Real. Smart. Now.

It’s all gotten out of control and it’s time we came to our senses.

I’ve been asked by Olivia Mitchell what I would like to see happen with PowerPoint in 2009 in response to this rant post.

The biggest blessing for business presentations would be for us to put PowerPoint into perspective.

No one says ‘the slides’

If you were sitting in on of our masterclasses in presentation skills, towards the beginning I would ask you to partner up with someone else and recall some excellent speakers (people who inspired you, or who were at least interesting or memorable). With a marker and a pack of Postits,  you would then have 5 minutes to write down, one concept per PostIt, the different things that those speakers did that made them interesting or inspiring.

All sorts of areas come up: passion, voice, gesture, story, using ordinary language… a whole variety of things (which we would then go on to cluster together and use as a reference).

I bet you wouldn’t have said ‘Good slides’.

In amongst all of those thousands and thousands of Postits in all these years, never has anyone written ‘Good slides.’ Ever. Eh-ver.

Red herring

PowerPoint is a technological red herring. It puts us off the scent because it fulfils so many psychological and emotional needs for the speaker.

Currently I see PowePoint being used to for four different purposes:

1. As a tool to plan presentations.
2. As autocue/prompt for the speaker.
3. As documentation for people to take away with them, or for people who couldn’t attend the presentation.
4. As a visual aid during the session.

For everything but the last one, PowerPoint fares very poorly.

And as most people want to hide when they’re presenting, making a big ol’ screen the centre of attention just feels safer than having all the eyes on you.

PowerPoint matters less than we think

In terms of impact, slides have as much impact as the the fonts and the layout of a document.

If you gave me a document in Comic Sans, or Papyrus, it might put me off. No paragraphs, or all in 6 point, or lots of seplling mstkeas and, you’re right, it would distract me.

But the main cause of success or failure is the content of the communication and the way it is structured.

We focus on PowerPoint because it’s obvious

So much training and discussion is placed on ‘the slides’ as they are the most quantifiable and standardisable (sorry) aspect of presentations.

However, presentations are an unnatural form of communication taking place at the beginning or in the middle of longer, complex conversations, attempting to have an impact on messy, difficult-to-control human relationships.

Let’s keep the slides in perspective.

My 2009 PowerPoint wishes

Actually, sod ‘wishes’. In 2009, I decree that presenters:

• Place more focus on the planning and structure of presentations, including educating themselves a little in the psychology of communication.
• Plan by concentrating on the people being communicated with, rather than the output of the speaker, definitely away from the computer.
• Make handouts in Word (or a package designed for producing printed material), make speaker notes on paper/cards, and follow the Lightheart visual aid rule (“You only need a visual aid in a presentation if you would need one in conversation”).
• Use the B key more often.

What do you reckon? Am I off-beam here? Are the slides more relevant than I’m giving them credit for? Leave a comment, do.

In other news:

We have had a busy Christmas in the UK, including 4 days doing the Christmas markets in Berlin, and now Stuart is back in Singapore. I’m staying here until the end of January, doing some work whilst spending time with our poor abandonded families, including teaching both Mum and Mum-in-law how to use their new laptops.

I’m reading and loving Anathem, Who Would You Be Without Your Story? and Save The Cat Goes to the Movies. I’m also brushing up my German with fab new ipod stuff (3 separate links there). Keeping me company in my cold, lonely attic flat (poor tropical flower that I am) are Skins and Star Trek: TNG series 1.

Oh, and Australia was a fantastically exhausting,  epic romp. Me and the Mum-in-law laughed, cried, cheered, booed and, at one point, grabbed each other and looked through our fingers. Just when you think it’s over, it really starts. Loved it.

(Loosely) related articles

~ 13 reasons why slideshow presentations are stupid and evil

~ Marinading the big lump of clay – getting presentation material together

~ How to review your presentation: Two things people get wrong

~ Presentation Analysis: Jill Bolte Taylor – My stroke of insight – a neuroanatomist experiences her own stroke from the inside

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