Presentation Skills That Will Take You to the Top (Collection), 2/e

5. Fellini on Creativity

Consider All the Possibilities—Before You Present

Federico Fellini, the legendary Italian film director noted for his imaginative cinematic works, had some very explicit ideas about the creative process. In Fellini on Fellini, his book about his art, he described how he generates ideas:

I hate logical plans....Myself, I should find it false and dangerous to start from some clear, well-defined complete idea and then put it into practice....The child is in darkness at the moment he is formed in the mother’s womb.¹

Crafting a presentation is a creative process. In what has become standard operating procedure in business, most presenters reverse Mr. Fellini’s approach. They start with a “clear, well-defined idea,”—usually ...