Janet, a head engineer, is preparing for an initial presentation of a new project to executives.

She begins by meeting with each member of her team. Everyone goes deep into the details. She takes it all in. By the end, she has fifty pages of notes.

She wants to be thorough. She wants to be clear.

Where her preparation went off track:
She captured ground-level detail instead of starting with the 30,000-foot view.
She tried to include everything instead of defining what matters most for decision makers.
She expanded the conversation instead of directing it.
She now has the task of turning 50 pages into 8 slides.
She is now at risk of explaining, rather than guiding a decision.

When communication starts with problem, risk, cost, and priority, clarity builds quickly. Janet believes she’s being thorough, but in reality, she’s made the message harder to act on.

One of several solutions:
Ask each team member for the one or two most important points. Let the technical detail support those points—not lead them. Now the detail strengthens the message. It doesn’t compete with it.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥?