Presentation Rebellion - The Prime Directive

Some well-intended presentation rules are killing your audience and your success.

 As we launch into our assault on existing presentation rules in the next series of posts, one question is paramount: What makes a rule good or bad? What is the criteria by which it is to be judged? This post will answer that question as it examines some fundamental problems with "rules."

 My intention in this series isn't just the shattering of myths and revoking of some bad rules; my intention is to give you an entirely new paradigm about presentations so the rules matter a lot less. Instead, you can use appropriate, situational "tactics" which will actually work for you.

 Boxes, Blinders, and Blunders

The problem with generic presentation rules is they force you down a path without consideration of strategy. They are dimwitted taskmasters with no sense of subtlety, nuance, and no appreciation of the desired outcome. They build impenetrable boxes of conformity which have created the current state of business presentations which is horrific and costs your organization and the American economy millions every year. You must reach above rules and understand the strategy of a presentation.

 A Presentation Prime Directive

For those less geeky than me, the "Prime Directive" was the overarching rule of Star Fleet in the Star Trek universe. It forbade the interference in the natural development of any alien culture even if contrary to our own values ( in 1966, it was likely a metaphorical jab at America's involvement in Vietnam). Every subsequent rule was governed by the Prime Directive.

I propose a Presentation Prime Directive:

Make your audience think, feel, or do something that accomplishes the presentation's objective.

Let every rule, decision, word, phrase, and slide serve the Prime Directive.

If you have not established, with concrete clarity, what impact you want to have on the audience, how in the world will you select the right information, present useful slides, tell the right story, and use the right verbal and nonverbal language? If you don't want the audience to think, feel, or do something differently after your presentation, why are you presenting at all? (Notice the verb "know" is conspicuously absent; we'll talk about the deception of "information transfer" in a later post).

 The Prime Directive is Scalable

When you know what your audience must think, feel, or do to accomplish the presentation's objective, you can imagine a better, more focused outline of your content. That usually means a shorter presentation (can I get an amen?). And the concept scales down to individual moments and slides (IF you're using slides). Does this particular image move the audience toward what you need them to think, feel, or do? Does a particular example/story move them in the right direction? The Prime Directive isn't a box-building rule; instead of a box, it provides "constraints" which is a wonderful thing (Google "value of constraints").

 With the constraints of what you need the audience to think, feel, or do, you make strategic decisions about content. The current death-by-PowerPoint culture hurls an endless stream of information at the audience, much of which does not serve the Prime Directive. It's a cognitive pummeling that leaves the audience dazed, bored, and unchanged - not thinking, feeling, or doing anything differently than before the presentation - except perhaps deeper resolve to stop attending presentations.

 Rules "Assume" which makes an… (you know the rest)

Because these rules aren't connected to your specific strategy for a specific presentation, they must make assumptions. Dig into a rule and consider the assumptions it makes. There you will discover its weakness.

"Never talk to the slide so you maintain eye contact" - This assumes they are looking at you. If they aren't looking at you, does it matter where you look?

"6x6 Rule (six bullets, six words each)" - Assumes the audience should be reading slides (dumb assumption).

"Make Yourself Useless" (you may not have heard this rule, but it's a dominant, unspoken rule practiced throughout the business presentation world) - Assumes the speaker is only added decoration to the presentation and it's really about the slides.

 Fleeing the Box and Crushing The Evil Empire

Let 2018 be a year of rebellion. Let's loose the shackles of impotent presentations that waste our time and money and may hurt more than help our cause. Watch for the following series of posts with rules to be rewritten or just banished altogether. Will you join me?

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