If I knew you were presenting, I’d have baked a cake…

If ever a client of mine is concerned about their lacklustre presentation style, I ask a logical question: “Can you make a cake?”

If they haven’t already started backing slowly away from me, most will say yes.

I delve further: “Can you make a cake that’s as pretty as someone who makes cakes for a living?” Most admit they probably couldn’t. (But there’s always one.)

“But,” I ask them, “is it still a cake – even if it’s not the prettiest or tastiest?” Of course it is.

“Can people still enjoy your cake?” Most certainly.

The self-appointed communication ‘experts’ would have you believe there’s only one way to make a cake. It must look and taste exactly like the specific, restaurant-quality recipes they teach… or it’s no good.

That’s the problem with rules, which are proscriptive statements demanding a specific action regardless of the circumstances: they wrongly assume there’s one ‘best’ cake recipe. But communication is a nimble beast; activities need to be structured on a case-by-case (or is that cake-by-cake?) basis.

If the ‘experts’ had their way, we’d have two things: a very limited array of presentation styles (and patisseries) to choose from; and a lot of train-wreck presentations conducted by people without the necessary skill or understanding of the communication process to apply the rules effectively.

But we all know there’s more than one way to make a cake. There are many styles to choose from, each with hundreds of recipes ranging from home made to Michelin star. You can then mess with the ingredients and the process.

So it is with public speaking – you don’t need to stick to the limited, rigid presentation styles most training advocates. It’s far more important to find the style that suits the circumstances, and your talents.