Revisiting the Presentation: A Reflection on Process, Performance, and Presence

20.06.2025

There are moments when we present our work… and somehow, we don’t feel present in it.

That’s what happened to me – and presumably to others – during our final presentations.

Looking back, I now understand: I hadn’t truly grasped what I had discovered until I began to write. Until I finished revisiting and rewrititngmy research thesis and design documentation. Not just to report, but to realise.

Because writing and realising are two different pairs of shoes.

And at that time, there was no space to exhale – no time to reflect on what had just unfolded. In fact, the closer you are to your work, the more process-blind you can become. And the more output-driven the context, the more goal confusion arises - at least hta is what happened to me. It’s easy to lose sight of the why behind your what when time is short and expectations are high.

Only with distance did I begin to see what had truly emerged: That my work wasn’t about presenting a “solution” — it was about enabling people to understand themselves, their roles, and their choices. To create space for reflection, so that values could emerge — not be imposed. Because values, when real, are chosen freely. Not sold. Not forced. Not formatted.

But how do you present that in a system that expects clarity, structure, deliverables?

How do you communicate emergence in a world that values performance, not becoming?

That’s where the deeper mismatch came in – not just with the format, but with the language.

I don’t speak in bullet points or buzz words. I don’t operate in fixed conclusions. Why? Because to me they do not matter anymore. My way of working is circular, iterative, and rooted in resonance. But the system is linear. Economic. Time-bound. Evaluative.

And so I struggled – not because I didn’t know what I was doing, but because I didn’t know how to translate it into the dialect of a performance-based environment.

This mismatch runs deeper than just presentation slides. It reflects a broader systemic friction between different modes of knowing, creating, and sharing.

I am not outcome-driven – I am process-oriented. I let things unfold. I listen to what emerges. I follow energy, not efficiency. And I let them... it reveal itself over time.

And yet – I found myself trying to “sell” my work.

Trying to shape my findings into something the system would recognise, would grade, would “understand.”

And that’s partly where I lost presence. Not because I didn’t care – but because I cared too much to betray the work by flattening it into something it was never meant to be.

In hindsight, I realise:

My presentation wasn’t about missing slides or nailing structure.

It was about the tension between truth and translation.

Between staying true to my process, and trying to make it legible in a context not built for it.

But here’s what I know now:

The how only makes sense when you understand the why.

And the what that follows should remain a choice – not a prescription.

So no, I didn’t master the format.

But I remained loyal to what I had found.

I set out to cultivate unity — and discovered a path from ME : WE : US.

From the individual to the collective to the systemic.

From eco-social conflict to shared capacity.

From answers to meaningful questions.

And although I stumbled in how I expressed it, I trust that the work speaks.

Because what matters isn’t whether it fits –

What matters is whether it resonates.

And although I stumbled in how I expressed it, I trust that the work speaks.

Because what matters isn’t whether it fits —

What matters is whether it resonates.

And now, I begin to understand what Neil Armstrong, the first human on the moon refelcting back to his home planet, might have meant when he said:

“Only time can tell.”

Because only with time, distance, and reflection do we truly see what we were actually doing –

not just what we thought we had to do.

In case oyu ant to check out what PechaKucha truly is and how it is correctly pronounced visit this youtube video by Hans Van de Water, a presentation trainer and expert in scientific communication.