Plato would be right at home pitching an idea to a full room of VCs in Silicon Valley. Instead of delivering straightforward instruction, he made dialogue the center of focus for developing his ideas and getting others to see his point of view. Even the Ancient Greeks knew that effective communication does not follow a linear path—it requires us to incorporate the point of view of others as we engage in cooperative, iterative learning together.

In most of Plato’s writings, the protagonist Socrates engages in a conversation with another person. During a back and forth exchange, Socrates makes his “pitch” by learning more about the other person’s point of view. Through nonlinear give and take, everyone comes away better informed.

Transforming one-way presentations into a shared environment for developing knowledge together allows our expertise to come alive. This is crucial for several reasons:

We meet people on the same plane: By adopting each other’s point of view, we communicate on the same page and cut down on misunderstandings and misinterpretations.

We develop our own knowledge further: Delivering information shouldn’t be a one-way street. Pushback by others forces us to refine and sharpen our own ideas.

We go beyond the content at hand: By using our knowledge as a roadmap for jumping off into a dialogue of learning, we avoid constraining the potential of our meetings by simply “sticking to the script.”

Plato understood that the best way to communicate some of our most complicated ideas might be to develop them together in shared dialogue. Focusing on conversation, rather than instruction, allows us to engage all participants in the learning process. When we engage in learning dialogue, we iteratively develop our own expertise to synchronize each other’s perspectives and maximize the richness of the ideas being shared.

William Isaacs’ critical book, Dialogue: The Art of Thinking Together, elucidates this point further.  Isaacs wants us to understand that cogent dialogue isn’t just about passing ideas back and forth. By engaging the collective knowledge of everyone in the group, a truly effective pitch creates synergy that both unifies the group and expands its creative capabilities.

Thus, the heart of effective communication lies in establishing a relationship through which information can be shared. By building a bridge of respect and trust, ideas belong to the group and individual problems become the focus of cooperative effort.

Engaging in nonlinear dialogue adds a personal element to communication, and this is critical. Oren Jacob has spent over 20 years developing and fielding pitches. Between pitching $100 million movies at Pixar, fielding startup pitches as an EIR at August Capital, and now as co-founder and CEO of interactive media company ToyTalk, he knows an effective pitch inside and out. He makes a keen observation: “Your pitch has to be infused with humanity.”

Much of this is really about flexibility. Jacob continues, “You’re at your most human when you can respond off the cuff.” He argues that while stories require structure, they are really a conversation. Navigating the connections that structure the transitions between key points is a subtle, but important tool. Jacob suggests practicing delivering pitches in a nonlinear way to hone this skill, explaining, “It’s only by working the transitions in and out of your key points that you’ll actually get a real handle on the various bridges you can use to get where you need to be.” 


At Vimodi, we are developing technology that helps users have a more engaging, responsive and effective visual discussions and dialogues. Vimodi enables visual mobile discussions for better engagement, motivation, and creativity in meetings and daily communication. Try Vimodi App.

What do executives at Amazon and nuclear physicists at Fermilab have in common?  While a tempting response, the answer is not the potential for world dominance.  It is something far less sinister but perhaps more relevant to everyone. Both have both embraced the idea that the secret to effective communication is not slick PowerPoint but instead active dialogue with the audience. To get there, they have returned to the basics when meeting to discuss ideas: whiteboards at Fermilab and white papers at Amazon.

A recent story in Symmetry Magazine covered a move by physics collective Fermilab to engage in a process of “physics by hand.” Organizers of the lab’s biweekly forum on Large Hadron Collider physics decided last fall to forgo PowerPoint presentation talks and instead have discussion leaders present their material using low-tech whiteboards and markers.

Talks that were once linear, one-way presentations of information have been transformed into dialogues that engage the entire group. Professor Andrew Askew, associate professor of physics at Florida State University and co-organizer of the forum, explained, “We all feel inundated by PowerPoint… We wanted to draw out the importance of the audience.”

Not having PowerPoint as a crutch to rely on can be good for presenters too: speakers themselves must find ways to make deliver their content in a way that connects with the audience instead of letting the slides do all of the work. Askew noted, “With only a whiteboard, you have your ideas and a pen in your hand.”

Moving to a more non-linear presentation style forces the speaker to focus their presentation more on the connections between the concepts rather than a predetermined chain of material. Askew explained, “The participants go further off script, with more interaction and curiosity.”

Physicists are not alone. Leaders such as Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Yahoo's Marissa Mayer, and LinkedIn’s Jeff Weiner have eliminated PowerPoint from their meetings as well. And Steve Jobs once remarked that anyone who knows that they are talking about does not need a PowerPoint.

To be sure, eliminating PowerPoint does free discussions from forced linearity, but doing so creates another problem. For many years, researchers in the fields of neuroscience and psychology have found that learning and retention of information is drastically improved when we interact with visuals rather than only words. Rather than simply banning PowerPoint, a better solution is a tool that blends a nonlinear mind-mapping approach with access to critical visual aids.

There are no simple solutions to the complex problems the nuclear physicists at Fermilab grapple with, but it is clear that demand for a visual discussion app is growing.

*Photo: Peter Darling TypePad


At Vimodi, we are developing technology that helps users have a more engaging, responsive and effective visual discussions and dialogues. Vimodi enables visual mobile discussions for better engagement, motivation, and creativity in meetings and daily communication. Try Vimodi App.

You might be familiar with the well-known “Grandmother Test” for determining how user-friendly and easy to understand an idea is. Sit down your grandmother, grandfather, or another family member who is completely unfamiliar with the subject area you’re working on, give them your best pitch, and see if they get the basic idea.

Clarity is a good start, but its not enough. The main point of the test is to make sure that people will understand what you’re talking about. But, your grandmother will usually try to support you and listen no matter what you have to say. Imagine giving the same talk to someone you just met in a bar—would they get bored and walk away?

IDEO Project Lead Nicole Kahn has a solution for transforming presentations into stories that captivate, and she calls it the “Bar Test.”

"Bars are friendly, social places, sure, but something really important happens when you’re at a bar,” explains Kahn. “You use really direct language. You make sure that what you’re saying is entertaining and engaging. You don’t quote tons of data. You don’t use overly corporate language — except maybe in air quotes.”

Before giving a presentation, Kahn and her IDEO colleagues run the Bar Test by giving their presentations to friends or co-workers who are unfamiliar with the subject area. "We grab a colleague …and buy them a beer or a coffee and spend 15 minutes to see if they understand the point of the presentation."

15 minutes could save you.....

Kahn recommends taking 15 minutes to see if they understand the point of the presentation. “We look for when they lean in, or when they look away or reach for their phone. We look for nods and ‘uh-huhs’—we look for what surprises and delights. That’s how we figure out what’s sticky and resonating.”

Why so short? Using only 15 minutes has a dual-pronged effect. First, it forces the story to be succinct. You must get to the point quickly, and also make the story pop. This is helpful, because it compels us to sift through what’s really important for conveying an idea. You might have 5 or 8 slides relating to an idea, but are they all really necessary for describing the heart of your idea?

15 minutes also keeps the investment low. That’s the beauty of the Bar test: it allows for a low-cost trial and error approach. If your first attempt doesn’t get a great response, that’s all right—spend your next 15-minute session using a new approach. The key is to be flexible, and don’t get stuck on one idea.

Passing the Bar test

Kahn stresses three essential strategies

Develop a cohesive “through-line”: What is the main takeaway? Make sure everything in your presentation builds up to and reinforces the underlying “big idea.”

Use compelling anecdotes: These little narratives are what bring your ideas to life and make them personal. Kahn suggests using anecdotes that “provide a tactile sense of experience, take your audience on a journey, and create drama.”

Incorporate personal reflection: Don’t be a robot. Think strategically about moments when you can use your own personal experiences and feelings. These can help cue your audience to react and feel what you want them to during the story.

More bar tricks

Use questions to engage others. Arthur Palac, formerly one of Miller Beers' top ranked salespeople, describes the importance of bolstering your message by asking reinforcing questions such as “Have you ever felt that before?” or “Has something like this ever happened to you?” According to Palac, "If you’ve been talking for over 20 minutes and you haven’t asked a single question of the audience, you’ve lost them."  

Use visuals. Visuals don’t just provide another level of information you can use to deliver your ideas, they actually change the dynamics of the entire presentation. Kahn explains, “When you have visuals on the screen and not a lot of words, you make people dependent on you as the presenter to know what’s going on. You have the authority in the room. The slides do not.” Text-filled slides usurp your power to control the room, craft your personal narrative, and hold the audience’s attention.

The next time you need to get buy-in for an idea or make a sales pitch to a customer give the Bar Test a try. No offense to grandma of course.

Photo* - Daily Star Sunday

At Vimodi, we are developing technology that helps users have a more engaging, responsive and effective visual discussions and dialogues. Vimodi enables visual mobile discussions for better engagement, motivation, and creativity in meetings and daily communication. Try Vimodi App.

You wouldn’t try to multitask while giving a talk, so why would you make your audience? Nancy Duarte explains in her book, HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations, that using software to communicate is not an evil of itself. However, using uninspired bullet point lists and cluttered build effects can stop effective communication in its tracks. Applying a design-based approach to sharpen the focus of ideas and communicate ideas in context is the answer.

For each visual used, Duarte asks: “Can I immediately pick out the key piece of information on this slide?” Slides that are too busy with words or even unnecessary graphics detract from the critical message. Passing the test requires bringing a design focus to bear on building effective slides. Use restraint, and make sure that every additional element contributes directly to the critical information. For example, Duarte asks, “Does the audience need to see your logo on each slide to remember who you work for?” Even accents that may appear subtle and innocuous can be distracting and make it difficult for the audience to focus on what matters.

Duarte recommends applying these five basic design principles to each visual you create:

Flow: structure slides to direct the transition of people’s attention to what is most important

Contrast: juxtapose visual elements to draw striking comparisons that make your point even more obvious

White space: just as a well placed pause between words can speak volumes, managing blank space instead of trying to fill it can isolate and sharpen the focus of important points

Hierarchy: treat your slide like the page of a comic book—think about where the viewer’s attention will start and end to prioritize the information they receive

Unity: maintain harmony in text style, themes, and image types so that each slide feels like a different part of the same body

Using a design focus greatly increases the effectiveness of communication tools. Be frugal with each element you add to a slide so that you get the most out of every visual cue. 

Lessons from neurology have long highlighted the importance of visual processing. However, the less the viewer has to sift through to get to the critical information, the more effective the communication will be. 

Ideas need to be shown in context. As social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk once stated famously, “If content is king, context is god.” The value here is that communication is most effective when it builds on itself. Structure ideas so that they flow into each other in a way that tells a story—without context, numbers and graphics do not add anything on their own. 

*Photo - Effective Public Speaking Tips

At Vimodi, we are developing technology that helps users have a more engaging, responsive and effective visual discussions and dialogues. Vimodi enables visual mobile discussions for better engagement, motivation, and creativity in meetings and daily communication. Try Vimodi App.