Making-Original-Products-presentationzen

Redux: Simplicity Is Not Easy
Usually, we think about time in terms of “How can I save it?” Time is a
constraint for us, but what if, when planning a presentation, we took the notion
of saving time and looked at it from the point of view of our audience instead of
our own personal desire to do things more quickly? What if it wasn’t just about
our time, but it was about their time? When I am in the audience, I appreciate
it very much when I am in the presence of a speaker who is engaged, has done
his homework, has prepared compelling visuals which add rather than bore, and
generally makes me happy I have attended. What I hate more than anything—
and I know you do too—is the feeling I get when I realize I am at the beginning
of a wasted hour ahead of me.
Often, the approach I advocate may use more time, not less time, for you
to prepare, but the time you are saving for your audience can be huge. Again,
is it always about saving time for ourselves? Isn’t it important to save time for
others? When I save time for myself, I am pleased. But when I save time for
my audience—by not wasting their time and instead by sharing something
important with them—I feel inspired, energized, and rewarded.
I can save time on the front end, but I may waste more time for others on
the back end. For example, if I give a completely worthless, one-hour, deathby-PowerPoint
presentation to an audience of 200, that equals 200 hours of
wasted time. But if I put in the time, say, 25 to 30 hours or more of planning
and designing the message and the media, then I can give the world 200 hours
of a worthwhile, memorable experience.
Software companies advertise time-saving features, which may help us
believe we have saved time to complete a task such as preparing a presentation
and simplified our workday. But if time is not saved for the audience—if the
audience wastes its time because we didn’t prepare well, design the visuals
well, or perform well—then what does it matter that we saved one hour in
preparing our slides? Doing things in less time sometimes does indeed feel
simpler, but if it results in wasted time and wasted opportunities later, it is
hardly simple.
128 Presentation Zen