Writing eff presentations-gsw

Writing Effective
Presentations
An Introduction

Cap Gemini Ernst & Young

Wednesday, 13 September 2000

Agenda

• Five Principles

• Creating Quality Documents

• Using a Standard Format

• Presenting Your Data

• Structuring Your Story

© 2000 by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. All rights reserved. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young • Proprietary and Confidential -2-
Final Internal Presentation

INTRODUCTION

Five principles underpin all good document writing

• Write for your audience.
Write for your audience.

• Keep it simple.
Keep it simple.

• Supportassertions with facts.
Support assertions with facts.

• Stay in the active voice (have actors, use verbs).
Stay in the active voice (have actors, use verbs).

• Tell a good story.
Tell a good story.

Cap Gemini Ernst & Young • Proprietary and Confidential -3-

CREATING QUALITY DOCUMENTS

Documents are a consultancy’s only tangible product

• Send a message to our clients about who we are—and what we think of
them.

• Contain valuable—and expensive—information for the client.

• Often get wide circulation in the client firm.

• Are a direct reflection of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young’s image.



Document quality has an impact on CGE&Y’s image

Y
CGE&



We want that image to be positive



A first draft will not meet CGE&Y’s quality standards



Each step in the writing process is essential

1. Find a good model 6. Edit

2. Outline your story 7. Revise

3. Write draft 8. Type revisions

4. Type draft 9. Check revisions

5. Read to copy 10. Proofread



Spellcheck can eliminate embarrassing errors

To goad people into spellchecking, a colleague of mine coined the non-
PC phrase, “Spellcheck or die”.



There’s no good excuse for poor quality at CGE&Y

• “The audience doesn’t care.”

• “There isn’t time.”

• “No one complains.”

Cap Gemini Ernst & Young • Proprietary and Confidential - 10 -

Using a Standard Format

• Advantages

• Basic Mechanics


USING A STANDARD FORMAT

Standard formats offer several practical advantages

• Audience soon learns where to look for particular kinds of information:
– Format “disappears” so they concentrate on substance.

– A form of repetition that promotes audience comfort.

• Provides you with a ready-made framework:
– Helps you structure your ideas concisely.

– Eliminates the need to make small format and style decisions.

– Becomes familiar across the firm.

• Promotes writing and production efficiencies.


RUNNING HEAD

Headline (usually a sentence)

Head (optional)
“Tracker”
(optional)
• Bullet:
– Sub-bullet (as needed):
• Sub-sub-bullet (as needed).

A look at the elements
and their names

“Kicker” (optional).


WHERE WE ARE IN THE STORY

What this page is about

A key category or idea

• A main point:
– A sub-point. How the elements work
– A second.

• A second main point:
– A sub-point.
– A second.

Implications: “So what?”



Follow the “Rule of Two”

Limit every element in the format to two lines:

• Report title • Bullets

• Subtitle • Dashes

• Headlines • Kickers

• Heads



Your title page needs a few basic elements

• Name of target audience.

• An active title that generates interest:
– Begin with a verb form (e.g. Developing, Evaluating, Understanding, Assessing).

• Subtitle:
– An option that allows you to elaborate.

• Author.

• Date delivered.



Good headlines focus attention on the page’s main idea

• Usually a brief sentence:
– One line is best.

– Two lines maximum.

• Say something meaningful that directs attention to the page’s important
point, e.g.:
– “ROE varies greatly across businesses”

• Avoid empty statements, e.g.:
– “The next step of the analysis is as follows:”

• Use headlines as the “story board” of your document:
– Reading only the headlines should tell a coherent story.



The work we completed is as follows:

NO!



Each page, like a paragraph, tells a small story

• Create a logical flow from top to bottom.

• Be sure it fits the logic of your overall story.

• Don’t overwhelm your audience:
– By jamming too much information on page.

– With material that is beyond its comprehension.

• Don’t “underwhelm” your audience:
– With too little (or trivial) information.

– By making simple information seem complex.



Too much information can overwhelm your audience



You can make text manageable at the revision stage

• Break long bullets into bullets and dashes, which will not only make them look
considerably better on the page, but will also make them easier for the reader to
understand and remember.

e.g.

• Break long bullets into bullets and dashes:
– Better looking.
– Easier to read and understand.
– More memorable.

That is, follow the Rule of Two.



The best kickers answer the audience’s “So what?”
questions

• Say what the page’s content implies for the audience:
– NOT a continuation of the headline.

• Sometimes used effectively in other ways:
– As exception statement or counterpoint.

– To sum up and end section (signal a transition).

• Good kickers are short and to the point:
– Follow the Rule of Two.

• Optional—use only when needed.

Using kickers well can add substantial power to your presentations.



Your audience comes first

• Create an audience-focused title page with an active title.

• Write headlines that add value.

• Do not cram pages too full:
– People cannot absorb too much at once.

– White space is essential.

• Use the kicker option when you want to drive home a key
“So-what?” message.

Make the information on each page clearly accessible to your
audience.


Presenting Your Data

• Ensuring Accuracy

• Constructing Effective Tables

• Using Graphics to Advantage


PRESENTING YOUR DATA

One bad number can destroy the credibility of an entire
document



Keep tables as simple and clean as possible

• Highlight key numbers:
– Box or circle.
– Boldface.

• Create logical patterns and progressions:
– Low to high; left to right; past to present to future; etc.

• Use repetition:
– Present similar data in same format from page to page.
– Promotes audience comfort.

• Put “data dumps” in appendix.



Graphics add power to presentations

• A graphic always has more impact
than a table of raw numbers.

• Gives both a numerical and a visual
message.

• Simpler really is better.

• Worst case—audience does not
understand your complicated graphic.



Choose the right graphic for the job you want done

In general:

Share  Pie charts

Comparisons  Bar charts

Trends  Line graphs

Degree  Booz balls

Position  Matrices



Share = Pie Charts

Other

20%

40% Coal
Petroleum 5%

Specialty Chemicals 15%

20%
Commodity Chemicals

Pie charts start at 12 o’clock and build clockwise from largest to
smallest; “other” is always last.



Comparisons = Bar Charts

Strategy 1: “Status Quo”
Projected 1999 Market Share by Distribution Channel

84%

Traditional
Non-traditional
Total 58%

41%

23%
19% 19%
17%
13%
10% 9%
4% 3%

Client Competitor 1 Competitor 2 All Other
Competitors



Trends = Line Graphs

Client vs. S&P 500 Index 1993–1999

4

Client

3

S&P
2

1

0
1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999



Degree = Booz Balls

Siding
Support Requirement Distributors Retailers OEMs

Breadth of Product Line

Delivery Requirements

Order Processing

Training by Client Reps

Financing

Packaging

Level of Support
Low Medium High
Required



Position = Matrices

Many
Fragmented Specialised

Number of
Ways to
Create
Advantage Stalemate

Volume

Few
Small Large
Size of Advantage


Structuring Your Story


STRUCTURING YOUR STORY

Tell a story your audience can follow



A good report story has simple, logically ordered elements

Element Purpose

Roadmap “Tell them what you’re going to tell them”

What the problem is Set the stage

What we did Outline approach/methodology; build credibility

What we found Present findings

What that means Interpret findings and make conclusions

What we need to do Make recommendations

What happens next Outline next steps



Many people create a storyboard of their presentations

• Develop an active title.

• Create an agenda that establishes the storyline’s sections.

• Write headlines for the panels in each section.

Creating even a rough storyboard will help you generate a coherent
story for your audience.


Revisiting the five underlying principles

• Write for your audience.

• Keep it simple.

• Support assertions with facts.

• Stay in the active voice (have actors, use verbs).

• Tell a good story.


Writing eff presentations-gsw

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