Don’t Blame PowerPoint It’s just a vehicle

Don’t Blame PowerPoint It’s just a vehicle

…That is often driven poorly

In a car crash it is nearly always the driver who is to blame

NOT the vehicle itself

But when it comes to bad presentations people are quick to blame PowerPoint

Some misguided people even start political parties against it

This is stupid.

This is stupid. Really Stupid.

A PowerPoint deck is not the presentation

A PowerPoint deck is not the presentation

PowerPoint is a vehicle for your visual aids

Your presentation is your message and your information. It takes hours of careful craft and consideration

Your PowerPoint is your vehicle to communicate well thought out and complementary visual aids.

PowerPoint isn’t “evil”

PowerPoint isn’t “evil” It’s neutral

We don’t think of other content vehicles in the same way…

For Example…

Outlook & Gmail are not to blame for crappy emails

It’s your annoying Boss and his inability to

be concise

I write a damn fine email :-)

It wasn’t the physical vinyl records that made the Beatles awesome

It was their music, creativity & the hard work that

went with it

George Orwell wasn’t famous because he chose to write on paper…

It was his stories, writing style

& insights

It isn’t your phone’s fault that your conversation sucks

It’s just that your friend is a really boring guy!

Blaming the vehicle/ medium in any of these cases would be

Absurd

It is the content & how it is delivered that is important

NOT the vehicle used to do it

As a presenter you need to bring your audience from

As a presenter you need to bring your audience from

Mental Point

A

As a presenter you need to bring your audience from

Mental Point

A Mental Point

B To

You should use whatever vehicle works for you

The audience don’t see…

The audience don’t see…

The audience don’t see…

The audience don’t see…

They see a

screen…

Tell a good story and make effective, thoughtful visuals and they won’t know or care what software you used

Concentrating on the vehicle, rather than the route can go badly…

What’s more…

It’s a freaking LAZY excuse

The worst thing about the PowerPoint blame game is that it distracts from the real issue

Laziness

By blaming the presentation software we take focus off the real problem

Lazy Users

We absolve users of any real responsibility

We absolve users of any real responsibility

Are you calling me

LAZY!

We absolve users of any real responsibility

Are you calling me

LAZY!

Hell YEH!

The reality is that making bad presentations is a user-choice

Making bulletpoint filled slides is a choice

This…

Was a choice

This was a choice

Yep…

A choice

You can use PowerPoint as an autocue, but again that is a choice

You can choose to ignore great books like

Poor usage of the vehicle is a choice.

Like with a car, you can choose to drive recklessly

You can choose to drive to the wrong place

And you can choose to ignore the maps…

But that isn’t the

car s fault ’

So…

Let’s focus on what really matters

Let’s focus on what really matters the Presentation

And send the vehicle blame game to the scrapheap

If you agree

then why

not spread

the word

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