When I lead a Presentation Skills workshop, it's always funny to hear a participant say they'd prefer to be filmed sitting down.
"Why?" I ask.
"Because I never stand up to present."
"Why not?" I ask.
- "There's no need to."
- "Everybody else is sitting down.")
- "The room is too small." (Only a valid excuse if it is.)
- "I'm uncomfortable standing." (Only a valid excuse if you have a medical condition.)
- "It's un-Australian (to stand)."
No surprise, the vast majority of people prefer to sit down when making a presentation for three reasons: they're more comfortable, they feel less exposed, and it's more collegial.
While they're understandable reasons, they aren't accurate. Simply put, the vast majority of people are at least 50% less dynamic when sitting down, because their body movements are halved ... and perhaps as much as 75% because everything else is restricted too. It's more difficult to breath properly, which means it's harder to project your voice. Hand gestures diminish, if not disappear. Eye contact disappears too because the person tends to read what it's front of them. All of this adds up to what I call "a stable sameness."
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