 As somebody who's taught public speaking for a number of years and done quite a bit of presenting myself I would have to say that one of the more difficult types of public speaking is actually group presentations because it feels like you're just Pulling in opposite directions all the time right if you're not really with it Then it's very easy to be out of sync With your with your team members with your group mates So what you really want is to be in sync of course and now not this kind of in sync necessarily But you need to be in sync as a group you need to have kind of a singular mindset and you need to have Really prepared well as to give a good group presentation and really You don't find that centralized purpose and just a lot goes into making a really effective group presentation. So As a kind of a final chapter for our exploration of working in groups Let's talk for a minute about Presenting as a group and what that looks like So there are different types of group presentations that that we can we can give some of them include things like debate Where you're actually in a formalized Back and forth with another group In an official debate that would be the process, you know, there would be specific Process and way that you go about that you could also have a forum Which is mostly like an you know, like a larger Q&A session Where somebody's asking you some questions and or the crowd is asking you some questions You have several people up there in your group is is just answering questions essentially There's also what we call panel discussion, which is more of a a group discussion that people are watching You know usually have a group of experts that are talking about a particular topic or something and another people are mostly just watching You know, the audience is is mostly there as a spectator and they're just you know, watching you have a conversation Then there's also what we call symposiums which is You know one group or a group after group or person after person would speak usually on a central topic on a singular topic But you know, you would hear about this topic from different people in different groups And so there's those types of group presentations that we get into occasionally as well And then there's just what we would just call other which is just everything else Which is probably honestly the majority of group presentations are actually in this quote-unquote other category Which is just presentations. We give us part of a class or part of a business presentation Or or just whatever it is that we happen to be presenting with other people So there are different types of group presentations all of them require something a little bit different from us And so we need to be aware of of those but for the most part We just need to know that there are different types. We need to adjust accordingly One of the first things we need to do with a group presentation is to get organized. We need to have a plan Before we set out to do this We need to really set ourselves straight on it on a couple of things as a group So first of all, we need to know what the measure of assessment is. What do we consider a success? What success gonna look like, you know, is it gonna be is it a sales pitch where success is? Having made the sale or having a X amount of dollars in sale or in a contract when we leave there or is it You know persuasion or is it whatever? What what is success in this particular? Presentation and that's true for individual speakers as well, but as a group we need to write a prompt. Okay, how are we being assessed? What are the criteria for which we need to be aware that we are being assessed on for this this presentation? We also need to have a real focused energy around output What is it that this should look like in the end? What is it that we're trying to create here? So what what's the end result gonna look like and then how do we build to that? But we can't we can't build to that if we don't know what the output is going to be what this is going to look like in the end So we need to have a clear idea on Output we also need to understand some of the logistics of the situation before we get started We ought to be clear on some of the logistical details things like presentation details How long do we have for this speech? What's the content supposed to be about and and you know What's the setup gonna be we'll talk more about that in a few minutes, but what are some of those details around that? Yeah, you know again How long does this need to be is this all of us speaking or just all of us preparing this and one person giving the speech is You know, what are the presentation details that we need to be concerned with the about the actual presentation? What's the reason to the preparation time frame? What how long do we have to do this? Is this is this something that's going to be delivered in a week or is this a month from now or is it two months from? You know, what's the preparation timeline? Then again working backwards from there really we need to understand what the group benchmarks are What are the benchmarks for what do you know? Where do we need to be at what point along that time frame if the if the presentation is a month from now? Where do we need to be in three weeks? Okay to get there? Where do we need to be in two weeks and where do we need to be in a week? And so what do I need to be working on today? Right, so we need to have these different types of group benchmarks Layed out based on that time frame that preparation time time frame We need to set out these group benchmarks for where we need to be at different points along the line of that time frame One thing we need to bear in mind as a group and when we're giving a presentation Group presentation individual presentation really they should all be audience centered We need to be focused on the audience at all times when we prepare any kind of presentation And this is this is you know true as well in Group presentations as much some group presentations as it is an individual one So we need to have an audience centered approach and be thinking about the audience at all times during the Preparation and delivery of the speech in this presentation One way we do that is by focusing on content. What is our you know content going to be and how is that going to be? Viewed and accepted by the audience. How's that going to impact the audience? We can think about a couple different things here that go into content One is usage. One is usage. Well, how is the audience going to be able to use this information? How is this going to apply to them? You know people are You know at their core their ego centric meaning we are most concerned about those things that affect us most directly So if we can demonstrate some way and provide some way for the audience to actually use this information Then that's going to go a long way toward Gaining their attention and keeping their attention and just gaining their Understanding of what it is. We're trying to say and or persuasion if that's our end goal Trying to persuade them is going to be affected by can they use this information and how so? How are they going to use this information? So we need to to have usage at the forefront of our mind Knowledge level is another one. We need to be thinking about at all times. What is the knowledge level of the audience? We need to hit them at that knowledge level wherever they're at We don't want to talk to them like like their babies if they're already experts in this area We need to raise our Language and different knowledge level expectations and vice versa though if they don't have much of any knowledge of this topic We don't want to jump in at an expert level So we need to think about usage. We need to think about knowledge level. We need to think about objectives What is that? What are our objectives? What are the objectives of the audience? And so what what are they going to not only how are they going to be able to use this? But what is their objective and what can we provide them as an objective for for understanding this? information and for knowing this information and then all of that is going to then go into Shaping our content and helping us understand what our content should be for that presentation So we need to be thinking about content throughout the entire thing and when we do think about content We need to think about the audience and have an audience centered approach That's something to think about structure. How are we going to structure this presentation? You know both in terms of an introduction a body and a conclusion, but also then within that how are we going to organize this information? How are we going to include our statistics? How just how are we going to structure this in a way that that is going to most Appeal to the audience and help them understand them the easiest and and reach them Most directly it's we need to be thinking about structure in terms of the audience How are we going to structure this so that hits the audience in the best way possible? But anything about packaging again, how are we going to divide this up? Are we going to have everybody speak and if so are they going to speak in equal parts? And if not who's going to speak and how are we going to divide that up and you know Who's who's best match to what area to speak on wants, you know What's everybody's strongest area to speak on? So how are we going to divide up the pie in essence, you know How are we going to cut the pie up and and decide who does what and how this work is going to be handled? Not only the presentation itself, but also the work leading up to that Finally, we need to think about the human element in all of this You need to think about the human element in terms of you know, these are people So how do we best draw people and how do we incentivize this for people? How do we make this as appealing as possible and how do we just draw them in as individuals thinking again about the audience? how do we pull them in to best connect with and Connect with our presentation and and also Help us fulfill our objectives for that presentation So we want to be sure that we're balancing both of those things both The audience perspective and our own perspective as presenters Okay, so one of the greatest challenges of delivering a group presentation is Really being in sync as I mentioned before Is seriously being in sync delivering this as though it's coming from one person and having it be as balanced as possible in that way And that's that takes a lot of work that takes a lot of preparation so a couple of things we need to consider in terms of achieving that goal delivering this presentation as One is again, we have to have a common purpose We have to understand what that purpose is we have to all be pulling in the same direction and and trying to accomplish the same thing And you can't have one person doing their own thing because that's going to just throw off the whole rhythm If we think about like an engine we got a whole all those pistons hitting in in the correct timing Otherwise it's going to throw the whole engine off and it's not going to run properly, right? So we've got to have that a singular purpose as a group and identify that purpose and and pursue that purpose and be committed to that Let's have to think about our oral content We don't speak the way that we write So it's great for us to write our speech out and to have that presentation all written out and things but we have to think about how this is going to sound and how we can match up our kind of our delivery and our just our oral Intonation and our vocalics and all those types of things are para language How can we get all of this as much in sync as possible and have the oral content sound like it's coming from one person and not from You know four or five different people When you think about our dress, you know, how are we going to dress for this situation? And this is true again for individual speakers, but also as a group What's going to be the most appropriate dress on some occasions? That's going to be a little less formal depending on who you're speaking to and what what the situation is with the context is Maybe a little less formal other times It's going to be more formal for giving a business presentation It's a real formal occasion that we ought to dress accordingly Mostly we want to dress so that we're not distracting In any way from the content of the of the speech and so the people aren't really noticing what we're wearing We want to wear something that's really kind of Not noticeable so that people are focused on the content of our presentation Well, so let me think about the facilities What are the facilities going to be like that we're gonna have so, you know And that all affect the way we deliver the speech and how we dress and everything else If we're delivering this to a fairly small intimate audience where we're gonna be pretty close up with them Then that allows certain things and takes away other things as presenters that we need to keep in mind But if we're giving it in front of a huge crowd In an auditorium or something like that with which is, you know, just a much larger crowd Then that's going to affect the type of visuals we use and the type of examples we use and just the type of language We use and everything else about it So we need to be Aware of the facilities that will be in use as we deliver this presentation Another thing to think about with with facilities So is what kind of technology is going to be available? Are we going to have you know access to a computer and projector and a microphone? And if so, what kind of microphone and how many and are we going to be tied to a lectern? Are we going to be able to move around all those types of things we need to understand? Or is it going to be much more? Simplified we're just not going to have access to those things depending on the situation that that may be the case So we need to know that going in so we can adjust our presentation accordingly You know, I know I just was reading an article from one presenter one experienced speaker who said that they travel with kind of one of these kits where It's kind of a travel kit, but they have all of their different adapters and their their presentation clicker and extra batteries and just different Whatever it is that they would need for their presentation They bring it with them because you just never know what what they're gonna have available to to you as a speaker So you want to be prepared so this this speaker travels with one of these travel kits full of just all the speaking Technology that he might need during his presentation So now we don't all have the opportunity to do that But it is you know something to be that prepared and to understand what the facilities are gonna be like to that level is really critical The next thing we need to do to deliver is one is think about our visual aids How are we going to use those visual aids? You know, which ones are gonna be appropriate depending on the speaking environment the speaking context that we're in the speaking situation But also then how are we going to use those things? who's gonna be responsible for creating them and for you know, bringing them to the to the speaking Platform and to set them up and things like that. Who's gonna be responsible for clicking forward on the PowerPoint if that's something you're doing or You know, all of these types of things with our visuals we need to be thinking about Not only which ones are gonna work best, but how are we gonna use them and then practice with them so that we're incorporating it with each speaker Using them so they get more comfortable during even the practice area practice time We actually do think about delivery just you know modes of delivery and and how we're gonna deliver the speech So but there are different four different modes of primary modes of delivery that we use in public speaking That we that we generally talk about even today still One is what we call memorized and it is pretty much exactly what it sounds like where everybody memorizes their portion of the speech That can be really good in terms of you know, everybody is very clear on their Content and on what you know what they're supposed to speak about but it can also be a challenge because It's easy to forget. Obviously if you memorize something you're depending on your memory And so you may forget some of that so you may need to And so if you forget it then you lose your cues though, right? If you if you get that then you forget then you lose your cues Everybody's lost and that can be a problem the whole thing can fall apart if somebody's not you know Sure of what what comes next and what they're supposed to be saying so memorized can't have advantages But it can also be fairly risky Another mode of presentation another mode of delivery is impromptu which is where you are Now, you know, we kind of have some knowledge of this area, but but you don't really have much advanced warning of the speech It's kind of a spur-of-the-moment type thing. Hopefully it's not the case certainly with a group presentation That's that wouldn't be good for you to do a an impromptu speech for a group preparation a group presentation because Yeah, again, you need that preparation. You need that time in advance To get in sync and to do all that planning which is really important And so impromptu would not be an ideal way to give a group presentation for sure Main script is sort of similar to memorized in that you are Scripting everything out so you're not required to memorize it But you are scripting out word for word exactly what it is you want to say and then the expectation is essentially that everybody then follow That script now that's okay. It works. It can work. Okay, again It can give you a very clear structure of who's responsible for what and those types of things but You want to be cautious that if you Use a main script then you're locked into that right you're locked into that there's no going away from it You can't have somebody just go off script Because then the other people that they're speaking with aren't gonna know again when it's their cue to start speaking and those kinds of things So if you're doing a manuscript speech just remember It's got to be divided out in very clear blocks and everybody's got to stay on script The last type of delivery is extemporaneous extemporaneous is where you're thoroughly prepared and you have even a like a word outline of what you want to do like a keyword outline That reminds you of what it is you want to talk about but doesn't Script out every word or every sentence so you're not locked into that you can be a little more extemporaneous and And have these bullet points basically of what you want to talk about and then talk about those things without having To memorize something or be locked into a manuscript it gives you the The freedom to to change things up a little bit now You do have to work out your cues very very clearly in advance for your team members So they know when to come in and and when you're finished and those types of things but but extemporaneous can't provide the opportunity to Just correct anything. It's also a little more conversational Because you're coming up with exactly how you want to say something in that moment It's a little more conversational But it also requires a lot of preparation a great deal of preparation to have that happen effectively So you got to make a decision about what kind of delivery you're gonna have and also again What type of tone of delivery you're gonna have is gonna be Upbeat or is it gonna be a little more, you know serious Because you can't have one person be like all wacky right with everything and then the next person be real stoic And serious about things you've got to find some balance there where everybody's able to do what it is they need to do without Stepping on anybody else's toes without without crossing, you know in lines with everybody else and the way they're delivering their speech You want to have some Consistency in the way that everybody's kind of delivering their speech All of this of course requires a great deal of rehearsal and none of this comes easily It all requires a ton of rehearsal and working together in advance So you want to save time for that you don't want to make this a last-minute thing You want to have time to go through you know kind of dry runs of this multiple times using your visuals You know using basically everything just as it would be in the time of the speech So you can get comfortable and you can get a feel for what's happening there and and that you're all again on the same page You're all in sync that requires a great deal of rehearsal So hopefully this gives you some indication of what it is Required what is necessary to do an effective group presentation They can be they can work very well again It spreads out the workload doesn't put the pressure on any singular person necessarily or have any just one person in the spotlight So it can be helpful in Elivating some of those apprehensions as well because you don't have all everything falling on one person either in the workload Or in the presentation itself So it can be very effective in a number of instances, but you've just got to be aware of these things and Understand how to do your group presentation as effectively as possible If you have questions about giving group presentations or anything else about small group communication, please feel free to email me I'd love to hear from you there in the meantime I hope that this is giving you some insight into and some confidence in how to do effective group presentations