PowerPoint Pet Peeves

Having just come off the Outsell Signature Event co-produced with JEGI Clarity, I’m reminded of PowerPoint and how it can be the bane of our existence. Probably never has more been written about a piece of software and how to use it (or not.) And never has a software program for the masses been so mismanaged as to create catastrophe on stage. We had great speakers, phenomenal content, amazing knowledge being shared. We had groundbreaking insights that attendees couldn’t wait to bring back to the office.

And even then, as with so many other events we’ve attended, we witnessed the carnage that PowerPoint misuse can bring.

I am reminded of Chuc Barnes, a trainer whose wisdom I used to represent when I sold onsite corporate training for the American Management Association. Author of Capture the Moment, Chuc also taught the Outsell team about presenting. His wisdom about PowerPoint was priceless. So here are a few tips that have become Anthea-isms, and before that, Chuc-isms.

1. Remember first and foremost that PowerPoint is a visual aid, aid being the operative word. It is to shine light on the speaker; it is not the feature. The main attraction is the speaker — the aid is simply there to help.
2. Keep the fonts big, the sentences short, the concepts simple. Our rule of thumb: No more than six bullets and six words per bullet, and even that is too much. Five bullets with three words each is better. Or one bullet and a couple of words. Or pictures. Voiceover brings the slide to life. Remember, it’s about the speaker and the message the speaker wishes to impart — not the slides.
3. Do not — I repeat do not! — please, please do not put full sentences in lots of bullets with boxes in the upper right-hand corner with even more concepts and bullets. Do not put four or five concepts on a slide that people cannot follow. You see, here’s the dirty secret of PowerPoint: Most people cannot listen to a speaker, read a slide, and reconcile the difference between the speaker’s words and the bullets they’re reading when they don’t match, and 99% of the time, they don’t.
   
   When the slide is cluttered and the speaker’s words don’t match, it’s chaos. There’s a name for this: cognitive dissonance. You’ve all been in an audience or on a Zoom call and tried to listen to a speaker only to have chaos on a slide and the speaker’s words not matching in any which way or form. Try — just try — following along. There is no faster way to get an audience to take a bio break or pick up the iPhone for a quick scan. When the PowerPoint and the speaker have seemingly no bearing on one another, you’re going to lose the audience. It’s that simple.
4. If you are presenting, put your slides up in a 250-person or 1000-person room, then sit in the back of the room. Are your slides readable? Twelve- and 14-point fonts are not the way to go. If your PowerPoint can’t be read by the AV guy sitting at the back of the room, go back and rework them. Remember the adage “A picture is worth a thousand words”? Try pictures. Try stories — they speak to the right brain. Human behavior is wired around stories. We all have them, and pictures bring stories to life. How can you convey your message without text? And can you do it in a way people can actually see when you are in a big conference room?

Please, keep it simple. Use images. Remember less is more. These are all adages that work in PowerPoint. And so does the adage “Tell them what you’re going to tell ’em, tell ’em, then tell ’em what you told ’em.”

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Who said that again? When it comes to PowerPoint, it’s the honest-to-gosh truth. Try it sometime. And if you want independent eyes to give your PowerPoint a quick peer review and whip you into shape, give me a call. PowerPoint is about sharing information, and we’re passionate about avoiding the peeves.