BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

The 3-Step Strategy For Powerful PowerPoint Presentations

Following
This article is more than 4 years old.

Is PowerPoint still a useful tool at your organization? At Amazon, Jeff Bezos has outlawed this software in meetings. According to former Amazon executive, Jeff Rossman, replacing PowerPoint presentations with memos helps the participants in a meeting to develop clarity about the project or proposal under consideration. “It forces leaders to put away their computers, to put away their phones, to not be dumbed down by PowerPoint. It's forces them to read it, to grok it, to deeply understand it so they can have a much better discussion.” Can you smell what the grok is cooking? Amazon’s strategies may not be in place at your organization. According to this poll, over 35 million PowerPoint presentations are given every day to over 500 million audiences. So why are there so many horrible, dense and boring PowerPoints out there?

Perhaps it’s because there’s no clear methodology for evaluating what makes a good PowerPoint presentation. Nancy Duarte, author of Data Story and owner of the top-rated presentation design firm in Silicon Valley, recommends making each slide unified around just one single idea. Way back in 2005, Guy Kawasaki created the 10/20/30 rule for high-impact business pitches. So tell a story, follow the fractions, be like Bezos, or just download Prezi...What’s the answer?

Beyond Templates: When PowerPoint Is Powerful

Today, sales teams are hungry for personalization in the customer relationship; clients demand authenticity. Sophisticated audiences know if you are copying someone else’s work. And that formula is just not working for them. An authentic and strategic approach to your story (instead of paint-by-numbers) can guide you to new results. If you’re interested in more than just matching a pattern, there is a way to deliver a powerful impact using these three steps.

Take a look at each slide in your deck, and put yourself in the position of the audience. Consider the person (or people) who will receive your message. Because, ultimately, what the audience does when you are done will be the best measure of your success - not the cool graphics, or the bar chart on slide 43. Consider your audience’s point of view.

When your audience sees this slide, what do you want them to: 1. Think? 2. Feel? 3. Do?

Ask this question for every slide in your deck

There should be at least one answer for every slide. Some slides are more thought-provoking than others. Some are more hard-hitting and emotional (if you truly wish to persuade in your presentation). Some slides provide direction and a call to action. And some slides contain elements of all three. In my coaching work with clients, especially business development teams, we look at how to arrange these three categories for maximum impact.

But none of your slides should make the audience feel like you are trying to confuse them. Or overload them. Or prove that you are the smartest person in the room (because, if you really are, you’re going to focus on service and impact - not on proving something that doesn’t really matter anyway).

KISS This: Keep It Simple, Superstar

Consider that if your answer to question #1 is: “I want them to think of all 47 steps in the integration process, beginning with a brief historical overview of our’s team’s expertise as well as an overview of our procedures that emphasize their input but maximizing our developmental outcomes and synergies as well as impacts to external stakeholders…”

I’m gonna stop you right there, Gunga Din. Why so many objectives? Einstein said that if you can’t explain something simply, you don’t really understand it.

Density is deadly. Density is detrimental.

Density is destroying your effectiveness. A complex process needs to be simply explained - otherwise, where is your expertise? Do you expect people to sort through mountains of data, or are you going to offer them insight and guidance, in a way that’s clear, powerful, and easy to understand?

Three Simple Steps for Each PowerPoint Slide

Each slide has a purpose – a single purpose. What do you want people to think, feel and do, on each slide?

In PowerPoint, as in life: where you put your attention is where you will find your results. Go one step at a time. Have the courage to internalize this idea: the simplest message is the strongest. The shortest distance to the results you need isn’t through a shockingly dense and cryptic tour of your intelligence. Shift your focus to your audience: what do you want them to think, feel and do?


Follow me on Twitter or LinkedInCheck out my website or some of my other work here