Presenting Meaningful Information

Presenting audience-appropriate information, in a meaningful way, is crucial to managing your relationships for success. When we talk about presenting, this doesn’t necessarily mean a slideshow with animations and exciting slide transitions. A verbal conversation by the coffee machine is a presentation of sorts. All forms of communication that deliver an outcome or debate are presentations. 

When we talk about audience appropriateness, this is an important factor. What is meaningful to you isn’t always meaningful to the audience. You should spend time understanding what is important to the person you want to present to not too much time, but enough. 

Think about it; when you need to return something in a store, the audience is a customer service representative. Your presentation to them is as simple as what you want to happen (do you want a refund or an exchange?), why you deserve this (item is faulty or doesn’t fit) and the key facts (purchase date and possibly payment method). Does the customer service representative need to know that you travelled home from the store on a Saturday afternoon on a late bus and that it was raining? No, of course they don’t. They need concise information to do their job. They have guidelines on what the returns policy is and can make a snap decision on whether to give you what you want or not if they have the facts. All meaningful presentations require the same.

Presentation Structure: The Opener

I like to present information with a bookend of the request. What do I want to happen, what is the aim of my presentation. You are setting expectations for all. Everyone knows why they are there early on. There is no confusion or ‘what do you want from me?’ questions partway through.

Don’t beat around the bush; get it out there. Give the receiver of the information the chance to say ‘let me stop you there, the customer service desk is on the first floor, they can help you’, ‘I think you’ve come through to the wrong department, I’ll transfer you to the right team’ or ‘unfortunately, pay reviews are carried out in two months, while I’m interested in what you have to say, I am unable to authorise your request right now’. See, it works on all communication levels.

Get it out there, set up the conversation, get to the point and save yourself and everyone else involved the time and embarrassment.

Presentation Structure: The Facts

Follow up with your justification of the request. Why is your request worth considering and what are the facts of the situation. Remember to leave out the emotion, just plain facts. Why is your request valid?

If we go back to my post on Influencing security-driven business decisions, you'll see my toaster analogy (one of my favourites). Keep it simple. Give a side by side comparison, which includes facts and numbers. Include things like 'What if we did', 'what if we didn’t' and make sure you base the what-if on facts and not potentials.

Let me give you a few scenarios here:

Out of policy decisions:

Your request includes something that could be seen as a breach of policy; this could be additional time off, flexibility to your contracted terms, working with a supplier whom you have a personal connection. The list is endless. The key is to be upfront and use facts. Be prepared for difficult questions.

Using what if we do and what if we don't, let's draft something for the highest risk item; working with a supplier whom you have a personal connection with:

Include the benefit you may receive from working with the supplier if any. If you have secured a discount from this relationship, this must be highlighted. Do your research; you do not want to be part of an anti-bribery and corruption investigation!

Let's say 'Toaster' is your supplier and Grill is the competitor.

Compare your suppliers side by side, against a pre-defined must-have list.

Now let's add the facts to back up your analysis

Think about other considerations. Is there any risk to the business by following your suggestion? Risk is ok, as long as it is considered and accepted.

The risk here is that it may be seen to be in breach of policy, you are reducing the risk by taking the decision to a senior person to make the call, although the facts do show a significant cost saving over time while meeting all the must-have criteria. Make sure risk based-decisions are documented so you cover yours and the business' back, should you need to.

It seems almost too simple to present information in this way, anything more than this is just fluffy nonsense. If you need to make it prettier then do.

Personal requests

Let's now look at a personal request, allowed under company policy; you just need to make the ask and do it successfully. You've already done the most challenging part in introducing the conversation, and the audience is still listening. It's the same process as above, but now you have a policy on your side.

Remember, this part of the conversation is to put your facts across. I'm going to use the scenario of requesting a promotion.

You’ve seen a role you want to apply for and believe you have the necessary skills to meet the specification criteria. Take the job description and approach with a fine-tooth comb. Highlight areas you already cover in your day job or have previous experience with and think of scenarios where you’ve demonstrated these areas and how you can take this to the next level.

If you don’t meet all the criteria, think of how you will gain the required skills or workarounds for achieving the critical tasks in the role. You'll see in the image above, a few scribbled notes, maybe you aren't the main point of contact on a day-to-day basis, but you have been the 'on-call' point of contact, or you've chaired team meetings when the team leader is on holiday. All of this is experience is fact and is evidence to support your presentation request.

Don’t be put off from applying because you don’t tick all the boxes. Most candidates won’t tick all of the boxes either. Just be sure you’ve prepared and done your homework on how you will work towards ticking them.

Presentation Structure: Recap and re-request

In the opener, we covered the bookend. What do I mean by that? Simply, ask again. Summarise your ask and ask again, this forces your audience to respond. Admittedly, it may not always be a yes, but they must say something; otherwise, it's just awkward.

In practice

You: Hello, I purchased this jumper, and it doesn't fit. I want to return it and exchange it for a larger one, please. - the ask

CS: Do you have the receipt?

You: Yes, here it is. I have found the right size jumper on the shelf.- the facts

CS: I'll need to check the receipt and jumper. - follow up questions

You: Here is the jumper that doesn't fit and the one I'd like to exchange it for. - the recap and re-request

CS: No problem, I'll just action that for you - the response