Death by Powerpoint : how to avoid it

You just finished slide 65 and send it out when you got 3 replies from colleagues on “critical slides that were missed”.

You made version 5 and your boss now wants to change the flow as he cannot “feel” the story.

You made a deck on the 2023 strategy but now have to present to another audience and it needs to be changed.

Slides. Decks. Slides. Death by Powerpoint. We are all victims but we don’t have to be.

How can we avoid death by powerpoint. Here are some ideas for you to consider

-         Make an executive summary slide that captures key messages, key actions and decisions needed. In most calls you can start with this and seek decisions. Often this will help avoid the pain of going through 50 slides to come to the 5 things that were to be discussed anyway

-         Define the top 5 topics on which you are asked for powerpoint “often”. This can be a key project update, a business update etc. For all these make one MASTER deck where u just adjust 1-2 slides to update latest information

-         Turn success stories into impactful 1 slides even if no one asked you for it. Add these to your master deck as and when you make it.

-         Limit all updates to 10 slides. Maximum. You wont have time to do any more

-         With people who like defining flow and micro manage decks, before you start ask “ can u define the flow” you like and “do u have any preference for layout, colour, font”. Will save you time and heart burn

-         Send short proactive updates to key stakeholders on email on projects and businesses regularly. It will avoid long discussions and complex powerpoint when the meetings actually happen

Powerpoint can become a monster. It has to be tamed. Use these tools to tame the monster and keep it under control.

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