Part Two
In last week’s column, we discussed how some of the world’s top executives liked to conduct their meetings. These are men known to be visionaries who have in their own way changed the way we think and do things.
With that, time is precious for them, and in the light of a Harvard Business Review study that says that the average time people spent in meetings doubled from 10 hours a week in the 1960s to today’s average of 23 hours a week, it would be natural for them to want their meetings to be more streamlined and efficient.
We also highlighted how in an article in Inc.com, Geoffrey James “PowerPoint’s Flaws Show the Fundamental Problems with All Business Presentations “illustrates how this tool that many of us use has actually hindered productivity by doubling the amount of time each week we spend in meetings that go on endlessly. They have, in fact, become “information dumping monologues.”
He goes on to point out how “many CEOs have banned PowerPoint from their meetings including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, LinkedIn’s Jeff Weiner, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and the late Steve Jobs.”
But why this disdain for PowerPoint? James says that, “smart leaders hate PowerPoint because business presentations straightjacket meetings into a slow-moving liner direction. This discourages conversation and discussion, turning the other attendees into passive chair potatoes. PowerPoint, when used as designed, reduces attention, understanding, and worst of all, retention.”
Carmine Gallo, author of “Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great,” goes further in her Inc.com article “Jeff Bezos Banned PowerPoint in Meetings. His Replacement is Brilliant” where she mentions that “narrative memos have replaced PowerPoint presentations at Amazon.”
This a move she describes as “brilliant” because:
- Our brains are hardwired for narrative.
- Stories are persuasive.
- Bullet points are the least effective way of sharing ideas.
In an Inc.com article, “Power Point Makes Us Stupid. Here Are 3 Smarter Alternatives,” James says “it’s time to follow suit of the generals and billionaire CEOs and get out of the PowerPoint trap. But how? PowerPoint has become so ingrained into our day-to-day business activities that it seems impossible to function without it.”
With that, he brings us back to a time before 1990 when nobody used Power Point and business presentations were consequently rare to nonexistent.” What happened then was that “meetings were shorter and more to the point, with more discussion and better decisions.”
Oh, that seems like a lifetime ago. But how did companies get along without PowerPoint? James says they used three different meeting tools built around the type of business meetings:
- Decisions/Discussions;
- Training Sessions; and
- Public Addresses.
Here, he suggests the techniques that work better than PowerPoint for each meeting type:
If you need to discuss and decide, use a briefing document
“Briefing documents are better than presentations when you’re driving toward a decision or consensus,” says James. This is because it “forces presenters to communicate with complete thoughts rather than mere outlines, and makes certain everyone is literally on the same page during the ensuing discussion.” It is said briefing documents reduce “the overall time spent in a meeting by 50 [percent] to 80 percent.”
He suggests one “handout paper copies at the beginning of the meeting and have everyone read the document. Then open the floor for discussion.”
James also shares a quick tip: The ideal briefing document is a single page.
If you must instruct or train, create interactive experiences
James says that “if you want people to remember what they’ve learned, create an experience that allows your audience to participate in the learning process.”
He adds that “you’ll do much better with traditional classroom materials—workbooks, easel pads, whiteboards, etc. To ensure your audience learns and retains, you’ll need to get your audience involved and not turn them into passive viewers.”
He is not alone in his thoughts. John Paul Chou, an assistant professor of physics at Rutgers University says that with PowerPoint, “it’s easier to let your mind go autopilot, and you start to lose focus more easily.”
He also makes a pitch for retention that may surprise many. James wants “the audience to take notes with pen and paper, because the action of physically writing something alters your brain structure so that you remember what you’ve learned.”
Without note-taking, “most instruction is in-one-ear-and-out-the-other. Audiences retain next to nothing when just listening to a talking head, especially when the talking head is running interference for words on a screen behind them. Presentations are not teaching tools; they’re sleep aids.”
James also shares a quick tip: “Start your course by asking the audience what they expect to learn” he says. “Record those expectations on an easel pad, hang the pages around the room and use them as touch stones as you work through the material.”
If you want to entertain or inspire, give a speech
James says that, “if you’re speaking to a large group that’s not expected to participate in an interactive discussion, you should prepare [and rehearse] a speech rather than wing it with a presentation.”
This would be good for keynotes, employee meetings, and product announcements.
He adds that “the challenge in these situations is to create positive emotions in your audience. You want your audience to connect with you—and you want to connect with your audience. Anything that you put on a screen behind you is a distraction from that rapport-building process.”
James shares another quick tip: “If you’re giving a speech, find role models, like TED Talks, and other types of speeches that have gotten huge traffic on YouTube. You’ll notice at once that they use graphics very sparingly, and never in the standard business-presentation bullet-point format.”
All in all, business documents, interactive exercises and speeches require quite a lot of work more than a presentation. These, however, “hone, and polish, your thoughts into something meaningful and complete—and, thereby, more respectful of your audience’s time and energy.”
More than that, your audience will love you for it.
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier association for senior professionals around the world. Millie Dizon, the senior vice president for marketing and communications of SM, is the former local chairman.
We are devoting a special column each month to answer the reader’s questions about public relations. Please send your comments and questions to askipraphil@gmail.com.
Image credits: Chakkree Chantakad | Dreamstime.com