Speak to Lead

PowerPoint Presentations from Lincoln at Gettysburg to Today's Army Rangers

Here are links to 2 humorous PowerPoint presentations and a collection of 10 cartoons spoofing PP.

To see Peter Norvig's example of how Abe Lincoln could have "improved" his Gettysburg Address by using PowerPoint, click here.

To see the guidelines U.S. Army Rangers are to use in preparing PP slides, click here.

And to see cartoons PowerPoint creator Robert Gaskins has collected on his web site, click here.

Presenting with PowerPoint--4 Keys to a Persuasive Presentation

I'm indebted to Lee Gomes writing in today's Wall Street Journal for reminding me that this is the 20th anniversary of PowerPoint. Somehow I had forgotten to program the event into my calendar.

Created by Robert Gaskins (with programming by Dennis Austin), PowerPoint is often blamed for the errors of its users. It is after all, a tool. How it is used determines its effectiveness. As Gaskins points out in comments to Gomes, "If [speakers] do an inadequate job with PowerPoint, they would do just as bad using something else."

So here are my four keys for using PowerPoint or any other graphics program:

1. Determine the RESULT you want from the presentation.
2. Create the messages that will get that result; then, and only then
3. Decide if / how PP visuals can reinforce your messages.
4. After you have created all your PP slides, go through each one and ask yourself (or your team), these two questions:
   
   • Is this slide designed to help the audience understand my messages better, or is it really just a cue card to keep me on track? (If a cue card, get rid of the slide and put your notes elsewhere.)
   • Does this slide add energy to the presentation, or does it suck energy out? If it doesn't boost the energy, kill it fast.

Successful persuasive presentations are driven by the messages and the human messenger. PowerPoint can be a great asset, IF , the visuals truly help increase the audience's understanding and retention of those messages.

 

Making a Speech Immortal: How Keeping in One Line in Ronald Reagan's Brandenburg Gate Speech 20 Years Ago Changed It from Good to Immortal

Today is the 20th anniversary of what has become Ronald Reagan's most famous speech.

On June 12, 1987, President Reagan stood before the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin and issued a challenge to the leader of the Soviet Union, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Two years later, citizens of Soviet-controlled East Berlin did indeed tear down the wall, marking the beginning of the demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

Reagan's speech teaches several lessons. One is especially important for executives whose speeches are prepared by speechwriters and then circulated to others in the organization for review and comment. The first lesson