Briefing Techniques 

Advanced 

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FORMAT:  2 Full-Days (4 Half-Days)                                   Read More

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OVERVIEW: 

This 2-Day course builds upon the skills learned in Briefing Techniques – Beginning. Through a series of 
interactive exercises that parcel the elements of advanced briefing techniques into their numerous elements, 
participants secure the skill base to speak before groups of any size with competencies that place them with the top 5th percentile of public presenters. The result is outstanding increase in audience attention, retention and comprehension.

Course content is divided into modules that thoroughly cover Advanced Delivery Techniques, Speaking 
Impromptu, Presentation Design & Development Workshop, Handling Tough Questions and Maximizing 
Audience-based Content.

ADVANCED DELIVERY TECHNIQUES: 

We begin Briefing Techniques Advanced with a review of the skills learned in Beginning. Participants then share their presentation experiences since the first sessions with each other in the opening exercise of this course. Through additional interactive exercises, participants hone the following:

EYE CONTACT: Engaging the Lock, Talk & Pause method learned in the Beginning sessions, participants fine tune maintaining eye contact with one individual throughout the completion of one discrete thought. Exercises facilitate perfection of the technique until it becomes “second nature”. 

COMMAND VOICE: One of the many effects of adrenaline, which increases in bloodstream volume when 
speakers face a group, is to speed up the speaker’s metabolism. This results in increases in both voice pitch 
and the rate of delivery, which audiences interpret as diminished authority. Using techniques known to both 
professional singers and military leaders, participants learn to slow down and “speak from the diaphragm”.

DISCIPLINE & VIGILANCE: Ultimately, delivering a powerful and effective briefing involves the disciplined 
application of the Lock, Talk & Pause method. If the participant is vigilant in engaging the learned behaviors at every opportunity, the skills become their new second nature in short order. In this module, participants benefit from exercises that help speed their progress to that goal.

SPEAKING IMPROMPTU:

The Lock, Talk & Pause methodology facilitates the process of delivering a briefing from slides so effectively that participants soon find themselves believing that delivering can be a “no brainer”. The real art of speaking well, however, is to be able to be equally confident and comfortable when speaking without prepared notes or 
planning. To encourage participants to master the art of not thinking beyond the present thought, they are 
tasked to speak on a topic that they are not given until in front of the group. Completion of this exercise 
induces extreme self-confidence.

HANDLING TOUGH QUESTIONS 
  
During most briefings, the speaker controls the flow of information. That dynamic changes during the Q & A 
phase; the briefer doesn’t know exactly what topic on which he’ll be asked to speak. Using a multi-step 
process, participants learn to field and process questions that may contain erroneous, antagonistic, or improper and irrelevant content. 

This process not only diffuses otherwise confrontational situations, it allows the speaker to provide answers 
that are pertinent to audience members beyond the individual asking the question. Knowledge transfer is thus 
further spread.

MAXIMIZING AUDIENCE-BASED CONTENT 
  
Briefings commonly lack two essential ingredients: content formulated to describe not just features to the 
audience, but how those features benefit them; and a close that directs audience members to respond to what they have learned in a specific way. Participants are tasked to re-content and then deliver a 2-slide mini-briefing to accomplish both.

PRESENTATION DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP:

In Briefing Techniques – Beginning, participants were introduced to the Seven Rules of Visual Design, and witness a Before & After demonstration of the effectiveness of applying these rules to their own slides. In this 
workshop, participants actually redo portions of their own current or upcoming presentations under the 
supervision and aid of the instructor.

Along the way, participants acquire an advanced knowledge of productivity-improving PowerPoint techniques 
rarely taught elsewhere. Although the emphasis is on creating slides that achieve true knowledge transfer, 
participants go forth with skills that save tens to hundreds of hours per year.

• Master standing and delivering before any size group with poise, confidence & control

• Use eye contact, gestures, and body language to gain maximum audience attention & buy-in

• Design briefing slides that are simple, understandable, and produce true knowledge transfer

• Understand the relationship between proper delivery and proper presentation design

• Handle tough & unfair questions in a way that retains total group engagement 

• Develop content based on benefits to the audience and requiring a call to action

• Speak comfortably and confidently without notes or planning