PowerPoint presentations are often ineffective when presenters simply read slides filled with text or bullet points aloud, failing to engage the audience. While PowerPoint enables adding a lot of content, effective presentations embrace "less is more" by using minimal text and visuals as memory aids rather than script readings. Presenters should leverage PowerPoint's full capabilities by moving beyond just "slide-umentation" or "docu-slides" to create truly engaging presentations.
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Beyond Bullet Points
1.
2. • PowerPoint is a great tool. But over the years
its effectiveness has been diminished by
‘poor’ presenters using it to broadcast their
‘script’ to the audience members.
3. • How many times have we all sat in a
presentation (I *KNOW* that we can all
reference a particular one) and watched the
presenter read aloud from the slide, or if they
are feeling really adventurous…
4. • Bullet Points
• Reduces text on slide
• Bullet Points
• Bullet Points
• Bullet Points
• Memory aid
5. • But hold on, PowerPoint can be so much more
powerful than this. Have you ever heard the
phrase “less is more”? Just because
PowerPoint is capable of doing all these
things, doesn’t mean we have to use them.
• Let me take you on a journey….
Reveal and explain each Bullet Point in turn, emphasising that the Bullet Point is only there to remind the facilitator what to say next
But hold on, PowerPoint can be so much more powerful than this. Have you ever heard the phrase “less is more”? Just because PowerPoint is capable of doing all these things, doesn’t mean we have to use them.
Let me take you on a journey…. < Read text aloud from slide, emphasising the awkwardness of reading the text from the screen.
[twitter] Q2. Do you use bullet points in your PowerPoint or single words/full screen images? [/twitter]
As you’ll see from this presentation that I am now facilitating, the Bullet Points are gone, there is no text on the screen, crummy clip-art has been replaced by a full screen image. When I see the image I know what I need to be covering because:
I have prepared
The image is relevant to the topic of discussion
I’m good!
Lets be honest sometimes a single word or phrase can also be impactful. It can provide the facilitator and audience with a clear message as to the topic of the slide. If there is a great deal of text to deliver to the audience, fine, why not do what we have done for donkeys year…
…. give it to them in a document.
Dumping information in your slides simply turns them into Slide-uments or Docu-slides!!
The presentation style that I am now using has been pioneered by Cliff Atkinson, which he has coined…
….beyond Bullet Points
Cliff draws parallels between PowerPoint and Hollywood…
Both wish to capture and maintain the interest of the viewer by using images and narration..
Except that Hollywood manages to do it without the need for Bullet Points.. How?
Because it tells a story
And that’s the reason for you the presenter The reason for you being there is to enthuse them to read the documents, to review the intranet pages
It is your enthusiasm, your drive, your PASSION
… your story that will engage and inspire them NOT a mass of text and bullet points on a screen