Flyby: [flahy-bahy] an egomaniacal and reckless presentation that makes no effort to actually communicate information to the audience in interpretable form; a waste of time.
Presenters are prone to think of audiences as collections of individuals, all of who are reasonable, civilized, and predisposed to trust them. Presenters are a funny breed in this way. They overestimate the communicative capacities of well-coifed hair, a sparkling smile, and an expensive suit. They think a golden microphone makes gold records, no matter what song is sung.
Here is a better way to understand your audience: Imagine that you are a scientist traveling deep into the heart of the Amazon. There is a tribe you will be visiting that has never made contact with the outside world. Your job is to help them understand how a pyramid structure of accountability in concert with a proprietary new technology that helps channel pertinent information to the appropriate manager in any given department within the company can help streamline human resources communications.
Now, when this tribe sees your plane overhead, will they: a) implicitly trust you and do whatever you ask whether it makes sense or not, or b) throw spears at your plane, then you, and then use your laptop to flatten meat for drying. Take your time.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, good presenters don’t imagine that their audience is naked to get over a fear of public speaking; they do so to remind themselves that their audience is primitive. If you are so callous as to commit the flyby, then remember to bring your bone breastplate and spear, because it is probably going to get ugly.
The Takeaway: A good presentation boils down data, information, and key concepts so that an audience can easily follow logic from point A to point B. Flybys are sometimes unintentional, but they are always ineffective.
