presentation mean in the context of versatility

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​Versatility

Erika andersen, founder/partner.

The core of versatility is being conscious of others’ style-based preferences and making effort to accommodate those preferences. Versatility is perceived and felt by others as the willingness and ability to make them more comfortable—to reduce their tension.

Versatility has four components: Image, Presentation, Competence, and Feedback. Image and Presentation are relatively minor aspects of versatility—each accounts for less than 10% of the total versatility rating.

Image is about appearance; whether others see your dress and grooming as appropriate for a situation. This has some style-based elements (Expressives may tend to favor more flamboyant or casual clothing, for instance), but it’s more a measure of whether others see you as being conscious of and responding to cultural, social, or business norms.

Presentation is about how you communicate in a public setting; whether others see you as “coming across” well. This aspect of versatility focuses on whether others see you as moderating your preferred style to be effective in sharing your point of view with others. For example, a Driver who scored high on Presentation would probably be seen as speaking somewhat more slowly and being more emotionally animated than usual while sharing his or her point of view. An Amiable who scored high on presentation might speak more loudly and use less provisional and more definitive language than usual when presenting.

Competence and Feedback together make up almost 85% of the overall versatility rating. This means that you can most easily improve your versatility by focusing on these areas.

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What Are Effective Presentation Skills (and How to Improve Them)

Presentation skills are essential for your personal and professional life. Learn about effective presentations and how to boost your presenting techniques.

At least seven out of 10 Americans agree that presentation skills are essential for a successful career [ 1 ]. Although it might be tempting to think that these are skills reserved for people interested in public speaking roles, they're critical in a diverse range of jobs. For example, you might need to brief your supervisor on research results.

Presentation skills are also essential in other scenarios, including working with a team and explaining your thought process, walking clients through project ideas and timelines, and highlighting your strengths and achievements to your manager during performance reviews.

Whatever the scenario, you have very little time to capture your audience’s attention and get your point across when presenting information—about three seconds, according to research [ 2 ]. Effective presentation skills help you get your point across and connect with the people you’re communicating with, which is why nearly every employer requires them.

Understanding what presentation skills are is only half the battle. Honing your presenting techniques is essential for mastering presentations of all kinds and in all settings.

What are presentation skills?

Presentation skills are the abilities and qualities necessary for creating and delivering a compelling presentation that effectively communicates information and ideas. They encompass what you say, how you structure it, and the materials you include to support what you say, such as slides, videos, or images.

You'll make presentations at various times in your life. Examples include:

Making speeches at a wedding, conference, or another event

Making a toast at a dinner or event

Explaining projects to a team 

Delivering results and findings to management teams

Teaching people specific methods or information

Proposing a vote at community group meetings

Pitching a new idea or business to potential partners or investors

Why are presentation skills important? 

Delivering effective presentations is critical in your professional and personal life. You’ll need to hone your presentation skills in various areas, such as when giving a speech, convincing your partner to make a substantial purchase, and talking to friends and family about an important situation.

No matter if you’re using them in a personal or professional setting, these are the skills that make it easier and more effective to convey your ideas, convince or persuade others, and experience success. A few of the benefits that often accompany improving your presentation skills include:

Enriched written and verbal communication skills

Enhanced confidence and self-image

Boosted critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities

Better motivational techniques

Increased leadership skills

Expanded time management, negotiation, and creativity

The better your presenting techniques, the more engaging your presentations will be. You could also have greater opportunities to make positive impacts in business and other areas of your life.

Effective presentation skills

Imagine yourself in the audience at a TED Talk or sitting with your coworkers at a big meeting held by your employer. What would you be looking for in how they deliver their message? What would make you feel engaged?

These are a few questions to ask yourself as you review this list of some of the most effective presentation skills.

Verbal communication

How you use language and deliver messages play essential roles in how your audience will receive your presentation. Speak clearly and confidently, projecting your voice enough to ensure everyone can hear. Think before you speak, pausing when necessary and tailoring the way you talk to resonate with your particular audience.

Body language

Body language combines various critical elements, including posture, gestures, eye contact, expressions, and position in front of the audience. Body language is one of the elements that can instantly transform a presentation that would otherwise be dull into one that's dynamic and interesting.

Voice projection

The ability to project your voice improves your presentation by allowing your audience to hear what you're saying. It also increases your confidence to help settle any lingering nerves while also making your message more engaging. To project your voice, stand comfortably with your shoulders back. Take deep breaths to power your speaking voice and ensure you enunciate every syllable you speak.

How you present yourself plays a role in your body language and ability to project your voice. It also sets the tone for the presentation. Avoid slouching or looking overly tense. Instead, remain open, upright, and adaptable while taking the formality of the occasion into account.

Storytelling

Incorporating storytelling into a presentation is an effective strategy used by many powerful public speakers. It has the power to bring your subject to life and pique the audience’s curiosity. Don’t be afraid to tell a personal story, slowly building up suspense or adding a dramatic moment. And, of course, be sure to end with a positive takeaway to drive your point home.

Active listening

Active listening is a valuable skill all on its own. When you understand and thoughtfully respond to what you hear—whether it's in a conversation or during a presentation—you’ll likely deepen your personal relationships and actively engage audiences during a presentation. As part of your presentation skill set, it helps catch and maintain the audience’s attention, helping them remain focused while minimizing passive response, ensuring the message is delivered correctly, and encouraging a call to action.

Stage presence

During a presentation, projecting confidence can help keep your audience engaged. Stage presence can help you connect with your audience and encourage them to want to watch you. To improve your presence, try amping up your normal demeanor by infusing it with a bit of enthusiasm. Project confidence and keep your information interesting.

Watch your audience as you’re presenting. If you’re holding their attention, it likely means you’re connecting well with them.

Self-awareness

Monitoring your own emotions and reactions will allow you to react well in various situations. It helps you remain personable throughout your presentation and handle feedback well. Self-awareness can help soothe nervousness during presentations, allowing you to perform more effectively.

Writing skills

Writing is a form of presentation. Sharp writing skills can help you master your presentation’s outline to ensure you stay on message and remain clear about your objectives from the beginning until the end. It’s also helpful to have strong writing abilities for creating compelling slides and other visual aids.

Understanding an audience

When you understand your audience's needs and interests, you can design your presentation around them. In turn, you'll deliver maximum value to them and enhance your ability to make your message easy to understand.

Learn more about presentation skills from industry experts at SAP:

How to improve presentation skills

There’s an art to public speaking. Just like any other type of art, this is one that requires practice. Improving your presentation skills will help reduce miscommunications, enhance your time management capabilities, and boost your leadership skills. Here are some ways you can improve these skills:

Work on self-confidence.

When you’re confident, you naturally speak more clearly and with more authority. Taking the time to prepare your presentation with a strong opening and compelling visual aids can help you feel more confident. Other ways to improve your self-confidence include practicing positive self-talk, surrounding yourself with positive people, and avoiding comparing yourself (or your presentation) to others.

Develop strategies for overcoming fear.

Many people are nervous or fearful before giving a presentation. A bad memory of a past performance or insufficient self-confidence can contribute to fear and anxiety. Having a few go-to strategies like deep breathing, practicing your presentation, and grounding can help you transform that fear into extra energy to put into your stage presence.

Learn grounding techniques.

Grounding is any type of technique that helps you steer your focus away from distressing thoughts and keeps you connected with your present self. To ground yourself, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and imagine you’re a large, mature tree with roots extending deep into the earth—like the tree, you can become unshakable.

Learn how to use presentation tools.

Visual aids and other technical support can transform an otherwise good presentation into a wow-worthy one. A few popular presentation tools include:

Canva: Provides easy-to-design templates you can customize

Powtoon: Animation software that makes video creation fast and easy

PowerPoint: Microsoft's iconic program popular for dynamic marketing and sales presentations

Practice breathing techniques.

Breathing techniques can help quell anxiety, making it easier to shake off pre-presentation jitters and nerves. It also helps relax your muscles and get more oxygen to your brain.  For some pre-presentation calmness, you can take deep breaths, slowly inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.

While presenting, breathe in through your mouth with the back of your tongue relaxed so your audience doesn't hear a gasping sound. Speak on your exhalation, maintaining a smooth voice.

Gain experience.

The more you practice, the better you’ll become. The more you doanything, the more comfortable you’ll feel engaging in that activity. Presentations are no different. Repeatedly practicing your own presentation also offers the opportunity to get feedback from other people and tweak your style and content as needed.

Tips to help you ace your presentation

Your presentation isn’t about you; it’s about the material you’re presenting. Sometimes, reminding yourself of this ahead of taking center stage can help take you out of your head, allowing you to connect effectively with your audience. The following are some of the many actions you can take on the day of your presentation.

Arrive early.

Since you may have a bit of presentation-related anxiety, it’s important to avoid adding travel stress. Give yourself an abundance of time to arrive at your destination, and take into account heavy traffic and other unforeseen events. By arriving early, you also give yourself time to meet with any on-site technicians, test your equipment, and connect with people ahead of the presentation.

Become familiar with the layout of the room.

Arriving early also gives you time to assess the room and figure out where you want to stand. Experiment with the acoustics to determine how loudly you need to project your voice, and test your equipment to make sure everything connects and appears properly with the available setup. This is an excellent opportunity to work out any last-minute concerns and move around to familiarize yourself with the setting for improved stage presence.

Listen to presenters ahead of you.

When you watch others present, you'll get a feel for the room's acoustics and lighting. You can also listen for any data that’s relevant to your presentation and revisit it during your presentation—this can make the presentation more interactive and engaging.

Use note cards.

Writing yourself a script could provide you with more comfort. To prevent sounding too robotic or disengaged, only include talking points in your note cards in case you get off track. Using note cards can help keep your presentation organized while sounding more authentic to your audience.

Learn to deliver clear and confident presentations with Dynamic Public Speaking from the University of Washington. Build confidence, develop new delivery techniques, and practice strategies for crafting compelling presentations for different purposes, occasions, and audiences.

Article sources

Forbes. “ New Survey: 70% Say Presentation Skills are Critical for Career Success , https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2014/09/25/new-survey-70-percent-say-presentation-skills-critical-for-career-success/?sh=619f3ff78890.” Accessed December 7, 2022.

Beautiful.ai. “ 15 Presentation and Public Speaking Stats You Need to Know , https://www.beautiful.ai/blog/15-presentation-and-public-speaking-stats-you-need-to-know. Accessed December 7, 2022.

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This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

.css-1qrtm5m{display:block;margin-bottom:8px;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:14px;line-height:1.5714285714285714;-webkit-letter-spacing:-0.35px;-moz-letter-spacing:-0.35px;-ms-letter-spacing:-0.35px;letter-spacing:-0.35px;font-weight:300;color:#606F7B;}@media (min-width:600px){.css-1qrtm5m{font-size:16px;line-height:1.625;-webkit-letter-spacing:-0.5px;-moz-letter-spacing:-0.5px;-ms-letter-spacing:-0.5px;letter-spacing:-0.5px;}} Best Practices The #1 rule for improving your presentation slides

by Tom Rielly • May 12, 2020

When giving presentations, either on a video conference call or in person, your slides, videos and graphics (or lack of them) can be an important element in helping you tell your story or express your idea. This is the first of a series of blog posts that will give you tips and tricks on how to perfect your visual presentations.

Your job as a presenter is to build your idea -- step-by-step -- in the minds of your audience members. One tool to do that is presentation graphics, such as slides and videos.

Why graphics for your presentation?

A common mistake is using slides or videos as a crutch, even if they don’t actually add anything to your presentation. Not all presentations need graphics. Lots of presentations work wonderfully with just one person standing on a stage telling a story, as demonstrated by many TED Talks.

You should only use slides if they serve a purpose: conveying scientific information, art, and things that are hard to explain without pictures. Once you have decided on using slides, you will have a number of decisions to make. We’ll help you with the basics of making a presentation that is, above all, clear and easy to understand. The most important thing to remember here is: less is more.

Less is so much more

You want to aim for the fewest number of slides, the fewest number of photos, the fewest words per slide, the least cluttered slides and the most white space on your slides. This is the most violated slide rule, but it is the secret to success. Take a look at these examples.

As you can see in the above example, you don’t need fancy backgrounds or extra words to convey a simple concept. If you take “Everything you need to know about Turtles”, and delete “everything you need to know about” leaving just “turtles”, the slide has become much easier for your audience to read, and tells the story with economy.

The above example demonstrates that a single image that fills the entire screen is far more powerful than a slide cluttered with images. A slide with too many images may be detrimental to your presentation. The audience will spend more mental energy trying to sort through the clutter than listening to your presentation. If you need multiple images, then put each one on its own slide. Make each image high-resolution and have it fill the entire screen. If the photos are not the same dimensions as the screen, put them on a black background. Don’t use other colors, especially white.

Your slides will be much more effective if you use the fewest words, characters, and pictures needed to tell your story. Long paragraphs make the audience strain to read them, which means they are not paying attention to you. Your audience may even get stressed if you move on to your next slide before they’ve finished reading your paragraph. The best way to make sure the attention stays on you is to limit word count to no more than 10 words per slide. As presentation expert Nancy Duarte says “any slide with more than 10 words is a document.” If you really do need a longer explanation of something, handouts or follow-up emails are the way to go.

Following a “less is more” approach is one of the simplest things you can do to improve your presentation visuals and the impact of your presentation overall. Make sure your visuals add to your presentation rather than distract from it and get your message across.

Ready to learn more about how to make your presentation even better? Get TED Masterclass and develop your ideas into TED-style talks.

© 2024 TED Conferences, LLC. All rights reserved. Please note that the TED Talks Usage policy does not apply to this content and is not subject to our creative commons license.

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It Takes Versatility to Lead in a Volatile World

• Robert B. (Rob) Kaiser,
• Ryne A. Sherman,
• Robert Hogan

Versatile leaders are effective at helping their organizations regroup, refocus, and continue to produce during periods of volatility.

Data collected since the first year of the pandemic has shown that versatility is an even stronger component of effective leadership now than it was before. The correlations between versatility and a variety of leadership outcomes — employee engagement, team agility, business unit productivity, and overall effectiveness — have only gotten stronger. Using a 360 tool called the Leadership Versatility Index, the authors have studied versatile leadership for 26 years. The most effective leaders not only operate to their strengths, but deftly toggle between opposing, yet complementary behaviors. They note that versatility is therefore not just another leadership competency, but a meta-competency; it reflects a balanced and well-rounded pattern of competencies that suggests an underlying capacity to master specific skills and behaviors and enable the continual learning of new ones. In this article, the authors outline their research, and illustrate what truly versatile leadership looks like and how it’s developed.

The last three years have posed serious challenges for leadership. The inability of many leaders to rise to the occasion revealed that the talent crisis organizations thought they had before the pandemic is worse than they imagined.

• Robert B. (Rob) Kaiser  is President of Kaiser Leadership Solutions and an advisor, author, and expert on the subject of leadership. He has extensive global experience in executive development, executive assessment, and people analytics and as a strategic talent management advisor to CEOs and HR leaders.
• Ryne A. Sherman is Chief Science Officer at Hogan Assessment Systems. A former professor at Florida Atlantic University and Texas Tech Universities, Dr. Sherman is an expert on personality assessment, leadership, and organizational effectiveness. He is co-host of the Science of Personality Podcast discussing the latest research on these topics.
• Robert Hogan , Ph.D., President of Hogan Assessment Systems, is an international authority on personality assessment, leadership, and organizational effectiveness. He was McFarlin Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Tulsa for 14 years. Prior to that, he was Professor of Psychology and Social Relations at The Johns Hopkins University.  Dr. Hogan is the author of more than 300 journal articles, chapters and books.

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Versatility: The Engine of Success

When interpersonal skills take off, hard results soar.

What if your company could learn a skill that would eliminate conflict, miscommunication, and slow decisions? And what if we told you that the mechanics team inside a global air fleet company did just that and saw a 56 percent boost in productivity? Would we get your attention? Thought so.

That skill is called Versatility, and it is perhaps the most powerful interpersonal skill you can have.

Today’s mandate to “perform well,” on whatever task it may be, is dependent on functionally and culturally diverse people within and outside the organization making high performance happen and happen fast. It is difficult to get good innovative decisions and actions carried out with high energy when people feel there is tension and communication is strained. The good news is we can take responsibility for managing our communication behavior and reducing interpersonal tension, keeping the task focused on solving problems and achieving improvements of productivity, efficiencies, and employee engagement.

Versatile Communication Skills

Versatility is the ability to recognize differences in communication preferences and to adapt to make others more open and receptive—creating more effective and productive relationships.

The first step is to recognize communication differences, and the Wilson Learning Social Styles model can help there. Social Style is based on our preferred communication approaches. Your Social Style varies in terms of your actions on the dimensions of Assertiveness and Responsiveness.

The Social Styles Model

Because approximately 25 percent of people fall into each of these four categories, you share a Social Style with only about 25 percent of the people you meet. Just think about the consequences when we can’t or won’t adapt to the other 75 percent. Do you see an opportunity here?

“The more I know about you, the more I know about me,  and the more I can take responsibility for managing the difference between us.”

If you choose to take responsibility and manage the differences between your Social Style preference and the other 75 percent, you can create more productive relationships and, as a result, maximize your effectiveness on the job.

The Key Is Versatility

Social Style helps you recognize communication preferences, and Versatility helps you take responsibility for managing differences. The good news is Versatility is a skill that can be learned and mastered. But Versatility requires effort, requiring you to modify your approach to fit others’ approaches, even when it may not be comfortable. You have to make a conscious choice to be Versatile:

• Do I need this relationship to work so I can achieve my results?
• What will the benefits be if I improve this relationship?
• What will the risks be if I do not improve this relationship?

Having chosen to be Versatile, you then have to act on that choice with a process we call the Versatile Response:

The Versatile Response

Identify the person’s Social Style.

“She or he is . . .”

Based on the person’s Social Style, reflect on and describe her or his expectations for interactions with you.

“So she or he needs . . .”

Decide how to modify your behaviors to maximize your effectiveness.

“Therefore I will . . .”

1. Identify: What is the person’s Social Style?

You identify others’ Social Styles by focusing on what they value, the environment in which they work best, and how they like to work.

Analyticals, for example:

• Value conservative and practical business decisions
• Rely on structured approach and factual evidence
• Prefer a systematic approach to coming to a recommendation

Amiables tend to:

• Value cooperation in business situations
• Rely on the support of others in shared decision-making
• Prefer an interactive approach to problem solving

Drivers tend to:

• Be forceful and quick in making decisions
• Flourish in a goal-oriented environment
• Expect others to respond in a timely manner

Expressives tend to:

• Be futuristic in their thinking
• Attempt to make others enthusiastic about ideas
• Prefer a collaborative approach to problem solving

2. Reflect: What does this person need from me interpersonally?

How you modify your Social Style depends on both the other’s Social Style and the situation. There is no one straightforward solution. An Analytical (or Driver, Amiable, or Expressive) in one situation may need something different in another situation.

An Analytical, for example, may need a more formal and structured approach, or may just need enough time to think things through. An Amiable may need you to be open and honest about your feelings, or need other people to be involved in the decision. A Driver may need you to get right to the point, or focus a little more on the problem and less on the people involved. And an Expressive may need you to be a little more flexible on time, or to hear your excitement for the issue.

So before going straight from Identify to Modify, pause a second to reflect: What does this Social Style need? And what is needed now?

3. Modify: What can I do to modify my behavior?

People new to Versatility skills sometimes think you have to make big behavior changes to communicate effectively. But just like the old adage, “the best things come in small packages,” little changes in Assertiveness and Responsiveness can have a big impact on the effectiveness of communication. Maybe all you need to do is:

• Ask for the other person’s opinion first
• Get to the point quickly
• Use a slower or faster pace
• Use more or less gestures and facial expressions

How might this work in the real world? Here are some examples:

A VP of Research and Development (an Analytical) was frustrated because he was not receiving responses from e-mails to the VP of Sales (a Driver). Upon reflection, he realized the VP of Sales needed to get right to the point, and the lengthy explanation of the data and how he reached his conclusion was not helping the VP of Sales. So with the next e-mail, the VP of R&D “flipped” the message; he put the conclusion first, the explanation second. The VP of Sales responded immediately.

The VP of Marketing (a Driver) was having trouble getting the Website Design Manager (an Amiable) to make changes to the corporate Website. The VP of Marketing paused for a moment and realized that the Website design manager always felt more comfortable when more people were involved in decisions. So the VP of Marketing asked her who else might be able to contribute to this decision and invited them all to a meeting to discuss the changes. After the group made the decisions, the Website design manager implemented them almost immediately.

When Soft Skills Yield Hard Results

Equipping your employees and leaders, in all functions, with Versatility skills enables them to address complex challenges, reduce tension and conflict, and build more collaborative relationships throughout the organization. Without communication obstacles, individuals, teams, and work groups can soar as they are free to focus on the work at hand. Join the ranks of the global air fleet maintenance team and boost your productivity to new altitudes.

If you would like to learn more about Wilson Learning’s results-driven programs, including Building Relationship Versatility, visit www.wilsonlearning.com or call 800.328.7937.

Tom Roth is chief operating officer for Wilson Learning Worldwide. He is responsible for the strategic direction and business performance of Wilson Learning Worldwide operations, and leads the global marketing services and R&D solutions group. He also served as president of Wilson Learning Americas. He assists global executive leadership teams with issues related to employee engagement, leadership development, strategy alignment, and business transformation. Roth has spent more than 35 years developing and implementing human performance improvement solutions. He is coauthor of the book, “Creating the High-Performance Team.”

Michael Leimbach, Ph.D., is vice president of Global Research and Development for Wilson Learning Worldwide. With more than 30 years in the field, Dr. Leimbach provides leadership for researching and designing Wilson Learning’s diagnostic, learning, and performance improvement capabilities. He has managed major research studies in sales, leadership, and organizational effectiveness, and has developed Wilson Learning’s Instructional Design methodology, Impact Evaluation capability, and return on investment models. Dr. Leimbach has served as a research consultant for a variety of global client organizations, is associate editor for the ADHR professional journal, and serves in a leadership role for ISO technical committee TC232: Standards for Learning Service Providers. He has coauthored five books.

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8 Types of Presentations You Should Know [+Examples & Tips]

By Krystle Wong , Aug 11, 2023

From persuasive pitches that influence opinions to instructional demonstrations that teach skills, the different types of presentations serve a unique purpose, tailored to specific objectives and audiences.

Presentations that are tailored to its objectives and audiences are more engaging and memorable. They capture attention, maintain interest and leave a lasting impression. 

Don’t worry if you’re no designer —  Whether you need data-driven visuals, persuasive graphics or engaging design elements, Venngage can empower you to craft presentations that stand out and effectively convey your message.

Venngage’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface, extensive presentation template library and customizable design options make it a valuable tool for creating slides that align with your specific goals and target audience. 

Click to jump ahead:

8 Different types of presentations every presenter must know

How do i choose the right type of presentation for my topic or audience, types of presentation faq, 5 steps to create a presentation with venngage .

When it comes to presentations, versatility is the name of the game. Having a variety of presentation styles up your sleeve can make a world of difference in keeping your audience engaged. Here are 8 essential presentation types that every presenter should be well-acquainted with:

1. Informative presentation

Ever sat through a presentation that left you feeling enlightened? That’s the power of an informative presentation. 

This presentation style is all about sharing knowledge and shedding light on a particular topic. Whether you’re diving into the depths of quantum physics or explaining the intricacies of the latest social media trends, informative presentations aim to increase the audience’s understanding.

When delivering an informative presentation, simplify complex topics with clear visuals and relatable examples. Organize your content logically, starting with the basics and gradually delving deeper and always remember to keep jargon to a minimum and encourage questions for clarity.

Academic presentations and research presentations are great examples of informative presentations. An effective academic presentation involves having clear structure, credible evidence, engaging delivery and supporting visuals. Provide context to emphasize the topic’s significance, practice to perfect timing, and be ready to address anticipated questions. 

2. Persuasive presentation

If you’ve ever been swayed by a passionate speaker armed with compelling arguments, you’ve experienced a persuasive presentation . 

This type of presentation is like a verbal tug-of-war, aiming to convince the audience to see things from a specific perspective. Expect to encounter solid evidence, logical reasoning and a dash of emotional appeal.

With persuasive presentations, it’s important to know your audience inside out and tailor your message to their interests and concerns. Craft a compelling narrative with a strong opening, a solid argument and a memorable closing. Additionally, use visuals strategically to enhance your points.

Examples of persuasive presentations include presentations for environmental conservations, policy change, social issues and more. Here are some engaging presentation templates you can use to get started with: 

3. Demonstration or how-to presentation

A Demonstration or How-To Presentation is a type of presentation where the speaker showcases a process, technique, or procedure step by step, providing the audience with clear instructions on how to replicate the demonstrated action. 

A demonstrative presentation is particularly useful when teaching practical skills or showing how something is done in a hands-on manner.

These presentations are commonly used in various settings, including educational workshops, training sessions, cooking classes, DIY tutorials, technology demonstrations and more. Designing creative slides for your how-to presentations can heighten engagement and foster better information retention. 

Speakers can also consider breaking down the process into manageable steps, using visual aids, props and sometimes even live demonstrations to illustrate each step. The key is to provide clear and concise instructions, engage the audience with interactive elements and address any questions that may arise during the presentation.

4. Training or instructional presentation

Training presentations are geared towards imparting practical skills, procedures or concepts — think of this as the more focused cousin of the demonstration presentation. 

Whether you’re teaching a group of new employees the ins and outs of a software or enlightening budding chefs on the art of soufflé-making, training presentations are all about turning novices into experts.

To maximize the impact of your training or instructional presentation, break down complex concepts into digestible segments. Consider using real-life examples to illustrate each point and create a connection. 

You can also create an interactive presentation by incorporating elements like quizzes or group activities to reinforce understanding.

5. Sales presentation

Sales presentations are one of the many types of business presentations and the bread and butter of businesses looking to woo potential clients or customers. With a sprinkle of charm and a dash of persuasion, these presentations showcase products, services or ideas with one end goal in mind: sealing the deal.

A successful sales presentation often has key characteristics such as a clear value proposition, strong storytelling, confidence and a compelling call to action. Hence, when presenting to your clients or stakeholders, focus on benefits rather than just features. 

Anticipate and address potential objections before they arise and use storytelling to showcase how your offering solves a specific problem for your audience. Utilizing visual aids is also a great way to make your points stand out and stay memorable.

A sales presentation can be used to promote service offerings, product launches or even consultancy proposals that outline the expertise and industry experience of a business. Here are some template examples you can use for your next sales presentation:

6. Pitch presentation

Pitch presentations are your ticket to garnering the interest and support of potential investors, partners or stakeholders. Think of your pitch deck as your chance to paint a vivid picture of your business idea or proposal and secure the resources you need to bring it to life. 

Business presentations aside, individuals can also create a portfolio presentation to showcase their skills, experience and achievements to potential clients, employers or investors. 

Craft a concise and compelling narrative. Clearly define the problem your idea solves and how it stands out in the market. Anticipate questions and practice your answers. Project confidence and passion for your idea.

7. Motivational or inspirational presentation

Feeling the need for a morale boost? That’s where motivational presentations step in. These talks are designed to uplift and inspire, often featuring personal anecdotes, heartwarming stories and a generous serving of encouragement.

Form a connection with your audience by sharing personal stories that resonate with your message. Use a storytelling style with relatable anecdotes and powerful metaphors to create an emotional connection. Keep the energy high and wrap up your inspirational presentations with a clear call to action.

Inspirational talks and leadership presentations aside, a motivational or inspirational presentation can also be a simple presentation aimed at boosting confidence, a motivational speech focused on embracing change and more.

8. Status or progress report presentation

Projects and businesses are like living organisms, constantly evolving and changing. Status or progress report presentations keep everyone in the loop by providing updates on achievements, challenges and future plans. It’s like a GPS for your team, ensuring everyone stays on track.

Be transparent about achievements, challenges and future plans. Utilize infographics, charts and diagrams to present your data visually and simplify information. By visually representing data, it becomes easier to identify trends, make predictions and strategize based on evidence.

Now that you’ve learned about the different types of presentation methods and how to use them, you’re on the right track to creating a good presentation that can boost your confidence and enhance your presentation skills . 

Selecting the most suitable presentation style is akin to choosing the right outfit for an occasion – it greatly influences how your message is perceived. Here’s a more detailed guide to help you make that crucial decision:

1. Define your objectives

Begin by clarifying your presentation’s goals. Are you aiming to educate, persuade, motivate, train or perhaps sell a concept? Your objectives will guide you to the most suitable presentation type. 

For instance, if you’re aiming to inform, an informative presentation would be a natural fit. On the other hand, a persuasive presentation suits the goal of swaying opinions.

2. Know your audience

Regardless if you’re giving an in-person or a virtual presentation — delve into the characteristics of your audience. Consider factors like their expertise level, familiarity with the topic, interests and expectations. 

If your audience consists of professionals in your field, a more technical presentation might be suitable. However, if your audience is diverse and includes newcomers, an approachable and engaging style might work better.

3. Analyze your content

Reflect on the content you intend to present. Is it data-heavy, rich in personal stories or focused on practical skills? Different presentation styles serve different content types. 

For data-driven content, an informative or instructional presentation might work best. For emotional stories, a motivational presentation could be a compelling choice.

4. Consider time constraints

Evaluate the time you have at your disposal. If your presentation needs to be concise due to time limitations, opt for a presentation style that allows you to convey your key points effectively within the available timeframe. A pitch presentation, for example, often requires delivering impactful information within a short span.

5. Leverage visuals

Visual aids are powerful tools in presentations. Consider whether your content would benefit from visual representation. If your PowerPoint presentations involve step-by-step instructions or demonstrations, a how-to presentation with clear visuals would be advantageous. Conversely, if your content is more conceptual, a motivational presentation could rely more on spoken words.

6. Align with the setting

Take the presentation environment into account. Are you presenting in a formal business setting, a casual workshop or a conference? Your setting can influence the level of formality and interactivity in your presentation. For instance, a demonstration presentation might be ideal for a hands-on workshop, while a persuasive presentation is great for conferences.

7. Gauge audience interaction

Determine the level of audience engagement you want. Interactive presentations work well for training sessions, workshops and small group settings, while informative or persuasive presentations might be more one-sided.

8. Flexibility

Stay open to adjusting your presentation style on the fly. Sometimes, unexpected factors might require a change of presentation style. Be prepared to adjust on the spot if audience engagement or reactions indicate that a different approach would be more effective.

Remember that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, and the best type of presentation may vary depending on the specific situation and your unique communication goals. By carefully considering these factors, you can choose the most effective presentation type to successfully engage and communicate with your audience.

To save time, use a presentation software or check out these presentation design and presentation background guides to create a presentation that stands out.    

What are some effective ways to begin and end a presentation?

Capture your audience’s attention from the start of your presentation by using a surprising statistic, a compelling story or a thought-provoking question related to your topic. 

To conclude your presentation , summarize your main points, reinforce your key message and leave a lasting impression with a powerful call to action or a memorable quote that resonates with your presentation’s theme.

How can I make my presentation more engaging and interactive?

To create an engaging and interactive presentation for your audience, incorporate visual elements such as images, graphs and videos to illustrate your points visually. Share relatable anecdotes or real-life examples to create a connection with your audience. 

You can also integrate interactive elements like live polls, open-ended questions or small group discussions to encourage participation and keep your audience actively engaged throughout your presentation.

Which types of presentations require special markings

Some presentation types require special markings such as how sales presentations require persuasive techniques like emphasizing benefits, addressing objections and using compelling visuals to showcase products or services. 

Demonstrations and how-to presentations on the other hand require clear markings for each step, ensuring the audience can follow along seamlessly. 

That aside, pitch presentations require highlighting unique selling points, market potential and the competitive edge of your idea, making it stand out to potential investors or partners.

Need some inspiration on how to make a presentation that will captivate an audience? Here are 120+ presentation ideas to help you get started. 

Creating a stunning and impactful presentation with Venngage is a breeze. Whether you’re crafting a business pitch, a training presentation or any other type of presentation, follow these five steps to create a professional presentation that stands out:

• Sign up and log in to Venngage to access the editor.
• Choose a presentation template that matches your topic or style.
• Customize content, colors, fonts, and background to personalize your presentation.
• Add images, icons, and charts to enhancevisual style and clarity.
• Save, export, and share your presentation as PDF or PNG files, or use Venngage’s Presentation Mode for online showcasing.

In the realm of presentations, understanding the different types of presentation formats is like having a versatile set of tools that empower you to craft compelling narratives for every occasion.

Remember, the key to a successful presentation lies not only in the content you deliver but also in the way you connect with your audience. Whether you’re informing, persuading or entertaining, tailoring your approach to the specific type of presentation you’re delivering can make all the difference.

Presentations are a powerful tool, and with practice and dedication (and a little help from Venngage), you’ll find yourself becoming a presentation pro in no time. Now, let’s get started and customize your next presentation!

Versatility

Versatility: the key to unlocking personal growth and professional success.

In today's dynamic and fast-paced world, possessing certain soft skills has become increasingly valuable. Among these skills, versatility stands out as a critical attribute that individuals can possess to navigate through various challenges and opportunities. Versatility refers to the capacity to adapt and excel in different roles and environments, showcasing a wide range of abilities and competencies.

In its essence, versatility entails the ability to embrace change willingly and the capability to adjust to diverse circumstances effortlessly. It is the agility to switch gears seamlessly and the aptitude to handle multiple tasks simultaneously. A versatile individual exhibits high levels of flexibility, open-mindedness, and adaptability, enabling them to thrive in versatile work settings.

One remarkable characteristic of versatile individuals is their capacity to effortlessly transition between different roles and responsibilities. They possess a diverse skill set that enables them to excel in various domains, making them an asset in any professional setting. Whether it be problem-solving, leadership, communication, or teamwork, versatile individuals excel in all areas, making them highly sought after by employers.

Moreover, versatility fosters personal growth by expanding one's knowledge and expertise. Versatile individuals actively seek out opportunities to learn and develop new skills, continuously pushing their boundaries. By embracing diverse experiences and challenges, they broaden their horizons and gain a deeper understanding of different perspectives, cultures, and industries.

Furthermore, versatility enables individuals to effectively navigate through changing work environments. With the advent of globalization and technological advancements, workplaces are becoming increasingly diverse and multifaceted. Being versatile equips individuals with the ability to seamlessly adapt to changing job requirements, emerging technologies, and evolving market trends. This adaptability is crucial for staying relevant and competitive in today's ever-changing professional landscape.

Why Assess a Candidate's Versatility Skill Level?

Assessing a candidate's versatility skill level during the hiring process is crucial for organizations aiming to build a robust and adaptable workforce. Here are compelling reasons why evaluating versatility is essential:

1. Adaptability to Changing Roles:

Versatile individuals possess the ability to seamlessly transition between different roles and responsibilities, making them invaluable assets in a rapidly changing professional landscape. By assessing a candidate's versatility skill level, organizations can identify individuals who can effortlessly switch gears and excel in diverse job functions.

2. Problem-Solving and Innovation:

Versatility goes hand in hand with problem-solving and innovation. Versatile individuals have a broad range of skills and experiences, enabling them to approach challenges from various angles and find innovative solutions. Assessing a candidate's versatility provides insights into their problem-solving capabilities and their potential to drive innovation within the organization.

3. Team Collaboration:

In today's collaborative work environments, the ability to work effectively with diverse teams is highly valued. Versatile individuals possess excellent communication and interpersonal skills, allowing them to collaborate seamlessly with colleagues from different backgrounds and areas of expertise. By assessing a candidate's versatility, organizations can ensure they select candidates who can contribute positively to team dynamics and foster collaboration.

4. Adapting to Change and Growth:

Organizations that embrace change and prioritize growth require employees who can adapt quickly and embrace new challenges. Assessing a candidate's versatility skill level helps identify individuals who are not only open to change but also thrive in dynamic environments. These individuals are more likely to embrace new technologies, processes, and methodologies, contributing to the organization's continuous improvement and innovation.

5. Future-Proofing the Workforce:

By evaluating a candidate's versatility, organizations can future-proof their workforce. The ability to adapt and develop new skills is crucial in an era of rapid technological advancements. Versatile individuals demonstrate a willingness to learn, upskill, and stay ahead of emerging trends, ensuring the organization remains competitive and resilient in the face of evolving industry demands.

In conclusion, assessing a candidate's versatility skill level allows organizations to identify individuals who can thrive in a dynamic work environment, contribute to problem-solving and innovation, foster collaboration, adapt to change, and future-proof the workforce. By understanding a candidate's versatility, organizations can make informed hiring decisions to build a resilient and adaptable team.

Assessing a Candidate’s Versatility Skill Level with Alooba

Alooba's comprehensive assessment platform offers a seamless solution for evaluating a candidate's versatility skill level during the hiring process. By leveraging Alooba's cutting-edge features and intuitive interface, organizations can gain in-depth insights into a candidate's adaptability, problem-solving capabilities, collaboration skills, and overall versatility.

1. Comprehensive Assessments:

Alooba provides a wide range of assessment tests that allow organizations to evaluate a candidate's versatility comprehensively. From multi-choice tests that measure conceptual knowledge to hands-on assessments that assess practical problem-solving abilities, Alooba covers various aspects of versatility to help you gauge a candidate's true potential.

2. Flexible Test Types:

Alooba offers a diverse selection of test types designed to measure different dimensions of versatility. Whether it's analyzing data, coding, diagramming, or providing written responses, Alooba's customizable skills-based tests enable organizations to assess a candidate's versatility across varying domains. With autograded and subjective evaluation options, Alooba caters to the specific needs and requirements of your hiring process.

3. In-depth Interviews:

Alooba's interview product allows organizations to conduct structured interviews with predefined topics and questions tailored to evaluate a candidate's versatility. The marking guide provided by Alooba ensures objective evaluation and enables organizations to make data-driven decisions based on a candidate's performance during the interview process.

4. Candidate Feedback Loop:

Alooba understands the importance of creating a positive candidate experience. With Alooba, organizations can establish a feedback loop with candidates, providing them with valuable insights into their assessment results and areas for improvement. This interactive feedback loop helps candidates grow and develop, enhancing their versatility and enabling them to reach their full potential.

5. Holistic Evaluation:

Alooba's end-to-end assessment process combines screening, interviews, and in-depth assessments to provide a holistic view of a candidate's versatility. This comprehensive evaluation allows organizations to make informed hiring decisions, ensuring they select candidates who possess the versatility required to excel in their roles and contribute to the organization's success.

Incorporating Alooba into your hiring process empowers you to assess a candidate's versatility skill level effectively and efficiently. By leveraging Alooba's advanced assessment capabilities, you can identify candidates who possess the versatility necessary to thrive in your organization and contribute to its growth.

With Alooba, discovering and selecting candidates with exceptional versatility has never been easier. Join the ranks of leading organizations and leverage Alooba's industry-leading assessment platform to identify top talent capable of adapting, innovating, and excelling in diverse roles and environments. Boost your hiring process and unlock the full potential of your workforce with Alooba.

Key Components of Versatility Skill

To truly understand the depth and breadth of versatility, it is crucial to explore its key components and subtopics. Here, we delve into the essential aspects that contribute to an individual's versatility skill:

1. Adaptability:

Adaptability is the cornerstone of versatility. It involves the ability to adjust and thrive in rapidly changing situations, environments, and roles. Versatile individuals demonstrate a keen sense of flexibility, embracing new challenges with ease and adapting their approach to meet evolving demands.

2. Multi-Disciplinary Skills:

Versatile individuals excel in a wide range of skills across different disciplines. They possess a diverse skill set that spans various domains such as problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, leadership, and teamwork. This multidisciplinary expertise enables them to contribute effectively in different roles and collaborate seamlessly with professionals from different backgrounds.

3. Learning Agility:

Versatile individuals have a relentless thirst for knowledge and a strong desire to continuously learn and grow. They actively seek opportunities to acquire new skills, expand their knowledge base, and stay updated with industry trends. They exhibit a growth mindset, readily embracing new technologies, concepts, and methodologies to enhance their versatility.

4. Interpersonal Skills:

Effective communication, collaboration, and relationship-building are vital components of versatility. Versatile individuals possess exceptional interpersonal skills, enabling them to engage and interact with diverse stakeholders. They excel in fostering positive working relationships, resolving conflicts, and influencing outcomes through effective communication.

5. Problem-Solving Aptitude:

Versatility encompasses the ability to approach problems creatively and find innovative solutions. Versatile individuals display strong problem-solving aptitude, combining analytical thinking, lateral thinking, and outside-the-box approaches to tackle challenges from different angles. Their versatility in problem-solving enables them to adapt to various situations and deliver optimal results.

6. Resilience:

Resilience is another crucial aspect of versatility. It involves the ability to bounce back from setbacks, navigate through obstacles, and maintain a positive attitude in the face of adversity. Versatile individuals demonstrate mental toughness and perseverance, enabling them to overcome challenges and thrive in demanding and unpredictable situations.

7. Cultural Competence:

In a globalized world, versatility extends to cultural competence. Versatile individuals possess a deep appreciation and understanding of diverse cultures, customs, and perspectives. They effectively navigate cultural differences, build inclusive environments, and leverage diversity as a strength for collaboration and innovation.

Understanding these key components of versatility provides a comprehensive view of the skills and characteristics that contribute to an individual's versatility. By evaluating these subtopics, organizations can more effectively assess and select candidates who possess the versatility required to excel in modern work environments.

The Practical Applications of Versatility

Versatility is a highly valuable skill that finds practical applications in various aspects of life and work. Here, we explore how versatility can be utilized in different scenarios:

1. Professional Growth and Advancement:

In professional settings, versatility is a catalyst for growth and advancement. With a diverse skill set and the ability to adapt, versatile individuals can take on new challenges, expand their responsibilities, and pursue diverse career paths. Their ability to excel in different roles and environments positions them for promotions, career transitions, and leadership opportunities.

2. Project Management:

Versatility plays a critical role in project management. Project managers need to navigate complex tasks, collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, and adapt to shifting project requirements. Versatile project managers bring a holistic perspective, ensuring effective communication, problem-solving, and resource management to drive successful project outcomes.

In collaborative work environments, versatile individuals foster teamwork and productivity. By leveraging their adaptability, communication skills, and open-mindedness, they bridge gaps between team members with different expertise and perspectives. Versatile team members contribute to enhanced collaboration and the harmonious integration of diverse skills towards shared goals.

4. Leadership:

Versatility is a hallmark of exceptional leaders. Leaders who are versatile can navigate through change, inspire their teams, and make informed decisions in diverse situations. They adapt their leadership style to the needs of their team members, leveraging their versatile skill set to address challenges, promote innovation, and create an inclusive and supportive work culture.

5. Problem-Solving and Innovation:

Versatile individuals excel in problem-solving and innovation. Their ability to draw from a wide range of skills, knowledge, and experiences allows them to approach problems creatively and find unique solutions. Versatile thinkers challenge the status quo, adapt to new technologies, and bring fresh perspectives that drive meaningful innovation within organizations.

6. Adaptation to Changing Industries:

In today's rapidly evolving industries, versatility is essential for professionals to stay relevant. Versatile individuals embrace lifelong learning, upskilling, and reskilling to adapt to the changing demands of their industry. They navigate through emerging technologies, industry trends, and shifting market dynamics, ensuring their continuous growth and relevance.

By understanding the practical applications of versatility, individuals and organizations can harness its power to drive personal and professional success. Versatility empowers individuals to excel in various roles, foster collaboration, lead effectively, solve complex challenges, and adapt to the ever-changing landscape of modern work environments. Embracing versatility opens doors to limitless opportunities and sets one on a path to continuous growth and fulfillment.

Roles that Require Good Versatility Skills

Versatility is a critical skillset that is highly beneficial in a wide range of professional roles. Individuals with exceptional versatility skills are well-suited for the following positions:

Data Analyst : Data analysts need to adapt to diverse data sources, analyze and interpret data from various domains, and effectively communicate their findings to stakeholders.

Data Scientist : Data scientists work with complex data sets, employ diverse analytical methods, and apply their expertise to solve intricate problems across different industries.

Product Analyst : Product analysts possess the versatility to gather and analyze user feedback, monitor market trends, and provide insights that drive product development strategies.

Marketing Analyst : Marketing analysts require versatility to analyze campaign performance data, conduct market research, and provide actionable insights to optimize marketing strategies.

Analytics Engineer : Analytics engineers harness their versatility to design, build, and maintain data infrastructure, ensuring smooth data flows and efficient analytics processes.

Artificial Intelligence Engineer : AI engineers leverage their versatility to create and deploy cutting-edge AI models and algorithms across various domains.

Back-End Engineer : Back-end engineers utilize their versatility to design and develop scalable, efficient, and secure server-side applications.

Data Architect : Data architects require versatility to design and optimize data systems, accommodate evolving business needs, and ensure data integrity and accessibility.

Data Quality Analyst : Data quality analysts exhibit versatility by performing data profiling, implementing data quality standards, and improving data accuracy and completeness.

Front-End Developer : Front-end developers demonstrate versatility by translating design concepts into interactive and responsive web interfaces.

Growth Analyst : Growth analysts utilize their versatility to identify growth opportunities, conduct A/B testing, and optimize user acquisition and retention strategies to fuel business growth.

Machine Learning Engineer : Machine learning engineers harness their versatility to develop and deploy machine learning models, analyze data, and continuously improve model performance.

These roles require individuals who can adapt quickly, handle complex challenges, and thrive in dynamic work environments. Possessing versatility skills allows professionals to excel in these positions and make valuable contributions to their organizations.

Associated Roles

Data analyst.

Data Analysts draw meaningful insights from complex datasets with the goal of making better decisions. Data Analysts work wherever an organization has data - these days that could be in any function, such as product, sales, marketing, HR, operations, and more.

Data Architect

Data Architects are responsible for designing, creating, deploying, and managing an organization's data architecture. They define how data is stored, consumed, integrated, and managed by different data entities and IT systems, as well as any applications using or processing that data. Data Architects ensure data solutions are built for performance and design analytics applications for various platforms. Their role is pivotal in aligning data management and digital transformation initiatives with business objectives.

Data Scientist

Data Scientists are experts in statistical analysis and use their skills to interpret and extract meaning from data. They operate across various domains, including finance, healthcare, and technology, developing models to predict future trends, identify patterns, and provide actionable insights. Data Scientists typically have proficiency in programming languages like Python or R and are skilled in using machine learning techniques, statistical modeling, and data visualization tools such as Tableau or PowerBI.

Product Analyst

Product Analysts utilize data to optimize product strategies and enhance user experiences. They work closely with product teams, leveraging skills in SQL, data visualization (e.g., Tableau), and data analysis to drive product development. Their role includes translating business requirements into technical specifications, conducting A/B testing, and presenting data-driven insights to inform product decisions. Product Analysts are key in understanding customer needs and driving product innovation.

Related Skills

Another name for Versatility is Adaptability .

Unlock the Power of Versatility with Alooba

Discover How Alooba Can Help You Assess and Hire Top Talent

With Alooba's advanced assessment platform, you can assess candidates for their versatility skills and make data-driven hiring decisions. Experience the benefits of hiring individuals who can adapt, collaborate, and excel in diverse roles and environments.

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Our Customers Say

I was at WooliesX (Woolworths) and we used Alooba and it was a highly positive experience. We had a large number of candidates. At WooliesX, previously we were quite dependent on the designed test from the team leads. That was quite a manual process. We realised it would take too much time from us. The time saving is great. Even spending 15 minutes per candidate with a manual test would be huge - hours per week, but with Alooba we just see the numbers immediately.

Shen Liu , Logickube ( Principal at Logickube )

We get a high flow of applicants, which leads to potentially longer lead times, causing delays in the pipelines which can lead to missing out on good candidates. Alooba supports both speed and quality. The speed to return to candidates gives us a competitive advantage. Alooba provides a higher level of confidence in the people coming through the pipeline with less time spent interviewing unqualified candidates.

Scott Crowe , Canva ( Lead Recruiter - Data )

How can you accurately assess somebody's technical skills, like the same way across the board, right? We had devised a Tableau-based assessment. So it wasn't like a past/fail. It was kind of like, hey, what do they send us? Did they understand the data or the values that they're showing accurate? Where we'd say, hey, here's the credentials to access the data set. And it just wasn't really a scalable way to assess technical - just administering it, all of it was manual, but the whole process sucked!

Cole Brickley , Avicado ( Director Data Science & Business Intelligence )

The diversity of our pool has definitely improved so we just have many more candidates from just different backgrounds which I am a huge believer in. It makes the team much better, it makes our output much better and gives us more voices in terms of building the best product and service that we can.

Piers Stobbs , Cazoo ( Chief Data Officer )

I wouldn't dream of hiring somebody in a technical role without doing that technical assessment because the number of times where I've had candidates either on paper on the CV, say, I'm a SQL expert or in an interview, saying, I'm brilliant at Excel, I'm brilliant at this. And you actually put them in front of a computer, say, do this task. And some people really struggle. So you have to have that technical assessment.

Mike Yates , The British Psychological Society ( Head of Data & Analytics )

We were very quickly quite surprised with the quality of candidates we would get from Alooba. We ended up hiring eight different analysts via Alooba in about a year's time, which is quite extraordinary for us because we actually have almost never used a recruitment agency for any role. It has been our best outsourcing solution by far.

Oz Har Adir , Vio.com ( Founder & CEO )

For data engineering & analytics these take-home assignments we were doing ourselves are a bit time consuming so we wanted to automate that and also reduce the time candidates were spending on the assessment.

Sharin Fritz , Personio ( Tech Talent Acquisition )

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Chief Learning Officer is a multimedia publication focused on the importance, benefits and advancements of a properly trained workforce.

Strong Interpersonal Skills, Versatility Make Better Managers

Company leaders have always known it, but recent research has confirmed that interpersonal skills are effectively linked to managerial job performance. The TRACOM Group recently polled 127 managers in one division of an international publishing company fo

by Kellye Whitney

August 24, 2005.

Company leaders have always known it, but recent research has confirmed that interpersonal skills are effectively linked to managerial job performance. The TRACOM Group recently polled 127 managers in one division of an international publishing company for their Managerial Success Study, then compared the managers’ scores in different areas of job performance with versatility scores. Versatility is a concept related to emotional intelligence.

What is emotional intelligence? Dr. Casey Mulqueen, director of research at the TRACOM Group said the answer depends on who you ask. “In general, it breaks down into four categories: self-awareness, social awareness, self-control and emotional awareness. Most of the competencies that are measured under those four categories are all related to interpersonal skills. It begins with a good understanding of yourself and how you interact with and relate to other people. From there, you begin to pay attention to how other people interact with you and how you can impact those relationships. That’s the social awareness part of the model. In TRACOM we have a model that’s very similar; we call it ‘Know yourself, control yourself, know others and do something for others,’ and that’s been part of our model since the 1950s.”

Versatility has four parts: image, presentation, competence and feedback. These combined pieces detail a person’s ability to work well with others and interact effectively not only to get what he or she needs, but to help others achieve their goals at the same time. It can involve personal preferences for behavior, as well as how a person chooses to work, which research shows can affect success in various managerial capacities as well as overall performance.

“If you think of them in relation to how you meet a person, image is really a first impression,” Mulqueen explained. “It’s whether or not you are appropriate to the situation. For example, if you go into a meeting with a new client and you’re dressed casually, but this new client and all his representatives are dressed very formally, you would be perceived as being out of place. Presentation is how you speak and how you present yourself, particularly in front of groups of people. You see somebody, at first impression you see their image. Then you see how they actually speak and discuss topics with you. Competence is how well you do your work, how versatile you are, how creative you can be, your perseverance in getting jobs or tasks done. Feedback is your interpersonal skills on a one-on-one basis.”

Over time, anyone can overcome their own image problems if they are competent, present well and give good feedback—and doing so is a good idea. TRACOM gathered compensation data for each of the study participants and found that managers with higher-level versatility earned an average of 29 percent more than managers categorized with low versatility. Analysis of job performance for this population also included ratings on 47 performance factors, such as ability to effectively coach others, establish effective relationships with direct reports and positively impact the commitment of direct reports.

“One of the things that we intentionally did in the survey is put in a pretty long list of managerial competencies,” Mulqueen said “Some organizations are more interested in retention-oriented things. Others are more interested in leadership-oriented processes and activities among their managers, so we can slice the data and look at what are the things that your organization cares about? What are the strategic imperatives you are facing based on your competitive set, your marketplace, etc., and we show how versatility relates to that.”

Four important findings emerged from the study. “We wanted to see if versatility was related to managerial effectiveness, and we did find that the higher people, as they increase their versatility, they also increase their scores on all 47 of the performance measures that we gathered from their direct reports and supervisors. The second thing we wanted to see was whether or not there was really a meaningful performance difference between managers with high versatility and managers with low versatility, and we found that to be the case. For instance, we looked at one measure called overall effectiveness as a team leader, and we found that managers with high versatility were rated 27 percent higher than managers with low versatility. The third finding was with the compensation figures, a difference of $30,000 between low-versatility and high-versatility managers. The fourth finding was almost an afterthought after we found all these results. We wanted to see whether or not you could actually predict someone’s overall job performance using versatility as a statistical, methodological way to do that. And we found that versatility can predict 15 percent of a manager’s overall job performance,” Mulqueen said.

Fifteen percent may not immediately register as particularly impressive, but Mulqueen said that organizations often use selection instruments such as personality inventories or cognitive ability tests to select candidates for jobs. “Those are really IQ tests. These things tend to predict right around the same percentage of a person’s job performance, usually around 20 percent. We found that versatility is actually comparable to all these other predictors,” Mulqueen said. “You get somebody who comes into position as a manager, they might have all the technical skills they need, but the versatility is really the tipping point to make them a very effective manager.”

Mulqueen also said that one of the 47 performance measures, the ability to positively impact the commitment of direct reports to the organization, is an important predictor of retention since it deals with people’s intentions to stay with their organizations, as well as their job performance. “High-versatility managers can really impact the commitment of their direct reports. If you look at these as a group, what you’re looking at is a managers’ ability to impact not only their direct reports, but the organization as a whole. They impact their direct reports because the direct reports are saying, ‘This is a person that I really enjoy working with. This is a person who motivates me.’ Those are indicators of a person’s willingness to stay with the company and put forth additional effort on behalf of the company. They’re doing that because they work for somebody that they have a good relationship with.”

Kellye Whitney

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The formal presentation of information is divided into two broad categories: Presentation Skills and Personal Presentation .

These two aspects are interwoven and can be described as the preparation, presentation and practice of verbal and non-verbal communication. 

This article describes what a presentation is and defines some of the key terms associated with presentation skills.

Many people feel terrified when asked to make their first public talk.  Some of these initial fears can be reduced by good preparation that also lays the groundwork for making an effective presentation.

A Presentation Is...

A presentation is a means of communication that can be adapted to various speaking situations, such as talking to a group, addressing a meeting or briefing a team.

A presentation can also be used as a broad term that encompasses other ‘speaking engagements’ such as making a speech at a wedding, or getting a point across in a video conference.

To be effective, step-by-step preparation and the method and means of presenting the information should be carefully considered. 

A presentation requires you to get a message across to the listeners and will often contain a ' persuasive ' element. It may, for example, be a talk about the positive work of your organisation, what you could offer an employer, or why you should receive additional funding for a project.

The Key Elements of a Presentation

Making a presentation is a way of communicating your thoughts and ideas to an audience and many of our articles on communication are also relevant here, see: What is Communication? for more.

Consider the following key components of a presentation:

Ask yourself the following questions to develop a full understanding of the context of the presentation.

When and where will you deliver your presentation?

There is a world of difference between a small room with natural light and an informal setting, and a huge lecture room, lit with stage lights. The two require quite different presentations, and different techniques.

Will it be in a setting you are familiar with, or somewhere new?

If somewhere new, it would be worth trying to visit it in advance, or at least arriving early, to familiarise yourself with the room.

Will the presentation be within a formal or less formal setting?

A work setting will, more or less by definition, be more formal, but there are also various degrees of formality within that.

Will the presentation be to a small group or a large crowd?

Are you already familiar with the audience?

With a new audience, you will have to build rapport quickly and effectively, to get them on your side.

What equipment and technology will be available to you, and what will you be expected to use?

In particular, you will need to ask about microphones and whether you will be expected to stand in one place, or move around.

What is the audience expecting to learn from you and your presentation?

Check how you will be ‘billed’ to give you clues as to what information needs to be included in your presentation.

All these aspects will change the presentation. For more on this, see our page on Deciding the Presentation Method .

The role of the presenter is to communicate with the audience and control the presentation.

Remember, though, that this may also include handing over the control to your audience, especially if you want some kind of interaction.

You may wish to have a look at our page on Facilitation Skills for more.

The audience receives the presenter’s message(s).

However, this reception will be filtered through and affected by such things as the listener’s own experience, knowledge and personal sense of values.

See our page: Barriers to Effective Communication to learn why communication can fail.

The message or messages are delivered by the presenter to the audience.

The message is delivered not just by the spoken word ( verbal communication ) but can be augmented by techniques such as voice projection, body language, gestures, eye contact ( non-verbal communication ), and visual aids.

The message will also be affected by the audience’s expectations. For example, if you have been billed as speaking on one particular topic, and you choose to speak on another, the audience is unlikely to take your message on board even if you present very well . They will judge your presentation a failure, because you have not met their expectations.

The audience’s reaction and therefore the success of the presentation will largely depend upon whether you, as presenter, effectively communicated your message, and whether it met their expectations.

As a presenter, you don’t control the audience’s expectations. What you can do is find out what they have been told about you by the conference organisers, and what they are expecting to hear. Only if you know that can you be confident of delivering something that will meet expectations.

See our page: Effective Speaking for more information.

How will the presentation be delivered?

Presentations are usually delivered direct to an audience.  However, there may be occasions where they are delivered from a distance over the Internet using video conferencing systems, such as Skype.

It is also important to remember that if your talk is recorded and posted on the internet, then people may be able to access it for several years. This will mean that your contemporaneous references should be kept to a minimum.

Impediments

Many factors can influence the effectiveness of how your message is communicated to the audience.

For example background noise or other distractions, an overly warm or cool room, or the time of day and state of audience alertness can all influence your audience’s level of concentration.

As presenter, you have to be prepared to cope with any such problems and try to keep your audience focussed on your message.   

Our page: Barriers to Communication explains these factors in more depth.

Continue to read through our Presentation Skills articles for an overview of how to prepare and structure a presentation, and how to manage notes and/or illustrations at any speaking event.

Continue to: Preparing for a Presentation Deciding the Presentation Method

See also: Writing Your Presentation | Working with Visual Aids Coping with Presentation Nerves | Dealing with Questions Learn Better Presentation Skills with TED Talks

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How to Structure your Presentation, with Examples

August 3, 2018 - Dom Barnard

For many people the thought of delivering a presentation is a daunting task and brings about a  great deal of nerves . However, if you take some time to understand how effective presentations are structured and then apply this structure to your own presentation, you’ll appear much more confident and relaxed.

Here is our complete guide for structuring your presentation, with examples at the end of the article to demonstrate these points.

Why is structuring a presentation so important?

If you’ve ever sat through a great presentation, you’ll have left feeling either inspired or informed on a given topic. This isn’t because the speaker was the most knowledgeable or motivating person in the world. Instead, it’s because they know how to structure presentations – they have crafted their message in a logical and simple way that has allowed the audience can keep up with them and take away key messages.

Research has supported this, with studies showing that audiences retain structured information  40% more accurately  than unstructured information.

In fact, not only is structuring a presentation important for the benefit of the audience’s understanding, it’s also important for you as the speaker. A good structure helps you remain calm, stay on topic, and avoid any awkward silences.

What will affect your presentation structure?

Generally speaking, there is a natural flow that any decent presentation will follow which we will go into shortly. However, you should be aware that all presentation structures will be different in their own unique way and this will be due to a number of factors, including:

• Whether you need to deliver any demonstrations
• How  knowledgeable the audience  already is on the given subject
• How much interaction you want from the audience
• Any time constraints there are for your talk
• What setting you are in
• Your ability to use any kinds of visual assistance

Before choosing the presentation’s structure answer these questions first:

• What is your presentation’s aim?
• Who are the audience?
• What are the main points your audience should remember afterwards?

When reading the points below, think critically about what things may cause your presentation structure to be slightly different. You can add in certain elements and add more focus to certain moments if that works better for your speech.

What is the typical presentation structure?

This is the usual flow of a presentation, which covers all the vital sections and is a good starting point for yours. It allows your audience to easily follow along and sets out a solid structure you can add your content to.

1. Greet the audience and introduce yourself

Before you start delivering your talk, introduce yourself to the audience and clarify who you are and your relevant expertise. This does not need to be long or incredibly detailed, but will help build an immediate relationship between you and the audience. It gives you the chance to briefly clarify your expertise and why you are worth listening to. This will help establish your ethos so the audience will trust you more and think you’re credible.

Read our tips on  How to Start a Presentation Effectively

2. Introduction

In the introduction you need to explain the subject and purpose of your presentation whilst gaining the audience’s interest and confidence. It’s sometimes helpful to think of your introduction as funnel-shaped to help filter down your topic:

• Introduce your general topic
• Explain your topic area
• State the issues/challenges in this area you will be exploring
• State your presentation’s purpose – this is the basis of your presentation so ensure that you provide a statement explaining how the topic will be treated, for example, “I will argue that…” or maybe you will “compare”, “analyse”, “evaluate”, “describe” etc.
• Provide a statement of what you’re hoping the outcome of the presentation will be, for example, “I’m hoping this will be provide you with…”
• Show a preview of the organisation of your presentation

In this section also explain:

• The length of the talk.
• Signal whether you want audience interaction – some presenters prefer the audience to ask questions throughout whereas others allocate a specific section for this.
• If it applies, inform the audience whether to take notes or whether you will be providing handouts.

The way you structure your introduction can depend on the amount of time you have been given to present: a  sales pitch  may consist of a quick presentation so you may begin with your conclusion and then provide the evidence. Conversely, a speaker presenting their idea for change in the world would be better suited to start with the evidence and then conclude what this means for the audience.

Keep in mind that the main aim of the introduction is to grab the audience’s attention and connect with them.

3. The main body of your talk

The main body of your talk needs to meet the promises you made in the introduction. Depending on the nature of your presentation, clearly segment the different topics you will be discussing, and then work your way through them one at a time – it’s important for everything to be organised logically for the audience to fully understand. There are many different ways to organise your main points, such as, by priority, theme, chronologically etc.

• Main points should be addressed one by one with supporting evidence and examples.
• Before moving on to the next point you should provide a mini-summary.
• Links should be clearly stated between ideas and you must make it clear when you’re moving onto the next point.
• Allow time for people to take relevant notes and stick to the topics you have prepared beforehand rather than straying too far off topic.

When planning your presentation write a list of main points you want to make and ask yourself “What I am telling the audience? What should they understand from this?” refining your answers this way will help you produce clear messages.

4. Conclusion

In presentations the conclusion is frequently underdeveloped and lacks purpose which is a shame as it’s the best place to reinforce your messages. Typically, your presentation has a specific goal – that could be to convert a number of the audience members into customers, lead to a certain number of enquiries to make people knowledgeable on specific key points, or to motivate them towards a shared goal.

Regardless of what that goal is, be sure to summarise your main points and their implications. This clarifies the overall purpose of your talk and reinforces your reason for being there.

Follow these steps:

• Signal that it’s nearly the end of your presentation, for example, “As we wrap up/as we wind down the talk…”
• Restate the topic and purpose of your presentation – “In this speech I wanted to compare…”
• Summarise the main points, including their implications and conclusions
• Indicate what is next/a call to action/a thought-provoking takeaway
• Move on to the last section

5. Thank the audience and invite questions

Conclude your talk by thanking the audience for their time and invite them to  ask any questions  they may have. As mentioned earlier, personal circumstances will affect the structure of your presentation.

Many presenters prefer to make the Q&A session the key part of their talk and try to speed through the main body of the presentation. This is totally fine, but it is still best to focus on delivering some sort of initial presentation to set the tone and topics for discussion in the Q&A.

Other common presentation structures

The above was a description of a basic presentation, here are some more specific presentation layouts:

Demonstration

Use the demonstration structure when you have something useful to show. This is usually used when you want to show how a product works. Steve Jobs frequently used this technique in his presentations.

• Explain why the product is valuable.
• Describe why the product is necessary.
• Explain what problems it can solve for the audience.
• Demonstrate the product  to support what you’ve been saying.
• Make suggestions of other things it can do to make the audience curious.

Problem-solution

This structure is particularly useful in persuading the audience.

• Briefly frame the issue.
• Go into the issue in detail showing why it ‘s such a problem. Use logos and pathos for this – the logical and emotional appeals.
• Provide the solution and explain why this would also help the audience.
• Call to action – something you want the audience to do which is straightforward and pertinent to the solution.

Storytelling

As well as incorporating  stories in your presentation , you can organise your whole presentation as a story. There are lots of different type of story structures you can use – a popular choice is the monomyth – the hero’s journey. In a monomyth, a hero goes on a difficult journey or takes on a challenge – they move from the familiar into the unknown. After facing obstacles and ultimately succeeding the hero returns home, transformed and with newfound wisdom.

Storytelling for Business Success  webinar , where well-know storyteller Javier Bernad shares strategies for crafting compelling narratives.

Another popular choice for using a story to structure your presentation is in media ras (in the middle of thing). In this type of story you launch right into the action by providing a snippet/teaser of what’s happening and then you start explaining the events that led to that event. This is engaging because you’re starting your story at the most exciting part which will make the audience curious – they’ll want to know how you got there.

• Great storytelling: Examples from Alibaba Founder, Jack Ma

Remaining method

The remaining method structure is good for situations where you’re presenting your perspective on a controversial topic which has split people’s opinions.

• Go into the issue in detail showing why it’s such a problem – use logos and pathos.
• Rebut your opponents’ solutions  – explain why their solutions could be useful because the audience will see this as fair and will therefore think you’re trustworthy, and then explain why you think these solutions are not valid.
• After you’ve presented all the alternatives provide your solution, the remaining solution. This is very persuasive because it looks like the winning idea, especially with the audience believing that you’re fair and trustworthy.

Transitions

When delivering presentations it’s important for your words and ideas to flow so your audience can understand how everything links together and why it’s all relevant. This can be done  using speech transitions  which are words and phrases that allow you to smoothly move from one point to another so that your speech flows and your presentation is unified.

Transitions can be one word, a phrase or a full sentence – there are many different forms, here are some examples:

Moving from the introduction to the first point

Signify to the audience that you will now begin discussing the first main point:

• Now that you’re aware of the overview, let’s begin with…
• First, let’s begin with…
• I will first cover…
• My first point covers…
• To get started, let’s look at…

Shifting between similar points

Move from one point to a similar one:

• In the same way…
• Likewise…
• Equally…
• This is similar to…
• Similarly…

Internal summaries

Internal summarising consists of summarising before moving on to the next point. You must inform the audience:

• What part of the presentation you covered – “In the first part of this speech we’ve covered…”
• What the key points were – “Precisely how…”
• How this links in with the overall presentation – “So that’s the context…”
• What you’re moving on to – “Now I’d like to move on to the second part of presentation which looks at…”

Physical movement

You can move your body and your standing location when you transition to another point. The audience find it easier to follow your presentation and movement will increase their interest.

A common technique for incorporating movement into your presentation is to:

• Start your introduction by standing in the centre of the stage.
• For your first point you stand on the left side of the stage.
• You discuss your second point from the centre again.
• You stand on the right side of the stage for your third point.
• The conclusion occurs in the centre.

Key slides for your presentation

Slides are a useful tool for most presentations: they can greatly assist in the delivery of your message and help the audience follow along with what you are saying. Key slides include:

• An intro slide outlining your ideas
• A  summary slide  with core points to remember
• High quality image slides to supplement what you are saying

There are some presenters who choose not to use slides at all, though this is more of a rarity. Slides can be a powerful tool if used properly, but the problem is that many fail to do just that. Here are some golden rules to follow when using slides in a presentation:

• Don’t over fill them  – your slides are there to assist your speech, rather than be the focal point. They should have as little information as possible, to avoid distracting people from your talk.
• A picture says a thousand words  – instead of filling a slide with text, instead, focus on one or two images or diagrams to help support and explain the point you are discussing at that time.
• Make them readable  – depending on the size of your audience, some may not be able to see small text or images, so make everything large enough to fill the space.
• Don’t rush through slides  – give the audience enough time to digest each slide.

Guy Kawasaki, an entrepreneur and author, suggests that slideshows should follow a  10-20-30 rule :

• There should be a maximum of 10 slides – people rarely remember more than one concept afterwards so there’s no point overwhelming them with unnecessary information.
• The presentation should last no longer than 20 minutes as this will leave time for questions and discussion.
• The font size should be a minimum of 30pt because the audience reads faster than you talk so less information on the slides means that there is less chance of the audience being distracted.

Here are some additional resources for slide design:

• 7 design tips for effective, beautiful PowerPoint presentations
• 11 design tips for beautiful presentations
• 10 tips on how to make slides that communicate your idea

Group Presentations

Group presentations are structured in the same way as presentations with one speaker but usually require more rehearsal and practices.  Clean transitioning between speakers  is very important in producing a presentation that flows well. One way of doing this consists of:

• Briefly recap on what you covered in your section: “So that was a brief introduction on what health anxiety is and how it can affect somebody”
• Introduce the next speaker in the team and explain what they will discuss: “Now Elnaz will talk about the prevalence of health anxiety.”
• Then end by looking at the next speaker, gesturing towards them and saying their name: “Elnaz”.
• The next speaker should acknowledge this with a quick: “Thank you Joe.”

From this example you can see how the different sections of the presentations link which makes it easier for the audience to follow and remain engaged.

Example of great presentation structure and delivery

Having examples of great presentations will help inspire your own structures, here are a few such examples, each unique and inspiring in their own way.

How Google Works – by Eric Schmidt

This presentation by ex-Google CEO  Eric Schmidt  demonstrates some of the most important lessons he and his team have learnt with regards to working with some of the most talented individuals they hired. The simplistic yet cohesive style of all of the slides is something to be appreciated. They are relatively straightforward, yet add power and clarity to the narrative of the presentation.

Start with why – by Simon Sinek

Since being released in 2009, this presentation has been viewed almost four million times all around the world. The message itself is very powerful, however, it’s not an idea that hasn’t been heard before. What makes this presentation so powerful is the simple message he is getting across, and the straightforward and understandable manner in which he delivers it. Also note that he doesn’t use any slides, just a whiteboard where he creates a simple diagram of his opinion.

The Wisdom of a Third Grade Dropout – by Rick Rigsby

Here’s an example of a presentation given by a relatively unknown individual looking to inspire the next generation of graduates. Rick’s presentation is unique in many ways compared to the two above. Notably, he uses no visual prompts and includes a great deal of humour.

However, what is similar is the structure he uses. He first introduces his message that the wisest man he knew was a third-grade dropout. He then proceeds to deliver his main body of argument, and in the end, concludes with his message. This powerful speech keeps the viewer engaged throughout, through a mixture of heart-warming sentiment, powerful life advice and engaging humour.

As you can see from the examples above, and as it has been expressed throughout, a great presentation structure means analysing the core message of your presentation. Decide on a key message you want to impart the audience with, and then craft an engaging way of delivering it.

By preparing a solid structure, and  practising your talk  beforehand, you can walk into the presentation with confidence and deliver a meaningful message to an interested audience.

It’s important for a presentation to be well-structured so it can have the most impact on your audience. An unstructured presentation can be difficult to follow and even frustrating to listen to. The heart of your speech are your main points supported by evidence and your transitions should assist the movement between points and clarify how everything is linked.

Research suggests that the audience remember the first and last things you say so your introduction and conclusion are vital for reinforcing your points. Essentially, ensure you spend the time structuring your presentation and addressing all of the sections.

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254 Identifying the Context of the Presentation

• Published: December 2009
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The context of a presentation determines, or should determine, how you approach its preparation. The context includes many things, the audience, the purpose of the presentation, the occasion, what precedes the presentation and what follows from it. It will define what you expect from the audience, and will influence how you prepare yourself for the talk. A simple example. Suppose that you have been invited to give a series of lectures at a summer school. What more do you need to know, other than the topic? Here are a few of the questions that you need to have answered before you can start planning the course. 1. Is it an introductory course aimed at graduate students in their first year, or is it an advanced course more suited to graduates in their final year and young postdoctoral researchers? 2. Are the participants expected to ask questions during the lecture, or wait until the end? 3. Will there be any problem classes or discussion sessions? 4. Will lecture notes be handed out to participants before or after the lecture? 5. Will the proceedings be published, and if so, when? 6. What are the other lecture courses going to cover? 7. Will the basic theory already have been covered, or are they expected to know it already, or should you spend half of the first lecture going over it, just in case some have not seen it before? 8. If it is your job to give the basic introductory lectures, should you follow the standard approach in the usual text books, or should you assume that they have already covered that ground and try to give them more insight into the subject? 9. Will any of the lectures that come later in the school make any assumptions about what they have learned in your lectures? 10. Is there a social programme? If so, are you expected to participate in the activities and discuss the subject informally with the participants (which, from our experience, is always much appreciated), or can you spend most of the time in your room writing the next lecture?

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versatility

Definition of versatility

Examples of versatility in a sentence.

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Word History

versatile + -ity

1668, in the meaning defined above

Dictionary Entries Near versatility

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• Responsibility
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• Try Meta AI

RECOMMENDED READS

• 5 Steps to Getting Started with Llama 2
• The Llama Ecosystem: Past, Present, and Future
• Introducing Code Llama, a state-of-the-art large language model for coding
• Meta and Microsoft Introduce the Next Generation of Llama
• Today, we’re introducing Meta Llama 3, the next generation of our state-of-the-art open source large language model.
• Llama 3 models will soon be available on AWS, Databricks, Google Cloud, Hugging Face, Kaggle, IBM WatsonX, Microsoft Azure, NVIDIA NIM, and Snowflake, and with support from hardware platforms offered by AMD, AWS, Dell, Intel, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm.
• We’re dedicated to developing Llama 3 in a responsible way, and we’re offering various resources to help others use it responsibly as well. This includes introducing new trust and safety tools with Llama Guard 2, Code Shield, and CyberSec Eval 2.
• In the coming months, we expect to introduce new capabilities, longer context windows, additional model sizes, and enhanced performance, and we’ll share the Llama 3 research paper.
• Meta AI, built with Llama 3 technology, is now one of the world’s leading AI assistants that can boost your intelligence and lighten your load—helping you learn, get things done, create content, and connect to make the most out of every moment. You can try Meta AI here .

Today, we’re excited to share the first two models of the next generation of Llama, Meta Llama 3, available for broad use. This release features pretrained and instruction-fine-tuned language models with 8B and 70B parameters that can support a broad range of use cases. This next generation of Llama demonstrates state-of-the-art performance on a wide range of industry benchmarks and offers new capabilities, including improved reasoning. We believe these are the best open source models of their class, period. In support of our longstanding open approach, we’re putting Llama 3 in the hands of the community. We want to kickstart the next wave of innovation in AI across the stack—from applications to developer tools to evals to inference optimizations and more. We can’t wait to see what you build and look forward to your feedback.

Our goals for Llama 3

With Llama 3, we set out to build the best open models that are on par with the best proprietary models available today. We wanted to address developer feedback to increase the overall helpfulness of Llama 3 and are doing so while continuing to play a leading role on responsible use and deployment of LLMs. We are embracing the open source ethos of releasing early and often to enable the community to get access to these models while they are still in development. The text-based models we are releasing today are the first in the Llama 3 collection of models. Our goal in the near future is to make Llama 3 multilingual and multimodal, have longer context, and continue to improve overall performance across core LLM capabilities such as reasoning and coding.

State-of-the-art performance

Our new 8B and 70B parameter Llama 3 models are a major leap over Llama 2 and establish a new state-of-the-art for LLM models at those scales. Thanks to improvements in pretraining and post-training, our pretrained and instruction-fine-tuned models are the best models existing today at the 8B and 70B parameter scale. Improvements in our post-training procedures substantially reduced false refusal rates, improved alignment, and increased diversity in model responses. We also saw greatly improved capabilities like reasoning, code generation, and instruction following making Llama 3 more steerable.

*Please see evaluation details for setting and parameters with which these evaluations are calculated.

In the development of Llama 3, we looked at model performance on standard benchmarks and also sought to optimize for performance for real-world scenarios. To this end, we developed a new high-quality human evaluation set. This evaluation set contains 1,800 prompts that cover 12 key use cases: asking for advice, brainstorming, classification, closed question answering, coding, creative writing, extraction, inhabiting a character/persona, open question answering, reasoning, rewriting, and summarization. To prevent accidental overfitting of our models on this evaluation set, even our own modeling teams do not have access to it. The chart below shows aggregated results of our human evaluations across of these categories and prompts against Claude Sonnet, Mistral Medium, and GPT-3.5.

Preference rankings by human annotators based on this evaluation set highlight the strong performance of our 70B instruction-following model compared to competing models of comparable size in real-world scenarios.

Our pretrained model also establishes a new state-of-the-art for LLM models at those scales.

To develop a great language model, we believe it’s important to innovate, scale, and optimize for simplicity. We adopted this design philosophy throughout the Llama 3 project with a focus on four key ingredients: the model architecture, the pretraining data, scaling up pretraining, and instruction fine-tuning.

Model architecture

In line with our design philosophy, we opted for a relatively standard decoder-only transformer architecture in Llama 3. Compared to Llama 2, we made several key improvements. Llama 3 uses a tokenizer with a vocabulary of 128K tokens that encodes language much more efficiently, which leads to substantially improved model performance. To improve the inference efficiency of Llama 3 models, we’ve adopted grouped query attention (GQA) across both the 8B and 70B sizes. We trained the models on sequences of 8,192 tokens, using a mask to ensure self-attention does not cross document boundaries.

Training data

To train the best language model, the curation of a large, high-quality training dataset is paramount. In line with our design principles, we invested heavily in pretraining data. Llama 3 is pretrained on over 15T tokens that were all collected from publicly available sources. Our training dataset is seven times larger than that used for Llama 2, and it includes four times more code. To prepare for upcoming multilingual use cases, over 5% of the Llama 3 pretraining dataset consists of high-quality non-English data that covers over 30 languages. However, we do not expect the same level of performance in these languages as in English.

To ensure Llama 3 is trained on data of the highest quality, we developed a series of data-filtering pipelines. These pipelines include using heuristic filters, NSFW filters, semantic deduplication approaches, and text classifiers to predict data quality. We found that previous generations of Llama are surprisingly good at identifying high-quality data, hence we used Llama 2 to generate the training data for the text-quality classifiers that are powering Llama 3.

We also performed extensive experiments to evaluate the best ways of mixing data from different sources in our final pretraining dataset. These experiments enabled us to select a data mix that ensures that Llama 3 performs well across use cases including trivia questions, STEM, coding, historical knowledge, etc.

Scaling up pretraining

To effectively leverage our pretraining data in Llama 3 models, we put substantial effort into scaling up pretraining. Specifically, we have developed a series of detailed scaling laws for downstream benchmark evaluations. These scaling laws enable us to select an optimal data mix and to make informed decisions on how to best use our training compute. Importantly, scaling laws allow us to predict the performance of our largest models on key tasks (for example, code generation as evaluated on the HumanEval benchmark—see above) before we actually train the models. This helps us ensure strong performance of our final models across a variety of use cases and capabilities.

We made several new observations on scaling behavior during the development of Llama 3. For example, while the Chinchilla-optimal amount of training compute for an 8B parameter model corresponds to ~200B tokens, we found that model performance continues to improve even after the model is trained on two orders of magnitude more data. Both our 8B and 70B parameter models continued to improve log-linearly after we trained them on up to 15T tokens. Larger models can match the performance of these smaller models with less training compute, but smaller models are generally preferred because they are much more efficient during inference.

To train our largest Llama 3 models, we combined three types of parallelization: data parallelization, model parallelization, and pipeline parallelization. Our most efficient implementation achieves a compute utilization of over 400 TFLOPS per GPU when trained on 16K GPUs simultaneously. We performed training runs on two custom-built 24K GPU clusters . To maximize GPU uptime, we developed an advanced new training stack that automates error detection, handling, and maintenance. We also greatly improved our hardware reliability and detection mechanisms for silent data corruption, and we developed new scalable storage systems that reduce overheads of checkpointing and rollback. Those improvements resulted in an overall effective training time of more than 95%. Combined, these improvements increased the efficiency of Llama 3 training by ~three times compared to Llama 2.

Instruction fine-tuning

To fully unlock the potential of our pretrained models in chat use cases, we innovated on our approach to instruction-tuning as well. Our approach to post-training is a combination of supervised fine-tuning (SFT), rejection sampling, proximal policy optimization (PPO), and direct preference optimization (DPO). The quality of the prompts that are used in SFT and the preference rankings that are used in PPO and DPO has an outsized influence on the performance of aligned models. Some of our biggest improvements in model quality came from carefully curating this data and performing multiple rounds of quality assurance on annotations provided by human annotators.

Learning from preference rankings via PPO and DPO also greatly improved the performance of Llama 3 on reasoning and coding tasks. We found that if you ask a model a reasoning question that it struggles to answer, the model will sometimes produce the right reasoning trace: The model knows how to produce the right answer, but it does not know how to select it. Training on preference rankings enables the model to learn how to select it.

Building with Llama 3

Our vision is to enable developers to customize Llama 3 to support relevant use cases and to make it easier to adopt best practices and improve the open ecosystem. With this release, we’re providing new trust and safety tools including updated components with both Llama Guard 2 and Cybersec Eval 2, and the introduction of Code Shield—an inference time guardrail for filtering insecure code produced by LLMs.

We’ve also co-developed Llama 3 with torchtune , the new PyTorch-native library for easily authoring, fine-tuning, and experimenting with LLMs. torchtune provides memory efficient and hackable training recipes written entirely in PyTorch. The library is integrated with popular platforms such as Hugging Face, Weights & Biases, and EleutherAI and even supports Executorch for enabling efficient inference to be run on a wide variety of mobile and edge devices. For everything from prompt engineering to using Llama 3 with LangChain we have a comprehensive getting started guide and takes you from downloading Llama 3 all the way to deployment at scale within your generative AI application.

A system-level approach to responsibility

We have designed Llama 3 models to be maximally helpful while ensuring an industry leading approach to responsibly deploying them. To achieve this, we have adopted a new, system-level approach to the responsible development and deployment of Llama. We envision Llama models as part of a broader system that puts the developer in the driver’s seat. Llama models will serve as a foundational piece of a system that developers design with their unique end goals in mind.

Instruction fine-tuning also plays a major role in ensuring the safety of our models. Our instruction-fine-tuned models have been red-teamed (tested) for safety through internal and external efforts. ​​Our red teaming approach leverages human experts and automation methods to generate adversarial prompts that try to elicit problematic responses. For instance, we apply comprehensive testing to assess risks of misuse related to Chemical, Biological, Cyber Security, and other risk areas. All of these efforts are iterative and used to inform safety fine-tuning of the models being released. You can read more about our efforts in the model card .

Llama Guard models are meant to be a foundation for prompt and response safety and can easily be fine-tuned to create a new taxonomy depending on application needs. As a starting point, the new Llama Guard 2 uses the recently announced MLCommons taxonomy, in an effort to support the emergence of industry standards in this important area. Additionally, CyberSecEval 2 expands on its predecessor by adding measures of an LLM’s propensity to allow for abuse of its code interpreter, offensive cybersecurity capabilities, and susceptibility to prompt injection attacks (learn more in our technical paper ). Finally, we’re introducing Code Shield which adds support for inference-time filtering of insecure code produced by LLMs. This offers mitigation of risks around insecure code suggestions, code interpreter abuse prevention, and secure command execution.

With the speed at which the generative AI space is moving, we believe an open approach is an important way to bring the ecosystem together and mitigate these potential harms. As part of that, we’re updating our Responsible Use Guide (RUG) that provides a comprehensive guide to responsible development with LLMs. As we outlined in the RUG, we recommend that all inputs and outputs be checked and filtered in accordance with content guidelines appropriate to the application. Additionally, many cloud service providers offer content moderation APIs and other tools for responsible deployment, and we encourage developers to also consider using these options.

Deploying Llama 3 at scale

Llama 3 will soon be available on all major platforms including cloud providers, model API providers, and much more. Llama 3 will be everywhere .

Our benchmarks show the tokenizer offers improved token efficiency, yielding up to 15% fewer tokens compared to Llama 2. Also, Group Query Attention (GQA) now has been added to Llama 3 8B as well. As a result, we observed that despite the model having 1B more parameters compared to Llama 2 7B, the improved tokenizer efficiency and GQA contribute to maintaining the inference efficiency on par with Llama 2 7B.

For examples of how to leverage all of these capabilities, check out Llama Recipes which contains all of our open source code that can be leveraged for everything from fine-tuning to deployment to model evaluation.

What’s next for Llama 3?

The Llama 3 8B and 70B models mark the beginning of what we plan to release for Llama 3. And there’s a lot more to come.

Our largest models are over 400B parameters and, while these models are still training, our team is excited about how they’re trending. Over the coming months, we’ll release multiple models with new capabilities including multimodality, the ability to converse in multiple languages, a much longer context window, and stronger overall capabilities. We will also publish a detailed research paper once we are done training Llama 3.

To give you a sneak preview for where these models are today as they continue training, we thought we could share some snapshots of how our largest LLM model is trending. Please note that this data is based on an early checkpoint of Llama 3 that is still training and these capabilities are not supported as part of the models released today.

We’re committed to the continued growth and development of an open AI ecosystem for releasing our models responsibly. We have long believed that openness leads to better, safer products, faster innovation, and a healthier overall market. This is good for Meta, and it is good for society. We’re taking a community-first approach with Llama 3, and starting today, these models are available on the leading cloud, hosting, and hardware platforms with many more to come.

Try Meta Llama 3 today

We’ve integrated our latest models into Meta AI, which we believe is the world’s leading AI assistant. It’s now built with Llama 3 technology and it’s available in more countries across our apps.

You can use Meta AI on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and the web to get things done, learn, create, and connect with the things that matter to you. You can read more about the Meta AI experience here .

Visit the Llama 3 website to download the models and reference the Getting Started Guide for the latest list of all available platforms.

You’ll also soon be able to test multimodal Meta AI on our Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

As always, we look forward to seeing all the amazing products and experiences you will build with Meta Llama 3.

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