That stands for Zoom In, Zoom Out. Go back through your work, and find ways to both zoom in on the details and zoom out to highlight the big picture. Doing so will make your messages much more compelling and clear. It also will help you avoid the biggest pitfall of all: being the person who drones on and on and on about what seems to be the same thing.

Zoom In...

Instead of tossing out unsupported statements and rushing past what could be logical errors, dig much deeper into your work.

Find research or other factual evidence to back up your statements. If you can't validate a claim, remove it.

Inject actual human beings into your story. Whether you are talking about factory operations in Kazakhstan or a launching a new charity in Amsterdam, illustrate the human impact of doing what you suggest. More importantly, what would the impact be of not doing it?

Zoom Out...

The world is filled with blind people. I don't mean people who have no eyesight; I mean people who are blinded by an unchanging perspective on the challenges they face. In other words, they have no perspective.

Such people are highly unlikely to come up with original solutions to persistent problems. They are not the ones who spot profitable new opportunities. They are not the people who can dazzle a room full of professionals. On the contrary, they are the ones who suck the energy right out of a room.

To avoid being seen as such a person, you need perspective.

Zoom way above your subject matter, and understand where it fits into the larger view of your colleagues, community, profession, economy, region, or country. Consider the viewpoints of others who have a diametrically opposite view from yours. Do this not because you want to waffle and tone down your recommendations; do this because you need to understand what the objections may be to your ideas, and because you need to spot - and fix - your weak points before others do.

You can't do this in a bubble. Gather information from fresh sources. Actually pick up the phone, or get out of your office, and talk to people who can broaden your perspective and expose you to new ideas.

One of the central benefits of zooming out is that you often find someone else who has already solved the problems you are trying to solve. This person or organization may be in a different industry or geographic region. If you fail to zoom out, you will never find them.