I have a good friend who is a very skilled developer. And he said a very clarifying thing to me. “All of software, maybe all of life, is just inputs and outputs. You have a set of inputs and you want a set of outputs. Once you clearly specify your outputs, then everything else gets easier.”
It certainly makes sense in software development, but it’s also very useful to think about lots of other things in this way. For example, what does an agency or creative shop output? If you are creatively-minded, you will quickly say, “Work!” And that’s true, but it isn’t the bulk of the output.
Agencies produce more meetings, emails and presentations than anything else. It’s often not very sexy, but that’s the work that makes the work possible.
Something similar happens in every industry, especially when change is involved. You advocate for your course of action in presentations. If your presentation goes well, you get what you want. This can be a raise, a promotion, getting to launch a new product or open a new division or even selling that great creative campaign.
Iteration, or why my Minivan is so Badass
All successful industries continuously innovate their primary product. Compare a car from 1993 to a car from 2023. They serve the same function, but in many ways, they aren’t even the same thing. Safety, emissions, handling, comfort, power-to-engine weight ratio — are all orders of magnitude better than they were. If you really want to shatter some illusions consider that James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 went from 0-60 in 8.5 seconds. My *Toyota Sienna Minivan* does it in 7.5.
Not only could I beat Bond in the straight, I could out-corner him, (better suspension, better tires) all while getting my air-conditioned kids to school and rocking out to “What the Fox Says” in Dolby Surround.
By contrast, most organizations and professionals haven’t iterated this way. They haven’t gotten 10x better at presentations, meetings or email. In fact, they might not have improved at all.
One of the greatest mysteries in macroeconomics is how we can have all this fantastic communication technology, yet none of it seems to show up in the productivity statistics. I suspect we are over-communicating ourselves out of time and attention. That every added capability is offset by a corresponding rise in bullshit emails and meetings.
Incorrect Perception of the Task
If a person does something over and over again they generally get better at it. For example, if you started work hanging drywall, the first day you did it would be rough. But by the end of the first month, you would be way better at it. Your co-workers would have given you tips and you would be naturally stronger and more skilled than you were when you started.
I have found that whenever this pattern of improvement over time is broken, it means that there is an incorrect perception of the task at hand. Like presentations. Most people learn how to do a serviceable yet dull presentation and never improve.
There are good reasons for this. Public speaking and presenting are terrifying. Improvement requires trying new things, but innovating in the face of fear is very difficult. If you know a way to do it that won’t get you in too much trouble, then it feels safe just to do it that way.
But here’s where everyone goes wrong. They think a presentation is about the slides or what they say. That those things are the output. And they’re not. Not at all.
The inputs are:
your attention
your effort
your understanding
your audience’s time and attention
The output is:
a new understanding in your audience’s mind.
And what you do when you do a great presentation is use your time and effort to save your audience’s time and attention.
A presentation feels like it’s about YOU. Your ego is threatened by what the tribe may think about you as you present. All eyes are on YOU. But a great presentation is not about you. It is a selfless act of service for those you are presenting to. Your goal should be to save them time, pain and suffering — to give them new understanding and capabilities using as little of their attention as possible.
There are many forms that will help you do this, but my favorite is the simplest: problem, action, result.
Don’t Start With You. Start with a Problem
I try to give zero credibility presentations. That is, I try not to ever ask anybody to take my word for anything. In fact, I prefer not even to introduce myself, especially not at the beginning.
What I start with is a problem that the audience wants to solve. Or even just the pain that the problem is causing them. This does two things.
Hooks the audience effortlessly
Takes all the pressure off you.
By not focusing on me, I develop less fear. I’m there to help solve a problem, not to be the smartest or even the most entertaining person in the room.
Helping comes naturally to most people. But the rest of it doesn’t. It’s forced and takes a lot of energy to maintain. Because, most of the time, you’re not going to be the smartest or most entertaining person in the room. It’s a bad strategy.
From Problem you have two choices. If you are trying to get everyone in the room focused on solving the problem, I recommend talking about what the solution should be like. Then, when that is established, you can talk about what action will get you to the solution. If you’re presenting a case study or teaching something, usually Problem - Action - Result is the better order.
I know this might sound trivial, but try it in your next meeting you’re in. Just say, “The problem we are trying to solve is ‘x’. When it’s solved we will ‘y’. So to get to y we should take these actions.”
Even if no one agrees with you, the meeting will immediately be focused on something actionable.
The Real Value
A crisp meeting or presentation isn’t valuable because it gets you out of the room faster. It’s valuable because the time you’ve saved often goes directly into the relationship. It’s always better to get into conversation as quickly as possible. And, I find it’s better to get the work done, and get to the fun, human parts. If you don’t have time for joking around and having fun, how are you supposed to build trust or a team?
Although it can seem like a waste of time up-front, believe me, the trust and connection you build becomes the most important thing when something goes wrong. And, sooner or later, something always goes wrong.