Roger McCarty: Top-down executive decision-oriented presentations are different than any other kind of presentation you have seen. They are not designed to only convey information but are designed to facilitate decision-making. The purpose of the presentation is to give an executive the information they need in the context they prefer to make a decision. Consultants use this style of presentation because they have learned what executives prefer. This style of presentation is often called the Minto method because it was popularized by Barbara Minto, who was the lead presentation designer at McKinsey Consulting, the largest strategy consulting company in the world. 

[Picture of Barbara Minto appears on screen.]

The presentation gets right to the point and tells you the answer and why it is right. So let's look at the outline of a top-down pyramid principle presentation. 

[Diagram of a top-down pyramid principle presentation appears on screen. Each type of slide is highlighted as it is discussed.]

A good presentation starts with an introduction, which may include people's bios and an agenda. The next slide presents the original problem statement. An optional next slide shows a background and/or approach to show how we address the problem statement. So with that limited prelude, we present the recommendation slide. Underneath your recommendation appears your conclusions on that lead slide. But how do you know that my conclusions are true? So we take the conclusion bullet and make it the lead topic point on a slide with bullets of information that support the conclusion. But how do we know that my information is correct? So we take each information bullet and make them the top key topic point on their own information slides. In the body of the information slide, we need to show the facts, tables, bar charts, and other graphics to show that the information is true. 

The same will be true for conclusions two and three. Once you've presented all of the conclusions and the supporting information slides, you repeat the recommendation slide as a summary. In essence, your first recommendation slide was telling them what you're going to tell them, the conclusion and information slides tell them, and the second recommendation slide tells them what you told them. You close with the slide indicating the next steps to either implement the recommendation or what they should do after the recommendation. It is important to have a robust appendix that has the slides that would address any questions they may ask during the presentation.

But what if you're not making any recommendations? If you completed a project that was primarily events or activities, what are you going to show on your final presentation? The most important thing in an activity-oriented presentation is to define the impact made by the team and the value created by the activities or events. 

[Diagram of an activity-oriented presentation appears on screen. Each type of slide is highlighted as it is discussed.]

The key changes you will make to the standard presentation in an activity or event-oriented presentation include: replace recommendations with value and impact added, replace conclusions with activities or deliverables of your project. For information, you show the activities and the event schedules that you did to create the deliverables that added value. The info slides can give details about each of the activities and guides, or any information needed to support the impact and value improvement indicated. The intro slide can give details about each of the activities, and users’ guides or any information needed to support the impact and value improvement indicated. Then you remind them of the value you added by repeating the lead value slide.

Now what is on these information slides that we've discussed? Let's zoom into an information slide. 

[An information slide fills the screen. Each section of the slide is highlighted as it is discussed.]

At the top of the slide, there is an agenda or orientation to tell you where you are in the presentation. There will be a key point at the top of the slide, which is the purpose and point of the slide. Then the body of the slide will have text, graphics, or charts to support the statement that is the key point on the top of the slide. 

[A cartoon animation of a meeting with a presenter at a whiteboard appears on the screen. The items the speaker discusses appear on the whiteboard.]

Some of you may want to understand why there is so much text or graphics on the slides. This is because three to five times more people will view these slides than attended the actual presentation. This is true both of decision presentations and impact presentations. Decision-oriented presentations are shown to the people above the peers of those who attended and the people below them that work for them. If you use slides that are entertainment slides, it will not help those who are not at the presentation. All of the meat needs to be on the slides. 

Entertainment or teaching slides are intended to support the speaker, but in a business decision presentation, the speaker supports the slides. If there is anything that is in the verbal overlay given by the speaker of the presentation that is not on the slide, then there are three to five times more people who will never know what was said because they were not there. So every key point must be on the slide, that makes them text and graphic-heavy presentations.

Top executives seldom read all of the slides. They specifically review the top bullet points of the slide and only dig deeper if they don't agree or have questions about your statement. So remember the key points: The executives will read a 45-minute presentation in about five minutes, everything that is in the top point must be redundantly displayed in the slide. If the main statement on the slide is not totally supported by the contents of the slide, then it cannot be stated. Slides need to have headings or agenda points on the top or side of the slide so people will know where they are in the presentation. Slides also need to have a key point at the top of every slide.

In summary, pyramid principle top-down business decision presentations will look different than any presentation you have worked with in the past. This is because executives gather and process data differently than other people and leaders. And if you want to communicate effectively with them, you need to learn their language and how they want you to present to them.