Beyond PowerPoint
Since the moment of its creation, PowerPoint became such a dazzling success that it made almost all its competitors disappear. Nowadays, this software remains a regular of any public presentation regardless of the potential audience to which it is addressed. Start-up Kick-Start investment projects, internal meetings, client presentations, hardly any of these previous events could be confidently faced without the technical support of PowerPoint.
However, despite more than a decade of proven usefulness, can we consider ourselves still capable of noticing the considerable number of flaws that PowerPoint has got us accustomed to? Overloaded texts, endless bulleted lists, unreadable graphics, superfluous animations, etc. This endless list of imperfections has undoubtedly helped us forgetting to what extend this software constitutes a limitation to any presentation’s speaker.
Not only must we bow to the whims of this software, but we must also acknowledge the fact that most professionals are still using it quite clumsily despite years of practice. With regards to the substantive use of PowerPoint, we tend to mechanically write on the slide the text we want to say, instead of using it to reinforce our purpose and facilitate the transmission of our ideas. As a consequence, Speakers miss the essential point of their presentation which is to convince and seduce their audience.
In that respect, the audience can both get easily bored and retain almost nothing essential of your pitch. It is not surprising that the expression “Death by PowerPoint”, which illustrates the deadly boredom of many PPT presentations, has lately been spreading like wildfire.
To PowerPoint or not to PowerPoint?
Last time you did a presentation you followed the 10/20/30 rule of PowerPoint of marketing guru Guy Kawasaki: your deck had ten slides, the presentation lasted no more than twenty minutes, and the font was not smaller than thirty points.
Nonetheless it seemed to you that your audience wasn’t that captivated by what you were saying. After some research on new trends of presenting, you came across the example of Amazon.
Amazon is currently the #1 company in the world and must be noted Bezos’s opinion on PowerPoint presentations might have something to do with it. Indeed, PPT presentations can no longer be used during internal meetings. Instead the speaker writes a six-page memo inviting every attendee to read it at the beginning of the meeting. As Bezos himself said “PowerPoints often fail to convey enough information and are prone to audience interruptions. A well-written memo, in contrast, allows one to more effectively communicate their thoughts.” In this regard, through complete written sentences the author can develop more complex ideas.
However, the “no-slide policy” seems to you too extreme because you do believe that visual supports help the audience to focus. Indeed, we often say « A picture is worth a thousand words ». Our brain understands better and faster visual elements than text or verbal information. A bar graph makes more sense than a sequence of numbers. But putting visual supports in your PPT is not enough to fully engage with your audience.
The power of stories
A great way to captivate your viewers’ attention is to tell stories.
Stories are a great way to impact people and convey ideas. The reason why is explained by neuroscience. Stories engage the emotional part of the brain by releasing a neurochemical called oxytocin. The more your brain releases oxytocin, the more you understand others’ emotions and you’re able to connect to people’s ideas.
Storytelling is thus as important as visual supports. Strong and creative visuals combined with great storytelling have the power to strongly engage your audience and make your ideas better understood.
You now know what to do to make a killer presentation!
— Louise Duchesne, Claire Farcy and Marie Hodée
