If you give your audience a preview of what you’ll cover, you’re helping them follow along. If you warn them that “there’s a lot to go through,” you’re really telling them you haven’t prioritized and packaged the most important information. Let’s make the most of everyone’s time by eliminating the following from our scripts:
“We don’t have a lot of time, so I’ll just cover this quickly.”
“There’s a lot of information on this slide, but I don’t want to take the time to drain it.”
(I’m not sure how one would actually drain a slide, but that might be a separate post.)
Your time in front of an audience is precious. Get to the point, reinforce that point with data or testimonials, and then get on with the business of motivating or informing your audience. Think about the best presentations you’ve experienced. Were the speakers apologetic . . .or focused?
