One-day presentation training: For business leaders on Innovate UK’s GBIP program
Case Study
“I thoroughly enjoyed the pitch session today. Your 3 Beat Mountain technique is the best pitching technique I have seen.”
Alexander Reip, CTO at Oxford nanoSystems
Overview
Who = A cohort of business leaders from a niche industry. Autonomous vehicles, semiconductors, life sciences, and hydrogen energy
Goal = Prepare the leaders for a week-long trip to a host country for government-prepared meetings with pre-aligned business
Benefits of working with us
- Peer feedback loops – With rich feedback loops and lots of demonstrations, there is a wonderful balance of direct learning from experiences as well as observational learning from others.
- Flexibility – We observe the group and adapt the format as needed. Because the cohort are business leaders, we don’t want to force them to do things. If they are responding well to the peer feedback sessions, we extend this.
- Iterate and improve – The leaders have two presentation opportunities so they can apply the feedback from session 01 to session 02. This is when we see them improve.
Transformation
The business leaders return after lunch and give a 2-minute pitch.
The transformation is like night and day. They are focused, structured and confident.
Before lunch, they all share a 30-second networking pitch, it’s good, but there is room for improvement.
It’s what I call an ‘Uncle Ted Swimming lesson’.
My great uncle Ted was South Africa and Australia’s 193X swimming champion.
He taught my dad to swim by throwing him in the deep end. Scopping him out, giving him some tips and doing it again.
We do the same but for presentation skills. Everyone knows ahead of time, so it’s not a surprise.
What’s a presentation skills workshop if we don’t spend most of our time presenting?
The first 30-second pitch gets people warmed up. The second 2-minute pitch is the chance for the leaders to apply the feedback they got in the morning.
A workshop with lots of me talking doesn’t move the needle. YouTube and LinkedIn are overloaded with advice and how-to’s.
The transformation comes from presenting, getting feedback, and reflecting. Then improving and following this up with a 2nd go.
I love seeing the look on the leader’s face when they feel it.
Experienced presenters
They have all presented a lot before throughout their academic careers. Raising investment, winning contracts, growing their teams, and speaking at conferences.
Yet this one-day presentation training is like opening windows on a spring day.
It freshens everything up.
After training over 70 leaders, I see a pattern. They have reached a certain level and don’t have time to improve their presentation skills. They have other priorities.
If it’s not broken, there’s no need to fix it, right?
But there always comes a time when revisiting a skillset delivers massive ROI.
And thats what we do with the leaders of the Innovate UK GBIP program.
No one uses slides. Because these slow things down. Plus, what we are looking to transform is the mindset. And we know they have a growth mindset coming through the Innovate UK program.
After the training, they have a new perspective that allows them to approach all future presentations with new ideas and techniques. They can stand out and grow their business.
Your leadership team
If your leadership team could take their presentation skills to the next level, let’s talk. Presentation skills are like a golf swing, no matter how many trophies are in the cabinet, there is always room to improve.
Book a call, and let’s talk about your goals.