A few weeks ago someone spoke a name that I hadn’t heard in a long, very long time: Barbara Minto. She’s the author of the Pyramid Principle, a book that was long considered, and sometimes still is, the gold standard of presentation structuring in the consulting industry. But it was back in the eighties. So I’ll dare to ask the question: is the pyramid principle outdated?
If you’re not familiar with the pyramid principle, it is a method to lay out the information in a presentation in the most efficient way possible, based on how people with little time, especially executives, absorb information. For example, one of the key techniques is to start by presenting the conclusion first, because the CEO doesn’t want to wait until the end to understand where you’re going. This, and the other techniques in the book, are still valid. They still work today. However, they are no longer sufficient to win the deal in the twenty-first century. Let me explain why.
Recently my computer, a MacBook Pro, needed to be repaired. I had to do without a laptop for several weeks. And of course, during those weeks I needed to present with slides. Luckily, with my iPhone and a couple of accessories I had everything I needed:
A (not too old) iPhone or iPad A lightning to HDMI adapter A lightning power cable and brick (using the HDMI adapter drains the battery fast). Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote for iOS Optionally, a Logitech Spotlight remote. Both Microsoft PowerPoint and Apple Keynote work like their computer cousins, and support all animations. I loaded my presentation on my iPhone, connected it to the screen using the HDMI adapter, and voilà! Probably the fastest and easiest way to project something. Even cooler, the iPhone supports the Logitech Spotlight presentation remote via Bluetooth, so I could use it to go advance the slides.
Seth Godin coined the term “meatball sundae” several years ago in a book that explained that putting two great things together does not always create something better. And in the worst case, such as a meatball sundae, it can actually create something nobody wants.
The meatball sundae presentation effect can happen at two levels: at the event level, and at the individual presentation level.
Let’s take Apple’s latest keynote as an example of the meatball sundae effect at the event level. Apple is a great meatball. Hollywood A-stars are great sundaes. But put together, the tastes of the two clashed in a way that was obvious to the most casual observers.
It may sound weird, but this is a question we get asked from time to time: “Do you know a prescription drug that would help me reduce my stress on stage?”
We’re not talking about illegal drugs, but legal drugs sold in pharmacies. There are a lot of those designed by pharmaceutical companies to reduce stress, anxiety, blood pressure, cardiac rhythm, etc. We are not doctors, so we cannot say anything about them from a medical perspective. But in the context of presentations, we don’t recommend any. We met a few people who unfortunately thought they couldn’t do without them. Looking back at their performance, we don’t think the drugs had any positive effect. They may have thought that it improved their performance on stage, but it didn’t. As the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Nile Rodgers once explained in an interview in the Guardian:
It’s a trick I learned when studying how movies and TV shows are written. You don’t do a flash back, you do a flash present. For presentations, that means that you don’t tell the story as something that is over; that makes the audience passive. Instead, you bring the scene from the past into the present, or you bring the audience to the past, and tell it as if it is happening right now. This allows the audience to actively relive the scene as it happened, and is a much more effective way to tell stories.
This March Andrea Pacini joined Ideas on Stage as UK Presentation Director, meaning that Ideas on Stage now has a direct presence in France, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom - and we serve the rest of the world from these four locations.
We sat down with Andrea for a short interview.
Q: What is your background? A: I am Italian, and I studied in Italy and Ireland. I then did an internship in Cambridge, where I fell in love with the UK and decided to stay there. I’ve been living in London for 6 years now. From a professional perspective, my background is sales and business development for international companies. In parallel I have worked to help others deliver great presentations.
The best presentations have three stakes, three reasons “why” they are important:
The first stake is about you: why is the topic important for you? This is the reason you, and not somebody else, is on stage to deliver the presentation. The second stake is about your audience: why is it important for them? This is the reason why your audience is there to listen to you instead of doing something else. This is why they should care about your topic. The third stake is about everyone else: why does it truly matter outside of the audience and you? What is the impact of your topic on the world? If you forget the first stake, then you will not feel engaged. If you forget the second stake, then your audience will not be interested. If you forget the third stake, then nobody else will care about your presentation.
“Don’t worry, I’m experienced, I speak at conferences all the time!” How many times have we heard that sentence from speakers who never did a TEDx style talk, yet think that, because of experience, they can just wing it? For us, it’s not reassuring. Quite the opposite, it’s a clear warning sign that the speaker doesn’t really know what is expected of him. Here are five warning signs that give you clues that your speaker may not be ready to give a TEDx style talk.
