What Every Presentation Needs: Wrapping Paper!

An observation in style vs. substance in presentations.

It’s your birthday. Your friends have decided to throw you a surprise party. You come home from work and inside your living room are your family and friends yelling, “SURPRISE!” You have a great time hanging out, having a few drinks, and talking with everyone. After you blow out the candles, it’s time for presents.

You see an array of small and big boxes wrapped in colorful wrapping paper. You spot a few distinct well branded gifts that have obviously come from high-end retail stores. Then you notice a surprisingly odd looking gift. At the corner of the table is a crumbled and creased brown paper bag amongst the small mountain of glittered bows and shiny wrapping. You’re not even sure if the paper bag is a gift or if someone didn’t know where to put the trash.

Which gift do you want to open most? The one that’s beautifully wrapped or the one that looks like an afterthought? Which one sparks your interest? Which one is more intriguing? And more importantly, which one makes you feel special and cared for?

Style vs substance.

Many people believe that if their message is strong enough, then it compensates for any lack of style or polish in their presentation. This is not true. Without style, your message loses strength. It isn’t as intriguing (shiny) to the audience. They aren’t as engaged because they are distracted by disjointed thoughts, awkward body language, verbal stumbles, and off topic tangents. In other words, the message is hidden in a crumbled up paper bag. No matter how important the message is inside the brown paper bag, it will never seem as special as the one in the beautiful, shiny, colorful wrapping paper.

I can hear the passionate objections now. Yes, I’m sure some of you are turning red thinking about the last speaker you saw with all style and no substance. You went to a meeting expecting good, actionable insights and all you got was a weak razzle-dazzle song and dance. Can style over compensate for substance?

Sadly, yes it can. With that said, can style completely overcompensate for substance, no it can’t.

When someone prepares a presentation so well that there is an element of finesse to it, then the audience is more forgiving than if the presentation is full of substance and poorly. The audience will than begin to squirm in their seat waiting for the presentation to be over. They will watch the clock out of boredom and, more than likely, completely check out.

As you can see – and as you have experienced for yourself – with poor delivery and lack of style, the substance is overlooked since the audience’s attention is distracted and disengaged. If your substance is shoved in a brown paper bag, then it might get overlooked entirely.