Bringing PowerPoint back from the dead

Death by PowerPoint. It has become a modern adage because it kills the careers of managers and executives who produce ill-fated PowerPoint presentations, as well as because of the morbid effect it has on viewing audiences.

Of course, this syndrome is not limited to just Microsoft PowerPoint, though most slide-based presentations are created and delivered via PowerPoint. It is equally true of any presentation software, including Apple Keynote and Adobe Presenter.

The problem isn’t the program, it’s the presenter.

Millions of PowerPoint presentations are made every business day around the world. Given that scale of presentation software’s use, it’s obvious that many inexperienced people are using it. So it’s no wonder there are so many bad presentations that a term like Death by PowerPoint was coined.

You have no doubt sat through dozens if not hundreds of these presentations yourself. Think about. What are the problems you have repeatedly observed?

• Slides choked with text
• A presenter who reads the slides verbatim with his back to the audience
• Charts, graphs and tables that are unreadable
• A presentation that contains too many slides and drags on and on
• Poor organization
• No focus
• No theme
• No relevance to audience members

I could go on, but you get the idea.

All of these problems boil down to just one overarching issue. The person presenting the slides has abdicated her role as a narrator. Instead, she turned the entire affair over to the software program and counted on the slides to do the heavy lifting.

People often do this because they fear public speaking. PowerPoint is terrific for deflecting attention away from the presenter and onto the slides. The don’t-look-at-me look-at-the-slides approach might give anxious speakers some relief but it’s hell on audiences.

Everything changes when you realize it’s all about you and your audience, not about the slides. Don’t be a push-button presenter, be a narrator. That means, for starters, a well thought-out theme and outline that’s focused on your audience members – why they should care and what they have to gain. It also means:

• Slides with minimal content
• Narration that fleshes out the information highlighted by the slides
• Serious rehearsal time
• An authentic speaking style that’s interactive and keeps you the focal point of the presentation

Yes, it’s time consuming to create a good PowerPoint presentation. But consider what’s at stake. Your ability to generate sales. Your ability to get deals done. Your career advancement.

In future posts we’ll assess the many considerations and component parts you must take into account to produce a dazzling PowerPoint presentation that achieves its objective.

The advice will help you put Death by PowerPoint in its permanent resting place.

 

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