Let’s roleplay
“And now I would like to pass the word to Adam.” Or rather not. The usual switching lines between the presenting teammates tend to follow a boring scheme. Even though this part of the presentation could be improved as well! For a more interesting approach we need to go on an adventure to the world of role playing games.
Scientist-manager
In the case of two-person presentations, one of the members can play the scientist while the other one plays the manager. In this setting the roles are easily distinguishable: the scientist talks about the academic topics while the manager mentions their implications and corporate applicability. The scientist-manager role play can be utilized perfectly in a university setting during class presentations.
Functional roles
For case study presentations there are usually more than two people presenting so they require a different solution. Applied with flair, the traditional division of roles based on functions can work perfectly. Here the teammates represent the different functions of a company: finance, strategy, marketing, etc. A popular twist is to play the members of a consulting team, in this case every “consultant” takes the role of an expert in the certain functional areas.
Innovative line-ups
Of course, role play can be taken even further as long as it fits the environment. During a class presentation we can introduce a company by simulating an Assessment Day. The members of the “presenting” team were Julia, Margherita, Natalie and I but we hardly talked five minutes of the 20-minute “presentation”.
According to the line-up the Assessment Day began with the speech of the CEO – played by me – who then gave the word to the manager (Julia) who was responsible for conducting the day. This manager then introduced the playful exercise that the participants (who basically played the potential future employees of the firm) had to solve in the following ten minutes. The participants started solving the task in two teams: they were facilitated by Margherita and Natalie. According to the roles they were the external experts of the topic and by that at the end of the presentation they evaluated the group dynamics of the two teams. All in all, instead of a usual 20-minute presentation, the participants took part in a role playing game which they enjoyed at least as much as an ordinary presentation and they could also experience personally the working culture of the analyzed company Semco.
As the example shows, let’s dare to be creative! With the role playing approach, the presentation can be a lot more dynamic and lifelike. As a conclusion, the point is not to let the attention of the audience slip away when switching presenters.