Pruning Presentations

While coaching a presenter this week, I realized that the process of crafting a tight and concise presentation is like pruning a rose bush.

When a rose bush is left to nature, it branches out and grows in many directions. Some branches are strong and desirable, others go in directions that distract from the rose bush. As a gardener you decide which branches are desirable and most likely to provide the form you envision as well as most likely to yield the roses that you want to see. Then you prune off the remainder of the branches which are sapping energy from your desired vision.

Presentations, especially PowerPoint slides are "bushy". Slides have many random thoughts and lots of data which is loosely related to the point of the presentation.

A lot of my work as a coach is to help clients define their vision for the presentation. Answer this question "What message do you want your audience to leave with?". Then prune away all the other messages in your presentation and focus on growing slides that support your main message.

What about your presentations? Are you delivering "bushy" presentations? Isn't it time to take the pruning shears to your presentation - envision what you want and remove the remainder? The result is a stronger presentation which yields a memorable message to your audience.