Less is more in talks and presentations

Have you ever listened to a talk and walked away unsure of what you were supposed to take away from it? Ever sat through a presentation with 30, 40 or even 50 slides?

I think one of the biggest mistakes we make is trying to communicate too many things at once. A helpful exercise is to ask yourself what the two or three most imports points are that you want people to understand, remember and act on. Then hammer those home.

“If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.” — Winston Churchill

Creating a presentation that is clear, concise and well organized takes time and effort. But your return on investment can be massive.

Think about it this way, you have 50 or 100 colleagues interrupting their flow of work to listen to you. So if you spend an extra 5 hours preparing to make your communication 10 times better, then you get a 50 x 10 or 100 x 10 return on your investment.