There’s a lot of good that comes from our pre-packaged, app-for-that world. It used to take a lot of work for people to do just about anything; now, in a lot of cases, it doesn’t. We can generally find exactly what we’re looking for in just a few screen taps these days, saving us a ton of hassle and, in a lot of cases, solving a ton of problems.
One of the side-effects of this kind of culture is that while technology suffuses everything we do, the vast majority of us have only had to be users of highly intuitive products rather than be truly technologically proficient. And it isn’t just our iPads: cars, homes, and even dinner have become as absolutely low maintenance as possible for today’s busy consumer. When was the last time you talked to someone who could truly work on a car? When was the last time dinner was completely homemade?
But there are a few fields where this kind of outsourcing, short-cutting and “ready for use” posture just won’t work. One of them is presenting. There’s never a clearcut path to presenting well—never a map that will surely get you there. To truly present is to effect change, and if you’re really changing anything, no one has blazed the trail. Presenting is not like navigating to a place in a city; it’s like walking into the wilderness and navigating to a destination. To be a great presenter, you need a compass, not a map.
This may at first be uncomfortable for anyone who has grown used to the convenience and simplicity of our modern economy. But as the anchor of the stage, your job is to have such vision that others can’t see it, and such principles that even though you don’t know how you’re going to get there, you know how you’re going to work it out along the way. The principles, in effect, are your compass. When you present in this way, your message can change and adapt with the seasons and changes and never lose its relevance, never lose its punch.
This just so happens to be what the majority of audience members really respond to as well. They’re not looking for a map to follow—they buy self-help and how-to books and watch YouTube videos for that. When we submit to the instruction of a presenter, we’re looking for the compass. We want to be shown how to think and make decisions. We want to learn how to see. The presenter that can impart this kind of lesson is a powerful and influential presenter indeed.
As you put your next deck together, ask yourself this question: am I telling them what to do, or am I teaching them how to think? Or, the more common version of this might be: am I giving them a fish, or teaching them to fish?
Question: What kind of effect would it have if you sought to instill principles in your presentations, rather than instilling directions?
