By Liz Radzick of Manifest Consulting

You know you’ve done it before: What you think will be the right portion size of dry spaghetti for two ends up filling three containers of leftovers. That weekend vacation to Montreal? You didn’t really need to pack five pairs of pants. And that presentation you gave to the team last week – that was a Baconator portion of data served up in what was only meant to be a 10 minute update.

Many people make the mistake of putting too much in their pasta pots, suitcases, and in their presentations: data, visuals, bullets, long-winded explanations. And usually it’s not until after the water has boiled, we are unpacking our luggage back at home, and the group we were talking to is glazed-over that we realize: that was just TOO MUCH.

So here’s a way to Simple-Size your presentation and make it fit the amount of time you have to talk.

Assume you have 20 min to speak.

Now assume that the meeting is running late and you only have 15 min.  This is the norm so better to plan for it.

Allocate 2 min at the beginning and 2 min at the end for your intro/agenda and closing statements.

You now have11 minutes. Divide 11 by the number of topic areas you want to discuss. For example, if you have 3 topic areas you can talk for just less than 4 min per topic. Or you can give one topic more time and expand another. But you only have 11 min to work with. Remember this.

Now you are ready to determine what you can realistically cover in the time allocated. What do you fundamentally want your audience to know/understand/believe or feel? Keep asking this question over and over as you pull you slides together. Ask yourself if you REALLY need to read all the safety steps on how to run the photocopier to your audience, or whether that could be relayed in a handout or email.

Finally, if this is an interactive presentation and you will be allowing questions, shrink down the amount of data you will present even more to allow for this. Surprising how little ground you can cover in a “20 min presentation” isn’t it?

You have now Simple-Sized your presentation. And let me know if you need some extra sun block…for some reason I have 6 bottles of it in my suitcase.

By Liz Radzick of Manifest Consulting

Psst! Yes I’m talking to you. Yes you…the one with the guilty look on your face. Do your slides have more bullets in them than an old Clint Eastwood movie?

If you *are* guilty of bullet abuse it might be because you :

a)     Don’t like to rehearse and have to use your bullets as a script

b)     Are giving someone else’s presentation and haven’t had the time to make it your own (“Maria was going to present today but got food poisoning last night.”)

c)     You have a lot of dry data that you need to present and there’s just no avoiding it

d)     Your presentation is also doubling as a handout for the audience or for people not able to attend

You know the solution to a) and I will sympathize with you if you identify with b). But here are a few pointers to help you with c) & d).

Dry as Data

If this is the situation here are some tips:

Cluster the points if you can into categories of 3-4 (this is called “chunking” and it makes it easier for the brain to remember)

Evaluate the best order of the points and rearrange if necessary (chronological/alphabetical/macro to micro etc.)

Put the data in a multi-column chart if you can – charts are easier to read quickly and prevent you from reading the text

Reveal one point at a time using the custom animation function

 Use no more than 5 bullet points no smaller than a 14pt font

Presentation To Go

If the presentation is going to be used as a handout, one solution is to have two slide decks: one to present, and one to hand out at the end of the presentation. More work? Yes, but the payoff is big. People will actually be listening to you instead of reading your slides.

To do this, create a PowerPoint deck using minimal text and big pictures (Gary Reynolds has some examples  here http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/sample1.html)  and put all of your text into the notes section of the slide (Under the View menu, select “Notes page” to do this). Then present the slides, but distribute the Notes format as a handout.

You have to know your audience to make sure this approach isn’t too radical, but I dare you to see if you can reduce the number of bullets in your next presentation. Go ahead – Make My Day.

By Liz Radzick of Manifest Consulting

One of my favorite shows was (and still is) Sesame Street. The producers of Sesame Street have mastered the art of understanding what interests their audience (children)  and then delivering content to them in a clear and creative way. Are there ways to use the power of Sesame Street to improve the way you communicate with your audience?

Keep it Simple

 One of the most appealing aspects of this program to kids is that it talks to them at their level. Researchers found that when too many characters were involved in a scene or there were concepts that were too advanced for the target age range, kids would stop watching and play with their toys or tune out altogether. In today’s modern work environment, your co-workers’ busy brains appreciate when messages are clearly stated with plain language and the benefits are made plain. We’re in overwhelm much of the day – your slide deck shouldn’t make it worse.

2.      Use Visuals

 Sesame Street without visuals would be like a brownie without chocolate (can you tell it’s mid-winter as I write this?). What kind of props, pictures, movies or audio could you use to create more interest in what you are saying? I’ll never forget a Native American client of mine who opened a conference presentation on Aboriginal entrepreneurship by holding up a small dream catcher. In Native culture, he explained, they are used to capture dreams as we sleep. He then held up a dream catcher that was 3 feet wide and covered in beautiful, large feathers and told the audience he wanted them to dream big about the possibilities of their future and to use this conference to inspire them to dream these dreams. Powerful opening, relevant visual, big impact.

3.      Know The Street

Perhaps you have to communicate with an Oscar the Grouch in your office. If so, you know that you have to thoroughly think through all the objections and weak links in your arguments and present them up-front to demonstrate your thoroughness. Maybe you need to communicate with Grover who is so wired and distracted that your best bet for holding his attention is having a meeting while walking down a hallway. Remember: just because Cookie Monster and Grover are blue and furry doesn’t mean that we should talk to them the same way.

Did someone say cookie?