Meet the Puma.Why you never

have to write an outline again.

c

As presenters, we are storytellers.

We move ourselves and our audience from here…

As presenters, we are storytellers.

…to here.

Storylines are the way we tame confusion along the way.

Storylines make complexity tolerable long enough to be understood.

To do that, our storyline needs two things:

1) It needs a spine

2) It needs anecdotes

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In Management-consultingese, this is called:

“Horizontal-Vertical storytelling.”

The ‘horizontal’ story moves our idea along…

In Management-consultingese, this is called:

“Horizontal-Vertical storytelling.”

While the ‘verticals’ provide the details that make it interesting.

The standard approach is to create an OUTLINE.

Top-to-bottom:1 – 2 – 3 – 4 –

hmm…

The standard approach is to create an OUTLINE.

FORGET OUTLINES!

Why? I. Meet the PumaII. Our job as presenters is to tell a story

A. Storylines make for better storiesB. They tame complexity

III. Storylines move along & up-and-downA. This is called “horizontal-vertical” plottingB. It requires an outlineC. Forget outlines!!

IV. Why forget outlines?A. Because they are “vertical-vertical” plottingB. We don’t think this way very well…

V. So what do we use instead of outlines?VI. We use the PUMA

I. Our Presentation’s Underlying Message Architecture

II. A better way to think about mapping out our presentation

VII. The PUMA is faster and more intuitiveI. It is true horizontal-vertical storytellingII. It allows us to see the whole story in sequenceIII. It allows for differentiation between the main

story and the supporting anecdotes

Because outlines are vertical-vertical-vertical…

Where is my horizontal storyline??

I. Meet the PumaII. Our job as presenters is to tell a story

A. Storylines make for better storiesB. They tame complexity

III. Storylines move along & up-and-downA. This is called “horizontal-vertical” plottingB. It requires an outlineC. Forget outlines!!

IV. Why forget outlines?A. Because they are “vertical-vertical” plottingB. We don’t think this way very well…

V. So what do we use instead of outlines?VI. We use the PUMA

I. Our Presentation’s Underlying Message Architecture

II. A better way to think about mapping out our presentation

VII. The PUMA is faster and more intuitiveI. It is true horizontal-vertical storytellingII. It allows us to see the whole story in sequenceIII. It allows for differentiation between the main

story and the supporting anecdotes

WE DON’T THINK LIKE

THIS!

I prefer a livelier, more intuitive approach:

Our Presentation’s UnderlyingMessage Architecture.

Our Presentation’s UnderlyingMessage Architecture.

a.k.a:

“PUMA”

Our Puma looks like this:

Much better than an outline!

The Puma gives us a great way to build our storyline.

We begin with a summary of our main idea.

Then we block out the spine with our storyline.

We add in our supporting materials as the legs.

We conclude with a swish of the tail.

For example, here’s the Puma of a classic story:

This is the tale of a typical Hollywood romance…

There is a boy. He meets a girl.

The boy is carefree.

The girl is lovely.

The boy is smitten.

The boy loses the girl.

The boy gets the girl back.

The girl runs off with the assistant.

Mr. Evil arrives.

Mr. Evil steals the girl away!

The boy is devastated.

The boy hires an assistant.

The assistant traps Mr. Evil.

The boy saves the girl!

“Boy Meets Girl.”

For example, here’s the Puma

I prepared for this presentation:

Yes, I create my PUMA draft in Excel.

In Show & Tell we meet 4 Pumas:

The Report The Explanation

The Pitch The DramaThat’s one PUMA

for every

presentation we’ll

ever make.

Truth.Story.

Pictures.And a Puma.

A better way to outline.

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