In General McMaster’s view, PowerPoint’s worst offense is not a chart like the spaghetti graphic, which was first uncovered by NBC’s Richard Engel, but rigid lists of bullet points (in, say, a presentation on a conflict’s causes) that take no account of interconnected political, economic and ethnic forces. “If you divorce war from all of that, it becomes a targeting exercise,” General McMaster said.

The author of the article is right: Don’t blame PowerPoint: Blame the misuse of it.

PowerPoint is an incredibly effective tool, that catch is it must be used properly. Since we are in the information age, the age of instant gratification, efficiency, speed and savings, any corners we can cut to transfer information from one person to another are being taken.

Why did we get like this?

Someone decided to use PowerPoint when something like Word would be a better tool to convey the information and that propagated. Because we are knowledge workers and time is such a “soft cost” the actual amount of money (read: time) spent on understanding and misunderstanding goes unaccounted for and we continue the cycle.

Seth Godin blogged today referencing an ebook he wrote, thinking the ideas would spread and the problem would go away. While I agree that writing an ebook is a great thing, the expectation that it will spread like wildfire and the problem will go away even after a number of years is a little over confident.

Do you frequently have to sit through presentations that don’t engage you? How can you better your communication in your organization? What can you do to improve it? You can start with Seth’s ebook, my ebook, or Jon Thomas‘ ebook. All excellent and all free.

The eventual goal is a physically published book.

The book covers four elements needed in your presentations and provides a simple 8-step framework for you to follow in ensuring your audience is engaged and gets the important thing: your message.

The Table of Contents:

Why should you read this book?
An invitation to contribute

Four Elements of Presentations
Science
Engineering
Art
Design

Eight Steps to a Compelling Presentation
Step 1: Identify One Key Message
Step 2: Identify Your Environment
Step 3: Bridge the Gap
Step 4: Arrange Your Story
Step 5: Visualize Each Point
Step 6: Craft Your Slides
Step 7: Rehearse. Rearrange. Iterate.
Step 8: Violate Your Audiences Expectations… In a Positive Way!

Other Considerations
What to avoid: Common mistakes in presentations

Suggested Reading
Books
Articles
SlideShares

References

About the Author(s)*
Todd Lombardo
Your Name Here

I’d love to know your thoughts. If you would like to contribute, please contact us or drop a note in the comments.

Not just that. I am being read to and I am a grown adult!!

Why do speakers insist on reading bullet points to their audiences? Do they think that audiences cannot read? They sure can. And once you put up that slide and start reading, guess where their attention goes?

If you didn’t answer “elsewhere,” you better think again.

En una época en escenario de crisis, (y casi siempre están en una situación de escasez de tiempo, ¿no?) puedes considerar entregando tus notas de vista, asumir que tiene notas allí. Eso debería ser una buena cosa, ¿sí?

Quizás. Tal vez no.

Ten cuidado al dar este folleto, puedes perder la atención de tu audiencia. Van a empezar a leerlo. Al comenzar la lectura, que acaban dejado de escuchar a todo lo que digas. Documentos necesidad de ser conciso, sin embargo, tienen más información que lo que está en la diapositiva. Muchas veces es mejor tener lo que Edward Tufte se refiere como un “supergraphic.” Algo con tantos datos que no se puede mostrar en una diapositiva de la presentación estándar. O si se puede, no debe.

Un supergraphic permitirá a los miembros del público a centrarse en el área específica de interés para ellos. Ejemplos de usos Tufte son los mapas de los incidentes de cáncer en los EE.UU. Mi atención se puede extraer de inmediato a mi ciudad natal, mientras que el tuyo se puede extraer de inmediato a otra zona.

What affect did it have on your audience? Did you apologize and wait and call IT and… what happened to your message? Did your story stop?

The take away? Know your story so you don’t skip a beat if something happens mid-presentation. If you have the chance to setup early, take it and make sure everything works prior to beginning your presentation. This way, you increase the chances of your story being uninterrupted and your message getting to your audience.

Photo from pedrosimoes7

One participant of the workshop commented that by forcing oneself to START in the notes section, it left the opportunity to think about how to visualize the point up on the slide.

Try it! Did it work for you?

In a time-crunch scenario (and you almost always are in a time crunch scenario, aren’t you?), you may consider handing out your notes view,  assuming you have notes there. That should be a good thing, right?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Be careful when giving such a handout, you can lose your audience’s attention. They’ll start reading. When they start reading, they’ve just stopped listening to anything you say. Handouts need to be concise, yet have more information than what is on the slide. Often times it is best to have what Edward Tufte refers to as a “supergraphic.” Something with so much data that it cannot be displayed on a standard presentation slide. Or if it can, it shouldn’t.

A supergraphic will allow the audience members to focus in on specific area of interest to them. Examples Tufte uses are maps of cancer incidents across the USA. My attention may be drawn immediately to my hometown, while yours may be drawn somewhere else.

He talks about love to the audience, which is great for connecting with them. I’d like to add that love of the subject matter your speaking about is equally as important. How often have you heard someone present something to you when their heart is not in it? Is it obvious? What was your reaction? Did you remember what they said? If you cannot remember much from that presentation, it might tell you something about a presenter’s enthusiasm for their topic.

Una caja, dos cajas de hecho, para pedirte que añadir un título y texto para cada diapositiva. Empiezas a escribir de distancia, ¿no?

¡NO! No lo hagas.

Recuerda que el cartel: No hay títulos ni bulletpoints. ¿Cómo puedes obtener tu punto a través fuera de esas cajas? Imágenes? Gráficos? Algo?

Cualquier cosa menos bulletpoints.

A box, two boxes actually, telling you to add a title and text to each slide. You start typing away, right?

STOP! Don’t do it.

Remember the billboard: There are no titles nor bulletpoints. How can you get your point across outside those boxes? Images? Graphics? Something?

Anything but bulletpoints.