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Page 1: Key Message. Delivered - Englische Version - …€¦ · Haufe Fachbuch 01635 Key Message. Delivered - Englische Version Business Presentations with Structure Bearbeitet von Wolfgang

Haufe Fachbuch 01635

Key Message. Delivered - Englische Version

Business Presentations with Structure

Bearbeitet vonWolfgang Hackenberg, Carsten Leminsky, Eibo Schulz-Wolfgramm

1. Auflage 2012. Taschenbuch. 232 S. PaperbackISBN 978 3 648 03661 7

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pyraMiDS — tHe MoSt StaBLe StruCtureSin tHe WorLDThe Pyramids of Giza have fascinated mankind for over 4,000 years. It is not just their size and

appearance that has aroused our interest: their stability, too, is unique. These tombs of the Pharaohs

are the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. And this is due not least, of course, to their

basic design. Each of the huge stone blocks from which they are made sits on at least two others.

No single storm could ever leave a mark on these buildings, let alone topple them.

The same principles as those underlying the construction of the pyramidsThe same principles as those underlying the construction of the pyramids

can and should be used by you when formulating your arguments.can and should be used by you when formulating your arguments. your.reasoning framework should be as solid and stable as an egyptian.

pyramid. This will help ensure that you can successfully transmitThis will help ensure that you can successfully transmit

what you are seeking to communicate.what you are seeking to communicate.

STABLEREASONING

FRAMEWORK

EGYPTIAN PYRAMID

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unDerstanDtHe PyraMiD1 DeterMine

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eSCaLate to tHe MoSt eSSentiaL

We can thank Barbara Minto, an American communication consultant, for the Pyramid Principle.

To improve the communication skills of her colleagues, this former Mckinsey consultant developed

the basics of pyramid thinking as practiced in business. That was in the late 1960s. Since then, the

Pyramid Principle has been adopted globally as a tool for sorting large amounts of information and

presenting important topics in a simple yet compelling manner. In short, it is the proven basis upon

which strong communication structures can be built.

But what is it about the pyramid that makes it so special? Why is it so revolutionary in this context?The short answer to this is that by giving your presentations a pyramid structure, with the most

important point you wish to make placed at the very top of the pyramid (and therefore at the

beginning of the presentation), you can make it much easier for your readership or audience to

understand what you are trying to convey. This is the case regardless of which presentation soft-

ware you use, especially since such software did not exist in the 1960s.

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MiSS MarpLe VerSuS CoLuMBo

Think back to your own education. How did you learn not just to write but also to structure your

writing? How, for example, were you expected to structure essays in high school? You may have

been taught to describe the topic in detail, illuminating all its various aspects, before, pages later,

setting out a conclusion. Later in life, while studying or training, you may have found yourself taking

a more academic or scientific approach to writing, with the general theory coming first, your specific

conclusions afterward — with the latter based soundly on the former. The logic of this approach,

which sees a movement from the general to the specific, we can think of as “inductive,” since it

shares some features with the classical principle of induction. We like to think of it, though, as the

“Miss Marple Principle.”

In the television series that took her name, the eccentric Miss Marple would always be presented

with a murder-mystery to solve. The body would be shown to the viewers at the beginning of

each episode, so the puzzle to be solved was made clear right from the start. Then, thanks to Miss

Marple’s cunning detective work, a chain of events and a foundation of evidence would be estab-

blished, piece by piece, leading to the eventual unmasking of the perpetrator. The solution — the

essential insight — therefore came at the end. You can picture this process as funnel-shaped: the

further we are in the case, the more focused and specific the information becomes, squeezed into

an ever smaller space. This process is often referred to as “bottom-up,” since it involves the devel-

opment of a theory or theme from an underlying factual basis.

miss marplemiss marple

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In a process based on induction, arguments are presented one at a time, with these arguments

eventually leading to a final solution or result. This method is indispensable for university essays

and academic or scientific articles and lectures since it gives the listener or reader an overview of

the approach taken and also clearly exposes the underlying facts.

Yet, if you look at most instances of information transfer in the workplace, you will see that what is

required is not the gradual development of a theme but speed and focus.

Induction-based communication is, therefore, not particularly suitable for business communica-

tion, as it gets to the main point only via a long, meandering path. With induction-based commu-

nication you also run the major risk of soaking or even drowning the addressee — especially the

casual reader – in a flood of details. This feeling of being engulfed by too much information may be

familiar to you.

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The opposite of inductive is deductive. And the opposite of Miss Marple in this connection is Lieu-

tenant Columbo of the television series of the same name. The “Columbo Principle” is therefore the

deductive counterpart to that of Miss Marple. On Columbo's beat we are first shown the murder and

the murderer. This means that we know the “result” (the identity of the perpetrator) from the very

beginning, with the investigation then slowly pulling back the veil to reveal the events that led to it.

With the deductive method, which takes its name from classical deduction, with which it bears

similarities, a conclusion is drawn from a series of facts and theories, with this conclusion also acting

more or less as the major premise. The conclusion is known from the start, and the individual facts

upon which it is based are communicated afterward.

You can picture this process as a pyramid, the apex of which is the central insight, the lower levels

of which are the arguments developed “top-down” from this.

As may have occurred to you, this second principle is much more suitable for a business environ-

ment. With this principle no time is wasted: you start with the central insight and then explain how

you arrived at it. This approach has a number of advantages:

< Even if you eventually lose the attention of your addressees, you will still have communicated your

key message.

LIEUTENANT COLUMBOLIEUTENANT COLUMBO

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< Your addressees will try to place what you are telling them in a logical context. So if you let them

know what the most essential insight right at the outset, they will have less difficulty understanding

your arguments. If you begin instead with some random observation or theoretical point, they may

end up floundering and frustrated.

< Following this method you will see new questions loom up at each level of your argument, the

answers to which will fill any gaps in your logic.

< Addressees’ attention and curiosity are at their greatest when they begin listening or reading. So

you should insert the key message — tailored to the audience or readership’s needs — at the start

of the presentation.

An example of a structure that accords with the deductive method is: “Our recommendation is X,

and our reasons for this are first ... second ... third ...” Such a framework will enable the audience to

judge in real time whether each reason does in fact support the recommendation.

An equivalent inductive structuring would produce something like this: “We have determined the

following: first ... second ... third ... We therefore recommend X.” In this case the audience members

or readers will have to remember all the arguments until the end of the presentation, since only then

will they be able to evaluate how well these support the recommendation.

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Without wishing to sound dogmatic, we should mention here that we greatly prefer the Columbo

Principle for any form of business communication. Time will always be the most precious commodity

of those listening to or reading your presentation, so you should be careful and respectful when

making demands of it — regardless of which level of the hierarchy they occupy. If you always give

your addressees the CE0 treatment in terms of never unnecessarily holding up their day, then this

could work wonders for your reputation, marking you out as someone who never wastes time in

getting to the point.

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tHe “eMerGenCy CaLL prinCipLe”

Say you see a cyclist lying injured in the road. People are with him, but the emer-

gency services are nowhere to be seen. So you call them. What do you say?

Probably not: “At around 10:30pm I noticed a car speeding down Canal Street. On

account of this recklessness it struck a cyclist at the junction of Monroe Street, who appears to have

fractured his skull and to be in need of urgent medical assistance.” No, such a long-winded descrip-

tion could even be counterproductive. You would probably say something like this: “There’s been

an accident at the junction of Canal and Monroe. A cyclist was hit by a car. He’s lying in the road,

bleeding. Please send help.”

the most important information needs to be communicated first. this simple insight is a central.proposition of the pyramid principle.

Of course, the use of the pyramid structure has long been a feature of news journalism. If you look

at a well-written article you may see that it begins with answers to one or more of the “Five Ws”:

“who,” “what,” “where,” “when,” and “why.” The answers to these questions are the minimum that

needs to be communicated. Placing them at the beginning means that if the reader is interrupted

she will at least know the essential facts. An example of an opening sentence that front-loads the

most important information in this way is: “The German finance minister is due to meet his French

counterpart in Berlin today to discuss the economic crisis.”

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SeparatinG tHe tHinkinG anD WritinG proCeSSeS

Structuring information — the thinking process — tends to follow the bottom-up method. It

involves analyzing a problem from bottom to top based on your hypotheses. You begin — as in

high school — by sorting and filtering all your facts and arguments and packing what remains into

a key finding. This method forces you to get think intensely about the topic.

The writing process should not proceed in

parallel with the thinking process but should

follow it. Writing can follow either the top-down

or the bottom-up method. But we recommend

the former and that you communicate your main

insights upfront. This involves presenting your

key message at the beginning, then justifying it

by working top-down through your arguments

afterward.

The legal profession provides us with clear examples of both the bottom-up and the top-down

approach in action. These relate to the two main styles used to communicate legal findings: the style.of the legal opinion and the style of the court ruling.

parallel with the thinking process but should

follow it. Writing can follow either the top-down

or the bottom-up method. But we recommend

the former and that you communicate your main

insights upfront. This involves presenting your

FIRSTTHINK

THENINK

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To get to the heart of a legal issue, lawyers produce a legal opinion. This sees their matching the

circumstances of a case with the parts of the law that are relevant to it, which brings to light all the

legal ramifications, and then making a legal assessment of the situation based on this matching.

While formulating a legal opinion lawyers therefore follow the inductive method. This is helpful not

only for the lawyer, but also for others wishing (or needing) to understand how the assessment was

made.

The style of a court ruling is completely different. In a court ruling the verdict is announced first.

At a bench trial in Germany this verdict will begin along these lines: “In the name of the people the

following judgment is issued...” So the thing that is of most interest to all those in the courtroom,

not least to the accused, namely whether he can look forward to prison food or to something tastier

over the next few years, comes first.

Only once the operational part of the judgment has been read out are the grounds for the decision

described in detail. The mode of the court ruling is therefore proclamatory and deductive.

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Conclusion: Depending on your goal and the makeup of your audience or readership, you should

switch between the inductive and the deductive approaches as you see fit. After all, it makes a

huge difference whether you are looking to communicate a complex solution to experts, which may

suggest the use of the inductive approach, or a stripped-down recommendation to decision-makers,

for which the deductive approach is sure to be much more suitable.

In our experience we have found that the majority of all presentations nevertheless blindly follow.the inductive approach: first come the facts, then the result, regardless of goal and of audience or

readership. We strongly encourage you to consider using also the deductive approach whenever it

may be appropriate for you to do so. Your addressees will thank you for it.