To give an intelligent and memorable presentation, don’t use PowerPoint. If I wanted to snag a $10 million account, PowerPoint would not be one of the weapons in my arsenal. Why fill the screen with colors and fonts and whistles and charts and bullet points? I feel about PowerPoint the way that Edward R. Tufte, professor emeritus of political science, computer science and statistics, and graphic design at Yale does. The author of The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint1 and a very smart person, said, “PowerPoint is evil.” He is also quoted as saying “Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.”
But Dr. Tufte and I are definitely in the minority.
How popular is PowerPoint? Microsoft estimates that there are 400 million copies in use. In 2001, it was used over 30 million times a day imagine how much larger this nasty little addiction is now!Obviously, it has many fans. Microsoft is very big on its baby. The people who design templates and sell them for $100 a pop are also big fans, as are the salesmen who teach seminars on how to make PowerPoint even more effective.
But I have yet to see a serious research study that takes a positive view of PowerPoint. Quite the opposite is true. In fact, there are thousands of highly respected experts and scholars who will be more than happy to point out why using PowerPoint is a terrible idea, turning even the best presentation into multi-colored illustrated drivel that demonstrates nothing more than how long it’s been since the presenter had an original idea.
As Clive Thompson wrote in his article for The New York Times (12/14/03), whose headline read “PowerPoint Makes You Dumb”: “Perhaps PowerPoint is uniquely suited to our modern age of obfuscation where manipulating facts is as important as presenting them clearly. If you have nothing to say, maybe you need just the right tool to help you not say it.”
Here are four good reasons to avoid PowerPoint.
Sameness Breeds Boredom
First, every PowerPoint presentation looks like every other one. And our brains quickly stop paying attention and start thinking about what we’ll be having for dinner. PowerPoint puts people to sleep. It’s boring.
Imagine what’s going through your client’s head when your first chart with six bullet points hits the screen. She will question her sanity and vow to look up the symptoms for early onset dementia so she can rule it out as the reason for her eyes crossing. Then she’ll start examining ways to injure herself just enough to be taken out of the room on a stretcher but not bad enough to cause her to miss her late afternoon tennis game.
Your clients-to-be or clients-who-may-bolt-for-the-door-if-you-don’t-do-something-quickly are vainly trying to pay attention. But don’t fool yourself. Unless you are doing something unique and unexpected, it is virtually impossible for that little ragtag band on the other side of the table to hang on every word. The brain is a wonderful, mysterious, free spirit, but it has the discipline of a Scottish Terrier in a room full of hot dogs.
We Remember What We Read Or What We Hear, Not Both
There’s a second reason to forget about PowerPoint. Your clients will either remember what’s on the screen or they will remember what you said. Not both.
According to research undertaken by Dr. John Sweller at the University of New South Wales (and reported by Anna Patty, education editor of the Sydney Morning Herald), the human brain processes and retains more information if it is digested in either its verbal or written form, but not both at the same time. “The use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster,” says Dr. Sweller. “It should be ditched.”
Bullet Points Are Your Worst Enemy
Consider the bullet point, the darling of every PowerPoint presentation and more dangerous than a cobra in your washing machine. You could compose a bulleted list of the six reasons banana pudding exports will increase in the 4th quarter. Or a list of the firm’s top eight accounts, the management structure, the location of the restrooms and the menu for lunch.
We’ll read all of the bullet points at once, form an opinion about what we’ve read and then think about the guy we saw on the elevator who looked like Danny DeVito but it couldn’t have been him, could it?
Also, PowerPoint is like a mind-altering drug that compels you to tell your audience everything you know about a subject.
If your firm was founded in 1692 and was the first American law firm to handle a personal injury case, the only thing you need to say in your presentation is that Argot and Tuber was founded in 1692 and that your first client was Paul Revere who was sideswiped by a runaway British carriage.
But when you can make a list full of bullet points, you tend to go on and on and on, despite the fact that research indicates there are limits on the brain’s ability to process and retain information in short-term memory.
To sum up, don’t use bullet points. Ever. There is no valid reason for them.
Relying On Technology Is To Flirt With Disaster
I was working with a client once who was making a presentation to a new client for a contract that had a sizeable number of zeros on it. There was a lot on the line (like his job, reputation, second home, stock options and little Mindy’s freshman year at Yale. That’s all.) Mr. Presenter knew this client. There were no strangers in the room.
Mr. Presenter knew his subject. Facts, figures, margins, competition, industry analysis, client’s golf handicap and who Mindy was dating. He stood up. We had rehearsed this presentation twenty times. I was changing the slides for him.
But one must never take things for granted. After about two minutes, the computer crashed.
My client looked at me in much the same way he might look at a 25 foot python beginning to wrap itself around his ankles. I turned to the clients, put on my very best smile, and said “The computer crashed.” My client came apart. He had lost his crutch. To his credit, he pulled himself together, made the pitch and got the business.
But if you’re addicted to PowerPoint like some unfortunate people are addicted to crack, a crashed computer is essentially the same as finding out your friendly drug dealer is in the slam.
Seek Help Now. You Can Break Your PowerPoint Addiction.
Here’s the bottom line: If you want your presentation to have more punch, be more memorable, and have some real style, stay away from PowerPoint.
Join together and repeat after me: “Friends don’t let friends use PowerPoint.” Amen and amen.
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Great article.
I noticed you are only addressing the use of PowerPoint for live speech presentations. What are your thoughts in the use of PowerPoint as a document that presents ideas and concepts without having a person facilitating the presentation?
Thanks