Chapter 3. Omniscient View

Let's establish something: Just because the Presentation Revolution is fomenting throughout the world, you don't have to hunker over your laptop and projector in fear that wild-eyed hooligans are going to throw Molotov cocktails on stage and loot your setup. Audiences are not upending conference tables or burning huge piles of complimentary hotel notepads. Physical danger is not imminent.

But every revolution makes someone mortally terrified or, at least, mildly uncomfortable. However, the Presentation Revolution has moved beyond discomfort. Several years ago it was making the old guard feel as though they'd been on a one-hour road trip; now, it's post-sugar, toddler-rage frightening. It will not be stopped; it will not be ignored; it will eat its cupcake and yours, too.

If the old guard (for example, individuals clinging to bullet-pointed PowerPoint presentations in the same way that a skeleton in the desert might still clutch a phony tonic purchased to guard against thirst) is not in danger of physical harm, what exactly should they fear? Oblivion is the fearsome wound most notably inflicted by the revolutionaries. Handed out like Depends at a bingo marathon, these energetic storytellers are taking their ideas, brands, and products to the world; they see need, and they see opportunity. The damage to the old guard is far worse than destruction; it is exclusion.

As New York Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman has illustrated, the world is now flat. Everyone is equal; opportunity abounds. You may have 40 years of experience in commercial trucking, but a small upstart working out of a two-bedroom home can win your best client if you let it out-present you. The best presenters are selling nothing less than unconditional love and acceptance. That is exactly how it feels to participate in a fantastic presentation.

Joining the revolution isn't a decision to enlist in anything. There are no forms, no dues, no initiations or minimum hours. Joining the revolution occurs the moment you make a decision to honor the process.

You won't believe in the revolution after a near-death experience; you won't wake up in the middle of the night with a presentation epiphany. The decision to join is far more calculated, and far simpler, than we might think. You don't do anything. So what is happening?

An opportunity comes along that you cannot lose—whether for ego, bank account, or a job. A magical transformation occurs in your mind, and the presentation becomes vastly important. Every transformation I've seen has come out of a similar, "I or my lifestyle will cease to exist," sort of bind. Thus, raising your expectations for excellence will make you a revolutionary faster; lowering your expectations will delay it. Simply put: We think about presentations in a new light when it's lights out if we don't.

The revolution has no hub. There is no central office or communications department. The revolution's message exists solely in the hearts and minds of the individuals pressing forward, putting in the hours, and getting outside any boxes that make them feel a little too similar to the competition. It's your revolution, and it's mine.

This is a key realization because, as soon as our zeal motivates the pointer finger to perform the regrettable double-click on the PowerPoint icon, we want rules, hierarchies, and formulas. It's akin to the sudden awareness that peeling potatoes is actually a vital part of winning wars. Glory receives 99 percent of the press and 1 percent of our energy. The rest is setup and teardown.

When I ask you to join the revolution, I'm not asking for a fundamental shift in how you do business. Your success up to this point is predicated on your methods and your expertise. I'm simply asking you to raise your expectations. If you've been living as though there isn't much to gain from a great presentation, just imagine where you can go from here.

Without a single unified ideology directing the revolution, what, exactly, are we shooting for? Arming incompetent fools with tactics to swindle the masses hardly sounds like a great idea; it's like giving Segway scooters to rodeo clowns. How long will it take for us to arrive at the conclusion that agitated bulls and frivolous bipeds don't mix, regardless of the available technology?

Revolutionizing the presentation is essentially revolutionizing business; the scope is larger, which makes unifying theories irrelevant and binding. Presentations are conversations between the presenter and the audience about perception: How good are you at your job? How can I believe you? What about the other guys who say they are better? How should I decide?

Although one person speaks the entire time, these unspoken statements and questions are a real, living force in the room. Your ability to anticipate and answer the most important questions in the room—the ones that aren't asked—is the key to delivering a knockout presentation. Sometimes, the most powerful question in the room is, "Why am I here?" Answering that one makes you a presentation god.

As the digital age advances, consumers are becoming more empowered and more educated. I can use Google to find 16 local retailers for tires, plus another 50 online resources with blogs educating me on size, tread, brand reviews, and gas-saving tire tips. Facebook is there to remind me that my buddy is in the business. And though we have unprecedented access to information, we still have that same old desire to connect over business. At the end of the day, no matter how much I learn about tires, I still have to buy them from a human being who has to put them on my car. We are all generalists in the digital age. We know enough to ask the right questions, but never enough to do it all ourselves.

The presentation is changing with the world. Educated audiences are better audiences: When you don't have to start with Topic 101, you have the opportunity to display your expertise by being interactive, more creative, and deeper. In the omniscient view—the broad, history-encompassing, 30,000-foot view—the Presentation Revolution is a subsidiary of the Communication Revolution. Next year's business legends will be the ones that fought it out in the lecture halls and auditoriums all across the globe, digging deep to find new ways to do one thing: Reach out and touch someone, no matter what the topic. They'll do so partly by exploiting the opportunities technology has opened, and mostly by ignoring technology and aiming at the unchanging principles of humanity.

In other words—this is happening. Today, everything is available, all the time. Business doesn't wait till tomorrow; if it doesn't come to you, it's because someone else grabbed it first. The question that remains is what, exactly, you and I plan to do about it.