To my horror, I have discovered in recent months that there is an epidemic identified by ophthalmologists among businessman, students and conventioneers of “constant squinting” that is caused by small fonts and overwhelming statistics included in PowerPoint presentations.
Besides the physical manifestations, there is also a psychological component to this epidemic. A majority of this affected population also has developed a phobia that the American Psychiatric Association has named “PowerPoint affective syndrome.” This phobia is manifested in many ways: the fear of viewing defective PowerPoints; the fear of downloading a PowerPoint; and finally the inability to create a PowerPoint presentation.
This epidemic is spreading among many segments of our population and is being addressed in numerous periodicals in both the medical and academic arenas. So, I pose this question: What can we as laymen do to head off this epidemic and save our friends and associates from the dreaded effects of poorly prepared and executed PowerPoint presentationsω
I call upon each of you to close your computers and pick up your chalk, magic markers and erasers and lead us back to the blackboards and whiteboards of this nation.
How did we get so seduced to rely on the cheap clip art and fancy backgrounds provided to us for free, only to create a nation of dependent PowerPointersω Have we lost our ability to look an audience in the eye and communicateω Must we be dependent on images projected on a screen with statistics that can only be read with an opera glassω
I say no. I say we take back control from the chip makers and the programmers and shut down their fancy programs and take back our power to communicate. Our voices must be heard over the clicking of the millions of remotes used to power these presentations.
Over the past few weeks, I have had the occasion to review a number of poorly prepared PowerPoint presentations. As an educator, facilitator and consultant, I rely on PowerPoint presentations as a method of communicating information to my students and clients. Here are a number of ways to take back your power to communicate and break your reliance on the dreaded PowerPoint.
• Use PowerPoint to augment your presentation not to replace it.
• Know your audience and what they need to hear.
• Use the PowerPoint slides to stimulate discussion, not instead of discussion.
• Keep your slides simple, use large, easy-to-read fonts contrasted against solid backgrounds.
• Eliminate any use of clip art or sound effects. They tend to be a distraction to the audience.
• When using statistics, only feature the key findings and relationships. The balance of the findings and the statistical analysis can be included in a separate handout.
• Be sure to summarize your findings at the end of the presentation.
• Create PowerPoint handouts that have no more than three slides per page, so that your audience can take notes.
• Always face your audience when speaking, keep a strong level of eye contact at all times.
• Stand to the side of the screen, use a flip chart to summarize or to elaborate on the information presented.
•Redirect the audience’s attention by asking questions or posing challenges to the information presented.
• Remember the audience has come to hear you speak and not to watch a slide show.
• Finally, it is important to acknowledge that there are three methods of communicating, visual, auditory and kinesthetic. PowerPoint only meets the needs of the visual communicator, what happens to the other two-thirds of your audienceω
By following these few simple steps, we can take back the audience and slow this growing epidemic. The result will be reduced squinting and the stress associated with the viewing of poorly prepared PowerPoint presentations.
