I started using PowerPoint while in the Army back in 1998. I have the coveted PowerPoint Ranger tab, and numerous deployments under my belt. But, I don't like PowerPoint. I would go so far as to say PowerPoint rots the organization from within.
Evils of PowerPoint
How does PowerPoint rot an organization? I have seen the same presentation used to sell two contradictory messages to different decision makers. Each decision maker agreed with the decision proposed by the speaker, which effectively allowed the speaker to do what he pleased and claim executive authority. Having a well-documented decision paper prevents a presenter from defrauding the deciders.
I have looked at dozens of maturity models over my 22 years in IT. I have tailored them to meet organizational needs. Every maturity model worthy of its name emphasizes the need to formalize decision making. PowerPoint cannot do that, because it is content light; an outline. A decision paper meets maturity models expectations by providing sufficient detail to explain the decision. All that is needed is a knowledge base to log the papers, with a summary of the decision made by the decision making authority. There are many such products actively used in industry that suffice, whether it be Confluence, GitHub, WordPress, SalesForce or ServiceNow.
When you have an organization that routinely rotates its personnel, this helps educate the replacements. When you have an organization that has individuals in the same job for decades, decision papers mitigate the risk of brain-drain when they depart, and of them making rogue decisions by having major decisions published.
I have looked at dozens of maturity models over my 22 years in IT. I have tailored them to meet organizational needs. Every maturity model worthy of its name emphasizes the need to formalize decision making. PowerPoint cannot do that, because it is content light; an outline. A decision paper meets maturity models expectations by providing sufficient detail to explain the decision. All that is needed is a knowledge base to log the papers, with a summary of the decision made by the decision making authority. There are many such products actively used in industry that suffice, whether it be Confluence, GitHub, WordPress, SalesForce or ServiceNow.
When you have an organization that routinely rotates its personnel, this helps educate the replacements. When you have an organization that has individuals in the same job for decades, decision papers mitigate the risk of brain-drain when they depart, and of them making rogue decisions by having major decisions published.
A Variant of the 6-Pager from Inc.
There's an author over at Inc. who states Science backs the notion that everyone hates PowerPoint. He offers three summary alternatives in the article, which link to prior articles where he has given more detail. He cites that both Bezos and Musk will not sit through a PowerPoint presentation, and favor the written word. I've been a fan of Amazon's 6-pager, which I mentioned last June.
The author advocates a leaner approach, suggesting six paragraphs with a maximum length of three pages. The six paragraphs cover the address topics.
The author advocates a leaner approach, suggesting six paragraphs with a maximum length of three pages. The six paragraphs cover the address topics.
- The Challenge. This defines "where we are now" and is always either a problem or an opportunity.
- The Undesired Outcome. This defines "where we don't want to be"--what will happen if the problem or opportunity is not addressed.
- The Desired Outcome. This defines "where we do want to be," which should obviously be better than the undesired outcome.
- The Proposed Solution. This defines what must be done to avoid the undesired outcome and achieve the desired one.
- The Risk Remover. Why the proposed solution is likely to succeed and unlikely to fail.
- The Call to Action. The decision you want made that will put the solution into motion to achieve the desired outcome.
My Analysis
Organization. I would suggest "Challenge" be called "Context," since it offers either a problem to be avoided or an opportunity to be exploited. Features of Amazon's 6-Pager that this author omits is the light discussion of attractive alternatives, and the compliance assessment. Alternatives shows you have looked at options and found them wanting (and why). Compliance helps tie the recommendation with prior decisions, funding, and organizational policy. The compliance bit could be integrated with the Context paragraph ("Affected policy/decision/budget is ..."). But, a paragraph on alternatives should be optional.
I would suggest an introductory paragraph where a one-sentence summary of each paragraph is given so that one can get the gist of the entire paper. He eludes to as much by offering topic sentences for each paragraph; where I would combine those at the beginning as an executive summary.
His suggestion focuses on the why and what but not on the how. At the executive level, perhaps "how" is disposable. But, not on an operational level. So, I would suggest an optional Implementation paragraph.
Formatting. He advocates Times New Roman 11 point double-spaced, which translates to roughly 1000 words. The average reading pace for an educated adult is 220 words, suggesting a light read takes five minutes for all three pages. Serif is certainly a better font group than Sans, but I'm a fan of Source Serif 10pt (about the same size), and 1.5 line spacing instead of 2.0 spacing. I also like a fat right border (2.5", with 0.5" on the left) for notes, which would retain the same word count without any notable loss in readability.
My experience suggests reading a paper like this can take five minutes per page. So a meaty topic could take 15 minutes to digest, and perhaps 30 minutes to discuss, which if you keep hour-long meetings to 50 minutes is just enough time.
Preparation Time? Just how long would a paper like this take? I have to quote Miracle Max from The Princess Bride. If you rush a decision paper, you'll get rotten decisions. That's what we have with PowerPoint. Writing a good draft can take a couple days, but a finished draft could take weeks as it is shopped to affected stakeholders to solicit input. It takes as long as it takes.
I would suggest an introductory paragraph where a one-sentence summary of each paragraph is given so that one can get the gist of the entire paper. He eludes to as much by offering topic sentences for each paragraph; where I would combine those at the beginning as an executive summary.
His suggestion focuses on the why and what but not on the how. At the executive level, perhaps "how" is disposable. But, not on an operational level. So, I would suggest an optional Implementation paragraph.
Formatting. He advocates Times New Roman 11 point double-spaced, which translates to roughly 1000 words. The average reading pace for an educated adult is 220 words, suggesting a light read takes five minutes for all three pages. Serif is certainly a better font group than Sans, but I'm a fan of Source Serif 10pt (about the same size), and 1.5 line spacing instead of 2.0 spacing. I also like a fat right border (2.5", with 0.5" on the left) for notes, which would retain the same word count without any notable loss in readability.
My experience suggests reading a paper like this can take five minutes per page. So a meaty topic could take 15 minutes to digest, and perhaps 30 minutes to discuss, which if you keep hour-long meetings to 50 minutes is just enough time.
Preparation Time? Just how long would a paper like this take? I have to quote Miracle Max from The Princess Bride. If you rush a decision paper, you'll get rotten decisions. That's what we have with PowerPoint. Writing a good draft can take a couple days, but a finished draft could take weeks as it is shopped to affected stakeholders to solicit input. It takes as long as it takes.
Conclusion
The summary of all this is to say, PowerPoint erodes organizational maturity by promoting organizational opacity. Decision Papers are a solid salve. Having expected sections makes it easier for novices to work into the process. Allowing reasonable tailoring provides flexibility to the paper to meet the decision's need.
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Ben
In tenebra solus sto
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Ben
In tenebra solus sto