The Elephant

December 16, 2009 by Jerry 

elephant

In 1873, John Godfrey Saxe, an American poet, published a poem based on an ancient Indian fable about six blind men who were asked to describe an elephant by touch. One man said it was a wall, another a spear, another a snake, another a tree, another a fan, and the sixth man called it a rope. The last stanza of the poem concludes:

                  And so these men of Indostan
                  Disputed loud and long,
                  Each in his own opinion
                  Exceeding stiff and strong,
                  Though each was partly in the right,
                  And all were in the wrong!

The point of both the poem and the fable is to demonstrate the importance of seeing objects (and objectives) from an overarching view rather than just as component parts; to see the forest, not just the trees.

This same point about contextual perception is applicable to presentations, a subject you read about in an earlier blog. Conventionally, people in business view a presentation as the individual parts of an elephant. One person describes it as the story, another as the slides, another as the delivery, and yet another as the handling of tough questions.

However, a clear story can be ruined by slides that are guilty of the designation, “Death by PowerPoint.” A clear story supported by slides that follow the Less Is More principle can be ruined by the presenter who freezes like a deer in the headlights in front of the audience. A clear story supported by slides that follow the Less Is More principle delivered by a presenter who has the poise and confidence of Ronald Reagan or Barack Obama can be ruined by a tough question that throws the presenter for a loop.

Every one of these elements must be thoroughly managed by the presenter and carefully integrated with each of the other elements or any one of them can ruin the entire presentation.

The presentation is the elephant.

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