100 Things Every Presenter Needs to Know About People

5. People Have Mental Models

Let’s say that the company you work for is being acquired by another firm. You are going to a presentation about the acquisition. You haven’t met the presenter or gone to the presentation yet, but you already have some ideas about what the acquisition will be like and what the presenter is likely to talk about. Your ideas or assumptions might be incorrect, but you have them before the presentation begins. You have a mental model about the acquisition process and about the presentation.

What that mental model in your head looks and acts like depends on many things. If you’ve been through an acquisition before, your mental model of the acquisition process will be different than that of someone who has never been involved ...