This blog is about improving the relationship between organizations and the people who work for them. And, it’s dedicated to the millions of people around the world who go to work every day wanting to do a great job.
The PowerPoint addiction
The abuse of PowerPoint has been a hot topic around our office for some time. Michael [Hinton], my partner in life and business, is working on a paper “The Economics of PowerPoint” with Ryerson Prof Tom Barbiero. And, several years ago he wrote a short pamphlet, “Exorcising the demons of PowerPoint”. He’s been sharing it with participants in his presentations skills trainings and had planned to build a workshop based on it. The reaction to that idea was so strong and so negative – “Are you kidding? We can’t think without PowerPoint!” – that Michael eventually decided to shelve it.
So, today’s post by Seth Godin caught my eye. From there, I followed a link that took me to Elisabeth Bumiller’s article on the US military’s PowerPoint addiction.
That made me think. If there’s a single communications tool that dominates organizational communications, it’s PowerPoint. And, if there’s one communication tool professional communicators rarely talk about it’s PowerPoint.
Why is that?
Institutions use PowerPoint when their most senior executives speak to employees. They rely on it when employees present ideas and plans to their managers and to each other.
In one organization I know of, you’d never go to a meeting without your deck even if you’re not presenting because you know that sooner or later the meetings all turn into “dueling decks”. And in another if you want to understand the evolution of the thinking on any institutional topic you always refer back to “the decks”.
So, why are we so addicted to PowerPoint? Is it because the structure gives us comfort? And the format helps us feel professional? Does it protect us by giving us an illusion of being clear and concrete while actually being ambiguous enough that we can talk our way out of pretty much anything we present? Is it because we don’t need to spend as much time clarifying and articulating our thinking? Is it because if we weren’t building decks we wouldn’t know what to do?
And why do institutions feed this addiction?
How much time are the people in your organization spending on preparing PowerPoint decks?
What role does Communications play in perpetuating or stopping the misuse of PowerPoint in your organization?
I think organizations should have limits on the use of animations. Full disclosure: I have been known to have a few diagonal fly-ins in my time. However, this is perhaps the biggest abuse out there. I swear the minute an exec gets a grip on animations, you end up with vertigo just sitting through one of their presentations!