My book, The Persuasive Wizard: How Technical Experts Sell Their Ideas to Non-technical Decision Makers, is scheduled for publication in late August. This book was written specifically for technologists who must present their ideas and recommendations to decision makers – men and women who have the power and wherewithal to determine your fate. Maybe your presentation is for increased funding, a new project, maybe a plea for sustained staffing, or maybe just a petition for a better job. In watching the NBA playoffs last night, I was struck by how forcefully that game emphasized a key point that I bring out in my book – stay laser-focused on the desired end result.
Here’s how the NBA game went down.
The Dallas Mavericks were clearly the underdogs in this game and in the entire series. Last night they were down two games to one in a seven game series. The Miami Heat has arguably the two greatest players in basketball, Dwayne Wade and LeBron James. Add Chris Bosch and you have what appears to be an absolutely insurmountable trio of superheroes.
Who’s on the Mavericks side? Clearly Dirk Nowitzki is in the top 25 of the greatest seven-footers to ever play basketball, but he does not have the athleticism of either James or Wade. Plus, he is only one man. Last night, Nowitzki was running 102 degrees fever from a sinus infection. Add to Notwitzki’s ill health the 38-year old Jason Kidd who does not need to be defended because he doesn’t shoot. Add to that a Jason Terry who has been sub-zero for the last two games. There are flickering embers from Tyson Chandler and Shawn Marion, but they are not going to get you 20 points. And then there’s the 5′ 10″ J.J. Barea, my personal favorite. There is no way such a combination could have won last night, especially when they were behind by nine points. But they did win. How? Because they stayed focused on the end result – winning that game.
In contrast, here’s how it usually goes down with the technology wizard. The technology wizard starts out the presentation like a house afire. Data, facts, conclusions, implications, assertions, details, details, details, details, details, …. and there you have it. Almost every technology wizard gets bogged down in details and forgets what he wants to accomplish in the meeting. He forgets why he came. Most technology presenters cannot even answer the question, “What do you want to accomplish in this meeting?” They just go into the meeting with a boatload of data and and forty viewgraphs describing everything they have done since they last made a presentation. What you want to accomplish is to have the decision makers approve your recommendations. They can scarcely do that if you are injecting them with Novocain-details and putting them under at every turn.
Next time, try a different approach. Prepare your last viewgraph first. That viewgraph is what you want decided in the meeting. That viewgraph is your walk-off-the-stage viewgraph. It will be the last thing they will see, the last thought you stick in their minds. What is on that viewgraph? By no means is it a summary of what you said. Forbid. Don’t even think it. It is your recommendations, my sweet, what you want done, what you want enacted.
Once you have that viewgraph perfected and razor sharp, make sure that everything you show, everything you say, every gesture you make, every neuron, every piece of data, every implication, everything, absolutely everything, is pointing right at that end result. If it does not point to the end result, take it out of the presentation entirely. Never falter, never waiver. Say nothing, do nothing, and think nothing that does not lead to that end result.
You can gain a valuable lesson from that NBA playoff game. Never, for even a moment, take your eyes off of what you want to happen.