One of our comrades in the Presentation Revolution, Alex Rister, recently wrote about the three legs of the presentation stool:
1. Content
2. Design
3. Delivery
We love this metaphor so much we had to join the conversation. Take away any of those elements, and your presentation will fall flat on its face. It’s guaranteed.
Along the same lines, we really believe that balance here is just as important as presence. Really great content needs to be supported by really great design not only because it helps you look cooler, but because the better your content, the more the human mind will be seeking to “attach” to tangible extensions of the content—usually visual metaphors and the image-side of stories. Likewise, great content requires great delivery not just because it makes it more fun, but precisely because an audience doesn’t have a paradigm for hearing exceptional ideas in a sub-par context.
What we mean is this: the mind likes simplicity.
Though presentations consist of these three “legs” of the stool, the mind is trying to make a simple determination: is this information useful to me? Is it usable? So while three distinct forms of cognitive exposure influence this singular judgment, at the end of the day it’s a bit of a sweeping assessment. Your content can be truly top-notch, but if the entirety of the presentation doesn’t support the sweeping assessment that it was a great presentation, there’s only one alternative judgment: it was not a great presentation.
You may feel like this is a little bit of a harsh reality: in general, few of us appreciate such black-and-white scenarios. But we really feel like this is the reality most presenters face when they stand up and deliver. And we’ve all been on the receiving end, too: as an audience member, you either get that wash of surrogate confidence and agreement—the feeling that your speaking with someone who is so competent and so thoroughly understands your situation that you determine to take their advice, choose their product or service, etc.—or you get that “other” feeling. The other feeling isn’t negative necessarily, or bad; it’s just indifferent. It’s how you feel with it’s wrap up time and you’re just thinking about what you’re moving onto next.
Presenting would be easier if we were fighting negative or bad impressions. We’re not. We’re fighting indifference. Ineffectuality. Status quo. The presentation by its very nature is intended to persuade, activate, catalyze, mobilize and engage. Successful presentations set things in motion. They start deals. Close deals. Spark change. Promote progress.
When you realize that, ultimately, this is the goal of any presentation, it becomes clear why it’s not good enough to have even just two of the three legs of the stool. That’d be fine if we were just avoiding negativity. But when we’re seeking to make a real difference, to overcome inertia, we have to bring our best across all three elements of the presentation.
Question: How do you prepare for your presentations so that the three legs of the stool are balanced appropriately?
