Nancy Duarte
I was inspired by a tweet from the lovely Nancy Duarte recently when she cited her first rule of presenting: never give a presentation you wouldn’t want to sit through.
Fair enough. It’s a good first rule!
But it’s not mine – it’s maybe my second rule, or perhaps even lower…… Â which got me to thinking about what my ‘rules’ would be. The thing is, I don’t believe in rules for making presentations. Do whatever works – simple as that. For every set of rules which lead to a good presentation there’s another set which fly in the face of the first set but which can also lead to a good presentation! Â Of course, there’s a “tiny” issue – namely that most people don’t know what works and carry on doing the same old waste-of-time stuff because they don’t know any better… and besides, that’s how their boss does it.
Sometimes, of course, doing it the way the boss does it is the right way: doing it better than him is sometimes a CLM (Career Limiting Move) of significance.
Still, the idea of a series of rules appeals, so here’s the first one… maybe it’s the better to treat this series of rules as more of a set of guidelines – principles, if you will – rather than rules. I’ve only called them rules because of the alliteration with my name and the size of my ego! :)
Raybould’s Rule #1:
If it doubt, don’t!
…don’t give a presentation that is. If you’re at all unsure as to whether a presentation is the right medium to do whatever you need to do, it isn’t. Reports, for example, are popular for a reason.
In any case, to make a good presentation you’ll probably have to write some supporting documentation for your presentation in any case (if you want it to be an effective presentation, that is) so you should think long and hard about whether you can save yourself some time and grief by making that documentation freestanding.
If you need interaction (such as buy-in or an emotional response) from your audience then a presentation is the way to go – but if it’s just a case of making a presentation to tell people things, why do it? Presentations are expensive – lots of people with high hourly rates sitting in a room not being productive is very, very expensive!
Put into an easier turn of phrase, what this first Raybould’s Rule means is this: before you even start putting your presentation together, have a think about whether a presentation is the right thing to do in the first place.
More often than you’d think the best way forward is simply to circulate a document – although you might want to have a meeting to discuss it, later.
More often than you think a simple two-way or three-conversation with a couple of really key stakeholders is more effective than a full-on presentation!
I’m not suggesting a full-on SWOT analysis before you do any presentations but a just thinking things through for five minutes can’t hurt. Â Presentations are expensive – both in terms of your stress levels and the opportunity cost of the attendees, who could be doing something else. Â Is a presentation really value-for-money, when you take that into account?
