Powerpoint is still with us, but hopefully, the blind belief in its ability as a presentation panacea is over. Powerpoint can support the spoken word very effectively and help us engage the audience. If you do not engage the attention of your audience, then you will not communicate your messages and you are wasting your time.
In the words of the late great Douglas Adams:
“I wish I’d listened to what my mother said when I was young”
“Why, what did she say?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t listen”
The concept of a post-PowerPoint era is based upon the concept of post-modernism:
“Post-modernism is any of a wide-ranging
set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding modernism ”
In this case, I believe that there is an emerging approach to public speaking which is in direct reaction to the unthinking and uncritical use of presentation graphics. If we characterise such use as modernism, then it becomes logical to characterise the emergent ideas as “post-modern”.
The ability to know when to follow the rules, and when not to, or how to deal with the situation not covered by the rules, what defines an expert in the novice to expert model. These are the people whose talks you will remember, who will leave you feel inspired about their subject. The mark of the truly great speaker is that you want to go and hear them talk, irrespective of the subject, just for the pleasure of hearing them talk.
One of my central propositions is that merely following the rules of good presentation will produce competent but dull talks. One competent talk may be OK, but a programme made up of competent but dull talks quickly becomes very boring.
Competent speakers:
- Emphasise uniformity
- Use presentation graphics universally
- Emphasise the need to cover the material
- Seek to communicate as much as possible
- See communication as principally a logical positive process
- Benefit from planning
By contrast, expert speakers
- Emphasise variety
- Use presentation graphics sparingly for specific purposes
- Emphasise key points; may use follow up written material to cover additional material
- Seek to engage the listener as much as possible
- See communication as principally a creative process
- Recognise that planning is essential, especially in giving the appearance of spontaneity
You may have correctly established by now that I perceive myself to be in the post-PowerPoint camp. This doesn’t mean I don’t use PowerPoint, but it does mean I use it in a supporting rather than starring role. This dates back to an incident when one of my former students went to work for a friend of me, unaware of the connection. When quizzed about my lectures, he went on at great length and detail about what was in my lectures, and what he thought was wrong with them.
When asked about colleagues' lectures, he replied that he didn't remember much about them.
It seems self-evident that if you engage your listeners, you may upset, irritate or just confuse them. On the other hand if you don't engage their interest, your attempt to communicate seems doomed to failure before you have started.
Gillies AC (2007) The Art of Presentation: getting it right in the post modern era, Radcliffe Publishing, Abingdon