Don't use slide presentations for business meetings. Ever. Write a document or a memo instead. Every time.
Slides are ok as a backdrop for a talk, as long as that talk works as its own cohesive narrative. Slides are also ok as a last resort if it is what the audience demands. A sales meeting with people who expect slides. Or a pitch with investors too ignorant or lazy to demand the precision of a document instead.
But in general; a document will be much much better. This guide references Tufte's, whose own advice is to write docs.
I see this differently. If I go to a "business meeting" and someone has not taken the time to summarize their message in a succinct presentation, and instead hands me a document, I'd "nope" out of there.
"...too ignorant or lazy to demand the precision of a document instead" Wow. What a statement. How about time constrained?
"I didn't have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one instead" -Mark Twain
The problem is that presentations are not just short documents. I think GP would be fine with a short document.
A presentation is a sequence of slides, along with which comes many issues that prevent critical thought, such as the lack of random access, the lowered bar of evidence, and so on. You can convince anyone of anything as long as you craft your slide deck deviously to hide the lack of evidence and internal inconsistencies.
That is much harder with a document, even if it is short.
I'm strongly in agreement with this, presuming that you have the facts and thinking on "your" side. If you're trying to sell air or otherwise have unavoidably the skinny side of the facts, you are probably better off taking your chances with a flashy presentation than a long-form document (which is much more likely to expose the flaws in your thinking).
As the old aphorism goes: If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table.
Completely agree, it's quite shocking that powerpoint still remains the de facto standard of business communication after all these years. I'd been hoping for better presentation tools to emerge, but it seems instead we've dumbed down our communication to suit the tool.
Comments
Don't use slide presentations for business meetings. Ever. Write a document or a memo instead. Every time.
Slides are ok as a backdrop for a talk, as long as that talk works as its own cohesive narrative. Slides are also ok as a last resort if it is what the audience demands. A sales meeting with people who expect slides. Or a pitch with investors too ignorant or lazy to demand the precision of a document instead.
But in general; a document will be much much better. This guide references Tufte's, whose own advice is to write docs.
I see this differently. If I go to a "business meeting" and someone has not taken the time to summarize their message in a succinct presentation, and instead hands me a document, I'd "nope" out of there.
"...too ignorant or lazy to demand the precision of a document instead" Wow. What a statement. How about time constrained?
"I didn't have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one instead" -Mark Twain
The problem is that presentations are not just short documents. I think GP would be fine with a short document.
A presentation is a sequence of slides, along with which comes many issues that prevent critical thought, such as the lack of random access, the lowered bar of evidence, and so on. You can convince anyone of anything as long as you craft your slide deck deviously to hide the lack of evidence and internal inconsistencies.
That is much harder with a document, even if it is short.
I'm strongly in agreement with this, presuming that you have the facts and thinking on "your" side. If you're trying to sell air or otherwise have unavoidably the skinny side of the facts, you are probably better off taking your chances with a flashy presentation than a long-form document (which is much more likely to expose the flaws in your thinking).
As the old aphorism goes: If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table.
Completely agree, it's quite shocking that powerpoint still remains the de facto standard of business communication after all these years. I'd been hoping for better presentation tools to emerge, but it seems instead we've dumbed down our communication to suit the tool.