PowerPoint Dribble

April 8, 2004 3:50 am Bea Fields Leadership

I had a great nap yesterday…during a PowerPoint Presentation.

What is it about PowerPoint that is better than any sleep aid on the market, and why do companies so fiercely insist that their presentations are more POWERFUL with 48 slides of graphs, percentages, and photographs of their corporate office?

Did Lincoln have a Power Point Presentation to support the Gettysburg Address? Did Martin Luther King flash slide after slide on the day he spoke these words:

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!

I don’t think so!

In today’s world of clutter and noise, I believe that we are not selling slides, ideas, products, and technological dribble. I believe we are selling PEOPLE! When your prospects show for a live event or a teleclass or a presentation, they are not showing to see your slides! They are showing to be with you…to see if they like you and if you jazz them enough to want to do business with your company. You ask for the lights to be killed, you flash your boring PowerPoint on the big screen straight ahead, and in a flash, you lose eye contact and connection with your audience. ARGH! Your customers cannot choose to work with you in the dark, and they cannot get to know you behind the details of the slides you are using to cover up what is best about your company YOU! So…SNAP OUT OF IT! The next time you have a message to share, leave your slides at home and bring the best visual aid you own to the front of the room…That would be YOU!

3 Responses

  1. Elaine Ness Says:
    April 9th, 2004 at 8:57 am

    Bea, I really appreciated this reminder. Over the years of doing seminars for both my fellow handwriting analysts and the public I have found, through trial and error, that handouts alone work best. Many advantages. The audience always has something concrete to take along forlater review, which is good for my subject, (you cannot accurately recall writing formations you have only seen on a screen) and you can maintain eye contact with the audience. Besides, keeping thelights on mean nobody takes naps in the dark after lunch.

  2. Jeff Says:
    April 21st, 2004 at 3:11 pm

    Nice piece. I’m writing my master’s thesis on just this topic. Good to see the anti-PowerPoint forces growing.

  3. Hal Says:
    June 10th, 2004 at 12:19 pm

    Get yourself a copy of Really Bad Powerpoint, by Seth Godin only $1.99 at Amazon. And if you’re really serious about creating experiences using Powerpoint then have a look at the new Sociable Media template. We used it to produce the Porject Guys’ presentation for the CV Annual Conference. Have a look at http://www.sociablemedia.com/.

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