When you need to use powerpoint slides, keep it simple, and use images to help you tell a story.
Often, clients ask me to help them knit together a talk with some slides. Once, I was asked to develop a presentation to introduce a major Human Resources initiative across a global company. When I arrived, the client had close to 50 bullet powerpoint slides. When I left this morning, he had eleven slides, and not one bullet point in sight.
I think what made the difference was moving away from informing the audience about the details of the program, and instead moving toward defining the problem that it solved and arguing why it was an effective solution.
The original presentation answered in great detail the question, “What’s in the HR program?” The presentation as it stands now answers (with three key points) the question, “What’s in the HR program for the audience?”
You may say this is basic stuff, and you’re right. But those of us who have spent an entire year researching and developing a globally useful HR program tend to be blinded by our newly acquired expertise. We have developed a new abstract vocabulary (“behavioral competency matrix”), and we are knee-deep in the complexity and sophistication of the thinking behind the program. To do it justice, we feel the need to give the audience a sense of its richness.
Meanwhile, back in the minds of the audience, there’s one persistent question: “What’s in it for me?”
[ctt tweet=”In the minds of the audience, there’s one persistent question–What’s in it for me?” coverup=”820s1″]
Research shows that PowerPoint is used most effectively when bullet points are banished. Instead, craft your slides and message in a way that allows people to absorb what’s being said.
We built the presentation around images of “The Journey.” It’s a metaphor that everyone can understand. We started the talk at the point when a new employee enters the company, and as the presentation progressed, we mapped her career through many permutations. We used the visual element of a beaming young woman being handed the keys to a new car, with the headline saying, “Program X gives you the keys to your career.”
People can picture themselves on that career map, travelling along, and it made the message easy to remember and easy to envision. Do the same for your presentations: find a story, metaphor, or relatable idea. There may be more up-front work, but the pay out is big–audience attention, comprehension, and retention.