When I was first asked to start giving business presentations almost twenty years ago, I looked at several books for suggestions. I also recalled some of the training I’d received in a high school speech class. One common theme in the advice was that the written materials for effective presentations should have as few words as possible.

I found this to be profoundly confusing, as it didn’t fit my own experience with convincingly presenting data or with the successful presentations I had already seen.

I think the disconnect was caused by the different ways we use the word “presentation.” In some cases, we mean something like a speech. A speech is a monolog and the audience is typically large.  Perhaps the topic is qualitative or conceptual. For the CEO of a Fortune 500 company giving a keynote speech at a conference to 2000 delegates, this is good advice and the conventional wisdom is, indeed, wise.

In other cases, however, when we say presentation we mean something like “discussion document.” In these situations the point is often to discuss the material to explore different angles on the topic so that all of those with a stake in the topic can get comfortable with the conclusion or voice concerns. The audience is generally less than 20 people.  Frequently, an organization is trying to make some sort of decision, so having data is important. Finally, these types of documents are often reviewed without the original presenter or author present. Therefore, it’s important that the documents stand on their own.

The fact that we typically use the same software—Microsoft PowerPoint—to make slides for both types of presentations has probably helped obfuscate the significant differences between the slides needed for each.

At Woodlawn Associates we most often work with presentations of the second type. Here are three rules we use to make them as effective as possible:

[Read more…]