Does this move the ball forward?

The student, a 20-something Japanese man, displayed his slideshow as he practiced his presentation. The audience was made up of about 20 graduate students — most from Japan or China, with a smattering of Europeans and Latin Americans mixed in. The aim of his talk was to encourage fellow students to begin personal investments early in their careers.

A few slides included some GIF files of memes that were currently trending. As he went through his talk on marketing, I began thinking, “Why include this meme? Why that one?”

Did they connect to the aim of the presentation?

When he finished his talk and took his seat, I went to his laptop and took us back to the top of his slideshow. I then advanced through the slides, one by one. When we got to the slide with the first GIF file, I asked him why he included it.

“This meme is really popular right now, and a lot of audience members will enjoy it.”

Several issues came to mind.

First, significance. The student said it was popular, but was this meme indeed popular? With whom was it popular? Let’s ask! “Okay folks, raise your hand if you are familiar with this meme.” About five hands went up, all Japanese students. Five out of 20. That is, this reference did not carry particular meaning for 75% of the audience on that day. So it turned out that what the speaker meant by “really popular” was, “this is really popular with people I know.” But the key question for any content of our presentation is “what does this piece of information mean for the people who are viewing my talk right here and now?” Your pals are not often the ones you’re trying to persuade at school or work. So, “popular” but with whom?

Second, relevance. Even if this meme was popular with the majority of this audience, and they indeed enjoyed it, what would that mean for this talk? For the purpose of this speaker’s goal, does it help? Does it help persuade listeners to start a personal investment practice? Does it move the ball forward? It came out that the GIF was simply unconnected to the talk’s main idea. It was just something fun that the speaker felt he would like to toss into his talk, to add a bit of flavor. Let’s put a few roasted pecans in the salad because, well, we like pecans! There is no point being made with a salad, so okay. In a presentation, however, you want to take the audience to a certain goal. Random bits distract the audience from the path you want them to follow toward the conclusion.

Third, necessity. Let’s suppose that the meme had meaning and was relevant to the main idea of the presentation. A further question remained: was it necessary? In a professional talk, we have limited time. So we have to think about efficient movement toward the goal. Do I have enough well-organized, informative and persuasive content to lead the listeners toward the conclusion without this dazzling extra bit? If so, omit it.

If the purpose of your talk is to entertain, tossing in some random bits of information might be just fine. But if you’re here on business, let’s focus: Is this piece of information related to my main point for this talk? If so, does it help move my audience toward accepting my main idea? Next, do I need it, or do I have enough other material to move the ball forward without it? Keep these things in mind and you’ll be sure to move the ball down the field every time.