How do you make complex things simple in presentations?

“Making the simple complicated, that’s easy. Making the complex simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”

Charles Mingus

The best communication tends to be simple.

Whether it’s memorable phrases from history or literature:

“Jesus Wept”,

“I came, I saw, I conquered”

great adverting slogans:

Just Do It

Coke Is It

or important ideas expressed clearly:

e=mc2

“The higher you climb, the harder you fall”

On the other hand, our businesses, our strategies, our communications, all tend to be complex.This leads to complicated presentations and confused communications.

Complexity does not need to be complicated

Whether you work for a fund, a businesses or in services, your job as a communicator is turn complex ideas into simple communications. That is the art of great communication. For example, during an IPO last year, we translated the eight key investment points the banks wanted into three clear memorable lines:

• Great Market
• Great Product
• Great Business.

This worked so well with investors that the company is still using these lines 2 years later.

The best communicators make things simple

Richard Feynman was not only one of the smartest nobel-winning physicists ever, but he was also a brilliant communicator. He loved teaching undergraduates and his undergraduate lectures were packed because they were so popular.  Listen to him explain various scientific concepts.

He really sets the standard for what great communication should sound like.

How to turn the complex into simple communication

When you have a complex idea to communicate, try exploring different ways to make it easy to understand.

Some ways to do this  include:

1. saying less
2. adopting metaphors
3. telling stories
4. incorporating analogies
5. stripping out irrelevant detail.

In some situations we have found people so hung up on explaining HOW they do something that they forget to be clear on WHAT they do. Being outsiders, we are in the privileged position of being able to ask simple questions (e.g.

So how do you make money? 

What makes you special?  

So What?

If you would like help making the complex less complicated, please get in touch.

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