REFLECTING THE PYRAMID ON A SCREEN

Given a choice, most people would elect to present the ideas in their pyramid orally, rather than as written prose. At the back of their minds lies the assumption that a visual presentation is simply a report in slide form. Thus, they see the job as one of translating the pyramid into clean text slides, perhaps supported by a few exhibits, which they will stand up and explain. Would that it were so.

The trouble is that a visual presentation is given to a live audience, often seated in less than totally comfortable surroundings, and usually wishing it were elsewhere. This audience is not only capable of unpredictable responses, it is totally open to any distraction. Thus a big part of your job is to ensure that you anticipate their responses, keep their attention, and make them eager to take in your message. In other words, you have to entertain them. And entertaining an audience for a business presentation demands much the same kind of artistry as any other form of entertainment.

You need to produce a “Show,'' and a show requires a star, a script, a storyboard, technically excellent visual elements, and consideration of such intangibles as timing, pacing, and suspense. Suddenly you need a whole set of skills that go way beyond a "report in slide form." Nevertheless, the typical slide produced for a business presentation tends to look something like that shown in the box below.

To begin with, we can see that this is a list rather than a set of related ideas summarized clearly with an insight. And seven of anything is too many. But armed with 50 or 60 slides of this type, the presenter then reads each word of each slide to the audience, boring it to death in the process. Or worse, the speaker changes the words from the way they appear on the screen, creating mass confusion.

What we have here is not a visual presentation, but a "visual recitation'' Gene Zelazny the guru of slide design puts it. The authors of the slides, however; defend it by pointing out "This way we don't forget anything" and "We have a handout at the end of the presentation."

Equipping business presenters with the skills to be effective entertainers requires hard work and serious training in public speaking and audience handling. And indeed many firms offer their employees courses in these areas. But anybody responsible for designing a business presentation should be aware of and able to execute the basic minimum required to keep the attention of a business audience:

- Text slides that contain only the most significant ideas, properly grouped and summarized, and stated as briefly as possible

- Supported by clear exhibits (charts, tables, or diagrams)

- Reflecting a well-thought-out storyboard and script.

You use two kinds of slides in a presentation-text and exhibits (charts, tables, or diagrams)-ideally with a ratio of 90% exhibits to 10%- text. Their roles are:

1. To clarify the structure of the presentation (text slide)

2. To emphasize important thought groups, such as conclusions, recommendations or next steps (text slide)

3. To demonstrate relationships that can't readily be made clear with words alone (exhibit).

I am not going to attempt to explain the intricacies of designing proper slides and giving an effective presentation. But I will refer you to Gene Zelazny's fine book Say it with Charts¹; to which I am indebted for most of the insights. (Gene has been for many years Director of Visual Communications for McKinsey & Company in New York.) And I will pass on some of the rules that Gene has developed for designing text slides and exhibits. I will also explain the approach I go through to move from the pyramid to a storyboard/script in designing slides for a presentation.

¹ Gene Zelazny. Say it with Charts, Irwin Professional Publishing: Burn Ridge, IL 60521, 1996.