Archive for April, 2010

Yesterday, the Drudgereport proclaimed that PowerPoint was public enemy #1. Check out the PowerPoint slide below that they used to explain the military game plan to establish stability in Afghanistan. It could quite possibly be the worst PowerPoint slide ever created!

“When we understand that slide,we’ll have won the war,” said General Stanley McChrystal, the US and NATO force commander

This slide was generated by a consulting company (PA Consulting Group)  But they are not totally to blame for this horrific piece of visual communication. The client – some military official- approved this piece to show in the presentation.

The article goes on to suggest that:

“PowerPoint has become public enemy number one for many US officers who find themselves battling slide presentations rather than insurgents. Some have gone as far as to declare all-out war on the software after the military command was over-run with mind-numbing 30-slide presentations. General James N. Mattis, the Joint Forces Commander, isn’t taking any prisoners in his approach. PowerPoint makes us stupid”

Brigadier General H.R. McMaster went one step further and banned the presentation package when he led an offensive in Tal Afar, Iraq, in 2005.

‘[PowerPoint is] dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,’ Brigadier General H.R. McMaster told the New York Times. ‘Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.’

For the safety  and comfort of your next audience, please be careful how you use PowerPoint. It can kill rapport, create confusion and bore your audience to death. For new ideas and alternatives to PowerPoint, please check out the web page Stop Global Boring: reduce your PowerPoint emissions now! If immediate triage is required, download the audio training program Stand & Deliver to your computer.