You are now ready to shift to your left brain and put the clusters you identified in a sequence and logical flow. You need to develop a pathway to determine the best order to present the clusters in your presentation.
Here is the problem you are facing. If you read something and you don’t understand it, you can go back to the book, find the material and reread it. When you are presenting, listeners can’t do that, so if they miss something, they have to start thinking and stop listening or interrupt you or give up. None of these options are acceptable.
Therefore, you have to become the navigator for your audience, make it easy for them. To do this, you have put these segments into a logical sequence to create a lucid and persuasive presentation. These techniques are called Flow Structures, and there re 16 of them to cover various types of presentations.
I can’t go through them all in this brief blog, but they are available on our platform or in Jerry Weissman’s book, “Presenting To Win.” They range from the simple like modular or chronological to issues/answers to rhetorical questions.
The flow structure you should use is the one that best fits your situation, your style, and helps tell your story. Remember, the mission is to get to Point B, the call for action. It’s more important that you select one or two flow structures to use. Not choosing a flow structure risks that your presentation rambles along, confusing the audience.
Before choosing, ask these four questions:
- What is your Point B?
- Who is your audience, and what’s in it for them (what benefits)?
- What are the main clusters you need to address?
- Why have you organized the clusters the way you have?
