This is teaching granny how to suck eggs, but necessary.

Before you even think of firing up your powerpoint program, go analog! Get a piece of paper, a pencil and an eraser, sit in a quiet spot and work out how you are going to present your message. Why? Because it’s like this image, and the alliteration of the seven “p”s that they taught me in the Army.

“prior preparation and planning prevents p*ss poor performance”.

Any story or  presentation should have three parts – a beginning, middle and end. No big revelations there, but you’d be surprised at how many presentations I’ve seen where it’s difficult to distinguish these, apart from chronology. Receiving an amorphous mass of facts and figures with no structure can be extremely irritating. Continue reading →