The Opsimath

10, 20, 30 - rule for presentations

This is an extract from an article by Guy Kawasaki. Take a look here to see him give a 2 minute presentation of this material.

This is important stuff, as there are still far too many very poor presentations with a shocking use of PowerPoint.

"I am evangelizing the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. While I’m in the venture capital business, this rule is applicable for any presentation to reach agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming a partnership, etc.

Ten slides. Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting—and venture capitalists are very normal. (The only difference between you and venture capitalist is that he is getting paid to gamble with someone else’s money). If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business. 

Twenty minutes. You should give your ten slides in twenty minutes. Sure, you have an hour time slot, but you’re using a Windows laptop, so it will take forty minutes to make it work with the projector. Even if setup goes perfectly, people will arrive late and have to leave early. In a perfect world, you give your pitch in twenty minutes, and you have forty minutes left for discussion.

Thirty-point font. The majority of the presentations that I see have text in a ten point font. As much text as possible is jammed into the slide, and then the presenter reads it. However, as soon as the audience figures out that you’re reading the text, it reads ahead of you because it can read faster than you can speak. The result is that you and the audience are out of synch.

The reason people use a small font is twofold: first, that they don’t know their material well enough; second, they think that more text is more convincing. Total bozosity. Force yourself to use no font smaller than thirty points. I guarantee it will make your presentations better because it requires you to find the most salient points and to know how to explain them well. If “thirty points,” is too dogmatic, the I offer you an algorithm: find out the age of the oldest person in your audience and divide it by two. That’s your optimal font size.

So please observe the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. If nothing else, the next time someone in your audience complains of hearing loss, ringing, or vertigo, you’ll know what caused the problem. One last thing: to learn more about the zen of great presentations, check out a site called Presentation Zen by my buddy Garr Reynolds."

Breakfast Briefings so far

The pearcemayfield PRINCE2 Breakfast Briefings have made an excellent start, with good attendances at the first two events.

These briefings are to introduce the new (2009) edition of PRINCE2 - what has changed, what has stayed, what has gone.

The level of debate and discussion around the changes is very encouraging, and is also very supportive of the changes that have taken place. As one of the authors, I can say that this is very relieving news!

We are receiving some very positive feedback about the briefings, so if you would like to book your place at one of the remaining events, call our office on 01235 227252.

"Thanks for the excellent session"

A Defining Speech - Barack Obama's inaugural address

For anyone who has a passing interest in communication skills, the new President's speech today was a 'must see'. If you did miss it then take a look at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/obama_inauguration/7840646.stm

This was a highly-anticipated speech, which, for me, delivered on many levels.

Commentators have already said that this speech will be judged by historians for how closely it comes to mirror Mr Obama's presidency. 

That is true, but for now I think all communicators can learn from Mr Obama. Besides the content of what he said (which seemed to be right on the button) we saw his controlled passion (I cannot imagine a more highly charged emotional setting); his strong vocal delivery (emphasis, pauses, pace); and his thoughtful use of language (the power of creative linguistics).

My 'favourite' phrase, in that I thought it to be both well-written and a most important message was, "a nation cannot prosper long, when it favours only the prosperous".

A defining speech for a defining time perhaps?

Design rules for good presentations

In Timothy Samara's book "Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual" he lists 20 rules for good design. Garr Reynolds, in his blog Presentation Zen (take a look if you haven't already seen it) brings this list down to 10 rules. And in the spirit of re-cycling I now give you those 10 rules. They are good:

10 design rules to keep in mind when creating a presentation

   (1) Communicate — don't decorate.
   (2) Speak with a visual voice.
   (3) Use two typeface families maximum. OK, maybe three.
   (4) Pick colours on purpose.
   (5) If you can do it with less, then do it.
   (6) Negative space is magical — create it, don't just fill it up!
   (7) Treat the type as image, as though it's just as important.
   (8) Be universal; remember that it's not about you.
   (9) Be decisive. Do it on purpose — or don't do it at all.
   (10) Symmetry is the ultimate evil.

Happy Christmas Everyone

This is an example of how to convey a powerful, provocative message using images and strong graphic type without using any voice. It demonstrates the power of the visual; and it makes us think...

Telling (great) stories

In our Principles of Change Management course we look at the work of Howard Gardner, and how he demonstrated the need for successful leaders to embody a story. Those leaders that really make a difference all act on a central message or story that they are 'carrying'.

There have been two occasions this week when I have been reminded of the power of telling stories.

First, working with a client earlier this week, we were looking at how we might demonstrate Benefits Realisation as a result of programme delivery in situations where the real benefits may not be seen for many years, and then possibly in a totally different environment.

We eventually concluded that telling stories could well be a highly successful way of demonstrating to the sponsors that they were in fact moving towards the required outcomes and eventual anticipated benefits. These would be stories of changed lives, improved situations and increased prospect of further beneficial change.

Then today, I have been reminded of the importance of telling great stories. On Bert Decker's blog he describes a presentation from Nancy Duarte. Telling great stories was her first key point.

As Bert says, Nancy Duarte and Garr Reynolds have changed the process of creating and presenting in less than a year with their influence, blogs, and particularly their wonderful and complimentary books Slide:ology and Presentation Zen. She is worth listening to.

Telling stories is not the childish pastime that the 'once upon a time' image above might lead you to believe. It is a powerful leadership and presentation tool that speaks directly to us in so many ways.

So, what is your story?

We're speaking at BPUG...

   ...will we see you there?

This year's BPUG Members' Conference is taking place at Crewe Hall, Crewe, on Wednesday 12th and Thursday 13th November 2008.

I am speaking, together with Patrick Mayfield at the opening session on the Thursday morning. Our topic is the 'Mental Cribsheet' study that we recently reported on.

http://www.pearcemayfield.com/resources/articles.html

SMILE - people are watching

Great advice from Communications Guru Bert Decker:

A smile seems like a minor or superficial communication skill - but it is very important to creating a positive communication experience. Michael Phelps is a winner who does exactly that.

But CEO's and leaders of companies, and any one who speaks for that matter, are winners too. Or they should appear to be when they are taking the stage and advocating their winning ideas. Yet how many smile - and show their own personality. Most are way too serious, or look grim, which is exactly the opposite of the message they most often want to convey.

Smile and the world smiles with you, and will want to listen, and even keep you around.

Mental Crib Sheet - Emergent Findings (1)

This is the first of a mini-series of posts to summarise our emergent findings from our study into the idea of the 'Mental Crib Sheet'.

Our research so far has shown some intriguing and consistent patterns of thinking among our study group of portfolio, programme and project managers.

We are now beginning to take the view that there are patterns of best thinking that are shared by managers with what we shall call 'alpha' traits. (Alpha-trait managers are those who we suspect are among the highest performers - an assessment that was held by their peers/senior managers.) In other words Best Thinking drives Best Practice.

We all want Best Practice; we know that the intelligent use of methods such as PRINCE2 and MSP can only help our drive towards successful delivery; we are convinced of the need to raise the level of competence within our organisations; we have seen the difference that different management behaviours have on our initiatives. But if this is the limit to our focus, then we believe that we are missing something. We are focusing on the wrong areas.

Before we can hope to see Best Practice in practice we need to address our thinking. We need to be thinking about our thinking. We need to understand Best Thinking.

So what is meant by 'Best Thinking'?

Three patterns are emerging from our research:

1. Self-awareness
2. A bias towards Relationships
3. Making Margins

We'll now look at each of these in turn. The first one will be addressed by Patrick Mayfield in his blog:

http://pearcemayfield.typepad.com/patrick_mayfield/

See you there...

What's your mental Crib Sheet?

At the Best Practice Showcase in Westminster, London on Tuesday, I was privileged to host three sessions with my colleague Patrick Mayfield.

The subject that we looked at in our sessions (two 'Birds of a Feather' workshops and one main presentation) was the idea of the 'Mental Crib Sheet' - do we all have one, and if so, is it the same for everyone?

Patrick and I are both authors of two of the most widely respected methods for running programmes and projects (MSP and PRINCE2); we are strong supporters of the use of these methods; we are educators, training, coaching and mentoring managers; we believe in a strong focus on competencies and behaviours.

Yet we think that there is something that is not getting the attention it deserves. Does the way that portfolio, programme and project managers  think have an impact on the way that they manage? Do they have this 'Mental Crib Sheet' that shapes the way they allocate their time, make decisions and ultimately deliver?

We think so.

So this was the impetus for a research study that we began recently, and the first phase of this research was the basis for our presentations and workshops in London this week.

We now plan to publish our emergent findings over the next few weeks on this blog, and on Patrick's blog:

http://pearcemayfield.typepad.com/patrick_mayfield/

...the first instalment will be here, on this blog, very soon