beyond bullets

How Wide is Your PowerPoint Gap?

I recently gave a pilot workshop at a large corporation that is considering adopting BBP training on a wide scale. I asked the group where they are with their current PowerPoint approach, and where they would like to be, and they came up with this list:

Today, our current approach to PowerPoint is:

- Overloading our audiences with too much information
- Throwing in everything but the kitchen sink
- Just doing a data dump
- Usually not communicating a good story
- Being too generic - one deck fits all
- Not succeeding at helping an audience remember key messages
- Creating decks that don't get used, or just one or two slides are pulled
- Not producing a crisp communication package

Where would we like to be is a place where we:

- Find a better approach for internal and external presentations
- Tell a clear story
- Increase our audiences' ability to remember
- Make our key messages clearer and more memorable
- Create cleaner and simpler communication
- Inspire
- Ensure the audience will take action
- Prompt conversation
- Find a way to easily customize and tailor presentations

The wide gap between the two lists at this well-known organization explains the growing sense of frustration that presenters, audiences and organizations are feeling today. (It's interesting that "better graphics" didn't make either list.) In spite of the widespread criticism of PowerPoint the past couple of years, the problem is not our lack of awareness of the situation -- it's painfully obvious that our current approach is broken, and that we need to fix it.  The real problem is the lack of a practical solution that an entire team or organization can start applying today.

Writers, gurus and your next door neighbor will tell you that you should "tell a story," "be more visual," or "keep it simple". But how, exactly, do you do that, tomorrow morning, at 9am, at your computer monitor with your PowerPoint application open, with a deadline of the next morning?  And, by the way, how do you do all that within the context, constraints and culture of your organization? 

Part of the reason we haven't been able to solve the problem is that we're looking at the situation as an individual problem rather than an organizational problem.  The reality is that PowerPoint is culture, and at any organization it is a specific culture of pre-determined templates, fonts and expectations.  The only way to resolve the problem is for an entire organization to adopt a specific methodology -- a systematic process of producing consistent, reproducible, and quality results.  The process has to work across the broadest range of topics and purposes, and yet allow variety within a set of constraints.

Will we ever get to the point that we can cross the wide PowerPoint gap between where we are, and where we want to be?  Based on the growing interest I've seen lately, more and more organizations just might be ready to make the leap.

The First 5 Slides: Join me for a free webcast

Join me at 9am Pacific Time on Feb. 20 for a free webcast sponsored by Microsoft Office, and you'll learn how to dramatically increase the impact of your presentations in the first five slides using the BBP approach.  From the webast description:

Most people would agree that you have to capture an audience's attention in the first moments of delivery, or else you have already lost them. Yet when it comes to Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentations, the first slides usually have titles like, “Overview,” “Our Company,” “Our Services,” etc. Attend this webcast to learn tips and tricks for starting strong with PowerPoint every time by using the Beyond Bullet Points approach. Discover how you can use classical story elements to create dramatic suspense and to ensure that the beginning of your story sets the stage for an engaging presentation to come.

I hope you can join me!  You can register here (free registration with Microsoft Events is required).

Coming attractions

Greetings!  If you've been patiently waiting for signs of life from the Beyond Bullets blog, an explanation (excuse?) is in order:

During 2006, a tremendously fast-growing interest in the Beyond Bullet Points approach put me on the road with an extensive travel schedule, keeping me busy leading workshops for organizations and developing presentations for legal trials.

The hectic schedule has had two sides to it:  On the one hand, the travel has helped me to put BBP through rigorous road testing across an incredible variety of professions, purposes and audiences, which has refined the approach and inspired exciting innovations. On the other hand, my schedule has kept me from writing on a regular basis, publishing newsletters, replying to a large backlog of emails and posts, and developing new BBP products and services.

In the new year, I've decided to spend more time on the latter.  Here are some of the upcoming major initiatives that I have planned:

1. Launching Beyond Bullet Points Online, a membership-based website with a BBP training course, downloads and live online seminars with me (Spring 2007).
2. Thoroughly revising the Beyond Bullet Points book, which will include 100 additional pages plus a new CD packed with new techniques, tools, and examples of presentations (Summer 2007).
3. Hosting my first BBP public seminar here in Los Angeles (Fall 2007).

Thanks for being patient, and I'll keep you posted as events unfold!