I awoke a couple of days ago at 5:30 AM. Usually that means that the dogs want to go outside. This day my thoughts were all about PowerPoint. Strange, I know. But I woke up thinking about all that I have learned about doing and, more importantly, not doing with this tool from Microsoft.

First, a disclaimer is warranted. I have personally created hundreds of PowerPoint presentations for many different purposes. The organizations that I was in expected that information would be delivered this way during meetings. So, I learned all of the ins and outs including all of the fancy animations, colorful templates and so on. I neither hate PowerPoint as some do nor do I consider it the answer to all communication questions.  But I do have some rules that I have evolved that make sense to me for the (mostly) technology oriented audiences that I have served. I have used these rules while doing strategy and competitive intelligence presentations for many levels of management.

When telling a story, it (usually) is best to tell it in a form that is familiar.

If an organization “thinks” in PowerPoint, then be prepared to tell and sell using that tool. I have to add the “usually” caveat because sometimes it is important to be different when the message is fundamentally different. For instance, in one strategy discussion, I used PowerPoint to create the presentation but rather than projecting it one slide at a time, I printed the12 slides and spread them out of the conference room table. Then the managers that attended stood around the table to view the content. At their own pace and in their preferred order, they could view the slides. This helped get all of the information in view at once and facilitated a better discussion of the complex topic.

Leave out the cuteness.

For business audiences, my feeling is that the animations, transitions and other such things are distractions. Of course there will be exceptions but most of the time people can absorb information much faster than some click through sequence controlled by a presenter.

Deliver the appropriate information density.

Few things are worse than 10 point font paragraphs densely displayed on a slide. I wish that I had a dollar for the number of times that I have heard from presenters that “I know you can’t read this but …”. (Embarrassingly, I have said it a few times.) On the other hand, I have also suffered through slides which are 10 words. Both approaches are disrespectful of the audience and show woeful preparation from the presenter.

The “right” information density is best described through Ed Tufte’s teachings. Far from eliminating detail, he advocates large amounts of information be delivered. The key is the presentation technique. For example, Tufte has described many useful depictions of trends and data sets that allow someone to make meaningful interpretations of data. One example is the use of Sparklines which highlights trends and outliers very well. Bissantz is a commercial vendor of this tool.

Tufte explains (and sells) the iconic diagram which traces Napoleon’s march to Moscow and back. It is a masterpiece of appropriate information density which allows that viewer to extract multiple important meanings about the event,

Tell a story.

Novelists and other writers have an advantage over many people in business. They understand that a typical book has a plot with characters, twists and turns and at the end a conclusion. In contrast, many business presentations rather than having any discernable story are a somewhat disjoint collection of facts. The impact of this approach is that there is little impact. It wastes time and distracts an organization from doing meaningful work.

It’s only a tool. Make sure you communicate.

I know people that love certain software. Some of them love PowerPoint and consider it important to their life. Okay. The rest of us need to remember that it is only one tool for communicating with our audiences. If we master PowerPoint and create the most beautiful presentations known to man but don’t connect with our audiences, what have we gained. Nothing. In strategy and competitive intelligence, communication usually has a purpose which could be to inform, to persuade or to educate. The tool used to convey information should be obviously subordinate to the purpose.

I enjoy creating presentations. Anyone that has worked with me on a presentation will agree that I am a stickler for what I present (i.e., it has to look good, it has to make sense, it has to spur discussion). I am proud of slides that I have created that allowed people to see something that they had not seen before and, because of that awareness, they can contemplate changes to what they previously knew. Nevertheless, I know that when PowerPoint becomes synonymous with communication we all risk diminishing what is vital to an organization. That is, the vigorous discourse among smart, committed people who are grappling with the most difficult issues in business.

Maybe I will sleep better tonight.