Not long ago, I sat in on a presentation at a business conference and thought I’d landed on Mars.  The program topic was compelling but somehow the presenter managed to take us into outer space.  No one was following him.  I wondered why this is so complicated.  The guy had managed to hide his brilliance under a bushel - seizing confusion from the jaws of clarity.  

Whenever someone says,”I don’t want to dumb it down,” I know we’re in for a long day.  Pour me another cup of joe and pass the half and half.  We have a lot of work to do.  The hard part isn’t making the complex clear; it’s convincing people that they can explain anything if they try.

It’s dangerously bordering on arrogance to think that just because you know something others don’t that they are somehow inferior.  Smart people don’t approach their presentations with the thought that they’re going to have to write for dummies.  Most of the time your audiences are real smart.  They just didn’t go to the same school you did. They haven’t spent years learning what you know.  True genius is being able to explain the complex so that virtually anybody can understand.

Mark Twain once said, “I would have written a shorter letter if I’d had more time.”  It’s work, yes. You have to crank your brain into gear to remember how you learned what you know and explain it to others.  If people don’t speak your language, take a few steps back and recall or develop common language or terms that express the concepts.  Look for opportunities to clarify.  

My husband writes screenplays and consults on movie scripts.  He wrote a book a couple of years ago called the 3rd act, writing a great ending to your screenplay.  The only thing I know about movies is what I like and don’t like.   (chick flicks, yes, excessive violence keeps me up at night).  Over the years, sitting next to him in the movie theatre I’ve learned enough to be annoying (”Honey, is this the second act or the third?”).  But let me tell you — after reading his book you’d think you were ready to go write the next Casablanca or Moonstruck or Good Will Hunting.  He makes it so simple. Even if you’re never going to write Little Miss Sunshine, you enjoy that 2.5 hours in uncomfortable theatre seats (except for the popcorn commercials, loud previews and catchy songs about where to exit in case of emergency). 

So what to do - if you do have a complicated subject to explain?

Here are a few tips.

1. Don’t assume people know what you’re talking about.

2. Never believe that you’re smarter than they are.

3. Look for examples and analogies that make people say, “OH!”  It’s sometimes hard to find it, but when you do you’ll have eureka moment; when it happens to me my eyes well up with tears.

4. Look for photos, visuals, even stuff people can hold in their hands. A picture really does explain a thousand words.  Search Google photos by plugging in a topic and clicking on images.  You’ll get 11,345 of them in about 2.5 seconds. 

5. Define your terms - and I don’t just mean technical terms.  Explain the business lingo, too.  It’s really unbelievable what the human business brain comes up with, isn’t it?  You might know exactly what ”customer centric” means to you, but I guarantee there are 82 other definitions out there in the minds of your audience.         

6.  Test run the presentation on a friendly but discerning person.  I’m not talking about your dog and your 6 year old.  Of course if you can get them to sit in a room for 20 minutes and listen, bravo.  But seek out someone who knows your audience and doesn’t do what you do every day and get their opinion.

7.  Strive to be the expert everyone loves to run into in the hallway.  You win friends when you are everybody’s go to guy or gal.  Help them understand enough to make a good decision and be able to explain why they made it.    

8.  Name your processes, ideas and concepts.  People really like to share the ”tag” for an idea; it’s common language.  We use a tool called the “Audience Agenda System” in helping our clients analyze their audiences.  The process is foolproof; the branding it makes it memorable.

9.  Use humor.  When a topic is complex or you are struggling to explain it, a little fun goes a long way.  You connect with the audience and help them relax by making them smile. 

10.  Read good books that explain complexity, listen to speakers who do it well, and emulate them.  You may remember Steven Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, who wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time .  If he can help nonscientists understand where the universe came from, how it began and whether it will come to an end, then I guess most of us can figure out how to explain what we know.

PS: If you know expert speakers who are very good at making the complex simple, let me know.  I’m starting on my third book and I could use some examples.

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“Tragedy is when I cut my finger.  Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.”

-Mel Brooks, The 2,000 Year Old Man, 1961

The other day at the hairdresser a friend came up and told me that her husband had recently given a presentation at his company’s all hands meeting.  He started with a joke.  Oh boy, she said.  It was bad.

The room fell silent.  He was so flummoxed that he bumbled the rest of the speech.  “Next time,” she told him, “try it out on me first.”  

There’s nothing better than making an audience laugh and nothing worse than saying something you mean to be funny and getting back… nothing.  A few nice people who feel sorry for you might summon up smile and a nod, but you know you’ve blown it.  And that’s a real confidence killer.   For women it’s the equivalent of trying on a bathing suit after 5 months of winter.  For men, I would guess it’s a little like hitting the gym after a 12 year hiatus and getting on the treadmill next to a beautiful woman.  Jog slowly and hold the tummy in.

So what about humor?  Is it a good idea?  Should you start a presentation with a joke?

The answer is no.  But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to connect with a little humor.

There is a difference between jokes and humor.  The trouble with jokes is:

• Most people have heard them before
• Many are not that funny
• They often make fun of other people
• And then there’s the timing thing - Letterman and Leno have spent years perfecting it – so why should the rest of us expect it to come easy?

What’s really funny?  Ordinary stuff.  That’s why Seinfeld was so brilliant.  Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld took the most mundane aspects of life - like waiting in line at the movies, going out for dinner, buying a suit and explored the petty injustices of life.  It was all so pointless.  Now the Seinfeld variety of humor is still a little dangerous because these guys made fun of other people; but in the long run, they were making fun of themselves.

Which brings me to a point.

If you are going to have fun, do it at your own expense.  Or have a laugh about something that bugs everybody.  Here’s an example.  At a National Speakers Association convention one year, many speakers made a big show of showing off their families, kids and grandkids on giant PowerPoint screens.  The point they were making in each of their own ways, was this is why we work so hard, do what we do; this is what matters.  Then, one of my favorite people and mentors, Alan Weiss, got on the stage.  Alan, as everyone knows, is not a fan of PowerPoint.  But not to be left out, he told the audience, that he too had brought along photos of his kids.  At which point he reached in his pocket, pulled out his wallet, eased two photos out and held them up to the audience of 3,500.  It was very funny.

The best humor is now - in the moment - what people are talking about right now.  That’s why the late night show monologue is the part people still stay up to watch.  Leno and Letterman and those guys are going to have fun with today’s news.  They’re going to give us a fresh take on the same old same old.

There’s no question that speakers who use humor instantly connect with their audiences.  When people laugh, they are ready to listen.  They get comfortable.  They feel they know you.  Presidents and pundits alike know the power of getting people to smile.  Abraham Lincoln once said, “If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?”  Even in the face of crisis, great leaders have tickled our funny bones.  As they wheeled Ronald Reagan into surgery after the attempted assassination, he turned to his surgeons and said, “I hope you are Republicans.”

So humor has its place, however, it will backfire if it isn’t funny to your particular audience.  I sometimes tell audiences a story about starting my business.  As most of you know, I was a television reporter for 20 years so I had little experience in business.  At the end of the first year, my accountant stopped by to congratulate me.  “I’d like to talk to you about accounts receivable,” he said.  “Great,” I replied.  (Paulse) “Okay, what are accounts receivable?”

That line always gets a laugh with entrepreneurs.  It never gets a laugh with accountants.  They really aren’t sure whether I’m serious.  When they realize I am, they just don’t understand.  Nothing against accountants, some of them have a great sense of humor.  Usually after tax season is over.

My point in the story is that eventually, I earned an on-the-job PhD in accounts receivable.  Because that’s what you do in business.  That’s what you do in life.  You learn what you need to know.  I’m a little more judicious about when I tell that story.  Or, if people don’t laugh, I’ll add a line like, “Some jokes I just tell for me.”

I’m no comedian, don’t pretend to be.  I do appreciate humor, and I try to include it when I can.

A speaker once told me she got herself into trouble when a couple of people in the company put her up to having fun with one of their colleagues.  They assured her he was a good sport and would find it funny.  I don’t need to tell you what happened.  She ended up in the hallway apologizing profusely.  That’s one of those horrible moments that wakes you up at 3 in the morning for days after the offense.

My advice if you want to add humor to your presentations is this:

• Have fun at your own expense
• Make it something that connects to your audience
• It’s the little things that drive people crazy - so look at those first
• If it’s painful, it can probably be made funny
• Don’t tell jokes - people have heard most of them
• Test it out on your spouse, friends or colleagues if you’re not sure
• Don’t be afraid, try it and you might find you’re darn good at it
• Read books on humor - there are a lot of them out there - with great tips.

And then go for it.  Just keep your eyes open.  Watch people.  Observe.  As Bill Nye once said, “humor is everywhere, in that there’s irony in just about anything a human does.”

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