I remember the first time I rolled out a new deck to a team of young professionals. I arrived at the boardroom armed with a clean and classy new presentation that I believed would help take our team’s sales to the next level. I was confident that my team would love the new deck as much as I did. As I began to unveil the new deck, I could see in their faces that they were unenthusiastic about what I was sharing. The look in their eyes said they had no desire to learn a new pitch; after all, for some of them, the old one was still working well.
The day I rolled out that new deck to my team, I knew I had blown it. I had allowed my excitement to rush the process and, as a consequence, I left my team feeling blindsided and run over. I had an agenda and goal, but I had failed to take the time needed to communicate that to my team.
Did you know that only 40% of the current workforce can actually communicate the goals of their company? As a manager, if you rush the rollout of your new deck, you feed this statistic and run the risk of creating confusion among your team.
When it comes rolling out a new deck, the way you roll it out is just as important as what you have created. Being armed with a sleek design does not mean you should run straight to your team and tell them you are changing everything. Take time to come up with a plan, and then execute that plan accordingly to get them on board.
Here are a few signs that you’re rushing your rollout:
Your design is not complete.
It may or may not surprise you, but often, managers get ahead of themselves when it comes to rolling out their new deck. They take their first or second draft and decide that’s enough to show their entire team. When this route is taken, your team’s first look at your new deck is bound to be an incomplete one. This can often lead your team to not liking your new deck or feeling like it is a poor replacement for what you already have. You want your first impression to wow them, so take the time to ensure your concept and design are both complete before rolling it out to your whole team.
Presentation Tip: During the revision process, hire a copy editor to run through your content. They will ensure your content is clean and grammatically correct, which will add an extra layer of professionalism to your presentation.
You have not allowed time for feedback.
Feedback is a critical step in creating and rolling out any new deck. It’s easy to overlook mistakes or second-rate sections in your design when you are the only one that has looked at it. As a result, the deck you roll out could look sloppy and unrefined. Make sure that you allow time for feedback and revisions before you show your team. A big step in a complete design is getting another person’s feedback. This will ensure that any error has been caught and your presentation looks professional and pulled together.
Presentation Tip: Allow someone from outside of your company to provide feedback on your presentation. By having someone from the outside look at your deck, you will catch any confusion in your content that may be overlooked by someone with inside knowledge.
You don’t have a strategy.
When it comes to rolling out a new presentation, it’s crucial to be strategic. It’s also easy to allow the excitement of something new and shiny to interfere with creating and executing a thought-out strategy. If you find yourself rolling out a new deck without a strategy, chances are you are rushing the process. Think about all the factors, like who you will tell first, how you will tell your team, how will you collect feedback, and so on. Slow down and think through each step – not just steps 1 and 2 but the entire process all the way to completion.
Presentation Tip: Write it down. By writing out your strategy, you ensure that anyone can implement it. Change happens, and if the only strategy for the roll out exists in your head, the project could get derailed if there’s ever a period where you’re not available.
You only have one shot to introduce your presentation to your team; don’t risk blowing it by rushing the process. Create a plan and execute it as intended. If you’re intentional about rolling out the new deck, you’ll ensure a smooth and professional roll out the first time.
At Ethos3 we believe in empowering presenters to win not just on presentation day but throughout the entire process. Contact us today to find out how we can help you succeed.