Your allotted time to present just got cut—dramatically. Now what?
If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s taught it us to be flexible, to hold our plans loosely. Nothing, it seems, has gone “to plan” since March. That truth as shown us the necessity of being adaptable. And it applies to presentations, too. Sometimes the amount of time we’re allotted to present gets significantly cut due to the agenda falling behind or the unexpected early departure of the key stakeholders. (Or—inexcusably—you don’t manage your own time well while speaking.)
How does a speaker adapt to the new time allotment?
Hint: the answer is not talking faster.
To reduce the time of a presentation, even with just a few minutes notice, do one (or more) of the following:
1. Reduce the number of points.
Identify, in advance, which points in your talk are most critical to achieving the goal of your message and meeting your audience’s needs. As soon as you know you need to cut your time short, move those points forward in your talk, eliminating those that aren’t as vital to the aim of the talk. During your rehearsals, time each section to have a sense of how many minutes you’ll save by eliminating points.
2. Eliminate layers.
If each section is vital (and none can be removed), eliminate some of the supporting details. In most talks, there are “layers” to each section: the core truth/main point and one or more illustrations (e.g., statistics, stories, quotes). Removing layers will reduce overall time. Again, identifying in advance which illustrations are least impactful (relative to the time they consume) will enable you to quickly achieve the new time constraint.
3. Use an alternate ending.
I also advise speakers to always prepare two endings to their presentations: the planned ending and an abbreviated ending. The planned ending is a longer, more emotionally-resonant version—perhaps a powerful story that leaves the audience on a high, desirous of the outcome you’ve invited them to (even if it’s just a better Q4 performance). The abbreviated ending will still invite the audience to that desired outcome but without the lengthier exposition; it’s likely to just be a simply-phrased call to action. Both should be carefully crafted in advance in order to achieve the goal of your presentation.
Whichever approach is necessary, take just a few minutes before you begin presenting to hide any slides that you won’t be able to address. Your audience won’t know there was a longer version.
When we’re invited to present, we’ve made a commitment to the group to do so within the time allotted—even if that allotment changes abruptly. By having a clear sense of purpose for our presentation—what we want the audience to do after hearing it—and preparing well, we’re enabled to quickly adapt to changing constraints without compromising the goal.