It might be a research funding panel, a conference plenary or your first research presentation but you want to get it right. It’s too important. So you add more: more slides, more bulletpoints, more references because it’s too important. This isn’t the time.
That’s the most common excuse I hear about high-stakes presentations. When the pressure is on, cognitive load goes up, for you and for your audience. You’ll be more anxious and they’ll be more distracted. So it needs more on the screen. It’s too important. And that is where most presentations collapse. Not from lack of effort, but from excess. Too little clarity because you think it’s too important.
The p³ approach is built for these moments. The p₁, your message must be succinct. One clear statement, the most important thing, the one thing the audience will act on. The p₂, your supportive media must reduce friction, not add to it. Every image, every word on the slide must have earned it’s place because it is essential. And p₃, your delivery is not about confidence but control, being present and guiding the audience to make their own decision. It’s too important.
In a quote attributed to Archilochus we are told, “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training.” In high stakes presentations presenters fall to the level of bullet heavy slides read out to an unengaged audience, just like everyone else does. High-stakes presentations don’t require brilliance. They require discipline. It’s too important not to. One message. No script. No filler. It’s a skill. And it can be learned. It’s too important not to. That is what the p³ approach is.