When delivering a presentation to leadership, presenters should get directly to the core point without delay. Furthermore, presenters should exercise time discipline by taking less time to deliver their proposal than the total window they were allotted, respecting leadership's schedule and making the briefing far more impactful.

Directness and Time Discipline in Executive Presentations

To prevent long slide decks from obscuring a proposal, recommendation drafts should start with a three-slide core:

1. **Slide 1 (Recommendation and Ask):** States the specific proposal, timeframe, and target decision date.
2. **Slide 2 (Reasons with Evidence):** Outlines the primary supporting arguments (such as three key reasons), each explicitly supported by empirical data or operational sources.
3. **Slide 3 (Cost, Risk, and Next Steps):** Specifies the financial expenditure, major operational risks or stopping mechanisms, and immediate action items.

All supplementary details, data, and background material are placed in an appendix so they are available upon request without competing with the primary argument. This three-part architecture can also be formatted as a one-page memo.

Three-Slide Draft Framework

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

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