Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes - The Goodman ...

How Harmful?
Not harmful Extremely
at all harmful Don’t
1 2 3 4 5 know
The overall objective of the talk was not clear
to the audience. 3% 7 20 36 32 2
The objective was not made relevant to the
audience’s concerns. 2% 6 19 35 35 3
The presentation ran too long. 3% 14 28 35 19 1
Sufficient time was not allotted for the presenter
to cover all the material. 4% 15 35 32 11 2
Time was not allocated to ask questions or engage
the presenter in a discussion. 4% 13 28 35 18 2
The material was poorly organized. 2% 6 20 40 31 1
The amount of material presented
was overwhelming. 4% 14 30 33 17 2
There was not enough information to help the
audience make a decision or reach a conclusion. 3% 12 32 32 14 7
The material was overly complex. 6% 13 28 32 18 3
Translating the material into PowerPoint
templates (e.g., bullet lists) made it more
difficult to understand, less interesting, or both. 12% 20 28 22 12 5
The speaker did not connect with the audience. 1% 5 18 36 39 1
The speaker was too nervous. 9% 27 33 20 8 3
The speaker was not well prepared. 2% 6 11 29 51 2
The presentation duplicated the content
of the slides and/or handouts without
adding anything significant. 5% 14 27 30 22 2
Technical problems (e.g., poor sound
system, malfunctioning projector)
disrupted the presentation. 4% 18 27 29 20 2
The presentation was not tailored
to the size of the audience. 6% 20 37 23 8 7
pg. 85