PowerPointless

Sooner or later you will be asked to make a presentation.

After you get past the night sweats and churning stomach, most likely your next step will be to turn to PowerPoint.

You will use PowerPoint to create an outline of your presentation.  Like most people, you might add some pictures, maybe a sound effect or clever animation, and consider yourself done.  You really haven't begun.

I believe that many would be wonderful presentations are ruined by over-reliance on the PowerPoint crutch. All the thought and care and creativity that should go into the words that the speaker says instead goes into the slides he is putting up on the giant screen.  Then, because the slides are so brilliant, the speaker turns to enjoy them along with the audience.

Speakers would be well served if they thought of PowerPoint as a highlighter rather than a pen.  The slides flashing up on that giant screen should have images and words that emphasize or focus attention on key ideas and themes.  There is no need for them to contain the speakers entire outline.

Of course PowerPoint isn't the only culprit.  There are also a growing number of speakers who have turned to other presentation options.  While these might add some different features, I have not heard of any that help you make your presentation more audience focused.  Presentation software is designed to make things easier for the speaker...not the audience.  The presentation companies are in business to get you to upgrade from the free version to the pro version.  The last thing they want you to do is turn your back on the slides and focus on the audience!

I am intrigued by the PechaKucha formatof presentations.  In this format, which started in Japan, speakers get 20 slides which are shown for 20 seconds each.  Speakers do not have control over when slides change.  Speakers who are successful in PechaKucha let go of trying to time their comments to slides.  They have 6 minutes and 40 seconds to tell their story.  Obviously, this is not a format that works for every presentation, but it seems to me the slides have the proper prominence compared to the words spoken.

When I have a presentation to make, I still turn to PowerPoint to help me rough out an outline for the presentation.  I find that the format allows me to easily summarize my main points and then organize them in a coherent order (or at least that is the goal!) Once I have the outline done, though, I scrap that PowerPoint and start a new one.  No more than one image, word or phrase per slide.  Occasionally, I will allow myself to add a quote.  But I do not read the quote or make mention of the images on the slides.  I treat them almost like footnotes...additional information that adds to my comments but hopefully doesn't distract.  I am trying to get brave enough to do a PowerPointless presentation.

Regardless of the strategy you use, it is important to remember that the best presentations should be conversations with the audience.  Make sure you are speaking with your audience, not your slides.  Make sure you are using the audience as the guiding force of what you say and how you deliver it, not PowerPoint.  PowerPoint or any of the countless presentations support options are wonderful tools that can enhance and add some visuals to your presentation.  Just make sure your slides don't take over everyone's attention, including yours!

The strongest personality in your presentation should be YOU, not your slides!

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• The 200 slide solution
• Death by Powerpoint

The Formula for Quality Communications: 6C=Q

I have written about the need to be more concise and more precise in the messages we use.  In an earlier blog post (see link below), I referred to this as creating carefully crafted, concise messages that clearly communicate one or two key messages.  Six C's that result in a quality message.  6C=Q.

It has been suggested that platitudes are fine but specifics are what are really helpful.  I agree.  In this blog I am going to start with several ideas about how to be clear and concise in your messages.  I challenge everyone who reads this to leave a comment with a tip or two that YOU use to make sure your messages are quality messages, especially in today's world of interactive and social media.  I will share all ideas I get in a future blog.

Tips for Creating Carefully Crafted, Concise Messages that Clearly Communicate

• Clear Concise Communications are rarely created by accident.  This takes work.  The more you work at it, the easier it will seem, but rarely is clear concise communication created by accident.  As Abraham Lincoln famously said prior to a speech, "This speech would have been shorter but I ran out of time."
• Clear Concise Communications requires that you have a key message and a key audience in mind.  You have to be clear about what message you want to get out and who you want to get it to.  Your decision on both these areas will dictate everything about your message.
• Be aware of the language that you use.  Many of us who work in a single industry have to be aware that many people we are trying to communicate with, including many people within that same industry, don't understand the jargon, acronyms and language shortcuts that are a part of every industry.  There ARE times when it is appropriate to use those things, but do it purposefully.
• Write to communicate.  What I mean by this is pay more attention to getting your message across in a clear and engaging way than to the formal rules of grammar (unless of course you are communicating to a group of English teachers!).  This is closely related to the next tip.
• Write how your intended audience talks.  You want to communicate with your intended audience, so you need to communicate how they communicate.  This means using the language they use.  It also means communicating using the media they use.
• If you can't say it in 30 seconds or 300 words, you haven't figured out your key message.
• Be concious of the rhythms of your writing.  The best writing has a rhythm or cadence to it.
• Edit by reading aloud.  Your ear is a great editor!
• When possible illustrate your ideas with pictures. While a picture may be worth a thousand words it is worth way more than that when it comes to its ability to generate attention and interest.
• If you are illustraing with pictures, consider moving pictures.  Video is easier, cheaper and more popular than ever before.  It should be part of your communications toolbox.
• Great video starts with a great script.  A great script delivers the message in less than a few minutes (see above).
• Great communications starts and ends with great listening.  If you are listening (to your audience, to your peers, to yourself) you will have a much better idea of how to communicate.  If you are listening you will also have a better idea of how your message is being recieved.  You have two ears and one mouth which is a good reminder of the ratio of listening to talking (or writing) that you should be doing.

There is more, but I want to hear from readers.  Add a bullet point or two to this list in a comment and I will publish them in a future blog!  Thanks!

Related articles

• Quality vs. Control
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My Blog is 100: Celebrating Milestones

In this blog, I have frequently written about the importance of celebration and recognizing milestones.   It seems appropriate then that I practice what I preach.  This is my 100th published post to my blog "Everything is Marketing."  Yeah me!

It seems remarkable (and a bit humbling) that it took me this long to hit this milestone.  My first post was in August 2009. I have had many fits and starts, a barren gap of a year and a half and other gaps of a month or more. I have stepped away from writing this blog many times and I have always failed to contribute to it in anything resembling a regular schedule. But I keep coming back to it and I keep getting indicators that a few brave souls are actually reading what I write. That is the humbling part.

This blog has been surprisingly rewarding in many ways.  Creating a space where I can think and write about marketing in a non-job specific way helps to give me some perspective and balance.  Having a venue to write and think creatively is very precious to me.  Having an audience is even more precious.  I treasure those of you who comment about what I write, either online or to me in person. 

I fully intend to keep at this.  After all, I have been picking up steam a bit...two thirds of my posts were written this year.  My goal...and I am actually foolishly stating it on here...is to hit 200 posts in 2013. 

So welcome to the party!  Have a slice of cake (guaranteed to have no calories!) and sit back and have fun.  I plan to!