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?

PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques Resource Guide Rev 10 Released

I've updated the PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques Resource Guide listing to include several new books, blogs, web sites and article links that I've come across or that have been submitted to me.  The Resource Guide is now in its 10th version.  You can download and share the Guide -  Download PPT-PowerfulPresentationTechniquesResourceGuideRev10

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 J Gibler. MBA
the Web Chef
ConnectingDots
pgibler@connectingdots.com
(608) 255 4092

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

ChartChooser from Juice Analytics

Need some help with choosing the best PPT charts?  ChartChooser from Juice Analytics could be the tool to use according to AdLab.  Chart Chooser allows you to "use the filter to find the right chart type for your needs.  Then download as Excel or PowerPoint templates and insert your data"  according to their website.  They have 17 different types of charts including scatterplot, bubble, two axis column line chart,etc. that are generated from the 7 filtering choices (comparison, distribution, composition, trend, relationship and table).

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.

Visualization and Visual Literacy

Business Week in their latest issue had an interesting short blurb on a valuable tool for communicators in their Inside Innovation In Short section.  The Periodic Table of Visualization Methods was created by Martin Eppler and Ralph Lengler at the University of Lugano in Switzerland.  The periodic table classifies 100 types of visualizations (pie chart, timeline, venn diagram, histogram, etc.) in a convenient table with links off each element in the table to examples of each and suggestions on where to use each one. 

Some of these are easy to create with PowerPoint, while others would require more sophisticated drawing and charting tools.

I wonder what Edward Tufte would think of these charts?

Turn Off the PPT and Talk (New Article on PPT)

Presentations Magazine has published a new article "PowerPoint: Boon or Bane?" that provides a nice review of some of the beliefs pro and con about PowerPoint.  In the article, author Abhay Padgaonkar references highlights including the 20th anniversary of PowerPoint, Tuftes article on the corrupting influence of PowerPoint and how IBM and Sun eliminated their internal use of PowerPoint.  The interesting tips and conclusions that the author provides are the following:

• Ten Commandments - PPT is not one of them.  Evaluate whether you need to even use it
• What's Your Story? - Similar to the Beyond Bullet Points framework, he suggests that you frame your presentation as a story
• Vertical Logic - Don't go too deep in your levels of bullets.  .Make sure the listener can interpret your point easily.
• Graphic Violence - Cut the clutter and be sure you can explain the graphs
• Data Dump - Avoid overcommunicating everything you know to your audiences

I'd rate this an article well worth reading.  For other articles and resources, see my Resource Guide "PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques Resource Listing (Rev 4)".  I'm in the process of updating this resource listing, so if you have additions or revisions please let me know.

Paul Gibler
ConnectingDots

Tufte Redux

Jon Udell at Infoworld has an interesting article "Scaling the Tufte Effect" where he discusses and reviews Edward Tufte's new book "Beautiful Evidence" with specific attention paid to the re-design of a table using PowerPoint "chartjunk" as Tufte calls it or using Tufte's visual display insights. Jon takes his analysis one more step in that he asks "How might this redesign work more interactively on the web?"  He proceeds to try to do so using an online sparklines tool.