More Power than Point. "PowerPoint (or "presentation software") has become the lingua franca of American business. It's also become the problem with American business, according to
Inc. columnist Adam Hanft. [
Inc.com]
Hanft is calling on American businesses to produce more "sharply distilled, fact-based thinking". I couldn't agree more. However, one of the symptoms of a disease he has coined "distractulitis" is heavy reliance on PowerPoint. While this is most likely true, PowerPoint itself is not the problem. I have attended many presentations where a PowerPoint presentation was simply a guide for the larger presentation consisting of white boarding sessions, videos, live examples, and lively discussion. PowerPoint promotes reuse of previously published material, which may be a problem in some cases. PowerPoint also shoe horns a user into a hierarchical structure if they aren't familiar with how to integrate other forms of content into a presentation. It's not the software with that is the problem, but the user's knowledge of how to use the software in combination with detailed or lack of detailed thinking and command of a subject. PowerPoint can often mask a deficiency in command with a slick template. A monkey could flip through a PowerPoint presentation on brain surgery, but this doesn't mean the monkey is a brain surgeon.
A point that Hanft fails to make is that it is an audience's responsibility to hold the presenter accountable for their presentation by asking questions and cultivating a discussion.
