I’m working with some pretty cool people at the moment, with pretty important jobs.
A large part of the presentations they have to make are about things which are really (no, really, seriously!) important – thinks like Child Protection Issues and Data Governance.
And if you don’t think they’re important, consider how you’d feel if someone didn’t protect your child or didn’t protect your confidential health records.
The problem they said they’d got – when I asked at the start of the training – is that they’re having to give presentations on subjects no one cares about and so no one wants to listen to.
Me, bored
Pardon?
No one is interested in data protection?
Well no, frankly.
It’s one of those things that no one cares about until something goes wrong – and there are plenty of examples of that happening! Not long ago (for example) the HMRC lost information about approximately 25 million people in the UK. No one cares about air until they’ve not got any; no one thinks much about water until they’re thirsty; and no one bothers about protecting confidential data until there’s a breach of that confidentiality.
So there’s the problem.
What were my clients doing about it?
Manfully struggling on with presentations about how to “do confidentiality issues”… actually it was womanfully but you get the idea! And wasting their time and – because the audience weren’t listening – wasting their audience’s time too.
So what should they have done?
Let’s face it, no one comes to hear you speak because it’s you. They come for the content.
They’re sitting there thinking “What’s In It For Me?” That means that if you can’t answer that question you’re not going to get anywhere.
Instead of trying to tell people “what to do”, I suggested my clients put themselves in the audience’s shoes. As soon as they did that, the solution was obvious. Instead of doing the ‘how’ the presentation (at least the start of it) should concentrate on the ‘why’.
Why Should You Do Data Protection is a much better title than How You Should Do Data Protection.
Unless your audience has already bought into the ‘why’, they’re not going to concentrate on the how.
I can tell you how to do tricks with a yo-yo but unless you already know why you should bother doing the practise you’re not going to listen.
I can tell you how to maximise the difference between foreground colours and background colours – but unless you know why you should bother you’re not going to listen.
I can even tell you how to cure the common cold, but unless you know why… well perhaps that’s one example too far! 
Technical things like “how” can often be done at least as easily by things like videos, or PDF downloads but “why” is much more effectively done live.
In short – tell me why I should care before you tell me how to do it.
Take a look at this video from Simon Sinek as an example. Early in his delivery he asks key questions which end up with “Why do you get out of bed in the morning and why should anyone care?” …and it’s not until after that point, when you want to know what’s what that he tells you the details.