Forget the slow, chronological wind-up; the most powerful presentations drop you straight into the moment of highest drama. It’s a storytelling trick over 2,000 years old used to deliver everything from case studies to pitches to keynotes. In this edition, we’re breaking down how it transforms any presentation from a passive report into an urgent narrative that makes your solution inevitable.

You have a high-stakes presentation. The audience is smart, busy, and has seen it all.

You open your slide deck.

The default path is predictable: agenda, background, point one, point two, conclusion.

This approach isn't wrong, but it's rarely memorable. It asks your audience for patience, slowly building a case with the hope they’ll still be paying attention for the big reveal.

Instead of a chronological march, what if you plunged your audience directly into the heart of the matter? What if you began your presentation at the moment of highest tension?

This is the essence of in medias res.

If you want to move beyond delivering updates and start shaping decisions, this edition is for you.

The origin story of a power move

In media res is a Latin phrase meaning “in the middle of things.” Its roots aren’t in a boardroom or a business school, but in the epic poems of ancient Greece.

When Homer began The Iliad, he didn’t start with the political intrigue or the romance that sparked the Trojan War. He dropped his audience straight into year nine of a brutal siege. The poem opens with plague, fury, and betrayal—Achilles enraged, ready to abandon the fight.

Why? Because Homer knew a secret about human psychology: we are wired for conflict, not for context. The backstory can wait. The drama cannot.

The Roman poet Horace later gave this technique its name, praising Homer for his wisdom. He saw that by starting in the middle, the storyteller creates an immediate "information gap." The audience is hooked, asking questions: Why is he so angry? How did they get here? What happens next?

Whether you're presenting in a conference room or over a screen, that setting is the modern campfire, and your audience's brains are still wired just as Homer's were. Their attention remains your most scarce and valuable resource.

A chronological report is a slow burn; in media res is a controlled explosion. It respects your audience's intelligence and time by proving from the first second that this presentation matters.

Your Playbook for Going In Media Res

Deploying this in a presentation is simpler than you think. It’s a four-step process.

Step 1: Find Your narrative epicenter. Look at your entire presentation. Find the single most dramatic, consequential, or surprising moment. This is your new opening. It could be:

• A shocking data point: "Our user churn spiked to 40% last Tuesday."
• A critical failure: "The server migration failed, and it took the entire platform down for six hours."
• A surprising success: "We hit our annual revenue target on September 30th."
• A tough decision: "We have two candidates for the VP role. One has the perfect resume, the other has the passion. We can only choose one."

Step 2: Open cold. Delete your agenda slide. Delete your "About Me" slide. Walk in, pause, and deliver your opening line.

• Instead of: "Good morning. Today I'll review our Q3 marketing performance and discuss our Q4 plan."
• Try: "Last quarter, we spent $500,000 on a campaign that generated exactly zero qualified leads. Today, I want to show you why it failed, and how we're going to make sure that never happens again."

The entire energy in the room just changed. You have their undivided attention.

Step 3: Bridge to the "why." Once you have them hooked, you must immediately orient them. Acknowledge the gap you've created and promise to fill it.

• "I know that's a shocking number. To understand what happened, we need to rewind to July..."
• "This was the best result in our company's history. Let's break down how the team made it possible."

Step 4: Tell the story in flashback. Now, you present your context, your data, and your analysis. But it's no longer just a series of points; it's the backstory to the dramatic event you opened with. It’s the evidence that explains the shocking result.

Wrap-Up

This strategy isn't for every situation. To decide if it’s the right tool for the job, run your presentation through this simple decision framework by asking three questions:

1. What is my primary goal? If you need to persuade an audience or drive a decision, the urgency created by this technique is your strongest tool. If your primary goal is to inform or train, stick to a clear chronological path where clarity is more important than drama.

2. Who is my audience?In media res works best with an informed audience that can appreciate the significance of your opening (think executives or existing clients). If your audience is new to the topic, they will benefit more from a traditional structure that builds context from the ground up.

3. Does my content support it? Look for a "moment of narrative gravity" in your story—a shocking result, a critical failure, or a breakthrough success. If you have a clear, dramatic epicenter, you have the perfect catalyst for an in media res opening. If the story's value lies in its step-by-step process, don't force it.

Choosing to start with your most critical moment is a strategic act—it frames the entire conversation, tells the audience precisely what matters, and shows the confidence to tackle the core issue head-on.

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