Can you imagine a carpenter beginning a construction project by carefully painting the face of each piece of lumber?
It wouldn’t make much sense, would it? He would have to foresee how every piece would be used, where every cut would be and how every single piece would fit together. It might be an interesting challenge for a bored master craftsman, but it would hardly be an efficient or effective way of working for the average journeyman carpenter.
So why does almost every presenter I work with seem to begin their planning and writing with how they are going to open their presentation?
Sure, the opening of your presentation is important. It is the first thing the audience will hear. It has to catch their attention, establish a rapport and prepare them for the message you are going to be presenting. But that doesn’t mean it is the first thing you should write
The paint is the first thing you see when you visit a new house, but it is one of the last things that the builder applies.
You can’t plan or write an effective opening until you know exactly what you are opening. You need to know what the message is that you are trying to deliver, what kind of change you are going to lead the audience through on the way to that message and how you are going to convincingly explain and support that message.
You need to know which of the many stories, statistics or arguments available to you are going to be used in the body of your presentation. You need to know what the overall tone of your presentation is going to be.
Otherwise, like a carpenter trying to adjust the structure of a house to accommodate the painted lumber available to him, you’ll end up trying to adjust the tone, flow and structure of your presentation to match your opening, or worse, trying to hammer together mismatched parts.
Define your message, craft your argument and marshal your supporting evidence. Tack it all together, THEN start thinking about your opening. It may be the first thing your audience will hear, but it should be one of the last things you write.
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Excellent analogy!
When crafting your talk, working back from where you’re leading to seems like a better approach than starting with the beginning.
All the same, in the opening of your talk, alluding to what’s in your closing is a powerful technique too. So you might have a good clue about your opening from very early on. (More about “symmetrical” talks here: Picture your talk as a shape… Now, what shape do you see?)
Still, I take your point that it doesn’t make sense to finish your opening until the rest of your talk’s complete.