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 To Mental Point B

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!

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

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