notes and views on crm, social media, and the human side of information technology

From “Beyond Bullets” To “Beyond Lame”

“BORING”, how often you’d whisper 5 minutes into a presentation. To avoid a similar fate when it’s me who is on stage, I fished for advice and ended up buying Cliff Atkinson’s Beyond Bullet Points. Here are my first impressions.

On the plus side:

  • thinking of my presentation as a story is helping me with organizing my thoughts. Once the ideas are in place, I am free to concentrate on supporting arguments and anecdotes knowing where they fit in the overall scheme of things
  • Mr Atkinson’s main point - the slides have a supporting not leading role in a presentation - makes me think more about what and how I am going to say (instead of show), and that’s crucial since it’s me who has a stake in it, not the slides
  • having read the book, I am good to go; it’s a clear and instructive text that doesn’t require a follow-up training

That said, I take issue with the following:

  • headlines in the case study that Mr Atkinson uses throughout the book use visual metaphors I find cheesy and cliché-ridden. “The pharmaceutical industry today is navigating a sea of change,” reads the very first one. A matter of taste, I admit; maybe even a cultural thing. I, for one, would fear being laughed out of the boardroom if I used such a phrase. We Czechs are known for our penchant for sarcasm and irony.
  • the book advocates the use of Microsoft Office clip-art. We have seen too much of that; mostly as a random decoration that unwittingly pokes fun at the argument instead of supporting it. I guess you can use it once you really know what you are doing; otherwise, there’s a risk you’ll end up looking lame, bullets or not.
  • the book is tightly coupled with one tool (MS PowerPoint) and bases much of its “science” on a single piece of research (cognitive theory of multimedia learning by Richard E. Mayer, PhD.). If pressed, I would probably concede that OO Impress isn’t going to be a serious competitor for some time. Still, the book assumes previous experience with presenting (would you feel the need to move beyond bullets if you haven’t a clue?), thus I find the detailed PowerPoint instructions a bit superfluous. As for the research, isn’t there more? Surely there most be other arguments that would put the book in context; now, it’s more like an island.

Again, these are my first impressions that are likely to change when I actually try to practice the book’s approach. Despite my reservations I voiced above, it deserves a serious attention and is likely to breath life into your slides.

Additional reading

February 20, 2007 | Filed Under Presenting & Public Speaking 

comments

Leave a Reply