after just 10 minutes

A recent Finnish study of 380 virtual work meetings showed that remote viewers reported feeling drowsy (and some nearly fell asleep) after just 10 minutes...

The study reinforces another experiment that University of Washington biology professor John Medina conducts with his students every year, which reaches the same conclusion.

Medina says, "After 9 minutes and 59 seconds, the audience's attention is getting ready to plummet to near zero."

Carmine Gallo

Scientists Pinpoint the Exact Moment People Loose Interest in a Presentation: Three ways to keep your audience engaged beyond this cliff. Inc. Feb. 27, 2024

quality of the dialogue

The reason most companies don't face reality very well is that their dialogues are ineffective. And it shows in their results. Think about the meetings you've attended - those that were a hopeless waste of time and those that produced energy and great results. What was the difference? It was not the agenda, not whether the meeting started on time or how disciplined it was, and certainly not the formal presentations. No, the difference was in the quality of the dialogue.

Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan 

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan with Charles Burck. 2002. Crown Business, NY, NY. p. 103, 104

just talk about your business

A tiny but pivotal moment in IBM's legendary turnaround reveals a better approach. Lou Gerstner was new to his post as CEO and had invited Nick Donofrio, one of his executive leaders, to speak at a state-of-the-company meeting. Gerstner recalls, "At that time, the standard format of any important IBM meeting was a presentation using overhead projectors and graphics on transparencies that IBMers called - and no one remembers why - 'foils.' Nick was on his second foil when I stepped to the table and, as politely as I could in front of his team, switched off the projector. After a long moment of awkward silence, I simply said, 'Let's just talk about your business.'"

That's what the goal for most presentations is supposed to be: to "just talk about your business." So the next time you have to write a report, give a presentation, or make a sales pitch, resist the temptation to add unnecessary extras. They aren't just a distraction for you; they're also a distraction for your audience. That's why, when I do presentations, I use six slides, with fewer than ten words total. 

There is rarely a need to go that second mile beyond what's essential. It's better to go just the first mile than to not go anywhere at all.

Greg McKeown

Effortless: Make it Easier to do what Matters Most. Random House. 2021. p. 120, 121

hook your audience with one sentence

[James] Patterson spends a lot of time writing the first lines of every chapter. That’s the opportunity to hook the audience. For example, the first sentence of Kiss the Girls, the second in the Alex Cross series of novels, reads:

For three weeks, the young killer actually lived inside the walls of an extraordinary fifteen-room beach house.

A lot of thought (and rewriting) goes into crafting a sentence like that. The purpose is to entice the reader to lean in, so they’re quickly invested in the story.

First lines are also crucial for speeches and presentations. Avoid starting a presentation with a long, tedious agenda of what you plan to cover. Instead, hook your audience with one sentence that draws them in.

In 2007 Steve Jobs kicked off the 90-minute iPhone presentation with the line, “Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone.” I was watching and I was hooked. I wanted the mystery to be solved: How was Apple going to reinvent it? What would it look like? What features will it have? How is it different than my Blackberry? How much will it cost, and when can I buy it?”

Carmine Gallo

"James Patterson’s Storytelling Tips For Leaders," Forbes. August 10, 2022

strategy had no relevance

Given what I’ve revealed about short-termism at Honeywell, you might wonder if we had a formal strategic planning process in place. We certainly did. Each July our businesses made presentations to the CEO, with similar presentations taking place down through the ranks. These presentations were, in a word, bullshit. Leaders had no clue how they would run their businesses over the next five years, what big initiatives they would have to push to make their goals, or what changes in their industry they should anticipate, or better, lead. Rather than choosing goals thoughtfully, they picked ambitious targets they thought would please their bosses, without regard for whether the business could realistically achieve them. They might have factored in the benefit of downsizing, the introduction of new products or services, process improvement, or other cost-savings initiatives, but then didn’t include as an expense the funds to bankroll these initiatives because it would depress the outlook. To cover themselves, they threw around lofty language and piled on hundreds of pages of charts and tables, hoping to look smart. Without much critical analysis, leaders gave their blessings, leaving the businesses to go execute whatever they wanted without follow-up or accountability. “Strategy,” such as it was, had no relevance. Operational considerations and making the quarter became daily concerns, with strategy fading to the background.

David M. Cote

Winning Now, Winning Later: How Companies Can Succeed in the Short Term While Investing for the Long Term. HarperCollins Leadership. 2020. p. 38

an instinct for stories

 

"Those who tell the stories rule the world." --Hopi American Indian proverb

The power of stories can help you connect, motivate, inspire and persuade. Human beings have been hardwired for stories. We have an instinct, it would seem, for stories. This theory has actually been backed by science. 

Modern scientific research has now concluded that the human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor. Stories were how our early ancestors navigated the dangerous world around them. Through stories, we evolved and thrived. While our species has changed quite a bit over the last several hundred thousand years, one thing hasn’t really changed: our absolute need and desire for stories.

LaQuita Cleare

"Hollywood Storytelling Secrets That Will Make You a More Inspiring Leader," Entrepreneur. December 30, 2020

finding the core

The Heath brothers in their seminal book “Made to Stick” defined simple in this way:

“What we mean by ‘simple’ is finding the core of the idea. ‘Finding the core’ means stripping an idea down to its most critical essence.”

The core of your idea is the core of your presentation. Express that core in one simple and specific sentence – I call this the key message of your presentation...

Now let’s look at dumbed down, complex and simple expressions of an idea:

• Dumbed down: “People are our greatest asset.”
• Complex: “Human resource assets are being deployed in the operational environments under maximum pressure in order to impact our customer service benchmarks.”
• Simple: “We’re moving staff to the busiest call centres to make ordering easier for our customers.”

Notice that the last example is both simple and specific.

However, don’t get hung up on ensuring that every nuance and subtlety are expressed in the key message... You cannot include every legal caveat or scientific qualification in your key message – or even in your spoken presentation. Put these into a handout. In some topic areas, there’s a choice between being 100% accurate or being understood.

Olivia Mitchell 

"How to simplify your presentation without dumbing it down," speakingaboutpresenting.com. Accessed on April 30, 2021

negaphobia

The corporate world has a disease that Robert McKee calls “Negaphobia.” It’s the fear of anything that is negative and the potential consequences. Too often, everything needs to be positive, with a smile on the face and not talking about “problems” or “weakness.” If you want to earn trust from your audience, share the problems, struggles and weaknesses that are part of life.

Typically, presentations avoid problems and emphasize the good. This is the best way to lose your credibility. Everything that sugarcoats your point, leave that at home. The audience trusts in honesty and not in perfection anymore.

Joni Galvão

"10 Golden Principles for an Effective Presentation" MARTECHseries. December 2, 2019

someone who gets in trouble

“Get your protagonist up a tree. Throw rocks at him. Then get him down.” — Syd Field

When creating a presentation, you need to understand that the audience expects more than a list of topics with a rhetorical narrative. They expect you to surprise them. They expect you to tell a story. All stories are about someone who gets in trouble. So go deep into the conflicts the audience may confront. Then a resolution or a conclusion can come naturally.

Joni Galvão

"10 Golden Principles for an Effective Presentation" MARTECHseries. December 2, 2019

the transformation story

Make sure that you provide sufficient information in your presentation to produce a meaningful change in your audience. This can come by providing a new insight on a known topic, by introducing a completely new concept, or even by making them doubt about something they have always taken for granted.

If your presentation will not produce some kind of change in your audience, then it’s a presentation not worth giving.

If you are not eliciting a change, then you are not providing enough content. And if you are not providing enough content, your material is not worth presenting. So: no change, no presentation!

Matteo Cassese

"The 10 principles of effective presentations. Hint: it’s all in the structure!" La Fabbrica della Realtà. Retrieved 4/27/2021

the scourge of critical thinking

PowerPoint is the scourge of critical thinking. It encourages fragmented logic by the briefer and passivity in the listener. Only a verbal narrative that logically connects a succinct problem statement using rational thinking can develop sound solutions. PowerPoint is excellent when displaying data; but it makes us stupid when applied to critical thinking.

Jim Mattis

MATTIS, J. (2019). CALL SIGN CHAOS: Learning to lead. S.l.: RANDOM HOUSE. 182

outlaw powerpoint

Jeff Bezos has a non-traditional management style at Amazon, and he says Amazon’s unique twist on meeting structure is the “smartest thing we ever did.”

“Many, many years ago, we outlawed PowerPoint presentations at Amazon,” Bezos said at the Bush Center’s Forum on Leadership in 2018. “And it’s probably the smartest thing we ever did.”

To replace the PowerPoint presentations, Bezos created a new way to hold meetings: Meetings start with each attendee sitting and silently reading a “six-page, narratively-structured memo” for about the first 30 minutes of the meeting.

″[The memo is] supposed to create the context for what will then be a good discussion,” Bezos said.

Those participating are encouraged to take notes, and after the reading period is over, they discuss the memo.

Bezos says the reason for the group reading is that “executives will bluff their way through the meeting as if they’ve read the memo because we’re busy and so you’ve got to actually carve out the time for the memo to get read.”

Taylor Locke

"Jeff Bezos: This is the ‘smartest thing we ever did’ at Amazon". CNBC. October 15, 2019.

clear, effective and engaging

"Communication is one of the most important skills that a leader and, frankly, most employees now need to excel on the job."

According to [John] Chambers, one or two decades ago a leader could get by without being an exceptional communicator and still be considered great. Today it’s a different world. “You’ve got to deal with social media, you've got to deal with a dramatically different speed of events, you've got to be able to talk to your shareholders, your employees, your customers, and your partners. If you don't have communication skills, you're not going to be an effective leader.”

Measuring and elevating communication skills. Since Chambers believes the ability to communicate with diverse audiences is a critical skill, he always held his leaders to a very high standard. Cisco executives—including Chambers— were rated on their customer presentations using a scale of one to five. After every customer meeting, the speakers were scored in two areas: delivery and content. The speakers had to be clear, effective and engaging while their content had to be useful, relevant and timely.

Carmine Gallo

"In This Candid Conversation, Legendary CEO John Chambers Reveals The Critical Skill Leaders Need Now" Forbes. Dec. 4, 2018

shock tactics to draw attention

As one of the world's richest men and most active philanthropists, Bill Gates usually has his hands full. Just not with poop.

So it came as a surprise when the founder of Microsoft brandished a jar of human waste at a forum on the future of the toilet in Beijing on Tuesday.

The stunt was an effort to draw attention to a problem affecting developing countries around the world: not enough toilets.

"In places without sanitation you have got way more than that," Gates said, pointing to the feces inside the clear canister resting on a table.

"And that's what kids when they are out playing, they are being exposed to all the time, and that's why we connect this not just with quality of life, but with disease and death and with malnutrition," he told attendees.

The billionaire said more than half of the world's population suffers without clean, comfortable sanitation facilities.

"When you think of things that are basic right up there with health and enough to eat, you think that having a reasonable toilet certainly belongs on that list," Gates said.

Gates has previously used shock tactics to draw attention to his disease-battling efforts.

In 2009, he loosed mosquitoes at a Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Conference in California to make a point about the deadly sting of malaria -- waiting a minute or so before assuring the audience the liberated insects were disease-free.

"Poop in hand, Bill Gates backs China's toilet revolution" AFP. Nov. 6, 2018

life's too short for PowerPoint

Inspiring people is my job. I recognize I need to do this on multiple levels all the time. On an individual level, I try to enter most conversations thinking: How do I leave this person inspired to do amazing things — to believe in themselves and the work they are doing. I don’t always get it right, but I try. I believe being authentic is key, too. People want to feel a sense of belonging, safety and shared purpose. To really unlock that, you need to allow them to see the real you.

I also need to communicate, communicate, communicate. In theory, you could do everything on video these days. But I don’t think inspiration works that way. So when I travel to a market, I try to connect with as many people as possible through town halls and “working the work.” I don’t come to judge what people are doing. I roll up my sleeves and help them solve their biggest problems. Life’s too short for PowerPoint presentations — there are real problems to solve!

Syl Saller

"'Life's Too Short For PowerPoint': CMO Leadership Talk With Diageo's Syl Saller" by Thomas Barta.  Forbes.  Feb. 24, 2017.

make your presentations public

Within two hours of the keynote Apple made the video of the entire two-hour presentation available on its website. It’s not buried on the site, either. It’s on the home page. Presentations are now part of your brand’s story and marketing message. Post the slides on your website and on a sharing site such as Slideshare.net. The slides bring your brand story to life.

Carmine Gallo

“10 Presentation Techniques You Can (And Should) Copy From Apple's WWDC Keynote.” Forbes. 6/11/2013

time behind the scenes

Practice. A lot. A 20-minute demo and product launch can take up to 250 hours at Apple. That includes the time spent on creating the story line, designing slides, testing the demo, and on-stage rehearsals. Apple’s slides are brilliant and the presenters are smooth and ‘effortless’ because speakers and designers spend a lot of time behind the scenes to get everything just right.

Carmine Gallo

“10 Presentation Techniques You Can (And Should) Copy From Apple's WWDC Keynote.” Forbes. 6/11/2013

a Twitter-friendly headline

My favorite communication technique is what I call the Twitter-friendly headline. Whenever you launch a new product or service, clearly summarize it in one short sentence, preferably under 140 characters so it’s easily tweeted. Apple executives do this for every product announcement. The new iOS 7 was no exception. Twice in the presentation Tim Cook said, “iOS 7 is the biggest change to iOS since the iPhone.” Now take a look at a few tweets from popular media brands:

     @Mashable: Apple unveils iOS 7, ‘biggest change since the original iPhone.’

     @HuffPostTech: A look at iOS 7, the biggest change to iOS since the introduction of the iPhone.

     @USATODAY: Tim Cook calls iOS7 the biggest change to iOS since the introduction of the iPhone.

The Twitter headline works every time. Create one.

Carmine Gallo

“10 Presentation Techniques You Can (And Should) Copy From Apple's WWDC Keynote.” Forbes. 6/11/2013

stick to the 10-minute rule

University of Washington researcher, John Medina... once told me that no matter how engaging you are, your audience will begin to tune out of your conversation after about 10 minutes. That doesn’t mean you can’t reign them back in, but if you drone on and on you will most likely lose their attention.

Apple does a nice job of building in “soft breaks” to maintain the attention of the audience. [Tim] Cook didn’t speak for much more than ten minutes at a time. He would break up his slides with another speaker or a video. All the Apple speakers stuck to the rule. During his introduction of the new operating system, OS X Mavericks, Federighi included two demonstrations, both lasting under 10 minutes and both about 10 minutes apart. Although Federighi held the stage for more than 10 minutes, he provided soft breaks and kept the flow moving nicely: Slides-demo-slides-demo-slides.

Carmine Gallo

“10 Presentation Techniques You Can (And Should) Copy From Apple's WWDC Keynote.” Forbes. 6/11/2013

stick to one theme per slide

The designers behind Apple’s presentation slides once told me they stick to one theme per slide. Don’t try to cram too much content—too many ideas—on one slide. That goes for statistics, too. For example, think about how many slides you would create if you delivered the following idea: “The developer program is incredibly vibrant. We have over six million registered developers. Demand for this show has never been greater. We sold out in just over a minute [71 seconds].” Most people would put the two statistics, 6 million and 71 seconds, on one slide. Apple CEO, Tim Cook, had two slides. The first one simply read: 6 million. The second slide read: 71 seconds. The second slide also had the words “Sold Out” in red (see below). If a statistic is important enough for you to deliver and you want your audience to recall the data point, then it deserves its own slide.

Carmine Gallo

“10 Presentation Techniques You Can (And Should) Copy From Apple's WWDC Keynote.” Forbes. 6/11/2013