High-signal communication

Presentations that land are magic.

You know what it feels like.

Your audience asks intelligent questions.

They aren’t stuck in trying to understand your message.

They are naturally discussing it with you.

How do you craft presentations that have a high signal-to-noise ratio that your audience can easily understand?

We want to make it easy for our audience to know what to ignore and what to heed.

As Nasim Taleb said:

The difference between noise and signal.

Noise is what you are supposed to ignore, signal what you need to heed.

Nasim Taleb, author Antifragile and Black Swan

How to craft high-signal presentations

High-signal communication is insightful and minimal.

Like a tidy house.

It also looks so easy once it is done.

Too easy, even.

Here are three strategies to help you lift the signal in your next communication.

1. Hyperfocus on the outcome you need. Do not write anything until you have a clear brief that you can articulate in a single sentence. Make sure you ask who asked for this presentation and why it will help the business meet its goals. It is never ‘just an update.’ You can always use the meeting to add value.
2. Use specific language. This helps you work out what you really mean. Replace neutral words like “impact,” “change,” and “different” with meaningful words. What impact? What change? How different?
3. Rest only when you can articulate the single sentence that ties it all together. This might seem trivial (many skip this altogether). But it’s core to getting full value from your meeting. If you can’t sum up your whole message in a sentence, you don’t know what you need from the meeting … and you are unlikely to get it.

To wrap up with another quote:

Clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not.

Cal Newport, author Deep Work and more

I hope that helps. More soon.
Davina

Elevate, the book – helps leaders set their teams up to set up a new dynamic across their team that will elevate everyone’s skills, helping the team get better, faster decisions.

Engage, the book – helps individual contributors prepare papers and presentations that leaders can approve without reworking.

Engage, the self-paced course  – supports both individuals and leaders prepare more insightful papers and presentations for senior leaders and boards.

Extreme Clarity, the 2-hour workshop – introduces techniques for structuring your messaging.

Board Paper Bootcamp, the 2-week program – helps you clarify and convey complex ideas to senior leaders and boards.

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