Have you ever listened to a presentation and at the end wondered what it was all about? More than likely the speech was disorganized and the lack of organization left your brain no logical pattern to follow.
Without the Power of Organization supporting you and your presentation, you run the risk of:
- Making points out of order.
Many topics need the audience to understand point A before they can comprehend point B. You’ll find yourself saying something to the effect of, “let me back up a moment here ….” That not only wastes precious time, but it will also causes you to lose a significant portion of your audience. - Rambling on and on with no purpose.
Organization not only helps the audience follow what you are saying, but also helps you remember what to say! If you can remember the basic organization of your speech, you can quickly and more easily recover from bloopers.
All powerful presentations are organized … they have an underlying structure that helps pull the audience from one point to the next.
The most basic organizational structure is this:
- Opening — Explain what you are going to be talking about.
- Body — Make 3-5 salient points
- Conclusion — Summarize what you’ve said and wrap it up.
This is the skeleton on which great presentations are made. Listen to any speech … no matter what topic … and you’ll probably find this basic structure underneath all and any advanced techniques layered on top.
This is because the Power of Organization is one of the basic powers that all good presenters have. It is also one of the easiest to learn and develop.
You just need to sit down and prepare.
