Just Say No To Powerpoint Enough Is Enough

Writen by Nancy Stern

Have you ever been slideswiped? You walk into a meeting and once everyone has arrived, the lights are often dimmed and the show begins. The presenter clicks the mouse again and again, showing you slide after slide until you can take no more. Exasperated, you shut your eyes and doze off. You have just been slideswiped!

Or, have the training classes and presentations at your company become stale and commonplace? Do they tend to look and feel exactly the same regardless of the topic? The only difference is the words have been changed—Few presentations stand out and you begin to wonder if anyone in your company is capable of a creative thought. Maybe most of the presentations you see have started with one of the templates found in PowerPoint®. Do you need to communicate bad news? Click on the template "Communicating Bad News." Do you need to report progress or status? Click on the template "Reporting Progress or Status." Do you need to create an employee orientation training program? Click on the template "Employee Orientation." Do you need to create a company handbook? Click on the template "Company Handbook." Now, your company looks and sounds like all the others.

If you think these scenarios can't happen, think again. They already are happening in companies across the globe. PowerPoint® has become so popular it is now a synonym for a presentation. Instead of asking for a copy of the salient points in a training program or company presentation, people are now saying, "Please send me the PowerPoint® from Wednesday's class." Scott Adams is cartooning about it, too. In the first frame Dilbert is using a pointer and says, "As you can clearly see in slide 397…" In the next frame the audience is tearing their hair out and one of the employees falls over on the floor. In the final frame, Wally looks at him and exclaims, "PowerPoint® Poisoning!"

Recently, I was speaking at an off-site meeting for a software company and was scheduled to present immediately following the VP of Marketing who was talking about the possibility of downsizing. When I arrived, the room was dark and the VP was reading from the screen. I saw heads nodding and people dozing. He was on slide 23 and had 22 more to go! The audience had a handout on which each of the slides was printed and numbered and those still awake, read along with him. Why bother? There was no interaction and people were discouraged from asking questions. Just pass out the handout and go home.

Given the touchy nature of the subject matter, a "lights on," Q&A would have been much more effective. The handout could have been distributed prior to the meeting so people could prepare their questions. Instead, he simply read to a group of scared employees who were in the dark to begin with and who he ultimately left in the dark.

Many presenters and trainers have become addicted to this technology. It's like drugs are to junkies. The more it's used, the harder it is to stop using it. It becomes a crutch. And, there's a price to pay. Audiences tune out, fall asleep and dread wasting time sitting in a room where slideswiping is the norm. Productivity drops, learning doesn't happen and humans disconnect. It seems presenters and trainers have forgotten how important it is to communicate with a group rather than just read to them, and how important it is to connect with an audience rather than just dazzle them with special effects. General Hugh Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, issued the following order to our military bases around the world, "Enough with the bells and whistles, just get to the point." (Wall Street Journal, 4/26/00).
Remember, people process information in many ways. Some learn visually, others learn by listening, and the kinesthetic types prefer to learn through movement. It's best to provide something for everyone. Remember, visual learners do not learn from bullet points alone; they learn from pictures, graphs, and images. Auditory learners do not learn from listening to sound effects like bells ringing and typewriters clacking. Instead, they learn from listening to an engaging speaker whose voice is powerful and who captivates their curiosity. And, kinesthetic learners do not learn from the movement of words on a slide. They learn from doing, touching, and moving around. They like to be involved and participate.

Usually, people don't participate because they suffer from low self-esteem or have been humiliated sometime before. Perhaps they learned through early experience that there is a much greater chance of being embarrassed than of being rewarded when they speak up in a meeting or a class. They might be afraid that they have nothing important to contribute or that they will appear foolish in front of others. They may also be disinterested in what's going on; they may feel they don't have a "stake" in the outcome. While there is no one solution to the problem, there are several things that can be done to enhance communication. Start by changing "Are there any questions?" to "What questions do you have?" Invite participation. You just might get it. 
(c) Nancy Stern 2004 

Through her workshops, seminars and consulting projects, Nancy Stern MA, helps people keep connected through conscious communication because how you say what you say matters™. She can be reached at 800-280-2666 or on the webwww.nancystern.com

Create A Better Impresion With Your Emails

Writen by Douglas Titchmarsh

How do you come across in your emails?

As I receive more and more requests for assistance by email, I also get more and more poorly worded or badly formatted emails.

When you ask someone for help, or approach them for the first time, you will get a much better response if you word your initial contact carefully. Take some time to think about what you want from the other person.

Be descriptive, many people have a lot of things on the go at once. You may know exactly which piece of software you just bought which didn't work, but if the seller has 20 products, an email saying "I couldn't download the software" will sit on the to do pile longer than one which states which software you bought, and what happened when you tried to download it.

DON'T USE ALL CAPITALS in an email, it is considered shouting and also looks a tad unprofessional if it is your initial contact with someone who you may wish to do business with at a later date.

Don't demand action, request it, this is even more important if you are asking for help or you are referring to something which was free in the first instance. You may think that would be obvious, but I have personal experience of people demanding action be taken when something free didn't work. A simple description of your problem, and a "please advise" will get you much better results much faster too.

Formatting your emails can also help enormously. Putting in your own line breaks (using the enter key) at around 60 characters or so will make your email easier to read.

Add some contact information at the bottom too. It's much nicer to receive a reply from someone using your own name, rather than just a dear sir at the beginning, and you will get more personal service if people at the other end of your emails know your name. I personally like to send emails to a person not just their email address.

These may seem like common sense to you, but take a little time to see if you're missing any of these little points. Your email is a communication as much as if you were face to face with someone. Make sure they get the impression of you, that you'd want them to have.

Douglas Titchmarsh owns the website at http://www.cashinonline.info and also offers an informative newsletter which you can subscribe to by sending an email to douglastitchmarsh@getresponse.com

Public Speaking 3 Rules For Powerpoint Slides

Writen by Colleen Kettenhofen

1. Bullets and phrases: When I conduct public speaking training, I always remind my audience to keep their PowerPoint slides easy to read. Pretend you're on the interstate where someone could read the information driving 55 miles per hour. Bullets work best as they are easier to read than sentences. Also, you are less likely to read the slides this way. The biggest rule with PowerPoint slides is to keep them big, bold, and simple. Your slides should resemble a billboard. No more than 6 bullets per slide and 6 to 8 words per line. Stick to three colors per PowerPoint slide, otherwise your audience will start focusing more on color and less on your content.

2. Font choices: Often, people come up to me privately in my public speaking training seminars and confide that many of their colleagues use "print that is too small for anyone to read." They secretly urge me to tell everyone attending that the print must be large enough to read the PowerPoint slide. In addition, I'm often told by the person who hires me that many of their employees put too much information on their slides. With public speaking and visual aids, less is more.

Pick simple fonts, but make certain they're large enough to read for people in the back rows. The print size should be at least a 28 font for titles and at least 22 point for other text. Simple fonts with clean lines are much easier to read. For instance, Times New Roman, Gothic and Verdana are good choices. Within those font families you have the ability to enhance a page using italics and bold, just go easy on the underlines. And never put letters in all capitals. Instead, use upper and lower case lettering. It is much easier to read, and doesn't look like you're shouting.

3.Color and contrast: Take into consideration the size of the room in which you'll be speaking. Will everyone in that last row be able to read the information on your PowerPoint slides? In order to assist them in reading what's on screen, choose soft "easy-on-the-eyes" background colors such as light blue or turquoise blue. For lettering, choose a contrasting color differing from your background such as white, black or navy. For example, use light lettering on a dark background, or dark lettering against a light background. Never use all sentences in black print against a plain white background. It is boring and no one will read it.

Public speaking and the cardinal rule: you never want to read what's on the screen. After all, you are the presenter. Your audience assumes you're the expert. Also, when you read what's on your slides, mostly likely your back is to the audience. They won't focus on you. They'll just lose focus and start thinking about other things. Therefore, use bullets and phrases as opposed to sentences on your slides and in handouts. Think of what's on your slides only as "fast food for the eyes."

In my public speaking training, I frequentlly see highly educated, knowledgeable people trying to cram too much information on a single slide. This is especially true when presenting technical material.Technical people have a propensity to put too many words, charts, colors and graphs on a single slide. Know your material, yet keep it simple. Practice. Rehearse with your PowerPoint slides. Get honest feedback from your friends, family members and colleagues. You can do it. Good luck!

Copyright 2006 Colleen Kettenhofen

Colleen Kettenhofen is a professional speaker, and workplace expert/co-author of "The Masters of Success," as featured on the Today Show. For more free articles and to sign up for her free newsletter on topics such as procrastination, difficult people, leadership, management, public speaking, success and more visit http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com Colleen has spoken in 47 states and 6 countries. http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com (971)212-2412 cell. You are free to repost or reprint this article provided Colleen Kettenhofen's name and website are provided with the article.