Numbers Brief

10, 20 and 30....these are the numbers you must keep in mind when preparing that next brief. Based on a theory put forth by venture capitalist and author of one of the top-rated blogs in the world “How to Change the World,” Guy Kawasaki, the 10/20/30 formula is quite simple. When you brief, use a maximum of ten slides, finish in twenty minutes or less and never, ever use a font size of less than thirty.

Impossible, you scream! What about that embedded Excel spreadsheet detailing our next ITT drill? What about the fishbone chart depicting our path to INSURV success? Those things take time to brief and cannot be summed up in large font bullets!



Guess what, whether you think your information is too important not to include or not, when you attempt to show extremely granular detail or oodles of data, it will not be retained. And if it is not retained it is not worth spending the time to put it out.

At the Annual Conference of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Dr. Vladamir Sistek claimed that “Studies on attention span....shed light on why students have difficulty with the traditional lecture format. Adult learners can keep tuned into a lecture for no more than 15 to 20 minutes at a time, and this at the beginning of the class.”

Do we expect that sleep-deprived, port and starboard watchstanders are going to be able to functionally retain more than than the students in Sistek's studies?

Of course, I concur that we often deal with subjects which require quite a bit a granularity. But there is no reason that we cannot provide that detailed information to the key players as an email or a paper handout prior to the brief itself and then concentrate only on the key points while we are briefing. (Most of those attending any given brief only need a cursory understanding of the 'big picture' anyway.)

This method will also have a valuable side-effect. It will make us better briefers. How many time have you sat though a brief or presentation where the presenter was simply reading off the plethora of info he had jammed onto each slide. By including only ten slides of big font bullets, the briefer is forced to do the unthinkable, namely, really learn the material being presented and put it out in a succinct and understandable manner.

So the next time you are putting that brief together, just chant the new powerpoint mantra 10-20-30 to yourself as you type. And then stick with it!

SWO.ductivity=4+

Don't forget to leave a comment if you found this handy or if you found it worthless. the.SWO.ter wants to know!