’s creditability just dived right after asking this. (She did encounter challenging questions on other areas afterward)

Though it seems quite obvious that questions like this are very counter-productive to the effectiveness in communication, you will see speakers committing such mistakes from time to time. Sometimes, inappropriate words just come out of their months out of their plans. Why? I wonder say:

Preparation – Did you make the effort in advance to know the participants, the objective of the event, or even talk to those who have presented before?

Thinking on your foot – it is about sensing the atmosphere, event themes, and then saying sensible things. Experience counts here. Some just do it worse than the others.

I had a lot of sympathy towards this HR profession, and I tried to help by asking questions who are easy to answer in that session. I am sure that as she does more of this, she will get better.

"Please... don't do these"

I facilitated a program last month which consisted of sessions delivered by various speakers. Wearing the hat of a trainer, especially as a presentation trainer, there were a few moments which I almost could not help to intervene. Let me share these with you so that we can avoid them in the future:

Comparing the participants 'down' - One speaker started his session by asking a few questions. Whilst the questions were not 'easily-answerable' questions (I shall discuss more in the future posts on the topic of 'easily-answerable' questions), the participants were not very responsive - there were moments of silence. The speaker then made some unnecessarily-damaging comment along the line 'You guys in Shanghai are quiet. I were in Shenzhen last week. Your colleagues in Shenzhen were much more active." Together with his tone, it was obvious that he was comparing the participants down as compared to their counterparts in the south!! Big No-No!! No one likes to be lectured on 'what I did wrong', especially when there was no precise right or wrong in that case - 'what is wrong if I do not speak up' . In particular, you do not want lecture them especially since you want their cooperation in your presentation!!

Act like their bosses - There was another speaker who just shouted, pointed her finger and ordered the participants to answer questions. Well, this is another to-do if you want to shut people down. Arguably, you can do it if you are really... the boss.... but still... I consider it undesirable. My philosophy is that you should consider all presentation to be a sales presentation. In other words, you have to win people over, no matter what your position are. Well, your (senior) position can win over the participants' bodies (in being there), but not their heart to really absorb and carry out the messages you try to get across!!

Interaction - "Why need so?"

Interacting with the participants is essential to make your communication essential - no matter whether the communication take places in the training, facilitation or presentation setting. In short, interaction is important since:

Confidence gaining - One way to alleviate your nerviousness is to interact with the participants in the beginning. Most presenters become nervous before the event starts because he / she 'thinks' too much about the participants. Questions coming to mind include ' Will they ask difficult questions?', 'Will they be bored?', 'Will they not pay attention to my delivery?', etc. Interacting with them, experiencing them as human being, feeling that they are OK people helps a great deal to gain confidence!!

WIIFM clarifying - 'What Is It for Me?'. Preparation before the event is the major way to answer WIIFM for you. Yet, there is always something unexpected when the event really takes place e.g. participants turning out not to be what was described by the organiser. Therefore, on-site interaction like asking question will gather information e.g. participants' area of interest for you. Equally importantly, it shows to the participants that you care what is important to them!!

Attention retaining - One of the major challenges to you is that adult has only limited attention span - around 20 minutes as indicated by some study. It is not new to you (and me!!) to witness someone playing his / her mobile phone, blackberry, etc under the table!! Keep them involved in action is the best way to keep them 'awake'!!

I shall spend quite a number of more entries to discuss about interaction.

互动 - ‘为什麽需要它？‘

无论你所处的场合是training, facilitation或presentation，与台下
参与者的互动也是有效沟通的重要技巧。 简单来说，互动是重要的原因包括以下：

增加信心 - 在你的环节开始的时候与台下互动是其中一种减低紧张的方法。大部分的演讲者在开始前也会因为考虑太多关于台下参与者的问题而紧张。例如，‘他们会问难以回答的问题吗？’，‘他们会觉得闷吗？’，‘他们会留意我的演讲吗？’。 与台下对话，感觉他们，让自己知道他们是OK的，这会大大增大你的信心！

弄清楚WIIFM - 'What Is It for Me?'或‘关我啥事’（对，是必较口语化，但传神！）。 事前的准备是回答WIIFM最主要的做法。但是，总会有些事情是你不能预计的，例如，真正出席的
参与者跟会前提供给你的资料不相符。 所以，当场的互动如提问能让你吸取有用的信息，例如，参与者关心的题目。 同样重要的是，这种互动会让参与者觉得你是关心对他们重要的事情！

保持注意力 - 作为演讲者，其中一个主要挑战是成人的注意力只能维持很短的时间 - 例：美国海军曾在1970年代研究人类只能连续注意18分钟。参与者在桌下把玩他们的手机，blackberry对我们已不是什麽新鲜的事情。保持他们‘清醒’最好的方法就是让他们参与！

我将花多个环节讨论‘互动’。

One necessary take-away for the participants

As a trainer, you always want the participants to have take-aways by the time they leave the training room. (And as a great trainer, you will want these take-aways can change the participants' behaviour as well!!) What is the common take-away which you want the participants to have no matter what training course it is?

My answer is to let the participants feel good about themselves on the training topic. For example, if it is a presentation training, let the participants feel that they have the potential to be a good presentation. In fact, lack of belief on themselves is a major reason why people fail to present well. If it is a SPIN training, let them feel that they could exert good influence on the others.

How can it be done? Most importantly, it is through the atmosphere you create in the class, as well as the feedback you and the fellow participants give. Firstly, you will create a safe, low-risk environment. That is where FUN comes into place. Atmosphere setting can well be a separate training topic by itself. With such environment, you encourage the participants to attempt some small steps. Then, give them motivational feedback - catch them what they have done right. Not that you only tell the good news and hide the bad ones. But you will focus on the desirable behaviours, and even better let them tell you what they have done right (this helps to reinforce their memory). In short, tell them that it is possible!!

Why 'feeling good' is important? It is all about behaviour change. It is like those alcohol rehabilitation group, where the lead would like the group to feel good before the group ends. In short, it is easier for people to change their behaviour if they feel good about it. As we learnt in psychology, positive reinforcement works better than negative ones!!

"What can a presentation class do for the participant?"

How would you answer the above question? Probably the answers will include 'How to use powerpoint?', 'How to manage your body language?'..... If I were to answer this question before this week, I would give the above answers. Essentially, a presentation class is to equip the participants with effective presentation skills. It seems to make perfect sense.

My answer is not the same now. I attend a presentation class these 2 days delivered by Bentley Williams. Whilst the above-mentioned presentation skills are definitely parts of the course purposes, there is an interesting purpose which I have not focused on above - the course is to give confidence to the participant. In short, show them that they can!! In other words, you will have discussion, activities, .... etc in order to help them discover their strength.

I feel quite ashamed that I did not focus on this purpose before in my basic presentation class, because it should be obvious. Why obvious? Here is the logic. What will be a successful presentation class? Simple - the participants deliver better presentation after the class. Then, the question is what stop them from delivering better presentation. For the beginner, the lack of confidence is definitely an obstacle.

How could I miss it?

Apart from feeling ashamed, I find such discovery very inspiring. Not just that I can improve my course in the future, but also that I can use the above logic to review my other class. I should ask myself the question - what is the major factor which stop participants from the desirable behaviour? Instead of the traditional wisdom that a soft skills course should equip the participants with skills, it can be equipe them with a belief like confidence!!

"Will it be the same without the presenter?"

I sat in an external training today. One of my motivation was to learn from more trainers on delivery skills. Not exactly impressive. One, she was not familiar with the content - which is most detrimental to the delivery. No matter it is for a general presentation or trainer, the message will get across only if the speaker has reasonably good creditability. It is human nature - people trust the speaker first, before they believe in the content. Well, if you do not know the content, it is the easiest way to lose you creditability. Not knowing the content shows when you always have to refer to note or even worse the slides, and more obviously when you are not able to answer straightforward questions. Knowing the content is not magic like having charisma. If you are serious about the delivery, you will prepare and you will know the content. So, in some sense, it is kind of a dis-respect if you do not know the content. How can people trust you then?

Two, which is also about how serious she is - she arrived at the training room at 0830, the exact time when the class was supposed to start. There was no greeting, and worse no proper equipment set up. More exactly, there was no projector, which unfortunately she had to rely on a lot!! Well, like energy level, your participants will not care more about the class than you.

Three, being an external trainer who earn her living by mainly delivering class, her delivery skills is less than satisfactory. Unclear instruction for small group discussion. Tell instead of ask. Poor control of timing. Un-readable slides.

When her session ended before lunch, a question actually came to my mind - 'Would the learning (if any) be the same if without the trainer there?' Unfortunately, my answer is yes (almost yes). She was reading slides. (In fact, it may save more time if she was not there since we all could read more quickly.) She could not answer questions. Frankly, this is sad.

From a learning perspective, we should always ask ourselves this question 'Will it be the same if without me?'..... Am I making a difference?

Presenter vs Trainer vs Facilitator

What is the difference among a Presenter, a Trainer and a Facilitator? Here is my thought:

A Presenter is simply the one who is getting some messages across to the 'other side'. In most of the case, the 'other side' consists of more than 1 person. For example, a sales head in a kick-off meeting to the sales is a presenter;

A Trainer is one form of a presenter. The key feature is that the 'other side' comes to the occasion with preparation to learn. (Well, there are some presentations which the 'other side' is not prepared to learn - sales presentation is an example.) In addition, a trainer is normally more knowledgeable than the 'other side' re that topic of the occasion. For example, those who (especially basic) teach accounting skills are trainers

A Facilitator is not the same as presenter or trainer. Unlike a presenter, he / she does not necessarily have any pre-arranged message to get across. Unlike a trainer, he / she does not necessarily know more than the ‘other side’ (you cannot call them audience cos there could be nothing to hear from the facilitator). Still, most trainers have to do some facilitation in their training. A pure facilitator is more there to induce discussion among the ‘other side’, ask a lot of questions to make people think and help to adhere some ground rules (preferably set by the floor). For example, if you are conducting a team effectiveness workshop, you are facilitator. They knows more than you about themselves, and you are there most to make them to think and glue relationship. There is an interesting saying:

‘A trainer brings the participants from unknown to known. A facilitator brings the participants from known to unknown.'

But is there any similarity in these 3 roles? Yes, and this is an important one. These 3 are very much about communication. It is obviously true for the presenter and trainer. For facilitator, though he / she should not have specific messages to communicate, he / she has to listen very well and ask lot of good questions... again, communication!!

Among all the skills / learnings I have been discussing in this blog, some are only applicable to being a presenter, some for trainer and some for facilitation. For example, a facilitator should ask a lot of questions and use music to control the energy. You cannot readily do so in a sales presentation. Some are however applicable to all. For example, you should always have to give a lot of examples if you want to tell something.

I hope the above difference will help you understand the learnings which I discuss in this blog better.

"少就是多"

我（作为培训师）刚从本周为期2天演示presentation训练中学习到非常宝贵的一课。 在课上，我告诉同学说,其中一个presentation失败的主因是信息超载， 这是常见错误因为主讲人往往是演讲题目的专家， 因此， 当主讲人热情和投入的时候，他/她就会很自然的提供了很多他/她所知道了讯息。

有趣的（也不幸的）是，我发觉我也在犯相同的错误，在课堂上，由于我在过去1年的时间不断吸收了很多的演示presentation技巧，我把不少这些材料加入了在课程里，因为我深深想信这些材料能大大提高演示presentation的效用， 我控制不了自己这样造。 不过,尤其是因为这2天的课程是入门级一类的，我的改动让课程内容变得对同学太多了。 举例来说，对刚认知演示presentation技巧的人来说，告诉他们沉默或停顿的技巧可能太早了，更不用提我提及的其他约30个不同的技巧/伎俩! 此外,由于提高演示presentation技巧是一种行为改变, 同时间改变多项行为是很困难的。 我应该在一个培训中把要他们吸收的技巧/伎俩数目大大减少，顶多在一天内只讨论3-4主要的技巧/伎俩，让他们每人只注意其中一条，然后让他们不断不断的实践！

“Less is More”

I just conducted a 2-day presentation training this week, and I received a very valuable lesson from one participant who is also my fellow trainer. I was telling the participants that messages overloading is major reason for ineffective presentation. And it is common mistake because the presenter is often the subject matter expert (SME). Thus, it is just very natural for the kind and eager SME to deliver a lot of what he / she knows.

My learning is that …. I was committing the exact same mistake in the class. As I have been picking up more and more presentation skills in the last 1 year, I add all these into the delivery. I just could not help it since I found them all to be great addition to achieve an effective presentation. However, especially since this class is the beginner-level presentation class, my course content became too much to them. For example, telling someone who just becomes aware of something called presentation skills about the power of silence is not exactly useful. Not mentioning this is among some 30 different skills / tricks I mentioned!! Furthermore, since doing a better presentation is a behavioral change, it is very difficult to adopt a lot of tricks / skills at one time.

I got to reduce the number of messages in a given training intervention. Looking at it retrospectively, I should at most have 3-4 major learnings a day – make them aware of one and then practice like hell, before moving on to the next one!!

'An Inconvenient Truth' - A Must-Watch

A 100-minute movie about one presentation delivered by a politican on global warming. This description is basically what 'An Inconvenient Truth' is about. Well, such description does not sound very attractive by itself - long presentation, speech by a politican... and it is about global warming.... oh no!! However, if you notice how popular this movie is, you can imagine that there must be something great about this presentation, amid the factual description at the beginning of this paragraph.

Yes, there have been a lot of discussion and attention on this movie, in many aspects. Of course, the main message delivered by the presentation / movie is one - how important it is for us to act now to stop global warming!! On the other hand, it is facinating to have Al Gore to spend so much of his time, effort and will (since not many other politicans or large corporation would love his speech) to deliver this presentation, and thus the above message.

For me, it is also how the presentation was conducted. Other website site like presentationzen.com have staged a lot of discussion and view on this movie. And let me offer mine here. In short, my comment on this presentation - 'It is a 100% must-watchfor those who is serious to learn about presentation skills'. I think it is close to perfect - let me highlight a few points:

Preparation - I always say that preparation is the single most important success factor in presentation. Al Gore is definitely prepared. You can see from the presentation that he knows the content very very well e.g. at a point, his speech is in pace with the automatic count down of years on the chart, and he does not have to look at the chart. In fact, he mentioned in the movie that he has made the presentation almost 1,000 times. (Not that we have to do 1,000 times, but you should be able to get familiarized with your content after say 10 times. Yet, I still see a lot of colleagues in my organisation I am working in failing to comprehend his / her visual aid and content as they deliver their 80%-similar sales pitch the 11-times.)

Visual Aid - The slides are assisting his arguments. But at work, the slides are replacing or even prohibiting colleagues' arguments. Al Gore does it by showing the visual aid at the right time - mostly deliver your verbal arguments first, and then show your aid - not the opposite (which is common among our colleagues). On the other hand, the pictures are of high quality e.g. the earth photos in the beginning and relevant e.g. the balance at Chapter 28. In particular, I love the chart he used at the end to demonstrate how the CO2 emission can be reduced by various actions he suggested. They way he (or his team) designed and used the chart is simply an art - to show the contrast, to get the message across!!! In addition, he uses good variety of visual aid - comics, picture, chart, quote... and almost ZERO word slides!!

Movement / Set Up - The moment Al Gore used the elevating machine for him to point out what the world temperature will become - the message cannot be more clear!!

Opening - With a high-resolution earth picture in the dark room catching everyone's attention, emotionally

Ending - Asking for an action and appealing to the positive i.e. "All of us can make a difference to stop global warming"

I shall discuss in more details of specific presentation learning points from this movie..... stay tuned.