New Persuasive Presentations Blog

Thank you for following me on The Grab

My blog has now been incorporated into my website, you can view it here www.persuasivepresentations.com.au

I look forward to seeing you there!

Regards

Sharon Ferrier

Is It Time To Ban PowerPoint?

Last month in the Australian Financial Review Westpac chief executive Brian Hartzer was quoted as saying “I think one of the dangers in large companies is that people start to think that their job is to create PowerPoints, [rather than] to make decisions and improve things for customers…. I am seriously considering turning PowerPoint off completely,”

He is not the first CEO to feel this way. In 1997 Scott McNealy, then president of Sun Microsystems, banned the use of PowerPoint throughout his company.

Should you be doing the same?

Or maybe you just need to get a big stick and empower your team and beat PowerPoint into submission

 1. Look at your company communication culture

Often when I suggest to a client that they need to change the way deliver their PowerPoints they respond with “Oh, we can’t do that. Our manager supplies the templates and slide headings and we MUST do it this way!”

Forcing people to use PowerPoint is forcing them into ‘lecture mode’. People start telling rather than selling and presentations become predictable long winded and boring.

Your company communication culture starts at the top. Are your managers delivering great presentations or are they presenting with PowerPoint circa 1995?

2. Put PowerPoint last

Many people, when asked to deliver a presentation, open their laptops and start cranking out slides. Instead you should be:

1. Setting an objective
2. Tailoring your message to your audience
3. Developing your topic
4. Structure your presentation
5. Making it persuasive
6. Including a call to action

PowerPoint should be the last thing on your list before you start practicing and you may find that your presentation is better off without it!

3. ‘Flip’ your meetings

This idea comes from the flipped classroom model, where instead of teachers delivering lectures, information is sent out before for the students to read and class time is dedicated to discussion which the teacher facilitates.

How this would work for you

Instead of your team delivering a PowerPoint presentation they would instead email an executive summary of their recommendations and then facilitate discussion on the pros, cons and recommended improvements for the idea.

So there is no need to ban PowerPoint – you just need to learn how to use it to your advantage. If all this sounds a little scary, it’s okay, I’m here to help!