Unit 4. PRESENTING ACROSS CULTURES

PRESENTATION

Do you realize that speaking is the most powerful means of influencing others in business and in (academic) life? If you do, try to make the most of your speaking opportunities, phonetics included.

Let us proceed with the idea that there exists a kitbag of tools, some straightforward techniques that could help you become an expert and powerful speaker. A trap to be avoided: sometimes the high-tech gadgets can suppress the humanity and spontaneity of the speaker who is supposed to share himself with the audience. So a few slides will hardly make a winning presentation if you lack the necessary expertise.

Another challenge that many people worldwide are facing is reaching out to others who are different from themselves. In countries such as Russia, the US, the UK and many others with highly diverse populations knowing how to speak effectively to mobilize different opinions and perspectives is a challenge for the presenter.

One of the simplest rules to remember: a formal presentation should rather be like an organized, enlarged conversation - as if with your peers over lunch or dinner. The power of speaking is in the personal contact, in the immediacy of interaction. Do not sacrifice this aspect under any circumstances.

A recent survey reveals that American managers are rated as the best speakers - their direct style and confidence were the main reasons cited.

The truth is that nobody is born a good speaker – effective speaking is learned and takes a great deal of hard work. Preparation and determination are the means to achieve success. A great speaker like Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister during World War II was aware of this. His approach is well worth recalling.

Once Winston Churchill went by taxi to a meeting. When the taxi stopped at the address, Churchill delayed getting out. The Cockney taxi driver yelled, ‘You’ve arrived, governor. You’re ‘ere.’ ‘I know, I know,’ replied Churchill. ‘I’m just preparing my impromptu remarks.’

All good speakers get nervous. The truth is that you need the adrenalin of nervous energy to perform effectively.

What is meant by presentation?

OALD: (C) a meeting, at which sth, especially a new product or idea, or a piece of work is shown to a group of people: The sales manager will give a presentation on the new products.

The term can cover a wide variety of instances. In short it is any opportunity you get to communicate your point of view to listening ones. Any such opportunity should be used to enhance your credibility with your listeners – within your institution or out. Prepare for these listeners with utmost care.

Most speaking situations are persuasive intentions. Speakers who believe that they are presenting ‘objective’ information are unconsciously choosing words and positioning ideas so that they represent their point of view. Thus when giving a presentation pursue your points of view with clear and conscious intention.

Discussion

1. What classroom activities can be ranked as presentations?

2. What phonetic qualities should an effective presentation possess?

3. Comment on the piece of advice in the tips list: Persuasion is a co-active process.

Give your interpretation of the following view: It’s not what our message does to the listener but what the listener does with our message that determines our success as communicators. (You must understand where your listeners are in their thinking if you want them to move through the presented ideas to reach a shared point of view. Your persuasion as an opinion leader should exploit the dynamic and creative capacities of your listeners. It’s important to observe your listeners carefully while you are speaking and to constantly check understanding in an interpersonal interaction.)

Exercises

4.1.1. Look at the notes from a training seminar which describes audience expectations of sales presentations in different parts of the world. Which country is described in each set of notes?

Finland UAE UK Germany US Japan

1 Humour goes down well. A strong and powerful personality is appreciated. A direct sales approach - slogans go down well. Very individualistic culture which requires speaker to ‘sell’ himself or herself.	2 A formal presentation environment is expected. Communication style is quiet and polite. Knowledge of and respect for the company, its history and its leaders.	3 Clever and eloquent speakers are appreciated. Speakers are expected to entertain and be animated. This is a relationship environment which relies on more than just facts to sell. Selling takes time and will require more than one presentation.
4 Ironic humour is appreciated. Stories and personal anecdotes and observations work well. Sales language should be moderate and reasonable (overstatement does not go down well).	5 Communication style is relatively formal and quite neutral. Design is also important so the technical and quality features of the product should be stressed. The speaker should not be over-confident.	6 Presentation should be serious and focused on data with solid analysis. It should start and finish on time. The audience is unlikely to participate. The audience may expect to hear about the speaker’s professional experience in the introduction.

4.1.2. In pairs, discuss these questions.

• What kinds of things do you need to know about your audience before a presentation?

• If you are from one of the countries described, do you agree with the notes? If you are not, create a similar profile for your country.

Preparing your presentation

Know your audience What are the demographics of your audience? Take note of age, gender, religion, class, ethnicity, and educational background. What values, benefits, or attitudes your audience will have? Do you think they’ll agree or disagree with the points you want to make? What does the audience want or need? Comfort? Support? Entertainment? If you know what your listeners need, you can talk about your subject matter in a way that meets their needs. Will your particular audience think that you are an authority on your subject? If not, you may have to focus your attention on your qualifications or highlight your use of authoritative sources. What’s the occasion? Is it light or serious? Academic, public or professional? What will your audience’s standards and expectations be, given the occasion? How will you meet those standards? Time of day: Are you speaking before, during, or after a meal? Will the audience be tired, distracted, or hungry? This may affect how well you can motivate them to listen. What type of presentation will you give? Informative Used to teach or provide new information. But remember, always offer your own opinion about the information you’re presenting. Persuasive The most difficult type of speech. Used to convince, motivate, or influence your audience to agree and/or to act. Entertaining or Evocative Used to grab the audience’s attention, to amuse, or to bring people together.

4.2. Dom Sullivan is based in Dubai but works across the Middle East region and Japan. His job is in advertising and he regularly makes presentations internationally. Listen to him talking about his experiences of presenting across cultures.

1. What is the most important advice he can give to people presenting internationally?

2. Which two universal rules of presenting internationally does Dom describe?

3. How is the style of presentation in the UK different to other cultures? Why?

4. Dom tells a story about a manager who was fired. Why was the manager fired? What is the main message of that story for Dom?

Tapescript (audiofile: Exercise 4.2.mp3)

Interviewer: So, what advice would you give to someone presenting across cultures, from your experience in the Middle East and Japan?

Dom: The most important thing for me is to try as much as possible to make the presentation as collaborative as possible, with colleagues and external clients. So we spend a bit of time, for example, talking to clients in Japan and getting their first impressions, even just making sure from a language point of view that they understand the points you want to make. Working with others is really important to make the presentation more understandable for them. So in the presentation there are very few surprises. It’s typical to let people look at the presentation beforehand - it’s what I said before - so there are no surprises. And that’s a personal challenge for me. I like to go away and write things privately.

Interviewer: Are there difference in the business environments too which can cause an issue?

Dom: Yes, you have people like us from our markets trying to give ideas to very different markets, which may hot work in this part of the world. So you have to be much more collaborative to make sure what you say really makes sense for the particular environment. So, basically, you need to customise your message and style to the different needs and perspectives of different audiences. That’s probably a universal, though.

Interviewer: What else in terms of advice?

Dom: Well, I guess, and this is another universal rule, internationally you need to simplify everything - one- word or one-sentence slides with occasional tables... to be structured, logical, and keep a focus on main points.

In presenting internationally, you find everything is much shorter, obviously. Less detail, sometimes more of a focus on entertainment rather than actual content. But seriously, you have to find ways to engage people.

Interviewer: Is this different to the UK?

Dom: Yes, heavy long presentations don’t go very well here. And that’s different to the UK where heavy and long presentations are necessary to convince the client that you know what you’re talking about. In the Middle East the real business is done around the presentation not in it.

Interviewer: When you look back at yourself entering the Arab world, did you make many mistakes or did you adapt quickly?

Dom: Well, if you can relax a little bit, you fit in quickly, and I’m quite relaxed so I was OK. If you have this, a ‘this is how we do it back home’ attitude, then you are almost guaranteed to fail. In another ad agency I know, the creative director has just been fired. He lasted about three months.

I'm sure he’s excellent at what he does, but he came through too strong - ‘this is how we need to do things, this is not professional enough, we need to change’ - and they fired him.

Interviewer: So the message is?

Dom: Adapt to the local context or you’ll fail.

3. Dom says that presenters should adapt to the interests of local audiences.

1. Read these presentation extracts where the speaker acknowledges the audience’s main interests and explicitly promises to deal with them.

2. Try to complete the extracts with words we can use to communicate needs and expectations. Then listen and check.