As I said in another recent blog on complexity, most knowledge workers have to find the signal within the noise. In other words, we have to gather information, sift through it, and decide what is important and what is not, draw some conclusions, make recommendations, and defend them.
We often have to do this quickly, or late at night, or on top of other duties. We need a method or a tool to help us think about complex issues, and organize our thoughts and words, so that we can get the work done, save time, look good, feel good, and have a life.
Here’s one way to approach the challenge. After you’ve gathered your information, and contemplated it for a time, and you’re getting ready to put pen to paper, the first thing to do is craft the introduction. And believe it or not the introduction should state the obvious so that everyone is on the same page when you begin.
Think about the broadest possible statement you could make to describe the situation you’re addressing. Abraham Lincoln, contemplating the big picture before he had to give a pretty complicated speech, wrote, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
That’s a 30,000 ft. view of the situation: 87 years of time and a continent’s worth of space in one sentence. It’s obvious, but it sets the stage and makes everyone curious about where he’s going with his talk.
Now that you’ve gotten them all on the same page, see if you can pinpoint the problem that needs to be solved, or the opportunity that needs to be capitalized on. Problems and opportunities are two things that get our attention, and excite the emotional part of our brains.
Lincoln’s second sentence did just that. “Now we are engaged in a great civil war,” he wrote. You might not have such drama to report, but you should attempt to focus the mind of your listener/reader on a problem or opportunity that is meaningful to them. Define the problem as you see it, but then go beyond problem definition to explore the possible negative consequences should the problem not be addressed.
Good. Now you’ve set the stage, introduced the problem and brought to their minds the importance of the problem (or opportunity.) Now you must ask the questions that need to be asked, and answered.
The questions you ask will frame the body of your report or presentation. You do not have to ask them overtly, or aloud, but you should always ask yourself, “What are the questions that my information answers?” Usually, the questions you craft will be answered by one of the Six Brothers: Who, what, why, when, where or how.
If you’ve asked the right questions, and used the right words in asking them, then you are off to the races. Answer the questions, and select the evidence you will mention in support of your ideas.
Lincoln asked the implied question, “What can we possibly say or do here to honor these men who gave their last full measure of devotion to our country?” He answers that question by saying that there’s nothing we can say or do. Instead, he asked this audience to re-dedicate themselves to “government of the people, by the people, for the people,” so that it will not perish from the earth.
Of course, since you are a professional knowledge worker, using PowerPoint, you will be more long-winded than our only “poet president.” You may frame your presentation around a number of questions that require detailed responses lasting an hour or two, and well over one hundred PowerPoint slides.
Nevertheless, you can keep your audience on track by reminding them of where they are on the march of a hundred slides. You can say, for instance, “Now that we’ve covered what to do in response to the law suit, let’s look at how we should execute the plan, and then who should be responsible for each phase.”
Finally, when you’ve gotten to the end of the last answer to your last question, you must remind them, readers and listeners, of the problem or opportunity that they have. Then you must remind them of the answers you have provided to the question, only use different words this time. It makes them pay more attention.
Then urge them to do something: to take action, change their attitude, or take a first step. Lincoln asked his audience to re-dedicate themselves to the cause of our democratic system of government. People like strong leadership, and listeners like speakers who know what they want.
Tell them what you want them to do, then remind them why they should do it, and/or what will happen if they don’t.
Then bow and get ready to bask in the roar of your standing ovation.