Page 118 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

THE POWERPOINT PARADOX 109

Use graphics for good news and tables for news that may be not so
good. Graphics are easier to understand than tables (which are only
graphics in raw data form). The graphic is a visual interpretation of
the story behind the numbers and what all that data are trying to
tell us. So it only follows that if you show a graphic, you can expect
people to quickly grasp the point. By contrast, tables are sets of num-
bers, often lots and lots of numbers, and are much harder to com-
prehend at a glance. Tables can often confound. Graphics usually
clarify.
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If you are not eager to dwell on a difficult issue but are obliged to
touch on it, always opt for the table.
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Exception to the graphics versus table question: Financial services
people—analysts and others—love tables and often don’t even want
to hear about graphics. So in certain financial presentations (e.g.,

CFO reports and analyst presentations), the usual vehicle of choice
may continue to be tables. This, after all, is what they are accustomed
to and comfortable with, all the way from high school economics
classes right through business school. But an analyst or CFO talking
to a general audience had better be prepared to use graphics.

Eliminate clutter. Take out the usual bullets, text, and footnotes
(unless required by regulation) that take up space on the graphics
slide. Keep the original version of the slide, with all the words and
bullets, for the document. Strip out numbers and dates that are not
essential.
Now with your new, uncluttered version of the same slide, you
can enlarge the picture until it fills the whole screen. This image in

itself makes an impressive statement. Bigger impact and easier to
view: this has a positive psychological effect. Replace the words that