PowerPoint ≠ Teleprompter

A PowerPoint presentation is not a teleprompter. You read a teleprompter; that’s what it’s for. If you’re reading your PowerPoint presentation, you’re doing it wrong! Reduce your text and learn your material.

You can read this . . .

Photo courtesy of Steve Jurvetson

. . . but you should not read that!

Photo courtesy of Leo Sauermann

(NB  - In fairness to the fellow in the second photo, I should note that the picture was taken on a PowerPoint Karaoke night during which participants have to make an impromptu presentation using a PowerPoint slideshow that they have not seen before. Challenging, but a lot of fun! And contestants are forgiven for having to read, at least a little bit.)

Jean de la Bruyère (1645 - 1696) French Essayist and Satirist

“There are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting and public speaking.” – Jean de la Bruyère

According to Kawasaki, a PowerPoint presentation should have 10 slides, last no more than 20 minutes, and contain no font smaller than 30 points. Although he designed the rule for presentations to venture capitalists, Kawasaki says that it applies to “any presentation to reach agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming a partnership, etc.”

Let’s look at Kawasaki’s rationale for the 10-20-30 Rule:

• 10 slides

“Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting—and venture capitalists are very normal. … If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business.”

• 20 minutes

“Sure, you have an hour time slot, but you’re using a Windows laptop, so it will take forty minutes to make it work with the projector. Even if setup goes perfectly, people will arrive late and have to leave early. In a perfect world, you give your pitch in twenty minutes, and you have forty minutes left for discussion.”

• 30-point font

“The reason people use a small font is twofold: first, that they don’t know their material well enough; second, they think that more text is more convincing. … Force yourself to use no font smaller than thirty points. I guarantee it will make your presentations better because it requires you to find the most salient points and to know how to explain them well.”

The entire article by Kawasaki can be found here. Alternatively, below is a short clip in which Guy himself explains his rule. It humorous, insightful and worth two minutes of your time.

In a recent post, I slammed the 1-6-6 Rule of PowerPoint as being a bunch of nonsense. What do I think of the 10-20-30 Rule? I like it, even if I don’t necessarily agree that one must rigidly adhere to each of its elements:

• 10 slides

Will your presentation implode if you have eleven slides? I suspect not. In fact, when thinking about this issue, I was reminded of this scene from the 1984 classic mock musical documentary This is Spinal Tap (key part starts at 1:18):

But I agree 100% with the philosophy. Do not try to overload your presentation with information. Your audience will not be able to absorb it. Hit the key points. You can always provide more details afterwards.

• 20 minutes

Same issue, really. Would a well-crafted 25-minute presentation be so terrible? Probably not. But here too, I like Kawasaki’s minimalist approach. Rigorously sticking to 20 minutes will force you to think about what is important and what can be omitted. And nobody is going to hold it against you if you speak for less than your allotted time. By keeping the presentation brief, you can expand on points of interest to your audience during the Q&A session.

• 30-point font

An excellent suggestion. Keeping your font large will force you to choose your words judiciously and will also make it easier fo your audience to read your slides. (Of course, you should not just use text – be sure to add some visuals.)

So there you have it. A PowerPoint “rule” worth considering the next time you have a presentation coming up.

Philip Crosby (1926 - 2001) American Businessman and Author on Management Theory

“The audience only pays attention as long as you know where you are going.” – Phil Crosby

"Tell me when it's over."

Photo courtesy of Barbara Nixon

It sounds like information overload, but judge for yourself. Click on the logo below to watch the presentation.

I think that the presentation is clever. A few caveats:

• I do not think that every slide was necessary.
  
• I failed to grasp the point of certain slides, but that could be because of my unfamiliarity with the company. (The presentation seems to be geared towards a Cincom audience.)
• I think that better images could have been found for some slides.
• I’m not sure that the number of slides should have been announced at the beginning of the presentation as I found my self regularly checking our progress. (NB: Even though the presentation speaks of 118 slides, the counter shows 120.)
  

Having said that, I found the presentation engaging. Many of the images were fantastic. The supporting music was well chosen. Overall, there was little text to read. On those slides where there was lots of text, it was clear that we were not supposed to read every word but rather get a general sense of the point. I followed along and did not get bored.

Now, I cannot be sure, but I am guessing that this presentation was an introduction to a more detailed talk. It is an interesting way to use a slide show – as an introduction to the main presentation. And it also shows that it is possible to present many slides to an audience in an interesting way.

You have probably guessed from the logo above that the presentation was made using software from a company called SlideRocket. According to its website, “SlideRocket goes beyond traditional presentation tools by harnessing the power of the Internet and making everything available to you in an integrated and intuitive online interface. SlideRocket is provided in a software-as-a-service model in a variety of price points starting at free.”

Check out SlideRocket and see whether it might be useful for you. And the next time you are looking for an innovative way to give a slide presentation, perhaps you can find some inspiration from what you’ve just seen.

• I have also seen this rule called the 1-5-5 Rule and the 1-7-7 Rule, with necessary changes to the numbers of bullet points and words per bullet point. I have chosen the middle ground.
• The “Rule” is not a rule at all. It is nonsense.

Why is it nonsense? Let’s see the 1-6-6 Rule in practice.

Now, you might be thinking, “I’ve seen worse.” And, at first blush, this slide doesn’t look too bad. The sentences are short and straightforward; the font is large and easy to read. Here’s the problem: It’s only one slide.

Imagine a modest presentation of 16 slides that rigorously follows the 1-6-6 Rule. Looking at the entire presentation in Slide Sorter View will give you some sense of just how bad things could get.

Bombarding your audience with this much text in a presentation is a sure-fire way to stimulate boredom, apathy or revolution. Dont’t do it.

I am not opposed to bullet points of text in a presentation. In fact, when used properly, they can be effective. But they should be used sparingly.

Minimize text and avoid long runs of text-only slides. Break things up. Throw in some pictures for visual variety; add a video clip; use a prop; occasionally turn the screen black and – heaven forbid – just speak to the audience.

There are many ways in which to create an engaging presentation so that, when you do show important text, your audience will actually want to read it.

As for the 1-6-6 Rule, please find a trash can and bin it.

"Ah, just what I was looking for."

Photo courtesy of spike55151

I couldn’t let the day go by without acknowledging the fabulous effort put forth by the Canadian Team at the Vancouver Olympics. With 14 gold medals, we topped the standings for the first time and set a record for the most gold medals won by any nation at any Winter Olympics.

And no gold medal was more anticipated, more desired, more vital than the one earned by our men’s hockey team in its 3-2 victory over the United States.

Photo courtesy of Andy Mills

It was one of the most exciting games I have seen – and I have seen many. When Sidney Crosby netted the winner on a great pass from Jarome Iginla at 7:40 of the overtime period, our house erupted. And even though we now live in Switzerland, we could feel the energy reverberating from Canada.

Photo courtesy of Christopher Bevacqua

Crosby’s goal will rank up there with Paul Henderson’s goal in the 1972 Summit Series and Mario Lemieux’s goal in the 1987 Canada Cup.

If you are not Canadian, it is difficult to appreciate the significance of the game of hockey for us. Many countries are mad about football (soccer); some are focused on several sports (for example, baseball, basketball and American football in the United States).

In Canada, we might play and follow other sports, but none is on par with hockey. It has no equal in our national heart and mind. It is a sport that is uniquely woven into the Canadian psyche. It is our game.

Photo courtesy of Christopher Bevacqua

Roch Carrier wrote, “Les hivers de mon enfance étaient des saisons longues, longues. Nous vivions en trois lieux: l’école, l’église et la patinoire; mais la vraie vie était sur la patinoire.” (“The winters of my childhood were long, long seasons. We lived in three places – the school, the church and the skating rink – but our real life was on the skating rink.”)

Stephen Leacock said, ”Hockey captures the essence of Canadian experience in the New World. In a land so inescapably and inhospitably cold, hockey is the chance of life, and an affirmation that despite the deathly chill of winter we are alive.”

Hockey is a part of what it means to be Canadian. And it was good to get back in touch with that part yesterday.

Photo courtesy of Andy Mills

The motto of the Olympics is Citius, Altius, Fortius – Faster, Higher, Stronger. The motto was proposed by Pierre de Coubertin on the creation of the International Olympic Committee in 1894. De Coubertin borrowed it from his friend Henri Didon, a Dominican priest who was headmaster at Arceuil College in Paris and a sports enthusiast.

Should public speakers adhere to the same standards? Yes and no:

Faster: No. Speaking too fast is a common mistake among inexperienced speakers. Perhaps it is nervousness; perhaps it is excitement; perhaps it is the desire to convey the material. No matter. The result is typically an unpleasant experience for the audience as it tries to keep up. How to avoid this pitfall? First, be thoroughly familiar and comfortable with your material. Second, do not try to fit more information into your presentation than can be comfortably absorbed in the time allotted for you to speak. Hit the highlights and have handouts available with additional information so that you do not feel obliged to race through the presentation. Finally, remember to pause.

Higher: Yes. As speakers, we should strive to take our performances to a higher level – and there is always a higher level. Practice is key, but there are other ways to push yourself. For example, you could enter a speech contest. As I noted in a recent post, David Brooks, the 1990 World Champion of Public Speaking, has said that speech contests are your fastest route to your greatest improvement. Or, you could give a presentation on a subject that is not something you usually speak about. Another idea: speak to a new audience. If, for example, you regularly give speeches to corporate audiences, try speaking to a high school assembly or at a social club meeting.

Stronger: Yes. Speakers should aim to develop a strong on-stage presence. One that captivates the audience and leaves them looking forward to your next performance. Speakers with a strong presence project their voices well and use vocal variety to enhance their presentations. They use gestures that are well-timed to emphasize important points. Most importantly, they develop a rapport with their audiences that is tangible; see, for example, these outstanding speeches by Sir Ken Robinson and Benjamin Zander.

So there you have it. A new Olympian motto for public speakers: Tardius, Altius, Fortius – Slower, Higher, Stronger!

• It is estimated that businesses make around 30 million PowerPoint presentations every day.
• Including time for starting up and shutting down, the average PowerPoint session lasts 250 minutes.

Those figures, if accurate, are incredible. Let’s break them down a bit more.

In order not to be sensationalist, let’s assume that the above figures wildly overestimate the reality. Let’s assume that instead of 30 million PowerPoint presentations a day, there are only 1 million per day (i.e., 3.3% of the given figure). And let’s assume that the average PowerPoint presentation lasts exactly 60 minutes and not 250 minutes (i.e., one quarter of the given figure).

Let’s now add one final factor and assume that the average PowerPoint presentation involves 15 people (audience, presenter and technicians all included). Fair? OK. Let’s see how the math works out.

1,000,000 presentations x 1 hour x 15 people

= 15,000,000 hours of people’s time each day

So far, so good. But 15 million is a big number to get our heads around. Let break it down further.

15,000,000 hours = 625,000 days = 1,712 years

1,712 years!? The Roman Empire didn’t last that long!

"Caesar, we've got it all worked out. First, we'll bore the Carthaginians to death with bullet point after bullet point. Then we'll conquer them. From Carthage we'll head east to Cappadocia and numb them with charts."

That figure – 1,712 years of people’s time devoted to a PowerPoint presentation every day – is well and truly breath-taking. And don’t forget, that’s my conservative number!

Now, many of those presentations are interesting and worthwhile. But you and I both know that a significant number of them are a waste of time. That is a shame.

Rome wasn’t built in a day; likewise, your PowerPoint presentation shouldn’t be cobbled together in haste. Put some effort into it. Make it stimulating and useful for your audience. If you don’t, and if you present often, your reputation as a public speaker will, like the Roman Empire, suffer its own Decline and Fall – and it won’t take nearly as long.