Time: a determining factor in presentations

Time is a determining factor in presentations to create a high-impact narrative. There is the classic example of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, responding about how long it takes to prepare a speech: “That depends on the length of the speech. If it is a ten-minute speech it takes me all of two weeks to prepare it; if it is a half-hour speech it takes me a week; if I can talk as long as I want to it requires no preparation at all. I am ready now.”

The reality at companies: limit the time for presentations

The former president’s quote illustrates the reality for companies. Lack of time to prepare a presentation causes executives to make long, unfocused presentations that are received poorly by the audience. The truth is that no one can stand long speeches. Today, time is becoming more and more scarce, and people’s ability to absorb long presentations is less and less. And no matter how good the speaker is, she will not be able to compete with the infinite options of a smartphone.

Usually, organizing committees of corporate events anticipate this problem and limit the time for presentations. And as an antidote to this, the executive often commits a mistake common to speakers with limited time: revealing everything too quickly. The problematic consequence of the presenter rushing through various subjects: they do not have any impact. Including too many themes is the same as including too little information. And the presentation is certainly judged a failure.

Objective speeches: fewer topics does not mean less excitement

In companies, as in modern life, we live a paradox unknown to President Wilson in the last century: lack of time. Unfortunately, we can no longer count on having unlimited time to work though ideas. And since time is a determining factor in corporate presentations, those presentations should be short and use objective speech. The executive must get right to the point and reduce the number of topics, optimizing the narrative in a single, cohesive thread. In one sense, the speaker will cover fewer points, but the impact will be substantially greater. And this does not mean losing excitement.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech is perhaps the most famous speech of all time, and it took only 15 minutes. We do not know how the American pastor prepared himself for that moment, but he certainly did not improvise. At a minimum, the speech was polished over a lifetime of civil rights activism. Like no one else, Dr. King got right to the point with a single, forceful message: his dream was equality among the races.