As I brace myself for the
culmination of Breaking Bad and reflect on how much I enjoyed Kevin Spacey’s
House of Cards recently, I realise that there really is a lot of good stuff on
television these days. Except, of course, I didn’t actually watch either of
those series on TV; I didn’t even watch them on DVDs; I watched them via the
internet!
Hugh Laurie has been saying
this week that the days of big network TV series are over and there are clearly
major implications for the whole of the entertainment industry and beyond. I,
however, want to focus on one tiny element in the midst of all this change and
mourn the inevitable passing of ‘DVD Extras’. Why? Because, hidden among those
DVD Extras, you will often find some very useful lessons for anyone giving a
business presentation.
Imagine you have just
constructed a business presentation. You have carefully crafted the structure
and honed your words, pretty close to what seems like perfection. To make your
presentation really effective, however, you are now going to have to throw some
of it – maybe even much of it – into the bin!
For true clarity we need to
eliminate anything that doesn’t actively help to make the point. Magicians are
acutely aware of this principle. They live by the maxim ‘if it doesn’t add, it
detracts’, so they are ruthless in editing down their performance to the bare
essentials.

So, if you ever find yourself in any
doubt about the inclusion of a specific element of your content, consider: ‘Is
it really moving the story forward’?
Might it even be slowing things down? Also, remember that some of the most memorable and enduring pieces of
communication are surprisingly short. The Lord’s Prayer has a mere 71 words; The
Ten Commandments extend to just 297 words; and the Gettysburg Address was all
wrapped up in 271.
Extracted and adapted from Nick Fitzherbert's
book on business presentation skills, Presentation Magic
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