One Bucket at a Time

29/12/2021

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/article-death-by-a-30-slide-deck-its-time-to-kill-powerpoint-presentations-say/

Some companies are starting to ditch the ubiquitous PowerPoint slide deck and replace them with new techniques to share information and spark discussion

25/07/2021

Guess what? Even in non-classroom field settings—in this case religious sermons—the best way to have people remember the presentation is to simply talk to them. Less presentation. More conversation. Better results. https://mailchi.mp/f6dab1134665/even-sermons-cant-save-slides

I just came across a fascinating study on the use of PowerPoint.  The purpose of the study was to determine if using slides would enhance recall of information presented in a non-classroom field setting—in this case religious sermons. These researchers tested slides against the only thing that co...

18/07/2021

The only reason for bringing people together is to listen to someone share something of value. Anything that gets in the way of that—i.e. words on slides—decreases what makes it to the long-term memory of the audience and is therefore counterproductive.
https://mailchi.mp/29164bfe9c34/the-speech-suppression-effect-of-powerpoint

13/07/2021

Students "heard" more by not attending class, than attending a class in which slides were shown. - https://mailchi.mp/66eaaf43339e/students-heard-more-by-not-attending-class

Students who didn’t see slides scored twenty-nine per cent higher in recalling oral information, and achieved higher overall scores with the recall of all information. “The presence of PowerPoint negatively affected the recall of auditory information,” the researchers said, adding that “grap...

12/07/2021

When my kids were in university, I knew they would be PowerPoint-ed to death, so I helped them focus on outcomes, not inputs.

"Attending class is optional," I told them. "If it's a waste of time, you don't have to attend. But I expect the marks to stay high if you wish the money train to continue."

During her last year at the University of Ottawa, our daughter didn't attend four classes. She did her reading and her work. She submitted assignments and showed up to write exams.

She got an A in all four classes, making me wonder why the university bothered to pay the person at the front to drone on, class after class.

Cognitive research does not support slides in class. In fact, all of the research points in exactly the opposite direction.

So here's the deal. Either read the research, believe it and implement it.

Or quit wasting time and resources by doing the research.

08/07/2021

July 2021 version of The Successful Communicator - https://mailchi.mp/410a0dc183e9/presentation-insights-from-the-successful-communicator

The research is absolutely, unequivocally, 100 per cent clear. As humans, we cannot read and listen at the same time. Because of this simple fact, your audience will retain more of what you say if they turn their back on your slides, whether in the room or via Zoom.

04/07/2021

This article in The Globe and Mail, written by Radhika Panjwani, makes a compelling, well-researched case for decreasing the slides you use, if you decide to use them at all.

You'll need a subscription to get past the pay wall, but it's well worth the read.



https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/article-death-by-a-30-slide-deck-its-time-to-kill-powerpoint-presentations-say/

Some companies are starting to ditch the ubiquitous PowerPoint slide deck and replace them with new techniques to share information and spark discussion

13/06/2021

This article in Forbes suggests that presenters should stop using powerpoint because it may damage a brand.

Citing a study at Harvard, the author points out that in a business scenario, PowerPoint was rated as no better than verbal presentations with no visual aids.

The author says that research found “a more engaging and enjoyable experience for an audience with an oral presentation’s total lack of visual aids.”

More than 30 million PowerPoint presentations are created every day, but most aren't working according to new research from Harvard University. Here's what you should use instead.

27/04/2021

When the world locked down for COVID-19, I attended nearly fifty webinars. The topics ranged from the economic impact of the pandemic to defining an important question: Where have all the insects gone?

In the vast majority of these presentations, speakers simply presented information as a stream of ideas (bullet points) instead of telling stories to put ideas into perspective for the audience. As the author of this Inc. article points out, shopping lists of bullet points engage only a small portion of the brain, making ideas difficult to retain. There is no engagement.

The article points out that ideas put into meaningful context through stories (the how and why of it), is much more enjoyable and memorable for audiences. As the author states: “It’s yet another reason why bullet points shouldn't be the default” for any presentation.

It's yet another reason why bullet points shouldn't be the default.

20/04/2021

"There is absolutely no way that ninety-three per cent of communication is non-verbal. If it were, we’d be able to watch a foreign-language film, listen to how the words sound as the actors say them, watch how they look when they say the words, and understand ninety-three percent of what transpires. We’ll see action and recognize emotion, but if we don’t understand the words, we comprehend little.

"The ninety-three per cent assumption comes from research conducted at Stanford University by Albert Mehrabian, published in the book Silent Messages. Professor Mehrabian first coined the 55-38-7 per cent statistic, which has been widely misinterpreted as fifty-five per cent of the message coming from how the person looks when saying the words, thirty-eight per cent of the message coming from how the words sound when spoken, and seven per cent comes from the words themselves."

Excerpt From: “One Bucket at a Time,” which is available from Amazon, Kindle and Apple Books.



https://www.presentwithease.com/successful-presenter/files/the-mehrabian-myth.html

The concept that 93% of communication is non-verbal is a myth, an improperly stated statistic of research done by Albert Mehrabian and his book, Silent Messages.

12/03/2021

I have been working with a couple of organizations recently to help them move away from slide-driven presentations at meetings to improve decision-making. They have found this article, by Robert Glazer, CEO at Acceleration Partners, particularly helpful.

He describes his journey to eliminate slides at meetings. Doing so, he says, has provided his organization with five distinct competitive advantages.

Last year, a friend whose new boss used to work for Jeff Bezos at Amazon told me that the company actually banned PowerPoint presentations in favor of memos. That's right, instead of reading bullet points on a projector screen, Amazon employees read memos setting the tone of the meeting before a...