From: http://www.bizjournals.com

Back in 2002 we had a very typical Thanksgiving at our house. Relatives poured in from out of town and we fell into some pretty predictable holiday routines.

The day after Thanksgiving, the gals jumped into the car at 5 a.m. for Black Friday shopping. The guys, we watched football and ate left-overs. But that year, we decided we were going shopping, too. And what better place to vent some excess testosterone than Fry’s — the big electronics superstore.

It was pretty nuts that day. And as we pushed our way through the crowded entrance, we noticed some commotion going on in the middle of the store. We were curious so we made our way there and here’s what we saw.

He was pretty amazing, too. He could land it in the palms of people’s hands. Fly it through shelves. He had our total attention. And when he was done, the boxes of $100 RC helicopters at his feet began to disappear.

Not to be denied, we each bought one, too. We got them home, assembled them, charged them, up and now it was our turn. But we were in for a serious wake-up call. They weren’t so easy to control. Our helicopters began crashing into walls — mirrors — helicopter blades were flying everywhere.

It was precisely at this point that I realized I had just been schooled by a 17-year-old kid in an important principle of personal communication.

Great communicators have a way of making the complex simple.

Whether you’re a senior leader delivering end-of-quarter metrics to your employees, a sales professional giving the latest new product pitch, or a product manager conveying a value proposition to a new partner, the ability to make the complex simple will be critical to your success.

Simple messages. Simple visuals. Simple key takeaways.

There will always be opportunity to bring more detail to specialized audiences later. But if you can’t master this one essential skill, those future meetings may never occur.

Application to your world:

Simple messages. Set clear expectations. Cover very high-level points supported by fewer slides than you really wanted to give and be laser-focused on just a few key themes. Most presentations promise too much and practically deliver too little.
Simple key takeaways. Close with two to three simple points in 30 seconds or less — not a 5-minute rambling monologue. No one will recall a hundred tiny points tomorrow morning — just a few clear, big ones.
Simple visuals. People always hate mind-numbing visuals that make their eyes bleed. Create visuals that only take 7-8 seconds to digest. Using PowerPoint for handouts? Create one detailed handout version — one very simple screen version. Make sure your visuals help people “get it” more quickly.
It’s hard to know what ultimately motivates guys to buy cool toys. But one thing is for certain, if the kid had crashed those helicopters into walls and taken out a few audience members, we would have spent our $100 elsewhere.