"We speak to be understood," Robert Greenleaf once said. And so many of those attempts come to nothing, for one simple reason: we say too much. There are thousands of examples, and every single day we read about them or live through them. The sheer amount of information we take in now is almost unbelievable, and by the time the week is over the real question is this: how much of all those meetings and presentations do we actually remember? Give it four more weeks and we should count ourselves lucky if we are decisive enough to act in the moment, because by then we will not even remember what it was we were meant to do.
And here is the thing. We usually like what we are talking about. Sometimes we are genuinely on fire for the subject. But remember, it is rarely the same for the people listening.
The experts are touchingly united on this point. If you want something said, and remembered on top of that, you have to keep it as simple as you possibly can.
Three topics, no more
Too much information floods our listeners' brains instead of convincing them or teaching them anything. The perfect setup is for you, the sender, to focus on three topics, one of which is happily your main one. You do not stray beyond those three. Your goal, then, is to use different learning styles, different methods and gentle cycles of repetition to make absolutely sure the information from those three topics truly sticks.
And when it comes time to say it, remember that we express our thoughts and ideas best through nouns and verbs. Adjectives and adverbs so often bring fog and vagueness. Demystify what you have to say by saying it straight out!
Want to become a better presenter?
This is a short piece from David's knowledge bank. To go deeper, the best places are a keynote, a course, or one to one coaching.