Observation #1: Rory Sutherland has a great line, to the effect that half of the people around you simply don’t know what you do.
(By the way, as many of you know, I’m a huge Rory Sutherland fan. I’ve read his book “Alchemy,” I binge-watch interviews with him on YouTube, etc. He’s vice-chair of Ogilvy UK, which means he’s one of the top muckety-mucks at one of the biggest advertising firms in the world. So when he says half of people don’t know what you do, and so half of advertising doesn’t need to be creative, it just needs to tell people that you’re there, it’s like Einstein acknowledging that half of physics is about making washing machines and refrigerators.)
Observation #2: Years ago, one of my clients (he worked at Citibank) said that even his wife (who also worked at Citibank) doesn’t understand what he does, even though he tried to explain it to her a gazillion times.
Observation #3: The human economy is almost entirely based on solving imagined problems with YOU. Corporate strategy didn’t work out? It’s because YOU did something wrong. Pipeline not good enough? It’s because YOU are not doing something right. Teeth not white enough? It’s because YOU are not using Colgate.
The reality is that YOU are fine. YOU did things just fine. The problem is not with anything that YOU did. It’s that sometimes, things don’t work out. That’s just the way it is.
Look at the Rory Sutherland quote, or that Citibank guy example. If something in our world is lacking, it’s not because we did anything wrong, it’s just that that’s the way the world is.
What does this mean for your presentations? Don’t waste your time trying to explain to others what you do. You can talk until you are blue in the face, and they still aren’t going to get it, even if they work in the same place as you. Instead, spend your time describing the problem they are trying to solve, and then show them how to solve it.
Makes life a lot easier that way.
(Yes, I’m basically saying we should live on the second leg of BMG.)