Page 112 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

THE POWERPOINT PARADOX 103

their cues. Ideally, if you really know your stuff, you may not even
need a cue card.
Before we move on, I want to give you the exceptions to the rules
governing slides.

EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULES

Exception to the rule that says you begin and end with just you talking:
Sometimes for dramatic effect you might want to run (perhaps with
music) a group of slides together before you even begin—a fast-

moving cluster, say, of new products flashing across the screen, or
snapshots of the new corporate headquarters, or images that suggest
a new theme (such as sailboats racing against the wind or skydivers
and climbers conquering the heavens and the mountains).
Or you might want to forget about slides and try a brief video
with music for even greater impact. One of my clients opened an
annual meeting of large corporate sales and marketing divisions by
showing a Ferrari—engine screaming—rushing straight at the
audience, then disappearing in a roar and a cloud of dust. The imag-
ery was dazzling and set the stage for a fast-moving show. The mes-
sage: things are changing quickly and we’ve all got to learn to win
at ever-higher speeds. The added value of this very visual approach
was that the client’s presentation, the client, and the client’s message
all stood out from the run-of-the-mill grist ground out in forgettable
presentations over the three-day conference period.
Exceptions to the rule that says no word slides: the larger the room,
the more legitimate the argument for simple word slides—but no
more than giant bullets. In an auditorium, say, it might make sense
to throw up a huge one-word banner that reads:
PRODUCTIVITY
or
PROFITABILITY