Problems.
We love them.
The bigger and badder the better.
Of course you have to be sure you have the right problem.
And then you have to remember that as much as some people may want to claim it, business – and life, for that matter – can not be approached like one big engineering problem.
Well, it can, but the solutions are – at best – short term and – at worst – ignored for being utterly bland, boring and emotionless.
But that’s not what this post is about.
You see, in our quest to solve big problems, we like to show our solutions by overwhelming the client with our brilliance.
Brilliance of our considerations.
Brilliance of our proof points.
Brilliance of our brains.
I get it …
You not only want to lead the client through your thinking so they ‘get it’, but because you’re proud of what you’ve done.
But there’s 3 things wrong with this approach …
The first is – as my Dad used to say – if you’re desperate to show how intelligent you are, then you’re not that smart.
This has never been more true in the creative industry where the reality is the work should be doing the proving, not you.
And secondly, this ‘demonstration of intelligence’ approach more often than not, results in presentations that are hundreds of pages long.
Literally hundreds.
Slide after slide that takes people on an extremely long journey on how difficult the problem is you have to solve and how complex and detailed the path to your solution has been.
It is, at best, a strategy where the goal is to beat the recipient into submission.
And why am I saying all this?
Well recently, I caught up with someone who told me 3 things I absolutely love.
Three things that should change the way companies approach problems and communicate their solutions.
Now full disclosure …
The person who said this is not some random individual.
In fact I’ve known and worked with them for a long, long time.
But more than that, he is – and has been for 2 decades – at the top of his game.
The business leaders, business leader.
An individual with an incredible history of success through pragmatic decision making and investment in innovation.
I asked him if I could mention his name but he said he preferred if I didn’t. Not because he wants to be mysterious, but because he’s humble … which is another reason he doesn’t work in adland, ha.
That said, he has personally shaped the way I present …
Semi-structured, singular stories rather than a mass of slides.
Strong visuals rather than pages of information.
Clarity rather than confusion.
Spoken through the nuanced, authentic lens of culture rather than superficial generalisations of convenience.
Communicating as an informed outsider rather than a blinkered insider.
The language of people not corporates.
Provocative rather than comfortable.
Inspiring the possibilities of creativity rather than creating structures to stop it.
Now I appreciate not everyone appreciates my style – and that’s fine – however, it has led to a lot of success for me and now, I realise why.
You see what this individual said to me was this:
1. Make sure your presentation is focused on the opportunity not the problem.
2. Remember, solutions need to be simpler than the problem.
3. If you can’t sum your solution up in a sentence, you have either an ego problem or a problem with your solution.
That’s it.
Sounds obvious doesn’t it.
But how many of us are doing it?
How many of us are writing presentations that celebrate the complexity of the problem rather than the power of the opportunity?
How many of us are talk about our approach to executing the solution rather than what the solution actually is?
How many of us talk about solutions as a range of elements tasks rather than one overarching idea?
I would like to think I’ve been following those 3 steps for years, but even now – I read them and go through old approaches and see where I could have done things differently.
More concise.
Cleaner … at least in the articulation of the solution and how I got there.
One of the best bits of advice I ever got was ‘talk to a friend outside the industry about your idea. If they don’t get it, you might need to re think about it.’
This is not about dumbing down.
Or being simplistic and basic.
It’s about really thinking about what you’re doing and how you’re expressing it.
Because as Ronald Reagan said, “if you’re explaining, you’re losing”.