Speak clearly or remain silent.

3 Tips for Clear Presentations

The success of your presentations depends on whether you are understood. If you fail to achieve this, your language probably lacks clarity. Read here about the most common barriers to clarity and how to solve them! When people have delved deeply into their subject for a long time, they no longer remember what it was like without all that knowledge. They have forgotten how they used to speak before becoming experts. They lose the feeling of when to express themselves in a generally understandable way and when not to. You have probably caught yourself doing this as well. Sometimes, for example, I talk about resilience and only notice from the blank expression on my conversation partner's face: Not everyone knows that it is the ability to fend off setbacks and grow from them. Such irritations do not have to happen. If there is something to understand, then it can also be made understandable. Let's take a look at some typical stumbling blocks in presentations: What barriers to clarity cause the audience to not understand anything at all?

Barrier to Clarity No. 1: Nested Sentences

Long sentences in presentations arise because experts fall victim to the curse of many words: they believe that only a complete technical argumentation is a good argumentation. The opposite is true: The more we say, the less we are understood. Even if you need to convey a lot of information: Several short sentences are always better in spoken language than one long sentence. And it's better to leave out unimportant information altogether than to waste valuable speaking time on it. In the same time, you could tell the listeners something they don't know yet or can read about everywhere. Clarity Tip No. 1: Less is more in spontaneous speech. Even if you have a lot to say, you can still do it in a few words per sentence.

Barrier to Clarity No. 2: Data Overload

The audience tunes out when too many numbers are presented in a speech. Numbers are abstract on their own, they don't captivate anyone. And not only that: they are a source of many uncertainties. The reason: Numbers cannot be understood absolutely. If you gather a group of ten people and discuss the value of 1,000 euros with them, you will hear ten different ideas about the value of this amount. The solution to the dilemma: They can be understood relatively, for example, by working with reference numbers to break down numbers into understandable units. For example: If I tell you that 20,000 people in Germany die from the flu within a year, that may not sound like much. This changes when I give you the following information as a reference: Only 6 people died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (BSE) in the same period. With this reference number, getting an influenza vaccination suddenly sounds like a very good idea, doesn't it? Clarity Tip No. 2: Numbers can only reinforce the message when broken down into understandable units.

Barrier to Clarity No. 3: Word Monsters

Managers, lawyers, and insurers sometimes invent word monsters for their presentations, such as "Business-to-Business-to-Consumer economy" or "Non-life reinsurance business". Many of them believe that this makes them sound particularly serious. However, the well-known British psychologist Richard Wiseman has found that an accumulation of technical terms and endless word creations has the exact opposite effect: we do not trust people we do not understand. What listeners do not understand cannot inspire them either. Your contribution will be most effective if you speak clearly, emotionally, and entertainingly. Technical terms do not meet any of these criteria. Resist the temptation to show off with technical jargon: The gibberish only hinders you from sending clear messages. Clarity Tip No. 3: When using technical terms, use them sparingly and explain them immediately. Presentations thrive on clear expression. If you have something to say, have the courage to want to be understood. Speaking clearly is not a sign of incompetence, but the basis for real impact. This aligns with Karl Popper's plea for intellectual honesty: "Those who cannot speak simply and clearly should remain silent and keep working until they can speak clearly."