Page 102 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

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THE POWERPOINT

PARADOX

Designing Visual Aids to Work for

You—Never Against You

f the POWER formula is the architecture of the perfect presen-
Itation, visual aids (V/A) are the foundation.
At the senior level, visual aids are to be avoided whenever pos-
sible. In fact, I favor restraint at all levels. But V/A use is so wide-
spread and so much in demand, and so many people depend on V/A
as a crutch, that we might as well stop pretending that PowerPoint
isn’t in the room with us, and confront this 800-pound gorilla right
now. Of all the chronic abuses systemic to the general mishandling
of presentations, none is more consistently mishandled than
PowerPoint.
PowerPoint is a big step up from the old days and not a bad idea.
The problem is not PowerPoint itself, but the millions of people who
don’t know how to use it. In the right hands, it can do wonderful
things and be an asset. The rest of the time, it is actually more of a
problem than a solution. In the wrong hands, it allows us to go right
on committing the same sins that we used to commit in the old days

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