His chief of staff asked me to use only one slide in my meeting with the CEO. “One slide?” I asked in disbelief. “Yes, one slide.” Holy cow! How could I distill fifteen slides into one? I tried shrinking four slides onto one. Then I thought, “What is the key issue?” I applied the razor and cut all my slides except for one: a graphic displaying the program’s hourly calendar. Then I obsessed to get that graphic right. I had formerly spent three slides showcasing the program’s three topics. Now I conveyed the same information by coloring the calendar segments using three different colors, one for
...more
