“My boss says I’ve got to PowerPoint!”

You’d be amazed at how many times I’ve heard that in the introductions of our public training sessions: sometimes it’s even true. While it’s true that sometimes your boss will tell you “to PowerPoint” (interesting how it’s become a verb, isn’t it – rather like “to Google”). It’s at least as common for people to be told something like “I need you to do a presentation on….” but for them to be so inured in the PowerPoint culture that they assume they’ve got to use PowerPoint without thinking about it.

While I have nothing in particular against the idea of using PowerPoint (though it has some technical issues which mean I think there are better alternatives) I always advise such people to do the Fuse Test. This is something I’ve mentioned before, but it bears repeating, I think. If the fuses went in the room where you’re about to present, could you find an alternative way to make your presentation: is the PowerPoint absolutely essential? If it isn’t, why are you using it in the first place? Consider the alternatives!

What alternatives?

Well, I’ll talk about the technical alternatives another time, but for now, how about you consider the radical alternative of no presentation software at all? There’s a bit of a fad for saying “I don’t use PowerPoint in my presentations” as a macho declaration, rather like saying “I don’t use brakes when I ride my bike.”. Macho, but stupid. Sometimes it’s the right thing to do to use your brakes/PowerPoint… it’s just that you should automatically use them without thinking about it.