theJANG.net
Bamidele O. Shangobunmi

JANG Speaks!: A rare type of compliment

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

A rare type of compliment

I don't know exactly why, but I usually don't take well to compliments.  I'm just not into receiving accolades for getting work done; I'm into just getting work done.  Today, though, I received an in-person endorsement that I actually very much appreciated.

I was in the elevator on the way to lunch, and heard a voice behind me say, "Hey that was a great presentation the other day." I turned around and had never seen the person before. He's a content manager of sorts who has been trying to "change the mindset" within the company with respect to presentations, and thought my LEGO-themed standards presentation at a large all-hands gathering a few days back set a good example. We've had senior VPs revolting against neverending PowerPoint decks and insisting that presentations have literally no more than 5 slides.  As a result, some teams now fill up 5 slides with 30 slides woth of bulleted lists in tiny fonts.

This gentleman in the elevator said he was watching people at the preso I gave and it was unlike any other large meeting he's attended at the company.  Nobody was thumbing away at their blackberries, and no heads were buried in laptops during my talk.  Every slide was basically one fun, but effective image, and I was walking people through a cohesive story using plain English.

This was really great to hear, and I hope many people in the future will be able to receive the same feedback.  I just figure, if nobody is going to follow a presentation, why give it at all?  It's better to present a managable amount of information with a delivery that the audience can connect with, rather than trying to push out huge amounts of rock-solid data that's going to fly over everyones' heads.

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