Here is the ‘Presenter’s Paradox’: More is not actually better in the eyes of the beholder (audience). This is definitely a huge challenge for me… and probably all of you.
We have soooo much good stuff, content, frameworks, etc. Whether I am presenting at a 25-minute keynote last week at ASU’s Lodestar Centers Annual Conference or an entire day with Catholic Health Initiatives National Development Team… the challenge is the same: not what to put in, but what to take out.
Here’s a short post at Inc. that quotes a series of studies and Harvard Business Review that summarizes this problem as follows:
“We all face the important task of deciding what information to include in our presentation. However, the present analysis suggests that we often inadvertently DILUTE THE VERY MESSAGE WE SEEK TO CONVEY simply by our efforts to strengthen it.”
Many of you who follow our Daily Nuggets are out making visits and presentations using our template and ENGAGEMENT TOOLS.
This ‘Less is More’ philosophy on presentations is manifested in this simple Framework and Flow of the presentation.
Here is a great example of less is more, simplicity, the power of an Engagement Tool and more.
This was the exact Engagement Tool/handout at a transformational visit between a great For Impact organization and their huge working partner. Name and logo removed. Four people on the For Impact side. Seven people from the prospect/partner side. Total request of the partner was $3.5M to fund all three circles. Gift history to that point: $0.
End result: $21M commitment. This is not a typo. Twenty-One Million.
Again, Less is More.
