How can I express myself more clearly at work?
November 14, 2024 4:52 AM Subscribe
At work, I find myself having a hard time communicating in a clear, concise, actionable way. I love digging through data and creating reports and
analyses, but when it comes time to present them or to answer questions, I either drone on about the detail, or I freeze and flub. How can I express myself more clearly at work, when I'm very detailed and have jumbly thoughts?
A couple of examples:
- Last week I had a meeting with the marketing team to review a profit analysis I'd worked on. Instead of summarizing and showing them the bottom line and letting the conversation flow into next steps, I launched immediately into all of the assumptions behind the the analysis I did. I didn't even do that in a clear way, I jumped around a spreadsheet and the thought process I'd had. In part I did this because I wanted to make sure they were aligned with the assumptions, and I wasn't sure that they understood how all of it fit together either. But I didn't lay a neat groundwork or say things that could have been constructive like "Product A costs less than Product B because it doesn't use X material" or "This is the price assumption I used as a placeholder but if we increase it by $X it would improve our profit by X %"
- Yesterday I met with my boss about another analysis I'd done. He wanted to know how much we have left to spend in our budget. Once again I started jumping through different spreadsheets and explaining how I'd gotten to a certain point. It was ok to do this with him, because he can follow it, and because he's sometimes looking for data himself to support or build his own viewpoint, and not a final "work product". But what I struggled with was keeping track of some changes he organically asked to do (for example: Area A, B and C haven't spent their budget so we'll give some of it to X area and some of it to Y area and our full year should come out to be $X less). Also at the end of the meeting, he did something that I'm not able to do but wish I could: He quickly summarized some of the key conclusions from our meeting.
A few observations:
- Inherently I know that while the detail is important, most people don't care or have time to understand how you got from point A to point B, unless it's crucial. But my nature is to want to explain and make sure that others know what I know.
- Sometimes my spreadsheets get too detailed and unwieldy, and especially in meetings, and it's hard to update information quickly when I'm trying to catch every point that was made. The more unwieldy a spreadsheet as well, the more likely I am to have made an error.
- I don't take time to explain figures high level to myself, and miss the big picture completely sometimes. I get bogged down in the numerous "what ifs"
- I rely on the numbers themselves to tell a story and probably don't talk to other people enough about what's going on that might explain more about those what ifs. I could be more curious and interested instead of being mechanical in my approach.
- Part of the reason I don't talk to other people as much as I should is because I'm afraid my questions are too detailed in themselves or will come off sounding dumb. So I revert into getting into more detail to explain it to myself. It's a perpetuating cycle.
What are your tips to be more high level, see the big picture, and communicate clearly?
A couple of examples:
- Last week I had a meeting with the marketing team to review a profit analysis I'd worked on. Instead of summarizing and showing them the bottom line and letting the conversation flow into next steps, I launched immediately into all of the assumptions behind the the analysis I did. I didn't even do that in a clear way, I jumped around a spreadsheet and the thought process I'd had. In part I did this because I wanted to make sure they were aligned with the assumptions, and I wasn't sure that they understood how all of it fit together either. But I didn't lay a neat groundwork or say things that could have been constructive like "Product A costs less than Product B because it doesn't use X material" or "This is the price assumption I used as a placeholder but if we increase it by $X it would improve our profit by X %"
- Yesterday I met with my boss about another analysis I'd done. He wanted to know how much we have left to spend in our budget. Once again I started jumping through different spreadsheets and explaining how I'd gotten to a certain point. It was ok to do this with him, because he can follow it, and because he's sometimes looking for data himself to support or build his own viewpoint, and not a final "work product". But what I struggled with was keeping track of some changes he organically asked to do (for example: Area A, B and C haven't spent their budget so we'll give some of it to X area and some of it to Y area and our full year should come out to be $X less). Also at the end of the meeting, he did something that I'm not able to do but wish I could: He quickly summarized some of the key conclusions from our meeting.
A few observations:
- Inherently I know that while the detail is important, most people don't care or have time to understand how you got from point A to point B, unless it's crucial. But my nature is to want to explain and make sure that others know what I know.
- Sometimes my spreadsheets get too detailed and unwieldy, and especially in meetings, and it's hard to update information quickly when I'm trying to catch every point that was made. The more unwieldy a spreadsheet as well, the more likely I am to have made an error.
- I don't take time to explain figures high level to myself, and miss the big picture completely sometimes. I get bogged down in the numerous "what ifs"
- I rely on the numbers themselves to tell a story and probably don't talk to other people enough about what's going on that might explain more about those what ifs. I could be more curious and interested instead of being mechanical in my approach.
- Part of the reason I don't talk to other people as much as I should is because I'm afraid my questions are too detailed in themselves or will come off sounding dumb. So I revert into getting into more detail to explain it to myself. It's a perpetuating cycle.
What are your tips to be more high level, see the big picture, and communicate clearly?
The good news is that, in my experience, it is easier to get detail-oriented people to add a higher-abstraction-level framing than to get big-picture people to nail down specifics. So here are some tips to make your presentations more understandable and clear to more people.
- Don't use spreadsheets for presentations. Think of them as the scratch paper where you do calculations. Only present the results and directly relevant details. It's very hard to follow people around spreadsheets, there's too much information, it's unclear what is relevant, where to look, and it's often hard to read due to the font size.
- Put the big picture first and then add details as needed, not the other way around. The presentation does not have to be a chronological sequence of what you did. Give people a mental framework first on which they can hang any relevant details. Here's how you could do that:
1) State the question (e.g., what's left of the budget).
2) Show the result (X $).
3) At a very high level, back it up with how that result comes about (A = a$ out of a1$ budgeted, B is ... , C is ...; they sum up to X out of budgeted Y).
4) Any caveats/assumptions that are big enough to impact the result significantly.
5) Any recommendations resulting from the analysis.
Ask yourself questions like
- What do we want to find out?
- How can we find that out?
- What is the minimal information needed to show (and thus on the recipient's side, understand) the result? E.g. What would the axes and lines be in a chart to answer the question?
- What are game-changer/show-stopper assumptions if they are wrong?
- What is the goal of the question? (E.g., we want to stay within the budget as much as possible or something similar that prompted your boss to think of budget transfer solutions)
Try to understand all this yourself before you present. Try the Feynman method (explain it to a hypothetical 5-year old, if you can't get to that level of simplicity, you haven't understood it enough) or rubber-duck programming (explain everything out loud to some inanimate object, it will become much more clear what it is you're missing, where you need to leave out details that obstruct more than they help).
posted by meijusa at 5:52 AM on November 14 [6 favorites]
- Don't use spreadsheets for presentations. Think of them as the scratch paper where you do calculations. Only present the results and directly relevant details. It's very hard to follow people around spreadsheets, there's too much information, it's unclear what is relevant, where to look, and it's often hard to read due to the font size.
- Put the big picture first and then add details as needed, not the other way around. The presentation does not have to be a chronological sequence of what you did. Give people a mental framework first on which they can hang any relevant details. Here's how you could do that:
1) State the question (e.g., what's left of the budget).
2) Show the result (X $).
3) At a very high level, back it up with how that result comes about (A = a$ out of a1$ budgeted, B is ... , C is ...; they sum up to X out of budgeted Y).
4) Any caveats/assumptions that are big enough to impact the result significantly.
5) Any recommendations resulting from the analysis.
Ask yourself questions like
- What do we want to find out?
- How can we find that out?
- What is the minimal information needed to show (and thus on the recipient's side, understand) the result? E.g. What would the axes and lines be in a chart to answer the question?
- What are game-changer/show-stopper assumptions if they are wrong?
- What is the goal of the question? (E.g., we want to stay within the budget as much as possible or something similar that prompted your boss to think of budget transfer solutions)
Try to understand all this yourself before you present. Try the Feynman method (explain it to a hypothetical 5-year old, if you can't get to that level of simplicity, you haven't understood it enough) or rubber-duck programming (explain everything out loud to some inanimate object, it will become much more clear what it is you're missing, where you need to leave out details that obstruct more than they help).
posted by meijusa at 5:52 AM on November 14 [6 favorites]
I recommend Storytelling with Data by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic. She has a number of books (“Storytelling with You” might be the most relevant to you), a great podcast, and a number of other resources.
posted by Kriesa at 6:00 AM on November 14 [2 favorites]
posted by Kriesa at 6:00 AM on November 14 [2 favorites]
A big part of my job is answering questions on the fly in a fairly high pressure environment and we prep answers in advance. The general rules I follow for answers are:
1. Point first. Start with the conclusion, then support it, so you have already said the most important thing up front.
2. Aim for no more than three sentences in an answer. The conclusion, the key info that supports that conclusion and then, if necessary, a sentence that explains where the key info comes from.
3. If you have additional detail you might need, keep it on hand, but keep it distinct from your three sentence answer. I use documents laid out in tables where the first column is key words from the expected question so I can find it, the second column is the three sentence answer and the third column is additional detail - I don't delve into the third column unless asked for more info about something I said in column two.
Using a made-up example, this might look something like this, except as columns:
Projected revenue
Industry-wide revenue is likely to continue to decline next year. You can see on page two, that the model predicts 4-6% lower revenue next year across all players. This is based on the trend over the past five years.
-- revenues are shifting to online providers, away from traditional players
-- trend started pre-pandemic, accelerated in 2020 and our prediction is based on that trend
-- 2019 revenues were 27% higher than this year, page three has details for each year by segment
-- no sign of a plateau yet but we expect one at some point in the future
-- chart on page 4 shows different outcomes based on different scenarios
posted by jacquilynne at 6:00 AM on November 14 [10 favorites]
1. Point first. Start with the conclusion, then support it, so you have already said the most important thing up front.
2. Aim for no more than three sentences in an answer. The conclusion, the key info that supports that conclusion and then, if necessary, a sentence that explains where the key info comes from.
3. If you have additional detail you might need, keep it on hand, but keep it distinct from your three sentence answer. I use documents laid out in tables where the first column is key words from the expected question so I can find it, the second column is the three sentence answer and the third column is additional detail - I don't delve into the third column unless asked for more info about something I said in column two.
Using a made-up example, this might look something like this, except as columns:
Projected revenue
Industry-wide revenue is likely to continue to decline next year. You can see on page two, that the model predicts 4-6% lower revenue next year across all players. This is based on the trend over the past five years.
-- revenues are shifting to online providers, away from traditional players
-- trend started pre-pandemic, accelerated in 2020 and our prediction is based on that trend
-- 2019 revenues were 27% higher than this year, page three has details for each year by segment
-- no sign of a plateau yet but we expect one at some point in the future
-- chart on page 4 shows different outcomes based on different scenarios
posted by jacquilynne at 6:00 AM on November 14 [10 favorites]
For me, the initial thing i want to present is the key points which are going to be questions that can be explained succinctly.
What is the total or result? ( how much money left in the budget?)
What is the current trend of spending( over, under, upward trend , downwards trend)
What went well? ( two sentacnces)
What is concerning ( two sentances).
Then given the time constraints of the presentation you go into more detail. It doesn't matter exactly how much work you did or what was interesting or how you did it unless you have the time and an audience who wants to know these things.
Depending on who you are speaking with you can concider where to go.
It's completely fine to have a meeting in which you discuss big picture questions! But that should be the intended purpose of that meeting. But if you are leading an presentation to a bunch of department heads who want to know how much they can spend , the rest of the information is fairly inconsequential.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:04 AM on November 14 [1 favorite]
What is the total or result? ( how much money left in the budget?)
What is the current trend of spending( over, under, upward trend , downwards trend)
What went well? ( two sentacnces)
What is concerning ( two sentances).
Then given the time constraints of the presentation you go into more detail. It doesn't matter exactly how much work you did or what was interesting or how you did it unless you have the time and an audience who wants to know these things.
Depending on who you are speaking with you can concider where to go.
It's completely fine to have a meeting in which you discuss big picture questions! But that should be the intended purpose of that meeting. But if you are leading an presentation to a bunch of department heads who want to know how much they can spend , the rest of the information is fairly inconsequential.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:04 AM on November 14 [1 favorite]
Inherently I know that while the detail is important, most people don't care or have time to understand how you got from point A to point B, unless it's crucial. But my nature is to want to explain and make sure that others know what I know.
This is the root of your problem. You’re going into this thinking “well, of course ideally everyone would be able to follow me through this complicated formula, but alas this weary world just doesn’t have time or attention for it, so I will try despite myself to leave out these important facts even though really everyone ought to know them.”
I do exactly this type of work, and I am here to tell you: the detail is not important. It’s important TO YOU, but it is absolutely NOT important to the people you’re talking to. Not only is it not their job to understand the process in detail, it is actively detrimental to their understanding to try and cram that process into their brain, because the purpose of your position is to provide answers, not to pedagogically walk people through your elegant formulae.
Trust me, I get it - I genuinely love Excel and I love talking about it - but for 99% of my coworkers it is an absolute waste of their time to hear me talk about the beauty of Index Match, they just need to know the answer to the question they actually asked me.
posted by showbiz_liz at 6:25 AM on November 14 [8 favorites]
This is the root of your problem. You’re going into this thinking “well, of course ideally everyone would be able to follow me through this complicated formula, but alas this weary world just doesn’t have time or attention for it, so I will try despite myself to leave out these important facts even though really everyone ought to know them.”
I do exactly this type of work, and I am here to tell you: the detail is not important. It’s important TO YOU, but it is absolutely NOT important to the people you’re talking to. Not only is it not their job to understand the process in detail, it is actively detrimental to their understanding to try and cram that process into their brain, because the purpose of your position is to provide answers, not to pedagogically walk people through your elegant formulae.
Trust me, I get it - I genuinely love Excel and I love talking about it - but for 99% of my coworkers it is an absolute waste of their time to hear me talk about the beauty of Index Match, they just need to know the answer to the question they actually asked me.
posted by showbiz_liz at 6:25 AM on November 14 [8 favorites]
How to Think Fast Before You Speak: Framework Thinking
posted by diode at 6:32 AM on November 14 [2 favorites]
posted by diode at 6:32 AM on November 14 [2 favorites]
For presentations, PowerPoint is key.
Presenting
Benefits
Since this seems to be a regular presentation, put a lot of thought into building it. You may be using it with minor tweaks for a very long time.
Last but not least, make sure you have all the cables and that the projector works. If you start having tech problems, just drop the visual and read from your slides. Or just skip the projector part entirely and use your slides to stay organized while you talk.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 6:37 AM on November 14 [4 favorites]
- Creating A Slide Deck
- Brevity First
- Slides have a maximum of three points.
- The points should be short sentences.
- Bigger points should be broken down
- Brevity First
- Plans Are Worthless, But Planning Is Everything
- Feel free to throw away the deck.
- The point was to organize your thoughts.
- Or maybe hang onto the deck for later.
- This Seems Like A Lot Of Work
- Winging presentations is unprofessional.
- Your job is to be clearly understood.
- Keep things focused on the slides.
- People can hold their questions.
- Extra slides can anticipate those questions.
- Prep work will impress the audience.
- Having a plan will help you focus.
- Your stress level will be considerably lower.
Last but not least, make sure you have all the cables and that the projector works. If you start having tech problems, just drop the visual and read from your slides. Or just skip the projector part entirely and use your slides to stay organized while you talk.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 6:37 AM on November 14 [4 favorites]
Oh, and for those of us who like details the section above on breaking down your points into three short sentences is absolutely brutal. Painful sacrifices will need to be made. The audience will go forth into the world not knowing vital context and nuance.
My mantra there is “If they really care, they’ll ask me.“
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 6:49 AM on November 14 [3 favorites]
My mantra there is “If they really care, they’ll ask me.“
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 6:49 AM on November 14 [3 favorites]
I am someone who has to coordinate large events. If I walked you through my todo list to identify speakers, to identify a date that works for as many people as possible, to develop and get approval on event topic/title/description, etc, to pick a format (in person? Where? How much? When can we set up? Or online? Zoom or teams or ??) it would take forever.
Instead, I tell you the date, time, topic, location, and how to rsvp.
I recognize this is not tactical advice, but maybe it’s a perspective tool and a reminder that others deal with this problem too. Remember to focus on your audience’s needs rather than your process, and you’ll go far.
posted by samthemander at 6:50 AM on November 14 [1 favorite]
Instead, I tell you the date, time, topic, location, and how to rsvp.
I recognize this is not tactical advice, but maybe it’s a perspective tool and a reminder that others deal with this problem too. Remember to focus on your audience’s needs rather than your process, and you’ll go far.
posted by samthemander at 6:50 AM on November 14 [1 favorite]
It sounds to me like you're lumping a lot of skills together and expecting a lot of yourself because of that.
The presentation or meeting is a distinct product from the report or analysis, with its own goals, and therefore its own structure and preparation requirements. There's lots of good generic advice out there (and above) about creating effective communication products. That's one skill set you can learn.
Taking notes while presenting and summarizing a meeting quickly are their own skill set. And taking good notes while you're presenting is one I find particularly challenging. If I expect I'm going to need to do more than jot down quick thoughts when I'm presenting, I try to get someone else to take notes.
But there's lots of material on approaches to note taking and summarizing, and finding what works for you is important. If your employer doesn't have access to something like LinkedIn Learning, try an internet search and prioritize material coming out of university student services.
I would personally not be trying to update spreadsheets on the fly in meetings unless they're understood to be working sessions with time built in for me to shift gears like that. I would take notes on the changes and make them after the meeting.
As for asking people questions - at least where I work, a lot of colleagues would love a chance to get into the details of their work that they can't in meetings. It sounds like you're worried about asking questions exposing you, somehow. Try thinking of it as giving other people the gift of getting to share their expertise and see if that helps.
posted by EvaDestruction at 6:52 AM on November 14 [2 favorites]
The presentation or meeting is a distinct product from the report or analysis, with its own goals, and therefore its own structure and preparation requirements. There's lots of good generic advice out there (and above) about creating effective communication products. That's one skill set you can learn.
Taking notes while presenting and summarizing a meeting quickly are their own skill set. And taking good notes while you're presenting is one I find particularly challenging. If I expect I'm going to need to do more than jot down quick thoughts when I'm presenting, I try to get someone else to take notes.
But there's lots of material on approaches to note taking and summarizing, and finding what works for you is important. If your employer doesn't have access to something like LinkedIn Learning, try an internet search and prioritize material coming out of university student services.
I would personally not be trying to update spreadsheets on the fly in meetings unless they're understood to be working sessions with time built in for me to shift gears like that. I would take notes on the changes and make them after the meeting.
As for asking people questions - at least where I work, a lot of colleagues would love a chance to get into the details of their work that they can't in meetings. It sounds like you're worried about asking questions exposing you, somehow. Try thinking of it as giving other people the gift of getting to share their expertise and see if that helps.
posted by EvaDestruction at 6:52 AM on November 14 [2 favorites]
Agree on not using spreadsheets. I think you will need to un-jumble your thoughts and think about the problem at a higher level of abstraction in order to present successfully.
This is a skill that takes time. Over time and through interaction, you will develop a mental model of the person to whom you are presenting and what they find important. You can gather information about this by talking to your colleagues, and can think about their role in the organization and form some hypotheses about what matters to them.
Here's an exercise you could try: use text to speech or record yourself (if you're feeling brave, this is ideal) trying to explain the subject of your presentation in an impromptu, conversational style. Don't use any notes or look at your spreadsheets. Leave placeholders for specific high level numbers that are crucial to know.
Take the text to speech, pull out the key themes (excluding detail). Organize them into an outline. Strongly resist the urge to add details. Perhaps, you could use a table format and include notes on your perception of what's more important and why.
Share the outline with your boss or trusted colleague and ask whether there are any topics to be added, removed, emphasized, etc. Reorganize to put the most important points first, and move relatively unimportant topics to a separate document consisting of notes for yourself in case you are asked questions.
Then, turn that into slides or your presentation outline, and add the concrete details, assumptions, and caveats only as small notes. Don't let them obscure the main message.
Consider running through your slides with your boss or colleagues, especially at first and where the stakes are high. But it's always useful to get some input, don't hesitate to do it.
When it comes time to present, reassure yourself that: 1. If there's something you missed, they will ask. You do not need to and could never cover everything. 2. If you don't know the answer, it's okay to say that you want to nail down the analysis and will get back to them later with a written follow-up.
posted by lookoutbelow at 9:55 AM on November 14 [1 favorite]
This is a skill that takes time. Over time and through interaction, you will develop a mental model of the person to whom you are presenting and what they find important. You can gather information about this by talking to your colleagues, and can think about their role in the organization and form some hypotheses about what matters to them.
Here's an exercise you could try: use text to speech or record yourself (if you're feeling brave, this is ideal) trying to explain the subject of your presentation in an impromptu, conversational style. Don't use any notes or look at your spreadsheets. Leave placeholders for specific high level numbers that are crucial to know.
Take the text to speech, pull out the key themes (excluding detail). Organize them into an outline. Strongly resist the urge to add details. Perhaps, you could use a table format and include notes on your perception of what's more important and why.
Share the outline with your boss or trusted colleague and ask whether there are any topics to be added, removed, emphasized, etc. Reorganize to put the most important points first, and move relatively unimportant topics to a separate document consisting of notes for yourself in case you are asked questions.
Then, turn that into slides or your presentation outline, and add the concrete details, assumptions, and caveats only as small notes. Don't let them obscure the main message.
Consider running through your slides with your boss or colleagues, especially at first and where the stakes are high. But it's always useful to get some input, don't hesitate to do it.
When it comes time to present, reassure yourself that: 1. If there's something you missed, they will ask. You do not need to and could never cover everything. 2. If you don't know the answer, it's okay to say that you want to nail down the analysis and will get back to them later with a written follow-up.
posted by lookoutbelow at 9:55 AM on November 14 [1 favorite]
Can you build in time for a break between the analyzing/number crunching phase of your work and the presentation? I find that getting too into the details or over explaining my reasoning is much easier to do when I’ve just been spending time thinking about it- my brain just falls back into that groove much more easily. Taking a break lets you reset and get some distance from any agonizing you did over specific approaches etc. If possible, practice your presentation out loud and if you find yourself veering into too much detail, write it down, keep it in your notes in case someone asks for more detail, and practice saying “and I’d be happy to discuss that in more detail if you’re interested” and moving on.
posted by MadamM at 10:37 AM on November 14 [2 favorites]
posted by MadamM at 10:37 AM on November 14 [2 favorites]
my nature is to want to explain and make sure that others know what I know
Stop thinking of this as your unchangeable "nature".
Other people have different jobs. Your job is to know what you know. If everyone else knew what you know, why would they need you? Your job is to handle the knowing of what you know, other people's jobs are to handle their own stuff, and you only need to convey what they NEED to know.
They don't need to know everything, if they did know everything about what you know and do your job would be superfluous.
I revert into getting into more detail to explain it to myself.
You need an inanimate object to explain these things to, while you explain it to yourself. It is disrespectful to your coworkers to expect them to serve this function.
A rubber duck is traditional but you could use a different inanimate object or possibly a cat.
posted by yohko at 2:56 PM on November 14 [1 favorite]
Stop thinking of this as your unchangeable "nature".
Other people have different jobs. Your job is to know what you know. If everyone else knew what you know, why would they need you? Your job is to handle the knowing of what you know, other people's jobs are to handle their own stuff, and you only need to convey what they NEED to know.
They don't need to know everything, if they did know everything about what you know and do your job would be superfluous.
I revert into getting into more detail to explain it to myself.
You need an inanimate object to explain these things to, while you explain it to yourself. It is disrespectful to your coworkers to expect them to serve this function.
A rubber duck is traditional but you could use a different inanimate object or possibly a cat.
posted by yohko at 2:56 PM on November 14 [1 favorite]
Try organizing your presentation into an outline with higher-level entries (less-indented ones) having the summary of the details within, and only "open" to the lower levels if some asks for detail. There are software outlining tools around,, one such is Drummer, from Dave Winer, who has been creating outliners since the very early Mac days. Not a recommendation, as I haven't used it, but I did use his Little Outliner for a while, and it was pretty decent.
posted by TimHare at 8:43 PM on November 14 [1 favorite]
posted by TimHare at 8:43 PM on November 14 [1 favorite]
develop a mental model of the person to whom you are presenting and what they find important
This is key. Who's your audience?
Sumana's Rhetorical Triangle, adapted from the classical rhetorical triangle, says that if you are trying to communicate with someone, it helps to consider:
1. Audience: What do they already know, or want, or believe? What are they expecting?
2. Medium: What does this medium make it easy to do? Personal narrative is better than a straightforward lecture at evoking emotion and empathy. Text is more legible, searchable, quotable, skimmable, and accessible than a video or in-person lecture is, and thus, if I deliver a speech I care about, I publish a transcript. Charts are easier to quickly grasp than tables of numbers are. And so on.
3. Message: What do I want the audience to walk away believing, wanting, understanding, or capable of that they weren't before?
Try checking these three dimensions before your next presentation and see if it helps!
posted by brainwane at 10:10 PM on November 14 [3 favorites]
This is key. Who's your audience?
Sumana's Rhetorical Triangle, adapted from the classical rhetorical triangle, says that if you are trying to communicate with someone, it helps to consider:
1. Audience: What do they already know, or want, or believe? What are they expecting?
2. Medium: What does this medium make it easy to do? Personal narrative is better than a straightforward lecture at evoking emotion and empathy. Text is more legible, searchable, quotable, skimmable, and accessible than a video or in-person lecture is, and thus, if I deliver a speech I care about, I publish a transcript. Charts are easier to quickly grasp than tables of numbers are. And so on.
3. Message: What do I want the audience to walk away believing, wanting, understanding, or capable of that they weren't before?
Try checking these three dimensions before your next presentation and see if it helps!
posted by brainwane at 10:10 PM on November 14 [3 favorites]
Know your audience. The sales team will 100% believe every thing you say. The engineers will want to know every detail.
Organize the most important parts of that detail you worry about, perhaps under titles like assumptions and risks.
There are some things you are just not going to be able to deal with in a meeting. Think of that stuff as examples of expertise.
posted by SemiSalt at 4:30 AM on November 15 [2 favorites]
Organize the most important parts of that detail you worry about, perhaps under titles like assumptions and risks.
There are some things you are just not going to be able to deal with in a meeting. Think of that stuff as examples of expertise.
posted by SemiSalt at 4:30 AM on November 15 [2 favorites]
SITUATION - I often run novel analyses, and have to get through similar presentations where I both explain the situation, the analysis, and the result.
COMPLICATION - I also have adhd, and I think that is part of my difficulty seeing the big picture, and my fear of making mistakes.
RESOLUTION / RECOMMENDATION - I find it useful to summarize my message by using one sentence each to describe Situation, Complication, and Resolution /Recommendation. My listener can ask more questions if needed, and I feel I've communicated the whole story.
posted by rebent at 3:55 PM on November 15 [1 favorite]
COMPLICATION - I also have adhd, and I think that is part of my difficulty seeing the big picture, and my fear of making mistakes.
RESOLUTION / RECOMMENDATION - I find it useful to summarize my message by using one sentence each to describe Situation, Complication, and Resolution /Recommendation. My listener can ask more questions if needed, and I feel I've communicated the whole story.
posted by rebent at 3:55 PM on November 15 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thank you all for the excellent replies! I found useful nuggets in each of them and will be referring back to this thread in the future. I've already used a couple of bits of advice, like using a spreadsheet more as scratch paper and taking a few minutes to prepare what I would say (this led to a successful albeit brief exchange in a meeting on Friday).
Also very helpful was the reminder to know my audience and my role in working with them. I'm looking fwd to trying out the various outline/framework examples soon too!
posted by watrlily at 9:34 AM on November 16
Also very helpful was the reminder to know my audience and my role in working with them. I'm looking fwd to trying out the various outline/framework examples soon too!
posted by watrlily at 9:34 AM on November 16
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1. write a script
2. practice the script, out loud, 20+ times
3. memorize your elevator pitch
Edit ruthlessly. ("clear, concise, actionable way" — pick one word. "very detailed and have jumbly thoughts", "digging through data and creating reports and analyses", "detailed and unwieldy" — stop allowing yourself conjunctions.)
Drill until it's natural. Really. It works.
Early in your work, take the time to explain it to yourself. Write down the one-sentence summary and then get back to detail work. Revise the sentence later if necessary. End the head-in-the-details phase earlier to make sure you have time to write a high-level script you can practice and an elevator pitch you can memorize.
Keep your summary and your detail work in separate documents (even separate programs, e.g. spreadsheet vs presentation) so at meeting time you have an anchor.
posted by daveliepmann at 5:22 AM on November 14 [15 favorites]