How Long Should Your Presentation Be?

Supposedly, Abraham Lincoln was asked how long a man’s legs should be, and he replied: “Long enough to reach the ground.” I’m reminded of this story whenever people ask me how long presentations should be, although my answer is, “long enough to make your point.”

That’s true, but—like Lincoln’s answer—not completely helpful, so I suggest two additional rules:

1. Shorter than you think
2. Shorter than the time allotted

Shorter than you think. In my classes, I usually require participants to prepare a seven minute presentation. There’s no special magic in that exact length; it’s driven by time considerations in the class. Several years ago, I was explaining this requirement to a group of mid-level executives in Rome, and they told me that I was delusional, that what they had to say was much more complicated than could be squeezed into seven minutes. I told them to humor me, and try to do it anyway.

On the following day, their presentations went so well that the senior person in the room told me they would henceforth institute a seven-minute rule in Europe for their presentations.

Others are slightly more lenient, but not by much. Bill Lane, who was Jack Welch’s speechwriter at GE for two decades, suggests ten minutes. “Ten minutes is more than enough time to present effectively on most subjects, if you think it through and extract every non-contributing thought or word.” (Jacked Up, p. 293.)

Interestingly, ten minutes is the time limit suggested by psychologist John Medina in his book, Brain Rules. He tells us that audiences begin to check out at that point, so you have to shake things up or move to a different point to keep their attention.

At a normal speaking rate of 125 words per minute, the amount of information that can be packed in to a ten minute presentation is equal to about five double-spaced pages of writing. If you can’t say what you need to say in that time, you’re probably not thinking clearly enough about what your key point is, or you’re trying to do too much. When you consider that Winston Churchill used to require every memo sent to him not to exceed one page no matter how big the topic, you can see how it’s possible, especially since you’re not fighting a world war.

Shorter than the time allotted. Parkinson’s Law does not have to apply to presentations; your message does not have to expand to fill the time allotted to it. I know you might think that this is your one big chance in the limelight to be noticed, but taking too much time is one of the best ways to ensure that it is your only shot. If they give you 30 minutes, plan for 15-20 (if that). If they give you ten, plan for seven. There are two reasons for this. First, if what you’re saying has any interest at all to the audience, they will interrupt you with questions, especially the higher up in the organization. You want questions and dialogue, but if you have too much stuff prepared you’re going to feel forced to get it all out. Second, no one will ever complain if you take less time than was on the schedule—in fact you may not have a choice, because chances are anyone on the agenda before you did not prepare as well as you did and has already eaten into your time.

At any rate, I think I’ve made my point, so I’ll stop here. Any questions?