Before you build a presentation, and decide
upon the best way to present it, you need to plan the foundations. It’s like
building a house – without solid foundations, it’s all going to come tumbling
down on your head. So grab a flipchart and some sticky notes and work with your
team to flesh out the following five foundational stones:
1.
Subject – Define your subject and decide whether it is strategy-based
(i.e., it’s creating new direction for the company) or execution-based (i.e.,
it’s delivering on current strategy). Knowledge of one or the other will
dictate the likely level of detail and time-allocation for the presentation.
2.
Lifecycle – Determine whether your subject had a lifecycle. Many
long-term projects, for example, have pre-determined ‘stage gates’ that must
seek the approval of higher-management to pass through. If this is the case,
then you need to provide a review of pre-presentation decisions. This will also
help you determine the emphasis of ‘Why’, ‘What’ and ‘How’ deliverables in your
presentation content, which will change in emphasis depending upon where you
are in the lifecycle.
3. Objective
– Be clear about the outputs that you want from your presentation. What do you
want from your audience by the end of the presentation, at your stage in the
lifecycle?
4.
Dynamics – Ensure you are clear about the participation required between
yourself and your audience, in order to achieve your presentation objective. If
you’re asking for higher-management guidance, for example, then there may be
several discussion and decision points required throughout the presentation,
which will ultimately affect the timing of the presentation.
5.
Content – What content do you need in order to deliver your desired
output? Once you know what you need, you can then go out and seek this
information prior to beginning to craft your design.
You must have all these foundations in
place BEFORE you start to build if you are to ensure a smooth and focused
presentation.
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