Lucas NoahMcKinsey Style Business Presentations. Life in the corporate world can be pretty unfair. Some people get lots of attention and recognition from management, while others who eventually produce better results don’t. I have seen very brilliant people doing lots of good work which never really got their ideas through in the organization.
A major driver for success in today’s organizations is presenting ideas and results in an easily understandable and compelling way. People who master this skill can be much more effective at work. They save a lot of time to resolve miscommunication or lack of understanding of colleagues, subordinates, managers, and company leaders about their work.
Business Presentations are crucial for success at work – for everybody!
Due to the importance of presentation skills to achieve a balanced work-life, I decided to write a series of articles on this topic. As a management consultant, effective presentations are my bread and butter. I use the McKinsey style for more than a decade. Since then, I have had to do lots of management presentations to refine my presentation style over time. I learned that good preparation and an effective slide set to increase chances of success dramatically.
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15 learnings on how to develop effective PowerPoint presentations:
- Be clear about your objective – don’t overload the presentation
- Start with a communication strategy based on knowledge of your audience
- How much do they know before the presentation?
- How do they consume information?
- What do you want them to understand to achieve the goal?
- What do they need to understand during this presentation?
- What is the best timing of messages?
- Focus on your story rather than content: Situation, Complication, So What, Solution, Call to Action
- Use a message-driven page layout: Action Title, Sub Title, Slide Content
- Apply Barbara Minto’s Pyramid Principle
- Communicate the right degree of detail
- Use the language of the audience
- Set purpose of presentation and agenda before you start
- Communicate conclusions early. Provide executive summaries
- Keep slides clean and lean
- Use action-focused active wording
- Be consistent in your wording
- Apply a clear logic within slides and between slides
- Use colors with meaning
- Make it fun – break the rules
I experienced that a big portion of my work was applying these principles whenever I did any PowerPoint presentation. Whenever I got it right, whenever the message has been clear to the audience, I got a big step closer to my goal. Try it – it really works! That’s all about McKinsey Style Business Presentations.
