Blow it up

I finally watched Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth this week and my verdict is in: Al Gore knows presentation skills. Sure, he's been giving the same "slide show" for years (over 1000 times, by his own account), and yeah, the renowned design firm Duarte Design helped create the compelling visuals. If you deliver presentations, you must see this film. You can read plenty of comments on Gore's presentation style, but one of the most striking aspects is this: at one point Gore comments that he continuously updates his presentation by pro-actively addressing objections to his message. Here's how Gore explains it: "I guess the thing I've spent more time on than anything else in these slideshows is trying to identify all those things in people's minds that serve as obstacles to them understanding. And whenever I feel like I've identified an obstacle, I try to take it apart... demolish it, blow it up."

That's a master presenter - a persuasive one, too. Arguing the other side, or acknowledging differing points-of-view actually increases your credibility (Authority principle) in the eyes of the audience. As Lawrence Lessig says: "Even if you want to reject the argument, understand it first."

If you're serious your presentation skills, I strongly suggest you take a close look An Inconvenient Truth. Gore has set the standard by which audiences will judge your "slide shows."