Stop Powerpoint Abuse!
So you were tasked by your boss to put together a presentation for the team on the new product/service/policy/whatever that is rolling out next month. You go to the company library and grab the corporate branded PowerPoint template and start working. You skip lunch because you are so into the project and want so badly to make a good impression that you dedicate your entire workday on slides. You gather all the possible documentation, generate scenarios for every aspect of training, copy and paste like a class of second graders on a sugar high, and then post the presentation on the company intranet for review. You have to post it because it is WAY beyond the maximum file size you can send via email.
Alert the media! - Another PowerPoint killing spree has just taken place! Your 100 slides of death have managed to destroy any chance of your team absorbing the concepts. A PowerPoint presentation need only consist of three slides. Ten slides at the maximum? Yes - no more and even better to have less. A friend of mine from Facebook, Shalu Wasu, posted a GREAT article in his blog today called "Avoiding Death by PowerPoint!" that sums it all up. Focus on the content and get your audience involved. Leave the rest of the slides out. All you need to do is to open the presentation (splash page), explain what you want to do (agenda), and then GIVE (communicate) the presentation from your persona, not the written page. Use live or interactive means to get people involved, and then thank them for attending (closing page). If you used links or technical details in your communication process, then give those details to them afterwards in a hand out. If you are making this presentation on a webinar you may want just one more slide at the beginning to explain how to participate in the webinar or what phone bridge to dial in to.
Other than that, leave the agony of a slow death by ppt to your competitors.
Bill Cooey
Amen! I don't know where executives got the impression that Power Point was an effective program to get points across with, but it is not!
You need to use Power Point as a tool, to assist you. Use it to show things that are easier to point out than to explain. Use it to assist people who are trying to take notes, but for heaven's sakes, DON'T use it to go over every minute detail, while you read along. ARGHHH!
Great post.
Posted by: Trey Baird | January 19, 2009 at 12:22 AM