PowerPoint (and Keynote and Google Slides) can be a powerful tool, but it’s very often misused. Beyond just presentations, I’ve seen it used to design layouts and even create logos. However, it can be even worse when people use it to avoid having to really think through an issue.
In the book “Working Backwards” about the history of Amazon, they share some thoughts on why Word can be a better choice for sharing information than PowerPoint.
First, Edward Tufte offered some advice on how to get started:
“Making this transition in large organizations requires a straightforward executive order: From now on your presentation software is Microsoft Word, not PowerPoint, Get used to it.”
Jeff Bezos explained further:
“The reason writing a good 4 page memo is harder than “writing” a 20 page PowerPoint is because the narrative structure of a good memo forces better thought and better understanding of what’s more important than what, and how things are related. PowerPoint-style presentations somehow give permission to gloss over ideas, flatten out any sense of relative importance, and ignore the interconnectedness of ideas.”
As shared in a Forbes article from a few years ago, this works because Bezos starts every leadership meeting with 15 minutes of silence while everyone reading the document that explains what they’re here to discuss.
Of course, that’s not to say that PowerPoint has no value. I still use it frequently when presenting to groups, and I intend to for the foreseeable future. I think it might be weird to start a presentation for a business group by asking everyone to take a few minutes to read a handout first, but maybe not. It’d be different, for sure, but could it be effective in that kind of situation or does this only really work for focused leadership teams?
