"Power corrupts and PowerPoint corrupts absolutely." Many years ago I heard Internet "co-father" Vint Cerf open a speech with that little adage. It turned out that actual researchers had looked into the cognitive impact of PowerPoint presentations and found that they tend to oversimplify information, encourage the use of acronyms and vague terms, and minimize the importance of vital data.

Edward Tufte provided an interesting analysis of PowerPoint, having examined the slides that were written up to brief NASA officials about the condition of the Space Shuttle Columbia before its last launch. He found that the "language, spirit and presentation tool of the pitch culture had penetrated throughout the NASA organization, even into the most serious technical analysis, the survival of the shuttle."

The problem with the software is that the templates "usually weaken verbal and spatial reasoning, and almost always corrupt statistical analysis," Tufte wrote in an essay called "The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within."

This is pretty interesting stuff, but what may be even more useful to recognize is that the nearly ubiquitous presentations not only weaken reasoning capabilities but also bore everybody who has to watch them.

Peter Bregman, president of the consulting firm Bregman Partners Inc., spent seven years trying to figure out why business meetings are so boring only to identify PowerPoint as the chief culprit. The main reason is that these presentations--if done "correctly"--are considered polished and thorough. They are intended to make the speaker look like an expert. Nothing is required of the viewers, and the result is that they tune out or nit pick.

"PowerPoint presentations inevitably end up as monologues. They focus on answers, and everyone faces the screen," Bregman writes in a post at HarvardBusinessReview. "But meetings should be conversations. They should focus on questions, not answers, and people should face each other."

Bregman offers some intriguing suggestions for a lively, productive meeting. He recommends that participants take turns leading conversations about each others' businesses, which lifts people out of their silos and demands their attention. If you're looking for creativity or innovative thinking out of your next meeting, it might be worth trying this type of approach. 

Am I too hard on PowerPoint? Let me know. - Caron