13 Presenting a Briefer Case
The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, and to have the two as close together as possible. —George Burns

Long story, short. See how a presentation as succinct as a general’s brief and svelte as a TED Talk can respect an audience and catch its attention.

Practicing What You Preach
The thought of hearing a long sermon probably doesn’t thrill you.
Imagine that you are sitting in a church and the preacher stands up at the podium and begins his remarks. Chances are, you’re thinking something like, “How long is this going to last? Is it going to mean anything to me? Will it be different from all the speeches I’ve heard before?”
Are you enthused? Or dreading that he might go on forever?
And when your fears become a reality, and the remarks have gone over an hour with no end in sight, do you think, “Why does praying feel so painful?”

So then why do the same thing to your captive audience when it’s time for you to give a presentation? Perhaps it’s out of vengeance, but what makes everyone think that bigger is better when it comes to speeches?
If the mere mention of the word presentations immediately triggers what your PowerPoint is going to include, then you need to think again. Your mind should instead leap to your audience’s needs and wants. Respect them.
However, few executives feel comfortable without the crutch of their slides when left standing alone in front of a room of people. Unfortunately, the people in your audience don’t care. They have even more on their minds and will check out mentally or grab their smartphones or tablets if you don’t get to the point.
Thankfully, we are seeing some relief on the horizon. New presentation formats from conferences like TED limit the presenters to no more than 18 minutes and dictate strict presenter guidelines.
In this chapter, experienced presenters will share their advice on effective communication in front of a desperate, distracted audience

The Discipline of Brevity
Brigadier General Rich Gross of the U.S. Army serves as legal counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In other words, he advises the highest-ranking military staff officer in the United States. Gross is a remarkable man for many reasons, but he’s also a rarity: he’s a lawyer that’s brief. And as he himself admits, “Lawyer’s briefs are never brief.”
The lives of those in the military are exponentially busier than those of most civilians. Gross is hyperaware that his updates need to fit into the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff’s tight schedule.

“National security problems are more complex and comprehensive,” Gross said. “And you have to combine that with the busy lives, the complex situations we face—then the onslaught of information, the 24-hour news cycle, the constant Blackberry, and cell phones and smartphones that are with us all of the time.”
Even though Gross deals with some of the most important and complicated national security legal problems, he is able to cut his updates to a page or less.
“We tend to think that complex issues can’t be brief,” he said. “But you have to realize how busy people are, and how much they have to retain about hundreds of issues at any given time. I constantly remind myself, ‘If I can say it in one page, that’s better than two. If half a page will do it, that’s better than one.’”
Gross also teaches at the University of Virginia Law School and Georgetown Law School. He cited the inefficient tendency lawyers have to include everything plus the kitchen sink when presenting a problem or a case.
“They make every possible argument they can to a court, hoping that one will stick,” he said. “One of the techniques that I teach and have always used in my own writing is ‘bottom line upfront.’ There’s nothing worse than a memo or a legal opinion from a lawyer that you have to read down to their signature block to figure out what the recommendation is.”
Gross lets readers of all his e-mails and documents know exactly what the topic is before they finish the first paragraph.
“Nobody gets past that first paragraph or that opening first minute or two of a briefing without having already ingrained in their minds where I’m going and what I need from them,” he said. “If you don’t tell them that up front and just start giving them the background details, then they’re not listening actively.”

He also pointed out that people usually make the mistake of assuming that everyone is on the same page when jumping into a topic or discussion. “We think everybody has the same experience and background that we do,” he explains.
If you don’t check to make sure everyone is up to date, some of your audience members might spend the majority of your presentation trying to orient themselves on the topic.
To prevent losing his audience before he even begins, Gross tries to put himself in the mind of his client or the audience.
“People say, ‘Know your audience.’ But you not only have to know them; you have to speak their language.”
According to Gross, being brief and effective takes fearless, militant discipline. Cast out the following excuses for untrained presentation skills.
1.You’re afraid of losing your audience. If people think they’re losing the audience, losing the argument, or not making the case that they need to make, they ramble. Prepare your presentation to be as convincing as possible and make sure everyone is caught up from the beginning. If you’ve done your homework properly, your point will drive itself home.
2.You’re devoted to the slides, not the content. Gross prefers avoiding PowerPoint. Instead, memorize your three key points and know the material backward and forward. This frees you from having to constantly glance back at a slide.
3.You’re afraid of missing the point. There’s no reason to be anxious that you won’t get all of the information out in a learning environment. As long as you reach your main argument, no one will be any wiser if you skip some details, especially if you don’t have PowerPoint slides to give you away.
4.You’re passionate about the topic. Passionate presenters want the audience to feel the same way they do. But being long-winded won’t help you get there. Strong, compelling, well-summarized ideas will.
5.You don’t have time to make an outline. This is never the case; there is always time to make an outline. Either in your head or on a napkin, decide on your presentation’s purpose, three key words, and the conclusion of your presentation. This is a crucial precursor for any successful presentation.

If a U.S. Army general can simplify and summarize the military’s complex legal points into a page or less, you have no excuse not to be brief. It may be challenging—but do the legwork beforehand to make your ideas as succinct and compact as possible.

Putting the Power Back in PowerPoint
Bernardo Valenzuela, vice president of the Chicago transportation equipment manufacturer Navistar, presented to his senior leaders about the company’s international expansion—in just seven slides.
Valenzuela noticed that some of the leaders who presented before him took hours to build their presentations, so he decided to do something different. “It was simple and logical, and it made a lot of sense to them,” he said. “I used the first three slides to discuss our current situation, give some background information, and present our opportunity. “The last slide caught their attention because it showed the leaders how much profit we could be making.”
Valenzuela’s presentation was so successful that the leaders later approached him for an encore.
“They called me that night and asked if I could do the presentation again,” he said.
Not only did Valenzuela distill his message to a half-dozen slides; he also structured his presentation to lead up to the final action item: the potential profit. Most executives are usually forced to listen to disorganized, lengthy, and inconclusive presentations. No wonder Valenzuela’s higher-ups were desperate to have him speak again.
Brevity saved the day in Valenzuela’s case, and demonstrated his value and objectivity to the top leaders of his company. He got their attention and, more importantly, their support.

Training as a TED Talk
TED is a set of global conferences focused on technology, entertainment, and design. As a part of the Sapling Foundation, TED presentations showcase videos of the best, most inspiring ideas in 18 minutes or less.
TED speakers and employees always use plain, short words; they know that being brief honors their audience’s time and attention. Their mission is simple—“ideas worth sharing.” And while your idea might be worthy, it’s the sharing part that gets tricky.
Emily McManus has been the editor of TED’s website since January 2007. To represent the brand’s philosophy online, McManus teaches her staff to whittle their content down to its essence, much as a TED speaker does.
“The idea of staying brief [and] staying current really requires a lot of effort up front,” McManus said. She explains that you need to invest time in honing your presentation’s structure and content. It’s all about timing the material to guide the audience through the necessary premises.
“By 5 minutes in, you need to get into the middle arc of your story,” McManus said. “The best thing you can do if you’re trying to compress is not try to tell the entire story of your entire field in 15 minutes. [Rather, you want to] give an intriguing single story.”

Once the people in the audience have been prepped with the right background information, give them the final message, take a bow, and then take a seat.
“The best speakers are the ones whose story has a beginning, a middle, and an end, but starts in the middle,” McManus said. “People who talk about very specialized subjects need the ability to give an overview of a field in a few minutes. They lay out some of the hard problems and then focus on one specific aspect of that problem.”
In a particularly memorable TED Talk, Elizabeth Gilbert tells her story about what is at play with creative genius. She muses about what makes people capable of breakthrough insights, focusing on her own unexpected publishing success and where it all comes from to produce a runaway idea (http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html).
Speaking to such a large audience is stressful, but putting in the proper work beforehand can help you capture your listeners with brevity. In addition, McManus recommends giving your text to people to review. They’ll likely catch the lapses in brevity you may have missed.

The less you say, the more likely you’ll be heard
A friend of mine once described his father in these terms: “My dad didn’t talk much when we were growing up, but when he said something, everybody paid attention. You didn’t miss what he had to say.” If we are careful, controlled, and conscious of the moment, we can say little and have people hear a lot.

“One of the techniques that I teach my staff members is to look for the verb. If they’re using a form of ‘to be,’ you’re probably missing a punchier, sexier, shorter verb.”
You can use official TED standards to make your presentation TED Talk-worthy. They state verbatim that “long talks, podiums and readings are discouraged” and maintain that a speaker should be able to write the idea in “one or two sentences.”
If you can’t meet that challenge, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board. For your next PowerPoint presentation, cut the number of slides you use in half. Then do it again. And again.
Even better, as we discussed in the previous chapter: present without slides.
Check out www.TED.com. Watch a few of the most popular talks. Notice how the speakers use simple, clear, and brief language.
If people in your audience want or need more information, they’ll come to you. As long as you value their time, they will see you as a treasured, objective source of information.
Long story, short. See how a presentation as succinct as a general’s brief and svelte as a TED Talk can respect an audience and catch its attention.