Presentation Zen [23]
The slide on the left displays obesity rates for 30 countries in two formats. The table and bar graph were made in Excel and pasted into PowerPoint. It is common for people to take detailed data like this from Excel and Word documents used in reports and paste them into display slides for a presentation. But it’s rarely necessary to included all the data in an on-screen visual for a short live talk. If it is necessary to examine so much data during the talk, then place the table and charts in a paper and hand it out during your talk. (The low resolution and limited real-estate of display screens makes it difficult to read labels at such small sizes anyway.) It is usually better to use just the parts of the data that truthfully and accurately support your point. In this example the point is to show how the US rate is much higher than the rate in Japan. It is not necessary to show the rates for so many other countries. The obesity rates for the other countries can be included in the takeaway handout.
Instead of using a detailed chart which will appear cluttered and difficult to read…
Try creating a simpler visual for the slide and place the detailed charts and tables in the takeaway document where you have more space to present the details in a proper layout.
The Benefit of Planning Well
If you prepare well, and really get your story down pat—down well enough to pass the elevator test—then you really can tell your core message well in any situation. A friend of mine, Jim in Singapore, sent me an email recently sharing a good example of what can happen when you really get your story down in the preparation stage.
Dear Garr… got this new prospect and have been trying to get in front of the guy for months. Finally get the word he’ll see me next week. I know he is a super short attention span guy so I used a simple approach and agonized over the content and the key message and then the graphics. We get to the office and begin with the usual small talk that starts a meeting and suddenly I realize we’ve gone over the points of the presentation in our conversation and he has agreed to move forward. Then he looks at his watch and says great to see you thanks for coming in. As we walk out of the building the two guys that work for me say hey you never even pulled out the presentation and he still bought the deal—that was great!
Meanwhile I’m in a complete funk: “What about all my preparation time? He never even saw my presentation. What a waste of time putting the whole thing together!” Then the light went on. Presentation preparation is about organizing thoughts and focusing the storytelling so it’s all clear to your audience. I was able to articulate the points because I had worked those through in the preparation of the presentation. Even the graphics had made me think the presentation through and became a part of the presentation even though the audience never saw them.
This is an excellent point Jim makes here. If you prepare well, the preparation process itself should help you really know your story. With proper preparation, you should be able to still tell your story if the projector breaks five minutes before the presentation or if the client says “to heck with the slides, just give it to me straight.”
The planning stage should be the time when your minds are clearest and all barriers removed. I love technology, and I think slideware can be very effective in many situations. But for planning, go analog—paper and pen, whiteboards, a notepad in your pocket as you take a walk down the beach with your dog… whatever works for you. Peter Drucker said it best: “The computer is a moron.” You and your ideas (and your audience) are all that matter. So try getting away from the computer in the early stages, the time when your creativity is needed most. For me at least, clarity of thinking and a generation of ideas come when my computer and I are far apart.
The purpose behind getting off the grid, slowing down, and using paper or whiteboards, etc. during the preparation stage is to better