Blame the Penmanship, Not the Pen

April 20, 2009 by Jerry

penmanship_1 In May 2004, following the release of Microsoft PowerPoint 2003, I wrote an article for The Toastmaster magazine in which I took to task the critics who faulted the software for poor presentations. No less an authority than Edward Tufte, the well-known graphics guru and the author of The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint, contends that “PowerPoint routinely disrupts and trivializes content.” That point of view, I noted at the time, is akin to blaming the Mont Blanc pen for illiteracy and illegibility.

Disruption and trivialization of presentation graphics are the fault of the user.

Five years and another release of PowerPoint (with even more bells and whistles) later, that observation still holds true. It holds true for one simple reason: presenters make the fatal error of using PowerPoint for both presentations and documents, thereby disrupting the content of each. The resultant fowl/fish (pun intended) hybrid compromises each function and serves neither purpose.

As a presentations coach, I have been on a quest to drive a wedge between these two applications. After all, PowerPoint sits side-by-side in the Microsoft Office suite with Word, a dedicated application for documents. I have advocated this wedge in programs, speeches, blogs, and books, all to no avail. Throughout the business world, PowerPoint continues to be used for the two separate functions as resolutely as a religious ritual.

The practice persists because, in the pressured world of business, multi-tasking and repurposing are equated with efficiency. But these shortcuts disrupt and trivialize the presentation (as Tufte correctly observes) because in presentations, both presenter and audience have too much information to process; while in documents, the reader does not have enough information to process. A PowerPoint deck does not stand alone, and no decision maker will make a decision based on a deck alone.

In a special ten-part series of blogs on presentation graphics beginning today, we’ll offer you several examples that will, hopefully, persuade you to drive the wedge between your presentations and your documents.

Before we do, let’s begin with the end in mind; the proper use of PowerPoint for presentations—the primary focus of this series as well as of the entire Power Presentations methodology. Presentation graphics must serve one function and one function alone: support for the presenter.

The correct role model exists 24/7 in television news programs. Anderson Cooper provides the details for the stories he tells; the graphics that accompany him are simply illustrative headlines. Professional broadcasting organizations such as CNN have rich, sophisticated graphical capabilities far beyond those of PowerPoint, and yet the images they show are only support for the newscaster.

Emulate Anderson Cooper in your presentations. Make your slides the headlines, while you provide the details in your narrative. PowerPoint is for the show, the presenter does the tell.

For the sake of your audiences, focus on the penmanship, not the pen.

Tomorrow you’ll meet one business decision maker who wields the wedge in an unusual manner.

A Joint Program of Power Presentations, Ltd. & Indezine

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