by Tim Calkins
Your goal is to find the correct sequence of points. Remember that, ultimately, the flow of points should lead to your recommendation.
DEFINE THE START
The first question is the start. Where should the presentation begin? One of your initial steps should be sorting this out. As Nancy Duarte notes, “At the beginning of any presentation you need to establish what is. You know, here’s the status quo. Here’s what’s going on.”7
In most cases, you don’t want to go too far back in time. If you start a presentation by saying, “In 1972, our business was performing well, with share, revenue and profit all growing nicely,” then you have a big task ahead; you have to go through all the developments since 1972. Now, it could be that the roots of the situation indeed go back that far, so it is the only logical place you can start. Otherwise you’ll want to start with the current situation or the very recent past.
Your starting point should reflect your key audience member. If you are presenting to the CEO, think about what they know. What did you say last time you saw them? What have they heard in the meantime?
If you’ve been providing weekly updates on your business, your story shouldn’t start three years ago; you’ve already told this part of the story. You don’t need to go through it all again.
If your audience doesn’t know much about your business, however, then a bit of history might be useful to provide some perspective on the situation.
Remember that your audience may well have forgotten what you talked about in the last meeting or need a bit of a reminder. Most business executives are bombarded with information and reports these days, so it can be tough to recall the specific situation on a business. Worst case, a quick reminder of the situation will get you off to a solid start. Just watch your audience; if they are ready to move on, then move on!
ANSWER THE LOGICAL QUESTIONS
Your presentation should then logically flow from your starting point. What would be a natural question? For example, if you start a presentation by saying, “We introduced the new 948 polymer in April,” then a natural question might be “How is it doing?” or “How did we support the launch?”
This initial question will drive the entire flow of the presentation, so spend time thinking about it. You might say, “Last year was a great year for the business,” or “Results in Q3 were concerning,” or “Digital platforms are growing at a remarkable pace.” Each statement will begin a different story.
DON’T CREATE A LIST
Remember that a story is not a list. The goal is to move forward from one point to the next, not to walk through a lot of data.
Lists are easy to develop but hard to remember. It isn’t hard to write down a list of ten things. Try creating these lists: “Ten Foods I Enjoy,” “Six Places I’ve Been on Vacation” and “Things I Am Afraid Of.” It is an easy task. Of course, if you show the list to someone, they will probably forget most of the items rather quickly.
A story is more powerful and memorable, and more difficult. As screenwriter Robert McKee notes, “Any intelligent person can sit down and make lists. Persuading with a story is hard.”8
Two Techniques
There are many different ways to develop a story. Two common techniques are speaking first and storyboarding.
SPEAK, THEN WRITE
One of the simplest ways to find the narrative flow is to simply tell someone the story, and then write it down.
The insight behind this approach is that people are naturally better at speaking than writing. Speaking is intuitive. Almost everyone talks and tells stories. Charles Darwin noticed this, observing, “Man has an instinctive tendency to speak, as we see in the babble of our young children, whereas no child has an instinctive tendency to bake, brew or write.”9
When we tell a story, we are providing a sequence of information. This is the structure of the presentation. The more a presentation is like a natural conversation, the better it will work. Author Geoffrey James embraces the speaking approach: “The trick to simplifying your communication is: write the way you talk. In my experience, almost everybody is better at talking clearly than at writing clearly.”10 Cary Lemkowitz recommends the same approach in his book: “Think of the audience as children, and tell them a story.”11
There are different ways to do this. One is to record yourself speaking; just talk through the story and later write down what you covered. Another is to tell someone the story, and let them note the order of the points. Either approach can work well.
STORYBOARD
One of the best ways to lay out a story is to develop a storyboard. This is the process of mapping out how the various pages will flow in the presentation.
To create a storyboard, you simply take a piece of paper and draw three vertical lines and three horizontal lines, creating nine squares. Each square then represents a page in the presentation. You can also create the boxes on the computer. It will look like this:
Exhibit 7-1
You then write the page headline at the top of each box, and perhaps some indication of what might be on the page below. You might have a headline with a bar chart below, or a headline with some bullets. Often it works best to simply write in the headlines; there is no need to worry about typing or formatting.
Filled out, it might look like this:
Exhibit 7-2
It is best to use a pencil when doing this. You can then easily move things around; just erase one headline and move it to another box. I don’t use the computer when developing the story; for some reason I find that it makes it more difficult to move things around. Communications coach Carmine Gallo shares this perspective. He writes, “Whether you plan best on a white-board, a yellow legal pad, or Post-it notes, spend time in analog before jumping to digital.”12
You don’t want much detail on the pages; it should be very rough. In Exhibit 7-2, some pages have just four or five words. This makes it easy to move the pages around; there isn’t much to erase. In addition, you have nothing invested in the pages, so you don’t feel bad cutting pages or even complete sections.
It is rare that you will nail a story on the first try; in most cases you will lay out a story, and then change it, and then change it again.
This is where the hard work of writing a presentation occurs. Some executives spend hours working on the presentation flow, moving things around and debating the flow.
Structures to Consider
There are many ways to structure a presentation; there isn’t one set format, just as there isn’t just one way to tell a story. As Steven Pinker notes, “The ways to order material are as plentiful as there are ways to tell a story.”13 How you organize a presentation should depend on the recommendation, the data and your audience.
Many presentations follow one of several structures; it is worth considering these as you begin laying out your case and looking for the flow.
CHRONOLOGICAL
The simplest way to develop a presentation is to use time; one development flows to the next. You start at a moment and then progress forward. The flow ends with the conclusion or recommendation.
The flow might look like this:
We introduced our new drill lubricant in 2015.
The goal was to drive incremental profits by entering an attractive category.
We supported the launch with a major marketing investment.
Results exceeded our expectations in 2015 and 2016.
Based on this, we expanded the product line and added two new items in 2017.
These have been very well received and the business continued to grow in 2018.
To further our growth, we recommend launching an additional two items.
With this structure, you are telling a story, explaining step-by-step what has happened and why.
The appeal of this design is that it is easy to follow; people naturally understand the approach. It also creates some drama; the flow of the story can pull people along through it.
The challenge with a chronologic
al approach is that it is easy to get lost in the details. You will be tempted to include all the various twists and turns that the business has encountered. Much of this information is probably not relevant or important; you have to be disciplined about cutting extraneous information.
PROS AND CONS
People have been debating for years; it is one of the core ways people communicate. In a debate, people hear two sides; one person argues for one side of an issue, and another person argues for the other side.
This approach can be a fine structure for a presentation: you set up a debate topic and then explore the two sides, eventually arriving at your conclusion.
It could look like this:
Today we want to consider the introduction of two new products.
There are some compelling reasons to introduce these items: The items will address an underserved segment.
The launch will generate excitement.
The financials look good.
There are also concerns, reasons to not launch the new products: Developing the items will take R&D resources.
Competitors might respond aggressively.
It will increase complexity for our sales organization.
On balance, we believe the argument favors the introduction.
The power of this approach is that it is simple and focused. It works particularly well if you have one main question to consider with just two or three possible outcomes; it won’t work for a more ambiguous situation where there are many different possible paths forward.
The challenge with a pros-and-cons structure is that you have to build it with great thought. If you are too effective at arguing for the other side, you can inadvertently convince people to actually oppose your recommendation. Instead of getting agreement, it can just solidify the debate. Partly for this reason, some people dislike this approach. Use it with care!
ISSUE-SOLUTION
With this structure, you present an issue and then present a solution. Barbara Minto, in her book The Pyramid Principle, refers to this as “situation-complication-solution” structure; you start with a noncontroversial statement, then highlight an issue or a potential issue, then discuss how to address it.14 The beauty of this structure is that you get right to the point. It creates urgency, especially if you present the issue with energy.
It might look like this:
Our drill lubricant business has been performing well. (Situation)
There are major challenges ahead. (Complication) The category is flattening.
Our market share is stable.
As a result, our growth is slowing.
There is little chance these trends will change soon.
To address this problem, we recommend launching two new items. (Solution) These items will address a gap in the market.
They will create excitement within our sales organization.
The move will address the growth challenge.
The issue-solution structure is perhaps the most direct approach for a presentation; you highlight a problem or opportunity, and then provide a solution to that problem. It can be a compelling call to action; if the situation is highly concerning, your audience will be motivated to do something in response.
Watch the Beginning and the End
I have long believed that presentations are a bit like airplane flights.
There are basically three parts to a flight: takeoff, cruising and landing. The most dangerous parts of the flight are the takeoff and the landing, in part because the plane is close to the ground. When cruising along at 38,000 feet, a bit of turbulence isn’t a major concern; the plane can bounce as it flies along. Only the most severe types of turbulence pose a major hazard. When taking off, however, turbulence is a more significant concern. Dropping a quick fifty feet is a rather big issue if you are only thirty feet off the ground.
For this reason, pilots have to be particularly attentive during takeoff and landing. You don’t usually see your pilot coming out looking for a cup of coffee as the plane heads down the runway, and you don’t see a pilot chatting with the flight attendants during the final approach. During the cruising section, the situation is very different. Pilots wander around. They have dinner, drink coffee and, I suspect, talk about the weekend and plans for the upcoming layover.
Presentations have the same three parts: takeoff, cruising and landing. The takeoff is the first few minutes of the presentation, when you are just getting going. The cruising section is the bulk of the presentation time. The landing is the conclusion.
Just like flight, the takeoff and landing are the most impor-tant and dangerous parts of a presentation. The start of a meeting really matters; it sets the tone. Most important, the beginning can have a huge impact on your energy. If you get off to a solid start, you will feel confident and secure. This will propel you forward. Your audience will relax, too. If you get off to a rough start, however, things can rapidly spiral down. You might be nervous and insecure. Worst case, your audience may decide that the entire presentation is suspect and then tune out everything you have to say.
It is important to capitalize on this insight when constructing a presentation. At the beginning, you want to cover easy material. This is not the time for controversial statements or complex analy-ses. You want to present material that people will understand and agree with. You might recap agreements from a prior discussion or show business results that people are aware of, information that is consistent with the general perspective.
Putting familiar, easy material at the start will get your audience nodding along. This is the right frame of mind. Once you’ve gotten into the presentation, once you have a bit of momentum and altitude, you can begin going through more complex and difficult material. You can handle some tough questions at this stage in the meeting.
The closing, too, is important. The best presentation in the world will have no impact if things go wrong at the end. You want your last few slides to be easy. You certainly don’t want to put a difficult recommendation at the very end. This might damage the entire presentation. It could also anger your audience; it might look like you are trying to hide the material by putting it very late. You need to close by locking down the agreements and setting the course for next steps.
Revise, Rework and Tighten
Developing a logical story is hard work. To create a tight flow, you will need to go through it again and again, checking the flow. Business leadership coach Stever Robbins recommends you start by getting a rough version complete. “Keep moving forward. Yes, you’ll have sentence fragments. You’ll have misspellings, and you’ll have somewhat fractured logic. That’s nice. You’ll fix it later.” Then you should rework the entire presentation: “Start at the top and go through, demolishing it. Cut, paste, rewrite. Shorten, lengthen, and wordsmith.”15
Seasoned executives understand the need to rework and revise. Jim Kilts, CEO of corporations such as Kraft, Nabisco and Gillette, would revise an important presentation fifty or sixty times before settling on a final version. Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, loved the challenge of getting the story precisely right: “For every analyst meeting, I’d sit for hours with my finance and investor relations team, sketching out and tearing up chart after chart.”16
As you work on the flow, you should ask yourself several questions:
DO WE NEED THIS PAGE?
Here is a simple rule: if you don’t need a particular page in a presentation, you should drop it. Every page should have a function and contribute to the larger story.
In general, shorter presentations are better than longer ones, so you should cut everything that isn’t essential. If you have a page that doesn’t make an important point, drop it. If a piece of information isn’t critical to the discussion, prune it. You don’t want to waste your audience’s time. As advertising executive Bob Rehak notes, “Respect readers’ time and readers may become more interested.” He advises, “Keep boiling down your argument until it is easy to understand and you’re not wasting a single word.”
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Don’t take this to an extreme. You need enough pages to communicate the information clearly and logically. Sometimes more pages will be better than fewer pages. If you are building a complex analysis, you may want to introduce it piece by piece.
Be particularly careful with page targets. Setting a specific page limit makes no sense at all.
IS THERE TOO MUCH MATERIAL ON THE PAGE?
One of the most common presentation problems is clutter. On a single page you might find a bar chart, a set of bullet points and a two-by-two matrix. This just doesn’t work well. What is important? Where is a reader supposed to look?
Each page in a presentation should make one point. There should be a single idea, supported with data or visuals. If you have a page with multiple points, you should split it into two pages, or even more.
It is better to have more pages that logically work together than fewer, cluttered pages. A twenty-page presentation that is clear and simple is much better than a four-page presentation that has cluttered pages, no story and no flow.
You can have several items on a particular page; there is nothing wrong with a line chart together with three bullet points. The key is that the information should work together. It should be clear why the information is on the same page.
DOES ONE PAGE FLOW TO THE NEXT?