When overwhelmed people deliver underwhelming presentations

We’ve seen them and been bombarded by them, those dense presentations of data, dot points, slabs of text and diagrams with .... aarrghhh our brain is fried! Sometimes we overwhelm people, overloading them with too many ideas and messages, jamming it all in one deck or pack of information.

It doesn’t make sense. This can drown people; not save them.

So beware; if you’re overwhelmed, busy, running from meeting to meeting, struggling to get clarity in your own mind ... what you create and deliver to others may well be just as messy and overwhelming. It could turn out to be underwhelming though, disappointing, confusing.

It's then easier to just ignore and disengage.

In times of major change, when people are waiting to hear, needing to see and curious to know what the heck is going on, it’s vital we manage our own state of information overload and cognitive load so we're not just passing the chaos on to everyone else.

We’ve got to 'get our head around' our own information before we can begin to think about transferring it to others. Blog posts included 😁

Time spent making things clearer ... is time very well spent. 

Could you make it easier

Is this a question you routinely ask about what you’re working on? How can we do this easier, make it easier, get it done with less resistance, obstacles, blocks, twists and knots?

Most things we’re working on really don’t need to be this hard, but we make them so. We can be distracted, lured and drawn in by others to add more and more, trying to do more and more or talking about more and more.

Because something is challenging doesn’t mean it’s worthy or good. So don’t be one of those people who when they speak, seem to make things more detailed or more confusing.

Life’s tricky enough without making stuff harder.

No silly time-wasting, power-playing games needed. Progress is the prize and reward. Help people work out what’s going on, what needs to be done and then get on and do it. 

Willing to stay with the problem

We can work with people who are so keen to leap to a solution, they’re not willing to stay with a problem for a little longer.

Why is that? Is it

- pressure to deliver?

- discomfort with the perceived negativity?

- drive to get it done?

- impatience to listen, learn or consider?

It’s so very powerful though, to feel the feels, to really get the empathy and experience of the problem and its consequences. We then give those people experiencing the problem acknowledgement and respect as we sit with the discomfort and inconvenience of the problem.

Try to allow it. For longer. To really explore it, understand it, tease it out or scope it out. Wider and deeper. Not for weeks and months, but at least some hours and days.

Your collective thinking about the solution will most certainly be better. Allowing more time to come up with more ideas and getting more heads, hearts and hands onto it. Don't brush it aside or move on too quickly. A better expression and experience of the problem will elicit a better solution and resolution to the problem.

How you handle a problem

When you were most recently working on a problem, a conundrum or a tricky situation, how were you handling the problem? Were you talking about it? Say, sitting around a table with other people, just talking it through? Or were you ‘handling the problem’? Did you actually get your hands on the problem?

When we physically work with a problem, see, feel and imagine the pieces of it and move things around, we solve it quicker.

If we do, that means the l-o-n-g meetings we’re in (where we are usually just talking about the problem) will be finished sooner! We'll come up with better ideas and solutions and we generate a greater range of possibilities.

A product development team at a consumer goods business used cards with the key issues, challenges and obstacles written on them. They moved the cards around on the meeting table.

Seems simple, right? Engagement, participation and buy-in was boosted, and people more clearly understood what the details of the issue were all about.

Try not to just talk about the problem - but get your hands on it! You'll bring more people into the work to be done. 

Do you see patterns

Spotting trends, seeing patterns, staying observant. These are crucial skills for today’s world of work where things change and uncertainty is high.

It’s easy to get caught up in our own world, deep in the culture of a project or workplace, cycling through our usual activities, routines and habits.

So what would make you take notice of something? And how would you make note of it? Do you know how observant you are?

🔲 Oblivious

or

🔲 Observant?

and

🔲 Forgetful

or

🔲 Insightful?

Our powers of observation are powerful... and insight-full. Don't miss them as they fly by!

Take care not to be:

Departed, nor to Waste great insights, or to arrive at them Unfounded.

Today’s changing world needs us to be observant, noticing things, picking up on trends, spotting patterns and connecting sequences of information. It is indeed 'connecting the dots'.