Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
Switzerland – one of the few nations in Western Europe that can boast a few laudable public policies – could be adding another to the list. Per CNET News:
The Swiss might have been slightly late in giving women the vote (1971 was the year), but they still believe in certain progressive forms of democracy.
One of these seems to be helping a fascinating political party in its quest to have PowerPoint banned from the country.
The party is called the APPP. Yes, the Anti-PowerPoint Party. It's an organization that has, at its core, the firm belief that the Microsoft presentation software is a waste of fine Swiss resources.
Indeed, it believes that PowerPoint costs Switzerland 2.1 billion Swiss Francs (about $2.5 billion) every year. You will, no doubt, be desperate to learn of its mathematical model. Well, it says 11 percent of Swiss people have to attend PowerPoint presentations on average twice a week. At each of these presentations is a minimum of 10 people.
It then makes an estimation that some might find conservative, some not. It says 85 percent of people are demotivated by these presentations, from which number it leaps to the billions of francs in lost productivity.
Before the comments start pouring in, let me note that I don’t actually favoring outlawing PowerPoint. I’m sure it serves some vital function somewhere, if only by serving markets where Lunesta is not readily available.
As is often the case, however, it would be nice to see civil society do what the law shouldn’t. If there’s a technology that’s done more to deaden public communications in the last few decades, I’d be hard-pressed to name it. PowerPoint is where speeches go to die, for a few key reasons:
First, it diminishes the audience’s interest by telegraphing where you’re going. Imagine attending a football game where you’re issued a handout at the beginning of every quarter detailing the plays that are going to be run. The effect would be about the same as delineating the contours of your speech with every slide.
Second, it distracts the audience from what the speaker is actually saying. Most PowerPoint addicts (and, yes, it should be treated as a psychological malady and added to the DSM-IV) think the technology augments a presentation. But, in the vast majority of cases, it actually competes for the audience’s attention – doubly so if there are conspicuous typos or gimmicky transitions that look like they were culled from the local news broadcast in Wilkes-Barre in 1991.
Third – and most importantly – it’s a crashing bore. Perhaps there’s a bit of a selection bias at work here, since PowerPoint seems to be most frequently utilized by those who value structure over creativity, but this is a technology that has managed to make men as accomplished as David Petraeus and Mitt Romney seem leaden and torpid. And they’re the best examples. One can easily imagine why a lackluster presentation by a middle manager at the Zurich branch of UBS could inspire a single-issue political party.
I’m sure there are highly technical presentations for which PowerPoint is utterly appropriate. I’m also sure that schoolchildren will never learn to quote a speech given on this digital crutch. For that reason alone, Swiss sensibilities are to be applauded, if not codified into law.
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Nov '10
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
The members of this movement, laudable though their goal is, fail to take into account the most important advantage of PowerPoint presentations: they're the world's easiest meetings to sneak into late.
Edited on Jul 5, 2011 at 8:49pmSep '10
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the head of the business school at Catholic University of America wrote the best book ever on PowerPoint Presentations and why everyone is doing them wrong.
Jul '10
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
Nonsense. Professors use PowerPoint to provide supporting citations, bibliographies, photos and illustrations all the time. And in training, telegraphing where you are going visually is a good thing.
It's not like it was a teleprompter or something. Those bespeak the brain death of our public leadership.
Nov '10
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
Ha!
Edited on Jul 5, 2011 at 7:43pmFeb '11
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
Use of PowerPoint certainly does not encourage good presentations. But it is *possible* to give excellent presentation using this tool. I expect that most of the people who give lousy P/P presentations would also give poor presentations using old-fashioned slides or overheads, or poor lectures using no visual aids at all. The real problem is that there are too many people whose jobs are very substantially about public speaking who don't bother to learn how to do it effectively.
RHETORIC was once considered a fundamental element of a liberal arts education, and so it should be again.
Jul '10
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
Troy Senik
Second, it distracts the audience from what the speaker is actually saying. Most PowerPoint addicts (and, yes, it should be treated as a psychological malady and added to the DSM-IV) think the technology augments a presentation. But, in the vast majority of cases, it actually competes for the audience’s attention – doubly so if there are conspicuous typos or gimmicky transitions that look like they were culled from the local news broadcast in Wilkes-Barre in 1991.
I was in Wilkes-Barre in the summer of 1991. I saw Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and the local evening news. Each was much better than any PowerPoint demo I've ever witnessed. I recommend none of the above.
Kudos to the Swiss.
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
Excellent point, David, and one that may be at the root of my disquiet. I would be a lot less inflamed by PowerPoint if it was simply one of many tools in the arsenal of public rhetoric. Sadly, however, this seems to be a zero-sum game at the moment -- and PowerPoint is winning. Microsoft Office is fine. But Cicero ought to be learned first.
david foster:
RHETORIC was once considered a fundamental element of a liberal arts education, and so it should be again. · Jul 5 at 7:42pm
Mar '11
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
I think the Swiss might be on to something.
As a veteran of way too many technical meetings, I can confidently state the the only thing more dangerous than a 2nd Lt. with a map and a compass is a techno-illiterate middle manager with too much time on his hands and PowerPoint on his computer.
That way madness lies.
May '10
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
One of my coworkers at one of the world's leading advanced technology companies still insists on an overhead projector with transparency slides. His philosophy is that the slides should be incomprehensible without the speaker. Otherwise why show up?
Jun '10
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
A few people may use PowerPoint effectively, but I've not run into one yet. In the corporate world, where I lived for 25 years, PowerPoint presentations were invariably boring, used to state the obvious, or to oversimplify the complicated.
I have a vivid memory of a few great speeches, but I can't remember much from any of the hundreds of PowerPoint presentations I suffered through. That's not a justification for banning it, but it is a good reason to never use it.
The only thing worse is when you're forced to go into small groups, confined to a small room, where you pretend to solve problems for a couple of hours. Some poor sap has to write the points down on a flip chart and then has to go back to the large group and report the findings (which no one listens to). I finally figured out that you're rarely missed if you don't show up in the small group.
Jul '10
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
tabula rasa
The only thing worse is when you're forced to go into small groups, confined to a small room, where you pretend to solve problems for a couple of hours. Some poor sap has to write the points down on a flip chart and then has to go back to the large group and report the findings (which no one listens to). I finally figured out that you're rarely missed if you don't show up in the small group. ·
You're killing me man. I can't believe you gave that away for free.
That kind of insight is the entire point of a corporate consulting fee.
Edited on Jul 5, 2011 at 8:28pmMar '11
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
It's also an effective job security strategy.
"We can't get rid of Bill! He's the only one that understands this stuff!"
Aug '10
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
While it's stupid and even wicked to ban PowerPoint outright (what warrant is there to interfere with people's freedom like this, even if it is only their freedom to bore in the medium of their choice?), it's the sort of wickedness I can't help admiring.
Time to bust out the Swiss cheese and chocolate. I feel like celebrating.
May '10
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
Percival
It's also an effective job security strategy.
"We can't get rid of Bill! He's the only one that understands this stuff!" · Jul 5 at 8:39pm
Ironically he's also the most fastidious and prolific author of technical documentation at the company.
May '10
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
A neighbor of mine bought some editing software and helped his daughter with a class presentation. Knowing I was in TV he asked my wife and I to come over and "critique" it.
I was very polite and on the way home my wife said, "OK, what did you really think?"
"I think his editing software has 58 different types of digital wipes."
"That's funny," she said, "I only counted 56."
May '10
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
PP is the bane of humanity.
And here is someone who can discuss it intelligently:
http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001yB&topic_id=1
Edited on Jul 5, 2011 at 9:39pmMay '10
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
I saw a presentation yesterday which had only one or two words on each slide. It wasn't bad, as those things go.
May '10
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
So I'm curious, now that everyone has written off PowerPoint, what is the alternative format for presentations by a single speaker to a medium sized group, say an audience of 20-100?
Edited on Jul 5, 2011 at 10:39pmMar '11
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
Mark Wilson: So I'm curious, now that everyone has written off PowerPoint, what is the alternative format for presentations by a single speaker to a medium sized group, say an audience of 20-100? · Jul 5 at 10:38pm
Edited on Jul 05 at 10:39 pm
It's not PowerPoint, per se, it is its ubiquity combined with the inability of some people to rein in their need to ramble on and on and on and...
Whoops.
Seriously, PowerPoint seems to lend a bit of superficial pizzazz to the banal. Cutting back on the banal would seem to be the better way to go, but until we develop software that can say "enough, already" we'll just have to suffer through with endless bullet points.
Mar '11
Re: Switzerland Mulls Banning PowerPoint; Renaissance for Western Civilization Likely to Ensue
Who knows, maybe their the next Anti-Masonic party.....