For any presentation or pitch to land effectively, we need to design and deliver it with a good understanding of who our audience is and what they care about. Having great slides, a logical structure and being confident in your delivery won't count for much if you are not talking about things that matter to your audience. Designing and delivering with your audience in mind is a prerequisite for any presentation.
It can always be a challenge to understand the audience, but what if your audience comes from a different culture? How to understand their needs and concerns and take into account how cultural differences play into that?
As we present more and more online and to more diverse groups of colleagues and customers, we need to shift our mindset. We need to know how to design and deliver our presentations to audiences with a different cultural background.
Start With A Mindset Of Openness And Curiosity
Researching our audience helps with any presentation. In addition to the usual areas—audience demographics, needs, hopes, fears, gains and pains—we need to dig deeper into how the audience culture varies from our own.
There are many frameworks available to understand how countries differ in things like formality, communication style, confrontation or decision-making. Find a framework that works for you and use it to understand your culture and the country you are presenting to. I have found the Culture Map framework developed by Professor Erin Meyer of INSEAD business school to be particularly useful. Meyer's framework breaks cultures down into eight dimensions that can be analyzed and mapped out. It is straightforward and easy to understand, but most importantly, it was created specifically for international business.
Another way to learn more about another culture is to reach out and ask people who have worked with that culture's nationals. This works particularly well when you give a presentation to an internal audience. By asking your local colleagues, you will better learn how to find common ground. While there may be cultural differences, you will also be speaking a shared corporate language around things like company values, mission or customers.
Of course, each audience, whether group or individual, will not precisely mirror the cultural models for their country, but understanding national cultures give us a starting point.
And when understanding another culture, don't focus excessively on differences. Learning what cultural similarities there may be and think about how to build on those similarities in your presentation.
While every culture varies and has its approach, some areas are potential landmines. This is especially true for those who are used to presenting to a North American or English-speaking audience, which has given us some assumptions about the right way to craft and give a presentation.
The following are some areas where I've seen the need to shift my approach to presentation design and delivery, based on the past decade of presenting across cultures and teaching presentation skills to international M.B.A. students. Your approach will vary based on your audience and its culture; these questions will help you get started.
How Does My Presentation Structure Need to Change?
Cultures take differing approaches to persuasion. In some places, like North America, the main idea, conclusions or recommendations are often made first, and then we get into an explanation of reasons and support. We first describe the what/how and then get into the why.
In other cultures, we first need to provide all the data and support before getting to the main point; the why and then what/how. When presenting to a Japanese audience, who generally prefer background and supporting information first, I structure my presentations this way.
In her book The Culture Map, Erin Meyer shares the story of an American engineer who presented to an audience of German executives. She began the presentation by explaining the strategies she would recommend, planning to provide the support later. Right away, the audience started jumping in and asking her to explain her methodology and data, showing skepticism from the start. Then Meyer shares the story of a German whose American audience criticized him for taking too long to get to the main point after spending time giving background. German audiences generally prefer to hear the background first, while Americans generally like to hear the conclusion first. In both cases, structuring the presentation to match the audience's style would have led to better outcomes.
The key is to find which approach works best with your audience and structure your presentation accordingly.
What Visuals Will Work, And How Much Is Too Much?
When thinking about the colors, text and images to use in your slides, take a step back and think about who they will be received.
Color has different meanings in different cultures. In North America, we associate red more with danger or passion, but in many parts of East Asia, red is the color of celebration. But there are subtleties here too. Writing someone's name in red in Korea is seen as bad luck and an omen of death. Learn about cultural taboos around color.
Presentations work better with more images and visuals, but there may be cultural subtleties or taboos around how much to use and which are appropriate. As with color, photos may have different concepts associated with them. We may associate an owl with wisdom, but an owl is seen as a creature of darkness in many cultures.
Be careful around the use of funny photos. Very hierarchical or formal cultures may see them as unprofessional. Humor is very contextual, and in cross-cultural communications, it can go very wrong.
Finally, cultures may have different expectations around how busy or sparse a slide should be. Generally, we know that slides should not be packed full of text and graphics, but how much is too much can vary. In some cultures, a slide with little text but large visuals may be seen as lacking content or look like the designer didn't put enough effort into it. Here in Japan, very busy slides are often the norm because of cultural and linguistic expectations around graphic design. While that leads to some unreadable slideuments, it means the slides you create may need to be denser than usual.
What will you do differently when delivering the presentation?
Once you've designed a presentation that accounts for cultural differences, it's now time to deliver it in a culturally-appropriate manner.
If you're working with a team, start by thinking about who will deliver the presentation. It may not be the subject matter expert; in very hierarchical cultures, the most senior person may be expected to present. This can be more critical when delivering the presentation to someone higher up in the company hierarchy.
Watch your speech. Slow down if the audience includes less-fluent speakers of the language. Avoid using colloquialisms or figures of speech that you might typically use. I once saw a presentation by an American to a Japanese audience that referenced "I want my MTV." Nobody understood that.
When delivering in-person or remotely, watch your level of eye contact and body language. In South Korea, Japan, Germany and other places, prolonged eye contact is seen as aggressive, not as a way to build trust. Excessive body language may come across as overly-emotional in cultures that value restraint.
More broadly, consider how formal or informal to make your delivery, based on the expectations of the culture around hierarchy. Presenting formally may come off as cold to the Dutch or other egalitarian cultures which welcome familiarity.
Do I Need To Adjust The Level Of Interactivity?
Finally, consider how to balance your presentation between dialogue and lecture. Cultures may tend more towards expecting one of these extremes, so there will be variation in where the emphasis lies. When interacting, keep in mind the importance of hierarchy and formality.
Questions are a great way to make a presentation interactive. In addition to how much Q&A is expected, the role of the Q&A session may differ across cultures. In France, Spain, Israel or Russia, a high level of debate and discussion is encouraged. In more hierarchal or consensus-driven corporate cultures, getting a lack of questions or discussion does not indicate a lack of interest in your content. It may reflect a tendency not to rock the boat or appear to disagree publicly. The questions may come later, in a less public environment.
Just as with any audience from your culture, the details will vary, and each situation will be different when presenting across cultures. But by taking the time to understand the culture of your audience, you will deliver a better presentation with better outcomes for you and your audience.
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How To Give Presentations To An Audience From Another Culture - Forbes
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