succinct skills

We’ve all heard that less is more, but not when applied to today’s frenetic, fact-filled culture. Today we are constantly bombarded with information, garbage, information, garbage information. There is little “free space” left: with advertising embedded in the shopping cart, appearing on the computer screen, scrolling across the TV, you name it. Feeling like there’s hardly any room left in our minds, overloaded with unwanted information, we may feel like screaming, but it’s easier and less noticeable to flip the switch. Do not assimilate more. So, working with today’s overloaded minds, how do you get an audience to flip the “on” switch and deliver their own “very important” message?

“In an ancient Chinese legend, the emperor offers a reward to the man who has just invented the game of chess. The inventor modestly asks for one grain of rice on the first square of the chessboard, two grains on the next square, four grains on the third, and so on, doubling each square.The emperor, thinking this is a big deal, agrees to his request, only to realize later that square sixty-four would have enough grains of rice to cover the entire earth .headless inventory.” (Business 2.0July 2001)

Like Chinese rice, the amount of data that assails a person’s mind, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, is more than a mind begins to need. According to research from the University of California at Berkeley, the amount of digital information produced in the world today is doubling every two years. With information multiplying so quickly, when you present, it’s more important than ever to deliver more than just facts and data to your audience.

In Samurai Selling: the ancient art of sales service, the authors discuss research indicating that people tend to ignore all (yes, ALL) data when given more than they can process. Neuroscientists recently tested people for the effects of information overload and found these symptoms.

1) Irritation

2) Boredom

3) Inability to take decisive action

4) Generalized sense of “So what?”

5) Non-response

Don’t you desperately want to prevent any of those five symptoms from occurring in your hearing? So make your presentation on target, but also succinct. For that, you need to create a central thesis. Like writing a college paper: What are you trying to say? Make your message clear so no one falls asleep imagining the race they missed that morning or wondering how much more interesting the next speaker will be.

Here is an example of conciseness to the extreme. At the annual Webby Awards, which are given for achievement in website building, recipients have just five words to deliver their acceptance speech. At one of the recent awards ceremonies, after hearing countless abbreviated thanks, the audience waited for Al Gore, wondering what his response would be to his lifetime achievement award. He did not disappoint.

“Please don’t count this vote again,” he said. The message was clear…

Fortunately you will be working with more than five words.

An effective presentation is a well-organized presentation. For your presentation, organize it using the classic art of rhetoric, the art of persuasion, and its three main forms: logos (logic and reason), ethos (the character of the speaker), and pathos (emotion). Make sure you understand what your message is, then apply that understanding to a structure, even an outline, if that works for you. To give your presentation a hard, arrow-sharp edge, write each section with this thought in mind: What is my point, and how does this idea support it? You must know your message yourself, inside and out, before you can motivate and influence others toward what you want them to take away from your presentation.

Introduce your main point, then hold the audience’s attention. A good story is a very effective way to do it, keeping your mind on the message at all times. Studies show that presenters get the most mental engagement from their audience when they make a point by weaving it into a personal story. That way, the audience doesn’t need to remember the details to remember the message. The audience can stay with the message and discard the details that kept them listening.

Conciseness is power. Write your speech, then cut, edit, cut some more. Express a lot in few words. Win your audience. Make your point.