An Award-Winning Presentation Recipe
‘Tis the season of reflective and festive holidays, family gatherings, and, of course, family recipes.
Growing up I remember running across the street, frequently barefoot, to my grandparents’ house where I would find my grandma arranging all the ingredients—spiced pumpkin, potatoes, butter, green beans, everything—on the counter. From that cornucopia, we would spend hours constructing the meal that would bring the family together around a common table.
Constructing a family recipe and building an effective presentation aren’t that different. They both start with an assembly of ingredients that are then carefully combined to produce the delicious result.
From our family to yours, here’s a recipe for a satisfying presentation your audience will love.
Ingredients:
(1) Engaging open. It can be a relatable story, a shocking statistic, or a thought-provoking question
(<4) Distinct content areas that will comprise the body of your dish
(1) One-sentence roadmap
Assorted transitions (one for each content area)
Illustrative stories and/or examples to accent each content area
(1) Captivating close
Construction:
1) Begin by preparing your Engaging Open. It’s the first thing your audience will taste, so make it extra flavorful. You never want that first bite to be bland or predictable.
2) Add in your one-sentence roadmap that alerts your audience to what they are about to experience. In your roadmap, let your audience know what main tastes and textures they should be looking for in your dish and in what order they will surface.
3a) Successively layer in your content areas following the sequence established in your roadmap.
3b) Within each content area, flavor with visualizable stories or tangible examples. Avoid substituting abstract ingredients and generic statements that won’t resonate with your audience.
3c) To prevent your content areas from bleeding into one another, add-in distinct transitions (aka “signposts”) between content areas. Take care to keep content areas separate; do not stir.
4) Once complete, finish your dish with a captivating close. Use some of the same ingredients you used in the open to construct your close and bring your dish full circle.
5) Let it bake. Once fully constructed, set aside your presentation to allow its flavor profile to develop. Check in on it from time to time to make sure it’s setting up the way you intend.
6) Prepare to serve. How should your masterpiece be presented—soft and subdued? Bold and unapologetic? A mixture of both? Be sure the delivery compliments the flavor profile and practice brining it to the table a few times to nail the presentation.
Following this family recipe is sure to make your next presentation as memorable as the time the CEO dressed up as a holiday elf.
Happy Holidays!