3 ms·

I wish my company did that. Even if you write a document usually they ask for Powerpoint so after a while everything regresses to bullet points on slides.

fermienrico 8y ago
A lot of companies I have worked at use PowerPoints as the ONLY means of documentation. Presenters have slides that cram so much information that they become unstructured glob of textual-visual noise with jpegs, flow charts, long paragraphs and drawing snippets, etc. People have forgotten to write structured documents that logically layout your thoughts.
nlawalker 8y ago
So, so many people hate reading and writing. They abhor it. Black and white text on a page looks like history class homework. You could strap them to a chair and hold their eyes open and they wouldn't be able to make it through two double-spaced pages. In my experience, one of the most common agendas for a meeting is "here is a document that the author is going to read to you."
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  I have told people "we don't need a meeting where you read the slides to me. Just send the doc and I will read it" :-). Didn't go over too well....
  - marktangotango 8y ago
    Reminds me of the time it was my turn to lead the weekly staff meeting. Why? Cause our manger was lazy I guess. I handed out copies of Brooks No Silver Bullet essay. Did not go over well at all.
- tomjen3 8y ago
  You shouldn't just dump a document with only black text. Don't be afraid to use colors and illustrations (which are nearly always enhanced by colors).
asark 8y ago
At least one major (like, major) management consulting firm turns basically all their communication into a PowerPoint, sooner or later (usually sooner). I gather they've found they can't consistently get C-level folks to pay attention to any other format, but it also ends up being their own internal format-of-record for almost everything. It's bananas.
- Terretta 8y ago
  More than one. Basically any global consultancy targeting c-suite ‘strategy’ advisement.
dingaling 8y ago
Bullet points aren't always bad. Done properly they convey the essence of the message without the baggage of conversational language. If you can understand a Powerpoint just from the graphics + bullets then it's done correctly. If it needs supplementary notes then send it back for rework.

fermienrico 8y ago

A lot of companies I have worked at use PowerPoints as the ONLY means of documentation. Presenters have slides that cram so much information that they become unstructured glob of textual-visual noise with jpegs, flow charts, long paragraphs and drawing snippets, etc. People have forgotten to write structured documents that logically layout your thoughts.

nlawalker 8y ago

So, so many people hate reading and writing. They abhor it. Black and white text on a page looks like history class homework. You could strap them to a chair and hold their eyes open and they wouldn't be able to make it through two double-spaced pages. In my experience, one of the most common agendas for a meeting is "here is a document that the author is going to read to you."

maxxxxx 8y ago
I have told people "we don't need a meeting where you read the slides to me. Just send the doc and I will read it" :-). Didn't go over too well....
- marktangotango 8y ago
  Reminds me of the time it was my turn to lead the weekly staff meeting. Why? Cause our manger was lazy I guess. I handed out copies of Brooks No Silver Bullet essay. Did not go over well at all.
tomjen3 8y ago
You shouldn't just dump a document with only black text. Don't be afraid to use colors and illustrations (which are nearly always enhanced by colors).

asark 8y ago

At least one major (like, major) management consulting firm turns basically all their communication into a PowerPoint, sooner or later (usually sooner). I gather they've found they can't consistently get C-level folks to pay attention to any other format, but it also ends up being their own internal format-of-record for almost everything. It's bananas.

Terretta 8y ago
More than one. Basically any global consultancy targeting c-suite ‘strategy’ advisement.

dingaling 8y ago

Bullet points aren't always bad. Done properly they convey the essence of the message without the baggage of conversational language. If you can understand a Powerpoint just from the graphics + bullets then it's done correctly. If it needs supplementary notes then send it back for rework.