Tip 689: Have a Point. Get to the Point.

From the Speaking Workshops: Have a Point. Get to the Point. 

Last week, we talked about speaking and not reading our presentations. 

Our friend Laura Hitz commented on how important it is to have a clear point and to get to that point at the beginning of the presentation.  

An experience comes to mind. A thousand years ago, I taught at the Army’s Command and General Staff College. 

One student, a rather prideful young major, complained to me that he had earned only a “B” with a presentation. The teacher explained his presentation wasn’t clear. 

“I know what I’ll do,” he said. “I know what I’ll do! Clear? Okay! I’ll make it clear! At the beginning of my next presentation, I’ll say “The purpose of my presentation is to explore [whatever].” 

I nodded. “That might work.”

The next time I saw him, I asked, “How’d your presentation go?”

Sheepish: “I, uh, I, uh, I got an ‘A.’”

“So your trick worked?”

Sheepish: “Uh, yeah, I guess so.”

And he continued the pattern the rest of the year. 

And it continued to earn him high grades.

So the point is to be obvious. Have a crystal-clear point to your presentation. Announce that point at the beginning of your presentation. 

It will work.

It will help.

We love this stuff.