GROW your presentations

GROW is a process or model often used when coaching as a way of setting goals or solve problems. The acronym consists of Goal, Reality, Options or Obstacles (or both) and Way forward.

Using this as a guideline when planning your presentation can help with conveying your message in a more structured way.

Presentations are a means to an end, in that the presentation itself is rarely the goal. We communicate for a reason, be it to affect attitudes or encourage action. Stating your goal, or the shared goal, is key in making sure your audience is taking part on the same journey you are. It also helps you maintaining structure when planning the rest of the presentation.

Once you have your goal set and stated, we can move on to looking at the current situation. The aim is to create a common understanding of reality, its challenges and what works.

With goal and reality laid out, it becomes clear what the gap between the two are. How far away are we from reaching our goal?

Given what we know, what is preventing us from reaching said goal? While there are any number of obstacles preventing us from reaching our goal, we need only focus om the major ones. Think of obstacles as risks that should be mitigated. If you are having trouble weeding out the most important, it can be helpful to rank them based on impact and how manageable they are.

We know where we want to go and now it is time convince the audience on how to get there.

There are a plethora of methods for creating structure to your presentations. Common for most of them is that they aim to help you create compelling arguments and clearly convey your message. The GROW-model is useful when highlighting a specific issue and you have suggestions for solutions.