Making-Original-Products-presentationzen

Hara Hachi Bu:
Why Length Matters
A consequence of Zen practice is increased attentiveness to the present,
a calmness, and an ability to focus on the here and now. However, for your
average audience member, it is a safe bet that he or she is not completely
“calm” or present in the “here and now.” Instead, your audience member
is processing many emotional opinions and juggling several issues at the
moment—both professional and personal—while doing his or her best to listen
to you. We all struggle with this. It is virtually impossible for our audience to
concentrate completely on what we are saying, even for shorter presentations.
Many studies show that concentration really takes a hit after 15 to 20 minutes.
My experience tells me it’s less than that. For example, CEOs have notoriously
short attention spans while listening to a presentation. So the length of your
presentation matters.
Every case is different, but generally, shorter is better. But why then do so
many presenters go past their allotted time—or, worse, milk a presentation
to stretch it out to the allotted time, even when it seems that the points have
pretty much been made? This is probably a result of much of our formal
education. I can still hear my college philosophy professor saying before the
two-hour in-class written exam: “Remember, more is better.” As students, we
grow up in an atmosphere that perpetuates the idea that a 20-page paper will
likely get a higher grade than a 10-page paper, and a one-hour presentation
with 25 presentation slides filled with 12-point lines of text shows more
hard work than a 30-minute presentation with 50 highly visual slides. This
old-school thinking does not take into account the creativity, intellect, and
forethought that it takes to achieve a clarity of ideas. We take this “more is
better” thinking with us into our professional lives.
One Secret to a Healthy Life (and a Great Presentation)
The Japanese have a great expression concerning healthy eating habits: hara
hachi bu, which means “eat until 80 percent full.” This is excellent advice,
and it’s pretty easy to follow this principle in Japan since portions are generally
much smaller than in places like the United States. Using chopsticks also
makes it easier to avoid shoveling food in and encourages a bit slower pace.
248 Presentation Zen