The Art of Presenting in a Rather Noisy World
with Matt Krause and Alper Rozanes

EP09: Confusing PowerPoint and Presentation Trainings

Episode 09 . 00:00

Episode transcript:

Matt:
Alper I’m kind of cranky this morning.

Alper:
Oh, okay. Welcome to therapy. This is How can I help you with today? What can I help you with today?

Matt:
Well, I had a software update this morning. I’m on a on a Windows machine this past couple of years. And for a while I was on on Mac and I greatly preferred the mac. But for the past couple of years, I’ve been on on Microsoft, on Windows machines. And so today I had a Windows update and it went well.

Matt:
But you know how Windows updates are. There’s always something rocky about them. You’re in the middle of something, blah, blah, blah. So I’m kind of cranky because I waited through that. But I’m I don’t want to I don’t want today’s podcast to turn into a microsoft hate fest. So I want to talk about something else.

Alper:
Okay, Go ahead.

Matt:
So I’ve been a presentation trainer for a couple of years now for for a while now for more than a couple of years. And I’ve got this this idea about presentation training. That presentation training is about how you package your message and then how do you deliver it to people. That’s presentation training. How do you package your message and how do you deliver people?

Matt:
But on about half of the presentation training jobs that we’ve had over the years, it seems like what the client or what the students are wanting more is a PowerPoint training. And by PowerPoint training, I don’t I don’t mean specifically just PowerPoint. You know, maybe it’s a present shop or something like that. So whether it’s PowerPoint or.

Alper:
The technical side of it.

Matt:
Yeah, the tools, basically the technical side, they want training on the technical.

Alper:
Side of them.

Matt:
On how to use the tools more efficiently. And so and I’ve wondered for a while because, you know, a lot of clients are looking for that, the technical training. And then if you spend any time at all in the presentation training business, you know, you hear the word PowerPoint over and over and over and it seems like nine people are involved in PowerPoint for every one person who is just barely hanging on to the presentation training business and is not involved in PowerPoint.

Matt:
And so it’s about 90% of.

Alper:
It’s there’s a huge market sprint.

Matt:
Yeah. And and I understand that. Okay. Well, you know, PowerPoint has like, you know, do they have something like 80 or 85 or 90% market share of presentation tools, some some crazy high number like that? Mm hmm. And so I’ve been wondering for some years, it’s like, okay, well, you know how I’m, by nature, kind of a stubborn person.

Matt:
And so I’ve been wondering, okay, well, is it just that I’m wrong and I should go over to the other side and just admit that it’s all about PowerPoint or or since I’m stubborn, I’m like, No, I’m not going to do that. And so so what I end up doing is spending an inordinate amount of time trying to understand, okay, what is the mindset that is causing these people to see the world this way?

Matt:
What is the mindset that is causing these people to see the world in a way that we want to make? Our our main goal is to make our employees more efficient with PowerPoint. And so that’s what I wanted to go into today, was my theory about that. And then maybe you can punch some holes in it or give a different perspective on it.

Alper:
Okay, is there more? Let it out, man. This is what you do. This is what you let everything out.

Matt:
So so my theory about it is that if I’m a larger company, let’s say I have 200 employees or 500 employees or 1000 employees or 20 employees or something like that. So, you know, I’m not a small, you know, one, two, three, four, five person company. I’m I’m a a large, large company.

Alper:
Yeah.

Matt:
If I’m a larger company like that, I’m basically a cost crushing machine is for if you’re a smaller company, you know, one that like you know those a startup with let’s say one, two, three, four or five employees, something like that, a really small company, then you’re all about the sales, all about getting the customers, getting some money in the door.

Matt:
But then once you grow larger, according to match theory, once you grow larger, the cost crushing aspect of your operation plays a bigger role. And if you are primarily concerned with cost crushing, you don’t really need your employees to be brilliant. Creative flowers. You know, you’ve got a marketing department for that, which what you need your employees to do.

Matt:
If you’re a big company, what you need your employees to do is you need them to work efficiently because you’ve got this huge line on your PNL statement for, you know, for employee salaries. And you want that line to be as small as possible. So you need your employees to be efficient. Mm hmm. And employees, they spend a huge amount of time working with the tools, in this case PowerPoint.

Matt:
They spend a huge amount of time on their tools. And so if you can reduce the amount of time that they spend working with the tools, in this case PowerPoint, if you can reduce the amount of time they spend working with PowerPoint, it’s going to be a huge return on your income statement. And so when you think or when your h.r.

Matt:
Department thinks presentation training, one of the first things that they’re saying is let’s make people more efficient and more effective with powerpoint. How? Anyway, that’s that. That’s my theory. Tell me what you think about that.

Alper:
Right? Right. So you’re trying to drive me out of business? Well, first of all, I think we talked about this on one of the previous episodes where I also try to throw myself out of business by saying, of course, if if you have the opportunity, if you have the skillset to make a great presentation without PowerPoint, I think you should do that.

Alper:
Oh, you should. You should be able to. I’m I’m certain that we talked about how you should be able to deliver a presentation without the PowerPoint, even if you’re prepared to deliver a presentation with PowerPoint if if something went wrong. But besides, from that, besides from contingencies, I truly believe that’s a great connection with people is made between humans, is not made between a screen and then other set of eyes.

Matt:
Okay.

Alper:
Does does that mean we should not be using them at all? No. Because am generates so many data own or research on how you talk to people. And if you’re able to accompany your message with a relevant visual, they are going to remember recollect much more of it. But does it mean that let’s say you and I meet for a chat or dinner and I come with visuals and I talk to you about my topic?

Alper:
I talk, I tell him a story accompanied by visuals. Of course, that then.

Matt:
I would I.

Alper:
Certainly understand your idea and I would be one. By the way, I certainly understand your point in focusing less on the tools and focusing more on on. I think it was the skill set of presenting you were talking about or a compact delivering to making your story out.

Matt:
Packaging your message, using your story.

Alper:
Yes. Without so much relying on the tools. I certainly agree with that. But I also think it’s not very easy to do. It’s simple to say ditch the PowerPoint and and connect with the people directly. It’s easy. It is simple. It’s not easy. It’s simple to say that, but it isn’t necessarily easy to do because then you have to do much more work.

Alper:
By the way, maybe one of the reasons why this happens to be the dominance case, using the tools, using the presentation software could be just a matter a you know, a matter of being accustomed to it. I mean, since the early days of our education, we we have seen, well, this is the early days of our education. You and I have seen what they call them.

Alper:
The the I forgot the transparency thing that is reflected on the world days. It was years before before PowerPoint became mainstream. The overheads we were using overheads and then it PowerPoint became the standard. And I think we are source subjected to it’s so exposed to it that we have come to think that it should be a normal part of the conversation, not in reality.

Alper:
I believe that. No, it shouldn’t be inferred if you can do it without the PowerPoint or any other presentation software, the better. But that that requires a lot of work. Maybe, maybe we don’t want to do that. Maybe we don’t want to put in the necessary effort to do that.

Matt:
How about the the part of the theory that goes the part of my theory that goes the company is trying to crush costs. The company is taking its focus on, okay, making its employees brilliant creative flowers. Do you think there is a do you think we’re losing an opportunity by teaching people how to be more efficient with your machine versus how to think more creatively?

Matt:
Are we losing an opportunity in that?

Alper:
Well, I can only speak from my personal experience and during those trainings where I’m asked to share more content about the use of the software, creativity is not the focus of those trainings. It’s not a main demand of the company when they hire me. But what we work on is, okay, there is this tool. Somehow we have learned how to use it to this day and we have learned we have seen people use and we are replicating those methods of using this tool rather ways which we can use this tool more effectively, not necessarily more creatively, because the topic, the topics in the in the in the training programs which are specific to focus on

Alper:
PowerPoint or any other presentation software, they are not about creating more artsy creative slides. They’re more about how to use the tool more effectively and more efficiently. It’s like we’re it’s like there’s a hammer in front of you and there are there are bunch of nails, and you’ve been using the wrong side of the hammer for for six years.

Alper:
And it is doing the work, but sometimes it’s breaking the hand or sometimes it’s you.

Alper:
But there’s a better way of using that hammer. I think the same goes for PowerPoint. The the idea is to be, at least in the trainings, to be able to use this tool in our disposal in a way which is more effective, more efficient, and which serves our goal better, but not necessarily more creative.

Matt:
Mm hmm. Okay.

Alper:
So I may be hung up on that word that that you use as creative, but that’s usually not the focus of of the trainings.

Matt:
Yeah. Yeah.

Alper:
And there is certainly the times saving element because you can, you can waste so much time once you dig into the world of creating slides you can, you can use, you can lose that use, you can lose so much time on on the color, the font, the background, the animations, there’s transitions, etc., etc. And I don’t know why, but the software comes with hundreds of features out of which you can easily complete to disregard 80% and still deliver a very good presentation with 20% of the features that are available on the software.

Alper:
So yeah, the training more focuses on time saving or getting more efficient, saving more time and getting more efficient and not necessarily creating more beautiful, more creative slides. So in that regards, it could be it could be, at the end of the day, helping the company cut costs because maybe people will be able to do things more efficiently and and effectively and not necessarily only focus on on the creative side.

Alper:
I don’t know if if, if that’s and says your question.

Matt:
Yeah. So, so I’ve got one more question and then we’re we’re running out of time so so we’ll have to wrap it up after this. One more question but let’s see that. So you’re doing a PowerPoint training and this employee, for example, an employee is sitting in front of you and or an employee of the of the of the other company, of the client company.

Matt:
So the employee is sitting in front of you and the employee wants to wait off into this. You mentioned that they’re, you know, of the 100 features that are available in any software, for example, PowerPoint, of the 100 features that are available, maybe only 20 are necessary. You’ve got in front of you a client who or a customer, an employee who wants to wait off into the other 80.

Matt:
Do you bring them back to the 20 or do you do you answer their question on how to better use the 80 features that probably they’ll never need?

Alper:
Well, no, we don’t wander off to the entire set of features that come with the software because although it’s a technical training, as in how to use a software, how to use a tool better, of course there is always the the framework of why use this in the first place. Well, to connect better with the audience. How can you do that through simpler slides true to true, simpler messages?

Alper:
Well how do we how, how can we do those things? Then there are these 20 tools, 20 features of the tools that we can use, and the rest you can completely forget about. The idea is not to be able to use the software with more capacity, not not to be not to have a complete understanding of how to use the software.

Alper:
But the idea is how to use this particular software so that it will help your overall goal, which is making a better connection with the audience.

Matt:
Okay.

Alper:
So that’s usually goals that usually something you do through a simpler design, which eliminates the necessity to know every single feature of the software that comes with it.

Matt:
Okay, so we’re about out of time here. So so we’ll wrap up and I promise our listeners that in subsequent episodes we’re not going to continue on Mitt’s crusade against PowerPoint. We’re going to we’re going to have something else to talk.

Alper:
About with my Yes.

Matt:
Okay. Yeah. I’ve got to warn you. AUDIENCE One of us is Matt on an eternal crusade against tools, and the other is an Apple fanboy. So you’re in dangerous territory. Okay, So, so, so that’s enough for today. So thanks for listening and we’ll talk to you on the next episode.

Alper:
All right, Matt, good talking to you.

Matt:
Good talking to you, too.

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