******************************************************************* Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Tip Issue #122 November 14, 2006 Published & Copyright by Dave Paradi of ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com Circulation 8,451 *******************************************************************
Please forward this newsletter to anyone you know who needs to improve their PowerPoint presentations to sell more, make a bigger impact with their boss or teach others. If this newsletter has been sent to you by a friend, sign up to get your own copy at http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/newsletter.htm .
******************************************************************* In this issue: Bonus video for completing the Future PowerPoint Resources Survey New Special Reports now available PowerPoint Tip: Scary Slide Mistakes Best of the Blog - If they can't see it, they can't understand it You Just Gotta Laugh PowerPoint Story Dave's Travel Schedule *******************************************************************
Bonus video for completing the Future PowerPoint Resources Survey
In my ongoing efforts to create valuable resources for those who want to present using PowerPoint, I am always looking for ideas on what you need help on. Please help me by filling out this 3 question survey that will assist me in developing the resources you need to be a more successful presenter. Use this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=790692709371 . After you complete the survey, you will get access to a video where I show you how to transform text slides into more visual messages. The survey closes at the end of this week, so please participate today. ------------------------------------------------------------------- New Special Reports now available
In response to questions from subscribers like yourself, I have started to develop a series of special reports on specific topics or usages of PowerPoint. So far I have reports on Presenting to Executives, Using PowerPoint in Church/Worship and Creating a Celebration Slide Show (for a birthday, anniversary, wedding, graduation, etc.). More details are on the site at: http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/reports.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------- PowerPoint Tip - Downside of Dashboards
One of the recent trends in executive presentations is to create what is know as dashboard slides. A dashboard slide is a way for executives to get a quick view on projects, initiatives, financial or other measurements of interest. It is usually designed to have a red, yellow or green light beside each item indicating the measure of that item against a standard. In some organization they have even created these displays on internal web sites so the displays are updated in real time.
While this sounds like a good idea, I have two key objections to the way most of these slides are created. First, if you ask a presenter how the color has been calculated, i.e. what constitutes a green, yellow or red, they can't answer your question because they don't know. Someone programmed a set of calculations on a spreadsheet or in some other tool that spits out the color rating for each item based on a complex formula of factors. The presenter simply reports the rating. This does not serve executives well because they need to be able to discuss why an item is rated so that they can make intelligent decisions on it. Sometimes it may be a delay in reporting from another area or system that causes the formula to report a red flag on an item, which causes unneccesary panic in the executive suite and a waste of everyones time searching for and reporting that the item is actually OK, but the reporting was flawed.
The second problem I have with most dashboard implementations is that the scoring system of three colors does not allow enough granularity to give a true measure of a situation. What is the difference between a green and a yellow rating? Probably one tenth of a point on some numerical system used to calculate the colors. Three choices is OK for a stop light where there are only three possible actions, but for organizations, more choices are needed. Even in school we had percentage scales which allowed for up to 100 possible ratings or letter grades, which had 13 possible ratings (A+ to D- and F).
My suggestions for using a stoplight dashboard slide are twofold. First, make sure that the rating calculation is transparent and understood by everyone. Make it easy to investigate why a rating is calculated the way it is so that time wasted chasing phantom problems is reduced. Second, increase the granularity of the rating scale. If you want to stick with the stoplight colors, add a + and - to them to have a total of 9 possible ratings to choose from. These suggestions should improve the clarity of dashboard slides used to present to executives and others.
Executives do prefer visual slides to text slides, and this is one of the items I discuss in my special report on Presenting to Executives. You can get your copy at http://snipurl.com/execs .
------------------------------------------------------------------- Best of the Blog - If they can't see it, they can't understand it
Why should you use a graph on a PowerPoint slide? To illustrate data that would have more impact when shown visually that any other way. So if you are trying to have greater impact, why would you choose colors for a line graph that the audience would not be able to see? A recent slide was a perfect illustration of this problem. The background is a dull medium-dark blue. Five lines on the graph: bright red, which is OK, then burgundy, dark blue, light blue and dark green - Huh? What was the presenter thinking? How they thought anyone could see those last four lines is beyond me. If your audience can't see the lines (or bars, columns, pie slices) of the graph, they have no hope of figuring out what the message is supposed to be. Make sure that when you put a graph on a PowerPoint slide, you change the default colors to ones that illustrate your point. An even better approach is to figure out what the single most important point is and have that data in an accent color and the rest of the data in the same less prominent color. This way the most important point jumps out at the audience.
Setting the proper colors for graphs is only one of the things you need to do in order to make your graphs clear to an audience. You also need to eliminate distracting lines from the background of the graph, minimize axis text that draws attention away from the data and a number of other things to reduce what is known as "chartjunk". I covered all of these techniques and many more in my web tutorial on Using Graphs. I recorded it all and you can watch exactly how it is done, by getting the video at http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/wtgraphs.htm .
Other recent blog posts at http://pptideas.blogspot.com : How not to use a presentation remote Why timed builds are not a good presentation practice
------------------------------------------------------------------- You Just Gotta Laugh PowerPoint Story
I am starting a new section in the newsletter so that readers can share their stories of how PowerPoint has been used poorly in presentations they have seen (or done). Send your story to me at Dave@ThinkOutsideTheSlide and I will publish the best of the stories in this space in future newsletters. Here's one of my recent favorites.
It was the start of a conference and as all the attendees entered the ballroom for the plenery session, we looked at the screen and staring back at us was the editing mode of PowerPoint with no slide show loaded, simply saying "Type text here". Thinking that surely a welcome slide would soon be loaded, we took our seats. But no slides were loaded. The MC for the session started the day with the blank editing mode still glaring from the large screen in the center of the room. He introduced the first presenter, who got up and explained that she had no PowerPoint slides but was too afraid to shut the computer off in case it didn't start up again for the following presenters who were using PowerPoint. So she did her whole talk with the "Type text here" blank slide glaring beside her from the screen. There's a good example of using visuals to enhance your presentation :)
------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave's Travel Schedule
You can save money by booking me to speak to your organization or conference when I am close to your area for other clients. Here's where I will be in the next few months:
November 20-22 St. John's, NF December 5 Markham, ON December 6-10 Vancouver, BC December 13 Toronto, ON January 15, 2007 Toronto, ON January 29-30, 2007 Cincinnati, OH February 19-23 St. John's, NF March 30, 2007 Toronto, ON April 10, 2007 Toronto, ON April 19, 2007 Toronto, ON May 25-26, 2007 London, ON E-mail me at Dave@ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com to discuss your upcoming event.
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