How do you ace your next presentation to a group of decision makers?
A powerful strategy to pass this challenge successfully is to use the rules of 30-20-10-1.
These rules are as follows:
- Rule of 30. Most likely you will use slides. This rule dictates that the minimum font size in your slides should be 30. (This font size is derived by dividing the age of the oldest participant in your audience by two. With 60-year-old decision makers in your audience, your minimum font size should therefore be 30.) When text in your slides is BIG you are forced to use few words to communicate the essentials.
- Rule of 20. You should use a maximum of 20 minutes to convey your key ideas. After this time you will undoubtedly be brutally interrupted and lose control of your presentation, which isn’t necessarily a big problem if you have communicated your main points in the first 20 minutes.
- Rule of 10. Your total presentation should be a maximum of 10 slides, with additional slides allocated to the appendix.
- Rule of 1. This rule covers the most important slide in your 10-slide deck, the executive summary, which contains what you want your audience to know, feel and do.