Making Your Presentation Stick Chip & Dan Heath

An addendum to their magical 2007 storytelling roadmap Made To Stick, this October 2008 four page pdf offers a couple of extra pointers for anyone trying to create a prizewinner presentation.

It’s well worth the read. If you’ve not read their book, prior knowledge is not necessarily a pre-requisite, as they include further reading links within it if you do have it dusting on a shelf. Here’s the five juicy openings of each section to give you a flavour.

If you use only one tip, this is the one. The #1 mistake we’ve observed in presentations — and there is no close second — is that the message is too abstract.

The first mission of a presentation is to grab attention. And that’s why it’s disturbing that many presentations stumble out of the gate with a preamble — a laborious overview of what’s going to be covered.

If you say 10 things, you say nothing. You probably agree with that statement, and yet it’s a hard rule to live by!

Before your audience will value the information you’re giving, they’ve got to want it.

Demand has to come before supply.

You may be tempted to stress out about the look and feel of your presentation… Relax.