I always enjoyed reading historical fiction, simplistic stories and puristic philosophies… like wandering in an endless journey, walking with patience thru wonderland.
For such a long time, that argument has been echoing in my mind, even took part in most of the discussions.
“Actions those does not comply with the natural flow, are destined to fail..! The other way around will most probability succeed. remember, nothing comes for granted!”
Before moving further, worth to mention that I dislike long documentations and presentations! And if I have to read such docs, this reveals Bart Simpson syndrome inside, aka 2nd page becomes ‘bla bla bla…’ 
That’s being said, I would like share few practices from my humble experiences.
Why to share? Because, knowledge is valuable & fun only if you share.
Lets begin!
KISSMIS – Keep It Simple Sharp Make It Smile
is the way to follow, in all of activities..!
Who invented this style, where did I learn from? Dunno, but surely learning by doing…
Basic Principle:
Organize your slides into 5 (five) sections and associate each slide with one element of life, in order as given below (feel free to swap around if you like so)
1) Highlights (-> Air)
This section should warm up your audience, trigger curiosity and excitement.
2) What..? (-> Earth)
Problem & status description goes into this section.
Your audience is already aware of the problems, so you better spend less time with that slide, keep it short by providing basic facts!
p.s. here comes a nice cartoon for the sake of a good old friend, aka mr.facts, who repeatedly told me to provide “facts, facts, facts” 8)
3) Why..? (-> Void)
That’s my favorite section! Try to answer this question in a simplest possible way. You should aim to increase attention by giving better taste about your message, vision, ambition, …
Do story telling if you can, that will inspire & increase the appetite for the rest of your session.
4) How..? (-> Water)
Define smooth and flexible action plan which must be clear & pure like water. simply, get to the point!
how you want to solve, how you want to act!
do not to use gantt chart or project plans, there are thousands of them already. if you want to get things done, the ‘how’ must be different!
5) Conclusion… (-> Fire)
Sum up with key items, all must be motivational, coherent and tangible.
So far this structure would convey your message
naturally by Keeping It Simple Sharp (KISS)..!
And now we need to Make It Smile (MIS)..!
Use pictures, preferably cartoons, related to the context but definitely in fun way..! There are plenty of resources, use google image search, your favorite comic series would also do this well.
e.g. that one may fit for topics about architecture
Last but not least, we should not forget about the time aspect! Keep this as part of your wording, the context of your speech.
- Past: give sense of what has been happening so far
- Future: what we aim for and why?
- Now: how we will reach that goal?
Literally, the overall structure looks like a matrix of 5×3 (5 vertical, 3 horizontal) and flows with the simplicity..!
Anecdotes:
- I took the liberty of replacing ‘Stupid’ with ‘Sharp’, because stupidity doesn’t belong to any practice
- I’ve been learning this practice for sometime at my work places, I’ll try to prepare an example to share.
hopefully sooner than later, patience plz…
Till next post, simply keep smiling 
