What my mother taught me about presentations

Actually I’m pretty sure she didn’t mention presentation skills at all. I didn’t listen to her much: perhaps I’d have been more successful if I had, but I didn’t.  One of the things I remember are those times when I asked for permission to do something.  It might have been to stay out late, or buy something I wasn’t allowed.  Whatever it was, I should have known better.

The thing was, though, even though I should have known better, I was a kid and I wanted the extra sweets….

But I was a kid and also wanted my mother’s approval – which is why I asked, even though I was pretty sure what the answer was going to be.  And then came the standard answer:  “If you have to ask the question, you already know the answer.”

As you can tell, it’s stuck with me.

If I had a pound for every time someone I was training asked me a similar question, I’d be a rich man.  “Can I just put an extra bullet-point in here?”   “Is it all right if I just have an extra few slides at the end about X, Y & Z?”

And my answer? Always the same.  Always. (Well, almost! :) )

If you have to ask the question, you already know the answer.  The danger of course, is that people don’t even remember to ask the question in the first place, but that’s a different problem!  :)