Do you work in a company, where you spend too much time reviewing and agonizing about power point slides? I have. So much time is spent on the look of the slide – template, font, images – that the message is at best, a secondary concern. A presentation is a communication with your audience. Power point just houses the visuals that support your message.
In the last week, I delivered two different presentations. At the end of both presentations, a few members of the audience asked questions and said “great presentation…I like the part when you said…”. No one said, “great power point slides”.
Instead of building a lot of power point slides; tell a story. Stories are memorable. Slides usually are forgotten. Remember Show and Tell in kindergarten, that was your first opportunity to tell a compelling story to an audience. At 5 years old, usually you are too nervous and just want to sit down. But you also did not labor over power point slides.
Stories have never gone out of style, just buried in business presentations. Next time you need to communicate a message to your audience, plan to tell a story. And if you are really bold, only use one power point slide with no words, just an image that symbolizes your story.