Books and training on graphic design and presentation skills have become the rage in recent years as sources for solutions to bad PowerPoint presentations. But what can be missed in this focus on design and delivery skills is that a clear message is the prerequisite for their effective use.
When preparing presentations, we tend to make the same mistake we make when writing e-mails and documents—we fail to plan what we are going to say. We dive right in to creating slides. Too often, the result is a poorly organized presentation, with too many slides, that bores the audience.
Therefore, the first step in preparing a presentation is to identify our message—what we want our audience to do or believe as a result of our talk. Defining our message first, in this way, will enable us to determine exactly what information we will include in our presentation—just enough to support what we are going to say.
Starting with a clearly defined message will also save time, since we won't have to prepare 60 slides when we can get our message across in 10.
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Comments for Presentations – The Medium is NOT the Message
Another great primer on business writing and presentations.
By Business Bookkeeping Services on March 25, 2011 at 04:36 PM