Strategy Matters: Eight Great PowerPoint Myths

[Mercury]

PowerPoint presentations that flood the audience with glittering graphics, brazen bulleted lists, and endless animations may look great, but they often drown out the message. Just because you can use every PowerPoint feature doesn't mean you should

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[Lyte]

Just call me Paul Harvey....

Strategy Matters: Eight Great PowerPoint Myths

PowerPoint presentations that flood the audience with glittering graphics, brazen bulleted lists, and endless animations may look great, but they often drown out the message. Just because you can use every PowerPoint feature doesn't mean you should

A friend of mine once told me that the best nap he ever took was during a PowerPoint presentation; I know many of you would concur. Great and PowerPoint -- those words are seldom seen together. Memorable presentations provide information, direction, and next steps. Bad ones? They leave you wishing you'd had a root canal instead.

Some years ago at an Apple product meeting, some McKinsey consultants were presenting. What I learned in that meeting changed my view of PowerPoint forever -- I call it "the 99-idea slide." Those McKinsey slides were chock-full of information presented in a visually compelling way showing all the ideas we could pursue. Because of its complexity, it wowed every executive and midlevel manager in the room. We were in awe.

Other than the awe, what I remember most about that presentation is the sense that I'd missed something. I figured that others had a larger view or some special awareness that helped it all make sense to them. But on reflection, I realized that no decisions had actually been made and I couldn't tell what it meant for the discipline I was leading at Apple. Those 99 slides were amazing, but there was no outcome.

Despite the dazzle, that 99-slide presentation moved inexorably from the desk to the bookshelf and then into the filing cabinet for storage where it gathered dust like other McKinsey and Bain PowerPoints that came before. Ultimately, we lost that market to a competitor.

Those 99 slides made clear to me what a PowerPoint presentation should be (and should not be). Over the years, I've come to think of these as myths, and understanding them is vital to understanding how to turn PowerPoint to your advantage and create presentations that result in action. Here are my eight great PowerPoint myths:

Myth #1: PowerPoint = Strategy
Apple paid more than a million dollars to McKinsey for its "strategy" work. The entire company was committed to it. Yet we lost a large market -- a very large market. PowerPoint presentations are not strategies. They can be part of a strategic plan or a tool used to communicate a set of strategies. In no way is PowerPoint a strategy, though.

Myth #2: Bullets Make PowerPoint Great
All too often, bullet points are less effective than a combination of great graphics and solid language. Bullets are often used as presentation shorthand -- they fail when the presenter doesn't fill the audience in on the details and context. The ideal slide strikes a balance between text and illustrations; when they work together, the communication level is far more powerful, much more memorable for the audience. Before diving into slide format, outline the points you want to get across to the audience -- don't think about bullets until you're clear on the message. Then you can make choices about the ideas that need more words and those that need less. It's not about the bullets, it's about the audience understanding.

Myth #3: Maximize All Slide Real Estate
That 99-slide presentation I sat though was memorable, but for all the wrong reasons. Notably it was bulging with information and that made it confusing. Leave white space, use less text than you'd like, and let what you say during your presentation make the impression; think of the PowerPoint as prop, not the main attraction. I've seen presenters at the mercy of technical problems who soar when they wing it. At one recent event, I watched a presenter engage and hold an audience without a PowerPoint slide in site. It reminded me what presentations are really about -- communicating.

Myth #4: State the Problem Plainly
Great presentations have a story to tell. Your story may have conflicting issues that have been around for months or years. The story you tell needs to be fleshed out for your audience -- not reduced to bullet points -- in the spoken portion of your presentation. The graphics you select should have meaning for your audience and connect to the story you're telling, but they are not the story.

Myth #5: Animations and Special Effects Are Critical
I remember a presentation with a slide that had eight different animation effects using four separate images. It was effective, the transitions matched the timing of the presentation, but the fancy graphics aren't what I remember. The single word at the bottom of the page made the biggest impression. With all the graphics flying around, I had time to absorb that single word. In this case the presenter wanted me to focus on that word and used the juxtaposition of the graphics and text to steer my attention. More often, animations and effects serve only to distract -- PowerPoint effects can grab your audience's attention, but they'll only leave an impression if they match the message of the presentation.

Myth #6: Data Is the Heart of Every Presentation
There's more to a successful presentation than dumping data onto a slide. Who will be in the audience? What do they have in common? Do you know how they feel about the topic? Are they experts or novices? Peers or indirect reports? Presentations to peers, managers, and individual contributors are different from the presentation at a shareholder meeting. Understanding your audience allows you to tailor the presentation to them; when you do, they'll respond better and absorb more of the information. If you're presenting at the year-end meeting of your company's worst-ever year, the mood is bound to be different than if the company just completed a successful merger. Pay attention to these factors and set your tone accordingly.

Myth #7: Presentations Should Start Fast
You don't need to floor it like a NASCAR driver to get people's attention. Presentations with a beginning, a middle, and an end help set boundaries for an audience. Remember -- the effective storyteller wins at making presentations (see Myth #4). Make sure your attendees know what you're recommending or proposing and why. Thinking about your presentation like the plot of a novel or movie will allow you to create drama that leads up to the most important point in your presentation.

Myth #8: The Presentation Is Everything
Absolutely not -- the conversation and context are everything. In some situations, it's better to have a conversation with your clients or team rather than running them through a set of slides. PowerPoint has never signed a purchase order. The most important issue always will be your audience -- not your presentation.