Don’t Blame
PowerPoint
It’s just a vehicle

Don’t Blame PowerPoint
It’s just a vehicle

…That is often driven poorly

In a car crash it is nearly always the driver who is to blame

NOT the vehicle itself

But when it comes to bad presentations people are quick to blame PowerPoint

Some misguided people even start political parties
against it

This is stupid.

This is stupid.
Really Stupid.

A PowerPoint deck is not the presentation

A PowerPoint deck is not the presentation
PowerPoint is a vehicle for your visual aids

Your presentation is your message and your information.
It takes hours of careful craft and consideration

Your PowerPoint is your vehicle to communicate well thought out and complementary visual aids.

PowerPoint isn’t “evil”

PowerPoint isn’t “evil”
It’s neutral

We don’t think of other content vehicles in the same way…

For Example…

Outlook & Gmail are
not to blame for
crappy emails

It’s your annoying Boss and his inability to
be concise
I write a
damn fine
email :-)

It wasn’t the physical vinyl records that made the Beatles awesome

It was their music, creativity & the hard work that
went with it

George Orwell wasn’t famous because he chose to write on paper…

It was his stories,
writing style
& insights

It isn’t your phone’s fault that your conversation sucks

It’s just that your friend is a really boring guy!

Blaming the vehicle/ medium in any of these cases would be

Absurd

It is the content & how
it is delivered that is important

NOT the vehicle used
to do it

As a presenter you need to bring your audience from

As a presenter you need to bring your audience from
Mental Point
A

As a presenter you need to bring your audience from
Mental Point
A
Mental Point
B
To

You should use whatever vehicle works for you

The audience don’t see…

The audience don’t see…

The audience don’t see…

The audience don’t see…

They see a screen…

Tell a good story and
make effective, thoughtful visuals and they won’t
know or care what
software you used

Concentrating on the vehicle, rather than the route can
go badly…

What’s more…

It’s a freaking LAZY excuse

The worst thing about the PowerPoint blame game is that it distracts from the real issue

Laziness

By blaming the presentation software we take focus off the
real problem

Lazy Users

We absolve
users of any real responsibility

We absolve
users of any real responsibility
Are you calling me LAZY!

We absolve
users of any real responsibility
Are you calling me LAZY!
Hell YEH!

The reality is that making bad presentations is a user-choice

Making bulletpoint filled slides is a choice

This…

Was a choice

This was a choice

Yep…

A choice

You can use PowerPoint as an autocue, but again that
is a choice

You can choose to ignore great books like

Poor usage of the vehicle is a choice.

Like with a car, you can choose to drive recklessly

You can choose to drive to the wrong place

And you can choose to ignore the maps…

But that isn’t the car s fault
’

So…

Let’s focus on what really matters

Let’s focus on what really matters the Presentation

And send the vehicle blame game to the scrapheap

If you agree then why not spread the word

Check out my site @
www.clearpreso.com
Or click here to send me a tweet!
@clearpreso