Simplify Your Talk — With Analogy
Invaluable presentation lesson from Prof. Hasjim Djalal
Zagreb, 12 January 2025
“Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajiun, Prof. Hasjim Djalal has just passed away at Pondok Indah Hospital. May Allah accepts all of his prayers and his good deed. Ameen”
This was a text message sent by my colleague in one of the Whatsapp groups that I participated in.
In the next few minutes, several praying messages dedicated to Prof. Djalal popped up in that group. Another colleague even updated his Whatsapp Status, displaying a picture of Prof. Djalal with the year he was born. And 2025 — precisely the year when he died.
It was understandable if many Indonesian people, especially those who work inside the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, paid tribute to Prof. Djalal.
Who doesn’t know Prof. Djalal, anyway?
A former Indonesian career diplomat who served as an Indonesian Ambassador three times.
He was one of the accomplished Indonesian diplomats who was the architect behind the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Thanks to him, Indonesia became the largest archipelagic state in the world — after the majority of UN countries acknowledged that concept under international convention.
He’s one of Indonesian national heroes in modern era.
The day of his passing piqued my curiosity to learn more about him. I was sure that every great person, like Prof. Djalal, has a lot of inspiring stories to tell. The life story that can benefit me personally, if not the current generation.
So, I tried to read a lot of articles about him. I watched his talk and presentation on Youtube.
And here’s one lesson from him that we can insert in every presentation/talk/storytelling:
Analogy
Prof. Djalal stood behind the conference podium. It was early October 2014. He was expected to give a luncheon address titled: An ASEAN Perspective on Maritime Cooperation.
Unlike 30 years earlier, his presence in Canada this time was not in the capacity of an Indonesian Ambassador to Canada. Rather, he was a Senior Advisor to the Indonesian Minister for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries & the Indonesian Naval Chief of Staff.
When explaining the Indonesian stance on the South China Sea issue, as a non-claimant state which supports maintaining peace and stability in the region, he said:
“I remember a lesson that in school some fifty years ago, that when your neighbor’s house is on fire you can never feel safe”
He continued:
“So, when the South China Sea is on fire, Indonesia can never feel safe”
Imagining a neighbor’s house is on fire is easier than imagining the current geopolitical situation that Indonesia faces. Isn’t it?
Prof. Djalal could explain Indonesian geopolitical situation by using Southeast Asian maps.
It could take minutes, if not half an hour. And a few slides were required to present his point.
But, because of this analogy, it only took Prof. Djalal less than one minute to teach the audience about Indonesian stance on that issue.
What’s more, it helps the audience to understand Prof. Djalal’s point easily.
Analogy Works
In their book titled Made to Stick: Why some ideas hold and others come unstuck, Chip & Dan Heath believe there are six principles that everyone needs to pay more attention — if we want to make our message stick to the audience.
The first principle is: Simplicity
They argue:
The Golden Rule is the ultimate model of simplicity: a one-sentence statement so profound that an individual could spend a lifetime learning to follow it
That was what Prof. Djalal did: making his point simple by using analogy.
The audience could spend a lifetime learning about Indonesia’s unwavering support for maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea region, even though it is not a claimant state, just by imagining the “neighbor’s house is on fire.”
The importance of using analogy is also supported by author Ann Hadley. In her best-selling book, Everyday Writes, she argues:
Analogies help make big concepts smaller and more human-sized
Whenever we give a presentation, we tend to convey much information and facts to the audience. Because we believe, by doing so, the presentation would be more interesting and seem trustworthy.
No, it doesn’t. We just make the audience bored and unenthusiastic.
Even worse, the core message of our presentation is not effectively delivered.
We all need to learn from Prof. Djalal, who could distill the complex concept and his innumerable knowledge on maritime issues to a simple one by using analogy that derives from his personal story.
The way he gave presentation once in Canada taught us:
The more we learn about something, the humbler we should explain the knowledge that we possess by simplifying them.
We need to simplify our talk by reducing the presentation slides.
We need to simplify our talk by using analogy.
Because at the end of the day, what matters from our presentation is not how many facts we can present to the audience. Nor the flowery language that we hope they can mesmerize the audience.
But what matters is the core message that is effectively delivered — the one that sticks to the audience’s mind.
And using analogy in our talk helps us to do so.
Derian Antonio Daniswara is an Indonesian junior diplomat currently posted in Zagreb, Croatia. He loves sports, especially football, and playing them is his second nature.
Every view and opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s views and do not reflect the positions of any entities he represents.
