Harvard Business Review Guides Ultimate Boxed Set (16 Books)

Define How You’ll Change the Audience

When you present, you’re asking the people in the room to change their behavior or beliefs in some way, big or small. Before you begin writing your presentation, map out that transformation—where your audience is starting, and where you want people to end up. This is the most critical step in planning your presentation, because that desired endpoint is the whole reason you’re presenting in the first place, and people won’t get there on their own.

Ask yourself, “What new beliefs do I want them to adopt? How do I want them to behave differently? How must their attitudes or emotions change before their behavior can change?”

By thinking through who they are before they enter the room and who you want them to ...