I really like phrases.
Listed below are just a few of my favorites.
Begin.
Cloud.
Tremolo.
Horizon.
Swing.
Contraption.
Tintinnabulation.
I may go on. However the level of this publish is about being extra exact and disciplined with phrases.
Particularly in the case of displays.
Not too long ago, I did a presentation abilities workshop with one among our businesses.
It was fascinating.
I supplied up examples and frameworks, however one of the best a part of the day was when the individuals shared displays they’d finished.
The aim was to grasp how these presos may have been higher now that they’d realized some theories, frameworks and seen some examples of nice enterprise storytelling.
What was actually fascinating was the divide between the sensible, energetic and artistic individuals within the workshop and their meandering, uninteresting and overly verbose displays. (I current an excessive instance making the rounds on Twitter/X: this slide on the Pentagon’s procurement process!)
What’s with the phrases?
What’s worse, what’s with the wall of phrases on each slide?!
And the place have been the pictures? In any case, we all know the everlasting calculus: an image is price a thousand phrases.
As I watched and listened I stored asking myself, “What on the planet is that this particular person actually attempting to say?”
Shows are onerous. Lord is aware of, I’ve written and given my share of clinkers and stinkers.
My greatest commentary is that slides are both your buddy, or typically, your foe.
We rely far an excessive amount of on slides as a result of we don’t actually have the logic down.
A wall of phrases doesn’t inform the story.
We don’t have the story.
We don’t know what we actually need to say.
I’ll provide up one of many workout routines we did that simply would possibly provide help to.
We began our session by watching Amanda Gorman’s inauguration speech — her poem, “The Hill We Climb.”
After she delivered it, I requested the workforce: “What did you discover?”
The workforce got here again and commented on how emotional they felt, her presence, the facility of her phrases, her means to inform the story of our nation and her alacrity in providing up hope and optimism for the long run.
I captured these ideas and a complete lot extra on a whiteboard. And after the workforce had expressed all of their observations I posed a remaining query for the train.
“So, what did you consider Amanda’s PowerPoint slides?”
Rob Schwartz is the Chair of the TBWA New York Group and an govt coach who channels his creativity, expertise and knowledge into serving to others get the place they need to be. This was initially posted on his Substack, RobSchwartzHelps, the place he covers work, life, and creativity.
Picture by Brett Jordan on Unsplash.
