Presentation Myth 3: ‘The more you know about a topic, the less you need notes’

Presentation Skills Myths and Realities #3

This is a commonly held belief, especially by senior executives. That feeling of having been in a job for many years, absorbing a wealth of knowledge and experience along the way. No difficulty in talking about it.

No doubt that this is likely to be the case – and no doubt this is also the problem.

The more anyone knows about a topic, the easier it is to go into too much detail, to talk for too long.

The biggest challenge facing all presenters is having too much knowledge and not enough time to cover everything.  The best way to address this is to have a well structured set of notes, but also to know how to proactively use them with a conversational style.

So it follows, in order to keep a presentation short and focussed, the more you know about the topic, the more you need notes.

Notes should be viewed in the same light as a pilot’s checklist. Before take-off, it’s mandatory that the pilot completes a checklist. This doesn’t mean that the pilot doesn’t know how to fly the aircraft. They will, for sure, have been fully trained and tested. The check list is simply there to ensure that everything is in order, nothing is left to chance.

As passengers, we should be extremely thankful that pilots have their checklists. And the same goes when giving a presentation.