What Do We Do With PowerPoint Now?
Category : Learning & Training , Project Management
KSP Partnership is proud to participate in the Black Diamond Charity work teaching returning veterans project management tools. As part of their education we help prepare them for the inevitable day when they will have to speak to leadership teams or change control boards. In other words – presenting, public speaking. You know - that which often causes nerves to act up. You may not realize how many parts of you are bothered by the prospect of putting your professional self on the line in front of people who can determine your quality of life at work after the presentation.
Appropriate use of PowerPoint as a tool is always one of the sticking points. Now, in the age of heavily virtual teams and shared screens, how you use the tool becomes even more important.
So – a couple of hints:
- Keep the graphics and text simple and spare. Focus on a few strong colors.
- Keep the animations to a minimum. This will simplify things if you have to provide PDF versions of the slide show. Animations mean you have to create a slide with each development of that animation if you need to provide a PDF for the rest of the folks attending the meeting.
- As you use photos or graphics in your slide show remember to ‘Compress Pictures’ for on-line quality.
The need to transmit information well continues to be one of your heaviest responsibilities as a project leader.
Remember – the message they receive is the message you sent. It may not be the message you intended to send. It is, however, the message they received. It means your preparation can have even more impact on your clarity of message.
Disclaimer: these suggestions will not work in organizational climates where they demand they be able to use the slide deck to brief those who did not attend the meeting.
In those organizations, if they either cannot attend or are not invited, then do they need a comprehensive read-out of the subject at hand?
Some other resources are listed below.
The Long, Painful Death of PowerPoint
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/long-painful-death-powerpoint-mark-o-brien
Kimi Hirotsu Ziemski, founder of KSP Partnership, works with leaders and teams who want to take the productivity of their performance levels up – not just for now but as the start of incremental improvements on an ongoing basis. The impact of your team’s culture can be your strongest tool. We can help you craft and curate a culture that generates higher levels of productivity – and therefore profitability.