A number of years ago, a coworker and I were working on a project in Edmonton. We got hungry and hopped in the rental car to find a place to eat. We had no idea what food we wanted or where in town we needed to go.
So we just started driving. No map allowed. When you approach an intersection, you make a best guess as to which direction you might want to head. This approach started working well for us. As time went on, we would find places where there were amazing specials and we never had to eat the same food twice.
One place we ended up had a special on all you can eat beef ribs. I was much younger and didn't have to watch the waistline. Anyways, as we were eating I was looking around the restaurant and saw a man sitting by himself who I felt I knew. I approached him and asked if he was my spouse's uncle. Sure enough, he was and even though I had never met him before in person, I had connected with a relative.
From that moment forward we called our driving approach Zen navigation. You might not know where you are going or how to get there, but you do know where you are and where you have been.
So when I saw a book called "Presentation Zen" by Garr Reynolds, it really caught my attention.
I am working on a presentation to start selling one of our new products around business optimization. But I don't really want it to be just another "Death by PowerPoint" presentation where you have page after page of bullets (usually started with a 10 minute company overview… ahhhhh!).
So far the book is inspiring me to try a much different approach. Tell a verbal story and support it with visuals that add to the story and not repeat it.
This approach to presentation building is new and unfamiliar. I don't know what I am going to end up with, but I do know where I have been; and I don't like it. Presentation Zen, here I come.
