Powerpoint or a Six Page Write Up?

what makes more sense

I wonder sometimes if there’s a devil inside me. And sometimes, I lean on the railing of my balcony while I puff my way towards glory, thinking, that maybe Quentin Tarantino does a wonderful job. Maybe there’s more to the “Aestheticization of violence” — the gut flushing out of the stomach, the ceiling of the room devoured by the fountain of blood, the surgical precision with which an ear was carved out of that helpless policeman in Reservoir Dogs, or the latest blood and flesh explosion graphically depicted in Django Unchained.

All these theatrics, and graphics do leave an impression on your mind. But think hard and think again. Perhaps that’s not the main attraction point for you in his movies. There’s another story to it and another angle that might have been escaping your imagination tangentially.

All of the people who worship the cult movie Reservoir Dogs would remember the opening dialogues as they are delivered by all the actors, especially the monologue of Quentin Tarantino. It’s a subtle conversation around the logic behind the title of the song “Like a Virgin”. A virgin is a virgin, what’s the story behind the title “Like a Virgin”, that’s the question? Perhaps Quentin Tarantino had grabbed your intention as soon as he mentioned the title of the song, and then, like a sweet charm he captivates you with his logic and reasoning. The passionate way in which he presents it, the thought process behind it, the clarity with which he enchants you with his proposition, and by the time he is done, you are pretty sold to his logic.

You played the part of an attentive, interested listener. And what made you do that? Of course the content of his monologue.

All of his movies consist of these passionate, animated, intelligent, well thought, carefully worded discussions that captivates the audience in you. The vulgar brutality or the “Aestheticization of Violence” is just the freak show in him perhaps, but what stands out in his movies are these conversations.

But what has all of this got to do with presentations and six page write ups? Never mind, I am just trying to build my case. All of us have worked on zillions of presentations till now. And I will try to be honest here. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you are asked to work on a presentation? What are the frames that appear in your mind in quick succession? I will lay out mine. They are still flashing in my mind prioritized as laid out here.

Now let’s do this exercise again with may be whitepapers. What if you are asked to write a 6 page whitepaper on a topic? Let’s name it “The value proposition of outsourcing”. What are the first things that comes to your mind. I will give out mine honestly as they just appeared in my mind.

Let’s compare now. Presentations inadvertently reeks you to think of and work on the aestheticization aspect first. The content comes later. Where content is provided, most often it is shot down by being termed as “too verbose”. The critics view it as an advert whereas the purpose of it might have been that of a compelling editorial. Too much importance is given to the overshadowing cosmetics and the brain is lost in the beauty of it. You eventually end up playing the role of a make up artist whereas you were hired to write the script and narrate the story in the first place.

On the other hand, a detailed write-up serves a dual purpose. As you research and write, you evolve from your hypothesis and are actually seeking to prove it or reject it. A lame output can only mean two things, either your understanding of the matter and thereby the proposition is not good enough to hold any ground, or the proposition in itself is at fault. Either way you immediately realize that it’s about time to rework or readjust the value proposition. Aestheticization comes later. It serves the purpose of simplifying the complexities, and even then the details are provided to be read through and then it registers in the subconscious of the reader. And that is the impact that you would like to create. The reader should be sold to your reasoning and go back home thinking about it, because the analysis was detailed and somewhere in the mind of the reader it has found a home.

Presentations are important too. How about we change the process a bit. Why not make the write-up on the presentation topic a necessity and a Step I. Step II becomes the aestheticization through a presentation with graphics that creates magic, content that stays in the audience’s mind, and finally the write-up to provide an engaging, stimulating monologue that enchants everyone.

So much for presentations and write-ups and so much we owe to Quentin Tarantino. Respect.

The article also appears on my blog:

www.knowledge-sausage.tumblr.com

About the Article: Amazon’s founder and CEO Jeef Bezos’ interview with Charlie Rose was the source of inspiration for this article. Readers can find the interview here