Financial Education|| Re-imagining How We Use PowerPoint–for Financial Educators

The typical financial education workshop.

When I think of a typical financial education workshop, I think of a well-lighted classroom filled with quiet students facing a huge screen at the front of the room. Next to the screen is a facilitator hiding behind a wood-paneled podium who is lip-synching a carefully prepared PowerPoint presentation from his/her laptop.

While we financial educators might like the convenience of using PowerPoint to create presentations, how does our audience feel when confronted with dozens of bulleted PowerPoint slides? Are they inspired–or are they bored?

If you’ve been in my “Reach People Through Stories (not PowerPoints)” workshop, then you’ve heard about the brain science that tells us why facts and bullets are often boring. You’ve also heard why those same facts embedded in an engaging story can be understood better and retained longer by our audiences.

A change must come.

Even some of us financial educators are getting tired of the old way of using PowerPoint. We (me included) are saying things like–

“This class is a drag.”

or

“I’ve taught taxes and financial planning for a long time and I’m tired of teaching boring classes. We’ve got to revamp this!”

or

“We’ve wondered why we’re not getting the results we want. If we’re the problem, we need to face it.”

Getting radical.

According to an inc.com article (“Jeff Bezos Banned PowerPoint in Meetings. His Replacement is Brilliant”)*, Jeff Bezos (founder and CEO of Amazon) banned PowerPoint from his meetings.

Why?

The article lists reasons such as:

• the human brain is wired for story
• stories are persuasive
• bullet points are the least effective way of sharing ideas

*(see https://www.inc.com/carmine-gallo/jeff-bezos-bans-powerpoint-in-meetings-his-replacement-is-brilliant.html; accessed 8/25/19)

Is there no hope for PowerPoint?

Am I saying that financial educators must abandon PowerPoint? No, by no means. But why don’t we re-imagine how we use it? Instead of giving a “PowerPoint presentation”, why not give a “Human presentation” (just structure your presentation like a speech/essay). PowerPoint becomes just another powerful prop (if you choose to use it at all).

People want the human connection.

How many times have I had workshop attendees tell me, “They need to teach like this in the schools!” Even in financial education, many audience members are yearning for the human connection, for engaging stories (replete with props), for laughter, and for audience interaction.

Reimagining PowerPoint…

The possibilities are actually endless…we can embed pertinent emotional video, quotes on dramatic backgrounds, cityscapes, etc.! You can Google for ideas. Enjoy!

This article was originally published on Tracy Broadhurst’s personal finance blog.