Prepare a 4-minute presentation
Choose your [new initiative / recommendation / suggestion] and a target audience
Study the Fish Structure
Prepare Your 4-minute presentation based on the Fish Structure
Bonus Material: A video example and a written example of using the Fish Structure
1. Choosing your [initiative / recommendation / suggestion]
Think of an upcoming presentation, where you are to recommend something to solve a problem, or improve a proces.
What's the problem you are trying to solve?
What’s the consequence of not solving this problem? Find your audience’s pain points like losing money, wasting time, deadline delays, employees quitting ...
What's the end goal?
What’s your solution to this problem?
2. Study the Fish Structure
Watch this video about the Fish Structure and look at the accompanying overview and template below.
Overview of the Fish Structure
Fish Structure Template – how to say it
3. Prepare Your 4-minute presentation based on the Fish Structure
If you prepare it backwards, you make life easier for yourself:
Formulate your Call-to-Action: Which three things do you want them to do?
Summarise your 3 actions in an overall solution. Formulate it in one sentence
What's the problem you are solving?
What's the end goal? (The Aspiration)
Bonus Material
A Video Example of Using the Fish Structure
A Written Example of Using The Fish Structure
Title: “Are we Making the »Too Many Meetings« Mistake?” That’s what I will talk about today
Hook
Monday morning. Imagine that Microsoft Teams just crashed and won’t be up and running for another 7 days. No meetings for 7 days! Imagine what you could do…You could focus on your core work for several hours straight. You could decide things on a short phone call.
Virtual meetings rule our calendar. Let’s change that.
The WHY story
We are an efficient workplace, wanting to work smarter, not harder.
But unfortunately our meetings are very long, inefficient and very time-consuming. This is threatening our efficiency.
The big question is: What to do about it?
SOLUTION + Proof
Solution Sentence
Let’s optimise our decision making procedure to halve our meeting activity
Data Proof
In our department we hold 750 meetings a month, which sums up to roughly 1,300 working hours. Every month. In average it takes 2.1 meeting to conclude or make a decision on any project. What if we could do it in 1? Then we could halve all meeting activity.
Example Proof
Let’s take an example:
Here’s a 3 step guideline for how to drive faster decision making at meetings. They use this at Maersk. After they followed these new principles, they managed to drive the same decision with 50 % the meeting time.
Visual Proof:
Here’s a screenshot of my meeting calendar the next month (fully covered with meetings). When we have optimised our decision procedures to cut meetings in half, then my calendar would look like this. This is a much better calendar to get my tasks solved.
Call-to-Action
Call-to-Action: In order to decide, not discuss, let’s:
Only invite need-to-have people
Start every meeting with formulating what needs to be decided.
Use the 3-step guideline for how to drive decisions.
Benefit
We will have more time for the fun stuff.
Call back to the Hook
If we can agree on this, I’ll ask them to turn Microsoft Teams back on:)
