PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques

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

PowerPoint in the News... Cartoons and Romney

Today's newspaper reading of two of my four daily newspapers (yeah I know I'm old fashioned, I still read print), yielded a couple of interesting references to PowerPoint. 

The first one was a Hi & Lois Cartoon, where they are visiting with friends who say their projector has died and proceed to show a PowerPoint presentation of their recent visit to Disney World.  I had to laugh at this one, since we do the same following trips when we want to share the many photos that we've taken.  We've taken this one step beyond PowerPoint with one of my Christmas gifts this year, a digital frame with a capacity for 1000 photos.  The problem so far is that the images aren't in any collection order and of course it doesn't have some of the managed transitions and interesting graphics that I can add with PowerPoint.

The other PowerPoint reference was more topical and damning in an editorial "Road to Nowhere" by David Brooks in today's New York Times, where he criticizes Mitt Romney's campaign strategy with the following:

"And yet as any true conservative can tell you, the sort of rational planning Mitt Romney embodies never works.  The world is too complicated and human reason is too limited.  The PowerPoint mentality always fails to anticipate something.  It always yields unintended consequences." 

For the political junkies among you this editorial is an interesting analysis of why Romney can't win in the general election.

Case Study - PowerPoint and Bureaucracy

Today's Wall Street Journal has an interesting article "To Understand Iraq, Marines Ask Mac" about a retired Marine who is helping serve as a consultant on tribal affairs.  For the purposes of this blog, what I found interesting was a quote about how he managed to help out the military by selling his concept using PowerPoint. 

"Like anyone who wants to penetrate the military bureaucracy, he wrote a PowerPoint brief."

I think we could easily substitute the word "military" for corporate, governmental, educational, etc or any of many bureaucracies.   Judging from the $144,000 six month contract that he received he told his story well using PowerPoint, so was successful in penetrating the bureaucracy.

________________________________________________________________
ADVERTISEMENT

Need help penetrating your bureaucracy (internal or external) more effectively? 

Why not contact Paul Gibler to come in to work with your team in refining their presentation skills and use of PowerPoint.  Programs can be customized to meet your organization's individual needs.  For a summary of the approach, Download PowerfulPresentationTechniquesPPT.pdf program description.

Updated Political Presentations - Rove PPT

Think Progress revealed the existence of a PowerPoint presentation developed by Karl Rove and delivered by Scott Jennings to GSA head Lurita Doan and other GSA Staff.  Regardless of the legality of their partisan presentation on federal property, I'm curious as to what you think about the quality of the PowerPoint slides (PDF)?

I think the maps are pretty effective, but the charts with seats at risk are difficult to process.  There are too many seats mentioned/slide and the content all blends together.

IRAN Threat PowerPoint

Talkingpointsmemo has published what they claim are the PowerPoint briefing slides that were used in Baghdad to communicate about the threat of Iranian interference in Iraq. 

Regardless of your political beliefs, the slides wouldn't win any award for effective PowerPoint presentations.  Granted we don't have the hush hush narrative that went along with the presentation - no cell phones, no recording devices, no cameras, etc., but if this is the best the White House and the military can do in structuring their argument, we're in deep trouble.

PPT Pre 9/11 Buzz

Political Animal on Washington Monthly is calling for the release of the PowerPoints.  They reference the PowerPoint slides that Tenet is alleged to have shared with Condi Rice on July 10th.  It is interesting to see yet another story of PowerPoint in the middle of the communication flow within government.