PPTiquette and the thinking level

Nowadays, the abuse of PowerPoint is becoming a current. Even,somebody may be proud of their harangue. While attending a meeting,I'd like to check out the page number at the PPT's bottom-leftcorner first. If there're more than 30 slides, I would feel likesuffering a Ménière. (Because I always believe that a PPT of 30slides would be sufficient for giving a clear presentation for allyou want to explain with PPT.) Therefore, if the presenter marked"Page * / * Totally" in every slide, I will feel good and thankthe presenter for his professional ethics or pptiquette(just like the "netiquette") in my heart. Of course, there'realso someone not only didn't mark their page number, but also makea tedious report without any value. Absolutely a affliction of ourlife, and somethimes I even have a impulsion to get them down andshout them shut up! 

  I still remember that I have criticized this phenomenonin my blog before, especially towards the so-called professionalswho give their lectures with the PPTs used for business report incompany, although this blog offended some coterie. As apractitioner, I always advocate a dapper style of PPT in my team,which requires reducing all unnecessary figure, accessory, soundand motion effect. My principle is that "first, reduce to theultimate like a skeleton, then add flesh and blood to make itchubby". I believe that, only this kind of PPT would keep the mostcritical structure, logic, consequence and conclusion, and ensureyour language used is concisest, which also is most suited forfully utilizing the advantage of PPT and achieving the bestcommunication effect.

  Of course, this thought also comes from thePyramid Principle and Elevator Principle.

  Not only the design of PPT, but also the use of it. Ifthe time was sufficient, every presenter (here, we supposed the PPTis designed by himself) could present the content of PPT completelyand smoothly. However, if he was temporarily told that thepresenting time was shortened to a half on a sudden, what should hedo? He should make a decision at once what hould be ignoredand what should be simplified in his PPT. What's more, if wesupposed there're only 5 minuntes for presenting, what should thepresenter do?

  The most rigorous situation I experienced was thatthere's only 1 miniute for presenting (boss was almost standingup, cleaning up his documents and ready to leave) -- it was onlyenough to open PPT, turn to the last page and shout out theconclusion directly, although that was just like a bad directortried his best to produce a awful movie.

  A frequentely faced problem in many meetings, especiallythe meeting with more than 10 lectures in 1 day, is that overtimealways occurs. As a result, the following lecturers have to shortentheir time, which conduces a terrible drop of lecturing quality.Because under a urgency many verdant lecturers would resultinglystutter, have no idea that how to catch the point, which sildecould be ignored, and what should be given out directly. Thefunniest experience in my memory, once we all shouted a colleagueto speed up. As a result, this poor guy became all of a sweat,tetanic and confused, having no alternative but reading the wordsof PPT one by one, no matter how we urge him. Finally, we all hadto keep silence, waiting for him adjusting breath smooth andcompleting his PPT reading slowly.

  From then on, I made a conclusion. If you want to testsomeone's thinking level and preparing work, you could let himprepare a PPT used for 1-hour's presentation at first, but tellhim there're only 10 minutes available for him, and ask him tospeed up and only introduce the key points, just when he's aboutto starting his presentation. You could evaluate him by whether hecould achieve our requirements freely. After that, you could tellhim  you're intrested in some specifics and would like togive him additional 20 minutes for a detailed description. Then,you could observe how he re-organize his words to expand from thispoint and connect it with the topic.

  While utilizing PPT to help your presentation, the mostimportant is the process of coordinating your thinking and formingyour structure. Use PPT but don't be its slave.