“Breathing Spaces”.  Build time into your presentation to think, reflect and refocus.

What?

Essentially, Breathing Spaces are pre-planned times during a presentation of between 5 seconds and several minutes, when the audience’s attention is directed away from the presenter to something else. Breathing Spaces allow the presenter to breath, think, gain composure and get focused.

Why?

The concept is simple, but often overlooked. Presentations with built-in Breathing Spaces allow the presenter to feel more in control, vary the method of message delivery to reduce risk of boredom and help insure the effective delivery of the message.

How?

There are many devices that allow the main presenter to get “off-camera” for brief interludes. Examples include:

• Executive Speech: Build in a video segment to illustrate a specific point or to change or set the tone for a subsequent portion of the presentation.
• Store Manager employee briefing: Have an assistant manager speak for 2 minutes on a specific topic during your talk.
• Sales Contacts: Facilitate having the prospect tell a story about his company or current challenge; ask a complex open-ended question.
• Trainer: Use a workshop “Icebreaker” activity, a breakout group exercise or individual table work.

Benefits:

• Chance to glance at your notes
• Time to think and re-adjust
• Time to mentally “own” the environment
• Audience has exposure to a different delivery method that reinforces what you are trying to communicate

Action Plan:

• When you (or your staff) plan your next presentation, build in one or more breathing spaces.
• Experiment with a variety of techniques and build your personal arsenal of breathing space ideas.