Book Review: 100 Things Every Presenter Needs to Know About People

Presenting, selling ideas to people and training has been part of my job for the past few years. Presenting as such is something I've always been comfortable with, but I know I could be much better. That's the reason I read 100 Things Every Presenter Needs to Know About People by Susan M. Weinschenk.

The author has Ph.D. in Psychology and has a strong background on behavioral psychology. This shows a lot in the book. I originally had different thought what the book would have inside. I wasn't expecting that much science and actual proof behind the things that presenters need to know. So the surprise was positive and made the subject more interesting.

The idea in the book is to explain and benefit from the behavioral psychology. Maybe it was because I had read quite a lot about behavioral psychology in the past years, that the psychology parts as such weren't that new to me. Some of the ideas how to use those in presentations where the ones that brought me the value.

Book is well structured. It was fun to read. It worked especially well for bus or train trips which I use when I visit our offices in Helsinki central. Like the title tells it has 100 of things that every presenter needs to know. Those things are short and backed up with a proper research. I have to admit that book would have been at least good enough with 91 or 93 things, but maybe 100 is just much more effective. Few of the things were there just to fill the hundred.

I highly recommend this book to everyone who wants to understand people's behavior in presentation situations. If you are presenter, you facilitate meetings or meet people for sales, this is a good book for you. It also reminds about many important psychological studies from the past decades. It's a good book and quite easy and enjoyable to read.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Book review: Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds

Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds was a book I was expecting to read for a long time. I've heard so much positive about it and I knew it to be visual and enjoyable. It turned out to be everything and bit more I expected.

Presentation Zen is mainly about presentations done with Power Point or some other similar tool. Luckily, it's not only about those, that would be bit boring. It actually shares so much wisdom on the area of presentation and design, that everyone should read it. It tells also some basics about Zen and Japanese culture, what makes the book even more special.

Overall it's enjoyable to read with lot's of good visual pages and examples. It really walks the talk with well designed pages to prove the meaning of a good design. Of course form of a book doesn't give full right to all presentations, due the lack of presenter being there, but it's as perfect as a book can be in this subject. It's not only telling about writers thoughts on the area, but interestingly connects idea from many other brilliant thinkers.

I often don't like guide books. I don't believe in instructions that say that you should do this and that to succeed. I think that most of the cases, how you should do something is related to the moment. One size just don't fit all. Even though this book emphasizes the usage of pictures quite much and instructs to cut down the words in slides, overall it doesn't give that strict instruction to make better presentations. It gives guidelines which can be used for creating suitable presentations for unique moments. That's the way I like it.

As you might guess already, I definitely recommend this book.. It's easy to read, fast and enjoyable. And best of all, it's full of good insights how to be a better presenter and better in communication overall. To be honest, I don't know to whom, I wouldn't recommend this book. It's a piece that everyone should read.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen