How to Maximize Impact in a Short Presentation

About effective presentations: Story Telling So a mentee approached me the other day, about being asked by their manager to present to the SVP and Directs about a recent migration in the core of their system.   I was familiar with the work and it was generally "yet another system migration", so the first question I asked? "What's the story". The first answer was an engineering overview, basically same as every single other system migration: analyze, design, review, feedback, implementation, migration, etc. This is not really an interesting story as it is like all the rest: Big work, Executed cleanly, Had cake. My challenge back was to consider the context of presenting to the SVP and their VP directs. What message should they remember? That's an expensive room. All their teams deliver big important features so what is special about this one? Is there a moral to the story? What might they take back to their own teams? If they only remembered one thing, what is that one thing? This story, the over-arching message, is the most important part. It is the reason for being. It is the thread that winds through the whole thing. It is the point that you are trying to make. It is the "agenda" that you are driving. And this is not just for "presentations" but everywhere you influence. It always goes easier when you have an agenda, a purpose, when you have that intent, that over-arching theme. The presentation will stick better if you are reinforcing a single, simple message. The story might include tales of adversity and woe, heroic adventures, death-defying feats of mystery and intrigue, cinematic explosions, poignant moments, but in the telling, these are all in the service of the over-arching theme. Here's a real-life example, over-simplified, from a presentation I was contributing on, to that same group. We were looking at Developer Experience and the very first iteration was: "Dev experience is important. You should care. We did an experiment, captured a bunch of data, and decided to focus on these few things." The final iteration had an actual message: "Our experiment showed that issues impacting Developer Experience vary from team to team, so instead of creating a single set of top-down targets, we should go bottoms up, having teams identify their most impactful items to go fix." Every example of data highlighted how different the metrics were from team to team. We reinforced on multiple slides how the hot points varied across team. We paved the way to the punch line. So, Flint's tip of the week: Don't just relate lists of facts. Step back and think about the 1 or 2 things that you want people to remember. This is your agenda, your theme, your story arc. Double-check that every section supports that agenda. Be intentional about words and phrases to support that theme. If a section distracts from the theme, reconsider if you need it or if it could be half as long. #Teams #Leadership #StoryTelling #Presenting

As a speaker I want you to envision that your content is a plate of food you are handing to your audience. Is it a loaded down buffet plate? Filled with SO much content there is a little of this and a little of that. Quotes, research, humor, stories, ideas, lists, points, rabbit trails, too many words on the slide, and a lot of competing ideas. Everyone who listens has to pick through your message to find something they like. Ask five people what was on the plate and they will all say something different. Or is it a plate they would receive at a fine dining restaurant? Where every item was intentionally chosen to leave an impression. Simple. Elevated. Beautiful. Memorable. Clear in its presentation. Complex in its flavor. Ask five people what was on the plate and they will all say the same thing. You get to choose which content plate you are handing your audience. More than likely you are trying to cram too many items on the plate. 🎯 You probably need to ruthlessly eliminate some content.🎯 Most people I work with struggle having too much content. They try to cover too many things. I do to. How to fix it: ✅Have one clear point everything else you share drives to and supports. ✅ Kill your darlings and cut anything that doesn't support your point. ✅ Intentionally make your speech at least 5 minutes shorter than the allotted time (if it's 45-60 minutes) to let it breathe. ✅ Practice (and time) your content in front of real people for feedback. Have you ever faced this problem? How have you solved it? What about you? Do you struggle with trying to say too much? In presentations? In life? #publicspeakingtips #publicspeaking #speaking #contentcreation #writing

In my consulting work, I often work with high-level executives to help develop their messaging. Whether they are preparing to present to a major prospect, the media or to stakeholders, we always have to address one common challenge: how to communicate complex issues without getting into complicated explanations. In the digital age, attention spans are short. You cannot positively influence people by boring them into submission. The solution is not to talk about everything you know on a topic. You need to get it down to THE ONE THING that matters most… to them, not to you. Here are my Top Three Tips: 1      Express your one key point so it is clear, memorable and repeatable 2     Resist using acronyms or obscure vocabulary words that may confuse 3     Take out anything that dilutes or distracts from your key message This is not only important in the conference room, but also critical in the court room. An expert witness that can’t communicate effectively to the jury does not help your case. As a successful litigator once told me: “If you are explaining, you’re losing.” How have you seen this play out in your work experience? #Influence #MelindaMarcus #Leadership #LeadershipSkills #WitnessPreparation #Litigation #CommunicationsTips #StrategicMessaging #ExecutiveAdvisor