5.3. OUTLINE YOUR CONTENT
When it's time to outline your content, you must shut your creative side out of the room. If it tries to get in, have a bouncer punch it in the stomach. The creative work is done; now it's time to incorporate this artistic material into a factual, well-researched body of information so that the audience can learn something, not just be entertained.
Your outline is your court case. We're not thinking out of the box anymore; we're thinking if/then, cause and effect, logic and reason. I'm not devaluing creativity; after all, we've spent days on the creative process. But we have to put a serious face on at some point. If you're not going to provide the aforementioned inflatable ball pit, you'd better provide something meaningful. Really, it's one or the other.
Outlines need structure to balance the tangential mind. Human beings are capable of connecting thousands of bits of information to one idea (which is overwhelming) and of finding great importance in other ideas despite a lack of supporting information (which is vexing). I work in groups of threes so that my presentations have balance. There are three reasons what I'm saying is true; there are three illustrations for each reason; and there are three things I want you to do, now that you understand.
If I can't come up with more than two reasons, illustrations, or actions, I know that I don't have a complete thought and it's back to brainstorming on that one. If I can't narrow it down to three key points in any given area, then I might not understand my own content. Since that will come through during the presentation, it's back to the drawing board again. (Note: If you have been asked by a board member to present on the four guiding principles of the company, please do not engage in an argument about distilling those principles down to a tidy three. Just deal with it.)
From a bird's eye view, we're talking about the classic thesis paper format we learned in high school: introduction, thesis statement (objective), supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion that demonstrates the implications of the information. Don't worry if this sounds elementary; I actually imagine that a 10-year-old is in the back of every room I speak to. My mission when on stage is not to stun the audience with illustrious vocabulary and capacity for arcane bits of knowledge. It is to efficiently transmit a valuable concept or idea to their heads with as little interference as possible. If a 10-year-old can't follow me, then an adult whose attention is split between his or her BlackBerry and my voice can't, either. I work hard to be entertaining so that the smartphones don't come out, but have you played with these things? They're ridiculously addictive, so keep the content simple.
A study of the accessibility of three computer industry magnates—Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Michael Dell—illustrates this point beautifully. Jobs' presentations have been pegged at a fifth grade difficulty level—slightly older than my imaginary 10-year-old. Gates speaks at a ninth grade level, Dell at an eleventh grade level. Jobs' Apple Corporation is taking over the world, Microsoft is progressing at a slightly lesser speed, and Dell certainly trails in third place. If we have big dreams, we need large groups of people—clients, consumers, coworkers, or citizens—to help us. The larger these groups, the more important it is that we keep our content simple and direct. With luck, the Presentation Revolution will have us all speaking on an infantile level one day, with flashing lights and baby talk. Just imagine what we can accomplish then!
Every portion of your outline—introduction, thesis, supporting points, and conclusion—serves a master: the clearly identified objective(s) we started with. With that in mind, here is how to use each section:
Introduction. A brief moment of connection or levity, the introduction allows you to be a human being instead of a data-spewing machine. Establish the metaphor or analogy that you'll be using as a ground wire for the remainder of the presentation. Comfort the audience by explaining what you'll be doing for the next 45 minutes, hour, or however long you have. Make it fun, make it snappy, but most of all, make it original and poignant. Your introduction should build to one irrefutable conclusion: that you will meet the objective for the day.
Thesis. This irrefutable conclusion is your thesis, and it uses the story from your introduction's theme to concisely establish that you have whatever the audience is looking for. A hotel chain is looking to save money with a new soap manufacturer; like SPAM, your soap is cheap, lasts forever, and contains less than 2 percent real meat. Perhaps during your brainstorming session you can come up with something more palatable. I'm not giving my best ideas away for free here.
Supporting Points. This is your opportunity to prove that you don't just travel all over the globe speaking in superlatives and hoping some poor corporation abhors due diligence and buys your soap. In your three supporting points, you will begin to establish the cold, hard facts that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you, your product, or your company do whatever it is you promise to do. You say your soap is cheap? How about a comparative analysis of cost between your product and the top competitors in the industry? (Note: these are your supporting points, not those of some independent third party. You have control over perspective; does the soap cost more but last even longer? Or maybe it doesn't last as long, but since most guests steal the soap, paying for longevity is tantamount to wasted money in the hospitality world. Truth is, indeed, relative now. Your supporting points help the audience know how to view the facts and figures.)
Conclusion. The average adult's short-term memory allows the storage of information (without practice) for a few seconds to about a minute or so. This is limited to seven pieces of information. Even if it were five minutes and 30 pieces of information, the ramifications of this mental iniquity are obvious for presenters: you've just handed a body of information to a group of adults who haven't been able to hold onto any seven pieces for longer than a minute or so (at best). If you don't find a way to recap everything you've discussed at the end, you may as well have done the entire presentation with your best impersonation of Charlie Brown's teacher.
Don't get bogged down when you're so close to the end. Recap your thesis and supporting points, keeping them neatly in the story you set up with the introduction. Don't worry about reviewing the details of your supporting points: while your audience may not be able to repeat verbatim the significant data points on each slide, they'll have a strong sense that you made a clear and logical argument. The conclusion is simply a brief review of what just happened: We gathered together because of this problem, I put the problem in terms you could understand, explained why I have the solution for your problem, and then provided proof of my solution to you. Here's how you get in touch with me and sign the contract that will make me partner.
We've just gone through a structure that will ensure that you consistently give targeted, relevant presentations that don't ruin any days. Through clarifying and brainstorming, content takes on fresh, original, and arresting qualities. Our outline makes the form serve the function, the art serve the objective.
So what now?