The process of preparing a presentation can be a tumultuous one. From the moment you conceive of the idea, or are assigned the presentation, you will go through inevitable stages of love and hate.
I was recently reading through the research of Bruce Tuckman who is known for his work in team growth and development from the 1960s. In this research, he introduced four stages that a team typically works through: form, storm, norm, perform. As I read through these stages, they modeled pretty perfectly the process of preparing a presentation.
So today we’ll look at how we can adapt Tuckman’s valuable research and use it guide us through presentation preparation.
Form
In his original work, Tuckman said the forming stage of groups centers around “orientation, testing, and dependence.” When you are introduced to a presentation project, it takes some time to get oriented. You have to figure out what content you’ll want to include, who your audience will be, and what expectations people have of you and the presentation.
One source refers to this stage as the honeymoon period of group development. And the same can certainly be said about this stage of presentation development. It is new and exciting. Just like with groups, you tend to see all of the potential and possibilities and none of the problems. But just wait, a storm is coming. After you’ve oriented yourself to this new task, you begin to test what others expect against what you already know and what you want for the presentation.
Storm
In this phase of presentation preparation, just like group growth, the honeymoon is over. Here, conflict and tension rise to the surface. Tuckman says you may begin to see resistance in this stage. Instead of seeing your presentation as exciting, it now just seems like a lot of work. If there are others who are collaborating with you on the presentation or if you are representing a larger team or company, some of your personal ideas about the project might start to conflict with others’.
Brené Brown refers to Tuckman’s research in her book Rising Strong. Discussing this second stage, she says, “it’s a nonnegotiable part of the process. Experience and success don’t give you easy passage through the middle space of struggle.” That’s important for us to remember. No matter how many presentations we’ve given, each one we develop, design, and deliver holds new challenges and new lessons.
Norm
This is my favorite stage of the presentation process. It’s where you start to feel comfortable. It’s where you start to find your groove. Tuckman refers to this as the “task realm.” With the storm behind you, it’s where you pick up speed and get to work. Author and organizational dynamics expert Greg Coker says, “Team commitment builds during this key transitional stage.” The same is true for the presentation process.
At this important third stage, you find yourself deeply committed to your project. You find the energy to buckle down. This looks like perfecting your content, working to develop effective presentation media, and setting a practice schedule leading up to the performance.
Perform
This final stage is the culmination of all the others. For groups, it’s time to do what they were assembled to do. The same is true for the speaker. With the orientation, conflict, and preparatory work behind you, it’s time to perform. It’s time to move to the front of the room and put all the hard work to use. The other three stages have prepared the group, or you—the speaker, to perform at an optimal level. It’s time to deliver!
While Tuckman’s theory wasn’t intended to help us understand the presentation preparation process, it can shed light on the stages we move through. We orient ourselves to the project. Then we wrestle with ideas and expectations. Next we find our groove before finally, performing the task at hand. In this case, it just happens to be delivering a stellar presentation.
Stuck in the process of preparing for that next big presentation? Don’t worry. We’ve all been there. Reach out to us now and let us know how we can help.
