PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques

PPT Abuse, Misuse for Effective Decision Making

The Armed Forces Journal has an opinion piece by T.X. Hammes on how PowerPoint negatively impacts decision making.  In the essay, cleverly titled "Dum Dum Bullets", the author argues that PowerPoint "is actively hostile to thoughtful decision making".  The author argues that before PPT, decision briefings were made with 2 - 3 pages of thoughtful points that could be read, pondered and analyzed.  Post-PPT, briefings are "damaging [due to] the reduction of complex issues to bullet points".  He also argues about how PowerPoint briefing presentations are doomed due to too much information with some slides having "charts with 20 items of information portrayed in complex graphics".

The author does suggest that PowerPoint has utility for information briefings and in briefings where a decision is needed immediately.

What do you think?

Presentation Nibblets - PowerPoint and Audience Interaction

In a recent Business Week article "How Your Audience's Brain Works", Carmine Gallo, author of Fire them Up, provides some tips for presenters generated from his discussion with John Medina, a molecular biologist and author of Brain Rules.  In the article he covers three tips:

• the 10 minute zone out when audiences stop listening
• the boredom factor
• the importance of visuals

Meanwhile over at Fast Company, Nov 2008. Dan Heath and Chip Heath cover "How to Avoid Making a Bad Presentation".  Among the tips about presentation killers that they reference are the following:

• While "show don't tell" is important don't go overboard with the clip art or stock photography just for "decoration not communication"
• "Presenters needs to be comprehensive" can lead to too much information or TMI or as the authors say "great presentations are mysteries, not encyclopedia entries"

Good Presentation on Death to Bad PPT

Alexei Kapterev has put together a good presentation that is available on SlideShare providing some guidelines to making your presentation more effective. He suggests focusing on 4 items -

1. Significance
2. Structure
3. Simplicity
4. Rehearsal

The slide show provides a quick view of 61 slides that you can watch here.

| View | Upload your own

Hat tip to Seattle PI, The Biz Bite blogger Whitney Keyes post "How to Give a Great Presentation". 

Meeting & Conference Nibblets - PPT

Online Spin contributor Max Kalehoff has a great list of 10 suggestions for making conferences great.  Among his suggestions are the following:

• Halt PowerPoint Abuse

I've had the pleasure of creating and presenting PowerPoint Guidelines for a Conference organizer in an effort to improve the quality of their presentations.  As Max says in his article "putting severe restrictions on the use of PowerPoint is at the top of his list." 

Another of his suggestions worth keeping in mind for meeting and conference organizers is to "Pay the presenters".  This can help improve the quality of contributions and relevance to the conference attendees.

PowerPoint Karaoke

The Boston Globe reports on the growing interest in PowerPoint Karaoke, a spoof that originated in Germany a couple of years ago.  The karaoke program works by having a person give a "presentation" from a slide deck that they have never seen before.  In the article, it is suggested that to have your own PowerPoint Karaoke event, all you need to do is the following:

1. find PowerPoint slide decks online (.ppt)
2. download them,
3. serve beer
4. distribute the slide decks to karaoke presenters
5. use a LCD projector to display the slide
6. have the presenter generate a story with the slide deck

I'm game and ready to try it out.

For more tips on PowerPoint Karaoke, see Heathervescent's posting following last year's Barcamp LA.   

Slideshare has created a tool to help you pull together slides from the Slideshare repository.

PowerPoint Nibblets - tools & techniques

Periodically I like to scan the news to see what is new in PowerPoint add-ons, presentation accessories or tools to enhance your presentations.  Here are some that I've discovered recently.

• SlipperyBrick reports on a laser pointer with a built-in advantage - slide advance and backward buttons for use with PowerPoint.  The tool sounds like it could be a useful multi-function presentation tool.
• PlanetPDF reports that DocGuruz has released a PowerPoint to PDF conversion package that allows you to convert your PowerPoint presentations without having Adobe Acrobat installed.  The product is available for $19.95 at the company website.
• The Mobile Gadgeteer reports the availability of Softmaker Office 2008 beta for use with Pocket PC Devices.  According to their report the tool gives you "Softmaker Presentations 2008 that gives you full editing and creation capability for PowerPoint presentations."
• Cognitive Scientist Stephen Kosslyn, author of Clear and to the Point presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science on the best way to present PowerPoint information according to iO9.  He presented his "four rules of PowerPoint: the Goldilocks Rule, the Rudolph Rule, the Rule of Four and the Birds of a Feather Rule".  He has some good ideas although I found his book to be less than sophisticated in its use of PowerPoint as compared to others like Presentationzen.

NJ Governor needs some PPT help

The New York Times reported earlier this week:

"...Governor Jon S. Corzine, relying on a PowerPoint slide show several fonts too small..." "Al Gore he was not.  Sometimes it was hard to see the charts because the words and figures were too small.  Sometimes he blocked the view." 

Given the picture they showed of the Governor pointing to one of his busy slides, it is clear he needs some help. 

If you or your organization would like to avoid the governors problems, give me a call (608) 255 4092 or drop me a line for help with improving your presentation strategy through PowerPoint and Presentation skills assessments and training or through help in developing your presentation assets strategy.   

Paul Gibler

UPDATED - PowerPoint & Presentation Resource Listing (REV 7)

I've updated the PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques Resource Listing to include several new books, web sites and article links that I've come across or have been submitted to me.  The Resource Listing is now in its seventh revision. 
Download PPT-PowerfulPresentationTechniquesResourceGuideRev7.pdf

If you have additions or changes that should be made to the listing, please send me an e-mail. 

If I can be of any help in assessing your team's current level of presentation or PowerPoint skills or assist you with your training needs, please let me know.

Paul Gibler
(608) 255 4092

PPTLive Next Week and PPT Book Reviews

I'll be attending Rick Altman's PPT Live Conference starting this Sunday in New Orleans.  I'm looking forward to picking up some good tips, ideas and to networking with other PPT and presentation professionals.  As I learn new things that are worth sharing, I'll be sure to post them here on PPT. 

In addition, I've given myself a couple of reading assignments while I'm planebound this weekend and next week to read and comment on two new PPT books I just received from Amazon - "CLEAR and to THE POINT" by Stephen Kosslyn and "Why Most PowerPoint Presentations SUCK" by Rick Altman of above mentioned PPT Live fame.  My initial scan of both tells me that I'll be able to pick up some good tips and techniques to add to my repertoire.

Share Your Worst PPT Slide Ever

Worst PPT Slide Ever
Originally uploaded by Travelin' Librarian.

Periodically I like to visit the photo and video sharing sites to see what they are saying and sharing about PowerPoint. I always find interesting items to comment on and share on my blog.

For example, this PowerPoint Slide is labeled the "Worst PPT Slide Ever" by the Travelin' Librarian.

What do you think? Have you seen or even created worse ones (in your past I'm sure)? If you have one to share, send it along or post a link to it in the comments and we'll see what others have to say.

In my PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques educational sessions, one of things that we do is review and discuss a range of slides to determine what we think the message is and how effective the slides are in communicating that message. This is always one of the more interesting points of discussion, so I hope to see some comments generated on this blog.