The Story: Thoreau

"Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short."

Henry David Thoreau

to a friend on story length, 1857

I really like this quote. It's timeless and applies equally well to crafting the story to be told in a PowerPoint™ presentation.

Recall a presentation that you may have experienced, in which the presenter had:

• A 30-40 page slide deck to share, and didn't allow enough time to cover the material

• Many bullet points, in a small font that you couldn't read, no white space, no images (and so you read ahead and tuned out)

Thoreau had it right - crafting a story takes time, and that applies to a presentation, too. I've worked with many presenters to create a concise and on-point presentation that engages their audience.

Whether the goal is to share a vision, impart knowledge, or present the status of a project to key stakeholders, you need to nail the key message and focus. Often the first draft you create contains much more content than you can possibly share on your topic during your allotted time. The right answer is not to keep all the content and just speak faster, it's determining what stays and what goes. It respects your audience. It gives you the focus you need to nail your presentation.

If you find yourself in this situation, here are 3 questions to ask yourself to help you focus on what to include in your presentation:

1. Where is your audience now? Where would you like them to be after your presentation? What do you want them to know, believe, or do?

2. What is your key message in 25 words or less?

Distill what you need to impart to the amount of time you'd ride in an elevator between floors (make that a high speed elevator -- so maybe 15 words?).

3. So what?

A great question (for not only presentations). Why should the audience care about what you have to say? If you can't state the answer to this question clearly, the audience will not be able to articulate it, either.

Once you have answered the three questions, go back to the slides or outline you've created. Only keep the content that supports these 3 questions. The next step (hint: keep it simple). Stay tuned for another post on this topic.