How Bad Examples Ruin Good Presentations (And How to Fix Them)
Technical professionals know the value of simplifying complex ideas. Simplicity helps people understand. It should also require less thinking and keep the discussion focused on what matters for the decision at hand. However, the major pitfall is that misaligned simplification distorts the message rather than clarifying it. Choosing the wrong example kills your credibility too.
Technical professionals treat the example as decoration. Decision makers treat it as the whole argument.
This brief article provides two examples of what not to do and, more importantly, provides four things to do to make sure you have the right example.
From the Real World
I am sitting in a conference room listening to a Canadian asset management expert run through his workshop material for the next day. The overview stinks. Yes, he is one of our niche subconsultants, but I'm not convinced he knows what he's talking about.
Then, as a picture of a car pops up on the slide, he says, "I make the analogy to a car."
Asked and answered, I thought, without expression. Yep, this guy is weak.
He went on. "If you owned a car, you'd track mileage, schedule oil changes, replace tires before they fail, and plan for eventual replacement. Physical assets work the same way."
"Let me break in right here," I interjected. "We're going to be working with frontline operations and maintenance staff. They're way beyond the car analogy. We have the electrical department, the public works department, the utility department."
"That's a good reason to be generic," he countered. "This may be an uninformed or non-technical audience. That's why I use this example."
"But we know they're informed, because they do this every day. We risk losing them right out of the gate if we go too simple and irrelevant."
"Then what would you do?" he asked.
"Use a pump station or an electrical substation," I said. "It's even OK if it's from a previous client. Maybe even better."
"Well, you'll have to do that," he sniped. "I just do the car."
Asset managers reach for the car analogy because it's safe and easy. But it oversimplifies the realities of pumps, pipes, plants, and networks. Most of all, it signals that the speaker hasn't worked with the front-line issues he's trying to explain.
What overworked examples are you using?
When Simplification Turns Into Noise
I regularly see presenters introduce a complicated topic, like asset management, risk modeling, lifecycle planning, and immediately reach for the same tired analogy. The car in the story above is as overworked an example as any I know. I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard it.
What's wrong with it for most industrial facility applications? A car does not operate 24 hours a day, or even 12. It does not carry regulatory oversight. Personal vehicles do not require the coordinated capital planning or risk-based prioritization that an industrial fleet of assets does. They do not serve thousands of customers or carry environmental and public-safety consequences when they fail.
Using a car to explain asset management for an industrial plant or a water utility is like using a bicycle to explain air traffic control. The analogy is simple, but it is not aligned with the work.
The audience senses it immediately when the analogy does not fit. They stop listening and start questioning the presenter's credentials. This is what Noise Reduction, one of the seven bones of the FINESSE Fishbone Diagram, is built to prevent.
The key is to cut what does not help the decision. A mismatched example does the opposite. It adds noise the audience has to work around instead of the clarity they came for.
Relevance Matters More Than Familiarity
The best examples share the same context as the issue being discussed. They are not necessarily the ones people recognize instantly.
The same principle holds for the forum, not just the content. In an earlier piece on public speaking and the three-act structure, a presenter effectively opened with a story about a jacket zipper. It captivated the audience because it worked in that type of forum. It would have been pure noise at a presentation for a decision board or an internal project meeting. Match the example to the presentation forum, not just the topic on the agenda.
Dumbing down an example so everyone in the meeting can follow it feels noble. But it backfires. Decision makers and boards follow the lead of the person in the inner circle who understands the problem best. Oversimplifying alienates the very person everyone else is listening to.
Facilities and infrastructure examples that are simple but relevant are an actuated valve, a water or electric meter, a submersible pump, and even a heat pump.
An example that fits the context builds credibility and trust.
Examples Should Scale With the Decision
A good example also scales. A small pump can represent a larger pumping station. A network of valves can be effectively simplified by considering a single valve. A short pipe segment can stand in for a distribution system. When the example scales, the logic scales with it. The audience can follow the reasoning from the simple case to the real-world application without feeling misled.
Boards, councils, and leadership teams need to understand the tradeoffs, risks, and consequences well enough to make sound decisions. A mismatched example gets in the way. A relevant one advances resource allocation.
Who to Ask When Choosing an Example
Good communicators test their examples before they use them. Effective communication is never a solo effort. In the story above, the workshop's development process should have caught the mismatch — even though catching it clearly was not the presenter's intent.
A few checks worth building into your presentation workflow:
Start with your own judgment. If the example doesn't feel aligned with the work, it probably isn't.
Ask a technical peer. They need to understand something about the subject matter — asset management, risk management, lifecycle planning and forecasting — and something about the organizational context.
Ask someone in the decision maker's inner circle. It is usually best to get preliminary feedback from the most knowledgeable advisor or advisors.
Ask a non-technical colleague or stakeholder.
Rule of thumb: if a subject-matter expert and a key advisor do not agree with your example, you have the wrong one. The layperson's reaction is icing on the cake — but they are not who your message is targeting.
Skipping this check, or hearing the pushback and using the example anyway, tells your key advisors their judgment does not matter. That is a communication misstep and disrespectful to the people whose buy-in you need. That’s exactly what happened when that Canadian asset management expert waved off my pushback and stuck with his car.
Look Out! We Might Be on the Titanic
I am waiting for my turn to speak at a county commissioners' meeting. The smart, technical guy stepping up to the podium two speakers ahead of me is not happy. He wanted to present the part I'll be discussing later, but the commissioners told him it was better if I did it.
The presentation was going fine until the iceberg slide popped up. It was titled "Risk," and it was busy — one of maybe five classic risk-and-iceberg slides that get recycled across this industry. It was not just that the slide was busy. It was irrelevant.
One of my allies on the commission glanced over at me with a look that said, Save me.
The iceberg story goes like this: visible risks are just the tip; most of the danger sits hidden below the surface. It's meant to convey unseen vulnerabilities, latent conditions, and systemic exposures. It's not a bad message.
The problem was that this commission was way beyond a generic analogy. They needed their example, their risk, their vulnerabilities. The iceberg was noise and a waste of their time — and it cost the presenter the one thing he had come there to earn: the room's confidence that he understood their problem.
Making the Right Example Resonate
The wrong example confuses the audience and undercuts your credibility. It can also disrespect the advisors who tried to warn you. True simplicity and clarity are not found by reaching for the most familiar comparison.
Choose the right example. Remember that we often see it as decoration. The decision makers see it as the whole argument. Choose your examples wisely.
What example are you reaching for right now — and who have you asked?
JD Solomon champions practical communication skills that help technical professionals convey complex ideas clearly and confidently. Learn more at www.jdsolomonsolutions.com and www.communicatingwithfinesse.com.
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