PRESENTING IS ONE of those things that people often say they do not like doing. Despite this, it is an important skill that all LKS staff should develop. Recruitment processes frequently require candidates to present, the success of teaching and training sessions is often reliant on the presenting skills of the person leading them and people will frequently learn of the existence of your service though a presentation, be it an induction, a talk at a meeting or some other event.

It is important to take every opportunity to practise and enhance the skills of your staff in this area. No one wants to be in the position where their dream job comes up or they have to put together a presentation to secure the future of their service and it is the first presentation they have done in years.

The key to a good presentation is preparation and lots of it. Some people can just stand up and deliver a brilliant presentation off the cuff but they are few and far between. The first steps in putting together a good presentation are for the individual delivering it to be clear about what the purpose of the presentation is and what they want the outcome to be.

Purpose and outcome

The purpose of the presentation can usually be classified into one of the following areas:

The outcome is what you want to happen as a result of the presentation and will be closely linked to the purpose. For example, your staff member might be presenting to a group of students about how to use a database. The purpose of the presentation would be to instruct them in how to use the database and the outcome would be that they would be able to use the database to conduct searches on their own.

Planning

Once your staff member is clear about the purpose and the outcome they can start to plan their presentation. The flowchart in Figure 70.1 outlines a possible process for planning the content of a presentation which you could work through with the member of staff who is going to present.