An experiment with the “Lessig Style”

I like giving presentations. (Go ahead, get it out of your system…done yet? Good.)

The Lessig Style

From time to time I look up and see if anyone is doing anything new. About 9 months ago I looked up and saw several folks talking about the “Lessig Style” of presentation. I watched a couple of sample presentations, and thought this would be worth trying. I was particularly interested in Dick Hardt’s take on the whole thing.

My first attempt

So I gave it my first whirl in a quasi-important briefing. I had 95 slides for a 15-minute briefing, and in rehearsal the whole thing went really well (you’ve got to watch one of the samples to understand how this could possibly be the case). It was a high level briefing, and I actually had a story to tell, and this form just feels right for my particular story-telling style.

In practice, however, it was a little weaker than I had hoped. Turns out that this style has some potential problems if your story is interrupted.

Questions disrupt the effectiveness of the style

In my case, the interruptions came from questions. The style is fast-paced, and often 5 slides would have passed by the time a question about a topic was articulated. This problem probably isn’t fully addressable within the style, but could be ameliorated somewhat by slowing down or putting slightly more information on each slide.

The other problem I had related to this is fixable.

I sparingly adopted Dick Hardt’s approach to building phrases over multiple slides. These slides transition really quickly (.5s a slide) at about speaking speed so the reader builds the phrase in his head while I’m speaking it.

Multi-slide builds considered harmful

I only used it three times, but twice there was a question about a past topic in the middle of one of these builds. So the person isn’t experiencing the phrase as its building, I have to slog backwards through more slides than normal, and then we have to experience the build again to catch back up. Awkward.

This is easily avoided of course, and I’ll simply not use that particular technique when I anticipate questions could be asked. Overall I’d give that presentation a B for complete effect and think its definitely a grade I can work to improve.

Technique: A. Me: B-.

Since that first presentation I have used the technique directly many times in a “lecture” setting—in fact, it works really well at conferences and with students. And even my more interactive presentations remain inspired by the style. Words are used sparingly, concepts are conveyed with engaging pictures wherever possible (not crappy clipart), and I try to punch through them quickly, stopping occassionally for deeper conversation.

It’s a powerful approach to presentations; I recommend you watch the videos. Even if you never use the technique directly, you’ll probably find tips for dramatically improving your own talks.