The 11th Fatal Flaw of PowerPoint (And How to Fix It), Wayne Kronz

The 11th Fatal Flaw of PowerPoint (And How to Fix It), Wayne Kronz

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This is the second in my series of Six-Slide PowerPoint presentations. It's a continuation of the first presentation, and is based on my own experience with and observation of the use PowerPoint as a teaching tool.

"The 11th Fatal Flaw, , ," springs from a great fault of most teachers (who use PPT). That fault; trying to teach too much material in any one session.

As a student of Cognitive Load research and teaching, I firmly believe that the mental capicity of the typical adult learner is far to limited to digest 30 slides of material in any given hour of instruction.

And for those who disagree with me, , , go ahead and try to cram all that stuff in your students brain and you'll wind up teaching them very little or nothing.

Simply put, , , PowerPoint was never intended to be used as a teaching tool. It was designed for corporate presentations, , , but has since been "adapted" for the classroom.

This six-slide slideshow is to show you exactly who we teachers should be using PPT as a teaching tool.

The theme of this show and its' supporting points can easily be expanded into a full-hour lecture, , , and if you really drove home the "Schema Point" in that time, you would have have had a successful session.

Wayne

Top 10 Fatal Flaws of PowerPoint (And How to Fix Them), Wayne Kronz

Top 10 Fatal Flaws of PowerPoint (And How to Fix Them), Wayne Kronz

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Here is my first effort with my Six-Slide PowerPoint presentation. It goes right to the heart of the problem, , , the flaws you have to deal with when using PPT.

But, unlike so many PowerPoint critics, I offer two, very viable fixes for these flaws.

Wayne

The Six-Slide PowerPoint Presentation, Wayne Kronz

PowerPoint supporters insist that “it’s only a piece of software, , , it’s the users who are coming up with all the Really Bad PowerPoint.”

I say differently. Right out of the box, implications are made, , , “anyone can do it.” Bluntly, I proclaim, “no software program can make you an instant public speaking success.”

I am 74 years old, , , and I’ve made thousands of up-front pitches. (I made my first one when I was 14.) And I have a dirty little secret I need to share with you, , , “It is not that easy!”

Everything I know about speaking, teaching and presenting, I’ve had to learn the hard way.

Over 200 books, well over 12,000 hours in front of critical audiences and a lifetime dedicated to the study of how visual aids work in public presentation.

And, I work my butt off in preparation and practice for every new presentation I make. I can honestly say that a great majority of my speeches have been well received.

Maybe, , , all except one! And WOW, did it bomb.

It wasn’t the quality of the material.

It wasn’t that I did a lousy job. I had presented all the stuff many times before with great success. I knew what I was doing.

It was because of my visual package, , , I used PowerPoint. My very first PowerPoint. So, I can easily say, “I’ve had my own bad PPT experience.”

As I have studied that presentation, I read far and wide. And I discovered that, like me, everyone was not pleased using PowerPoint.

Cliff Atkinson knows presentations like few in the world today. That’s why he wrote the book, Beyond Bullet Points.” Instinctively, he knew that the “out-of-the-box PPT” suggestions about using a lot of bullet points was a bad idea.

(One of his consulting clients’ presentations won a $253,000,000 settlement with a huge pharmaceutical company.)

Seth Godin is the best-selling business book author in the world today. (Number One!) And he’s a very prolific seminar leader and professional speaker.

And he wrote the book, Really Bad PowerPoint.

Tom Antion earns well over a million dollars a year as a professional public speaker. He has literally taught the public speaking industry how to sell their wares on the Internet.

And he maintains a website called, PowerPointStinks.com.

(Tom has a cute little alternative to using PPT. I’ll share it with you some day on this blog.)

Dan Roam is the hottest speaker in the world today on the topic of Presenting. His book, The Back of the Napkin, has opened the presentation world’s eyes to what works and what does not in the realm of using visual aids.

He made a comment in one of seminars that triggered my thinking for this article, , , “after five or six slides, no one pays any attention, , ,” speaking about large, multi-slide PPT slide shows.

The reason this comment rang a bell in my thinking is that for the last few years that’s been my exact observation. I’ve thought many times, “Five slides and they're loosing ’em.”

And if most audiences are “good” for five or six slides, why not build PPT presentations with only six slides. Result; I’ve developed the Six-Slide PowerPoint Presentation concept.

I am including two “six-slide” presentations for you on this blog. I hope you learn from them and can put the idea to work in your presenting.

Wayne

Yes, Robert B. Cialdini, Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin

YES!, Robert B. Cialdini, Noah J. Goldstein,Steve J. Martin,

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Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence stands as a classic for anyone who wishes to persuade anyone to do anything. Now he and his co-authors have taken his original ideas a giant step forward in their book, Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive.

Here’s my quotation slideshow rendition of what they have to say. Enjoy!

Wayne.

Public Speakers 5 Biggest Questions, Part Two

I do not want to over-simplify these five riddles, but I’m about to offer you one solution for all of these five, very different problems.

It might be called “Wayne’s Super Fix.”

It’s a commanding use of one Theme Model for your topic, speech or presentation. Not a big lofty, 50 slide presentation.

We’ll start at the top; Stage Fright? There’s a lot of advice out there but no one will tell you this fix.

Develop a strong Theme Model for your presentation, then don’t speak or present, , , just talk about your masterpiece. It’s your baby, , , something that no one has every seen or heard of before.

Tell them about how you discovered all of its elements, who helped you organize them, what the critical point(s) are and how your pattern works in real life, etc.

You’ll knock their socks off, even it you stumble all over the place. Guaranteed!

Red-Hot Topic? Get a subject you can draw in one frame, , , one that you can turn into a powerful Theme Model and you are home free.

Speak Without Notes? Just use your new-found way of curbing stage fright. Talk about your Theme Model.

Toastmasters to Profitable Career? Tell people about your Theme Model. In your TM speeches, in your TM club, have your TM buds promote you, in your blog (if I can set-up one, anyone can), website, Twitter, Squidoo, Facebook and the lists goes on.

You can write articles about it online and offline. The secret is that you have something (your Theme Model) to promote, so use it every way you can.

Beating Out the Big Boys and Girls? To do that you’re going need some kind of an advantage on them, , , and you do! Your Theme Model.

That Theme Model of yours is a visual aid, usually with from three to seven elements that embodies your whole presentations. And it will set you apart and above those speakers who don't have such an effective tool. It will be what puts you ahead of the pack.

Wayne

P.S. Heart model from http://www.heart-health-weightwatcher.com/ . Click on diagram of the heart to enlarge.

The 10 Enduring Laws of Success, Maria Bartiromo

The 10 Laws of Enduring Success, Maria Bartiromo

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So just what does it take to achieve real success? That’s exactly what CNBC’s stock market host, Maria Bartiromo sets out to answer in her new book, The 10 Laws of Enduring Success .

Here I have created a new quotation slideshow to help you see what she recommends to us all.

Included are many short, pithy quotes that any presenter can pick up and use in their very next presentation. Enjoy!

Wayne

Good to Great, Jim Collins

Good to Great, Jim Collins

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Jim Collins, author of the classic business book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't, in a recent article, writes, “You must attract and then retain these people and let those who aren’t predisposed to sharing your core values go elsewhere.”

He is placing his emphasis on what he calls having the right people on the bus.

I’ve included a quick musical model to show you how not having good people on board can take an organization in a hurry.

Enjoy!

Wayne

Public Speakers 5 Biggest Questions, Part One

We’ve all had them, , , back when we began getting up front. Those daunting five questions. . .

1. How do I overcome stage fright, , , forever? Followed by, , ,

2. How do I find a red-hot topic? One that will inform, educate, entertain and down-right dazzle my audiences?

3. How do I learn how to speak without notes? This one baffles thousands of beginning speakers and presenters around the world every day. And there is a simple answer.

4. How can I turn my Toastmasters experience into a profitable speaking career? It’s a dilemma few speaking teachers and tutors will touch.

5. How can I “own” a topic already saturated with top professional speakers? These are the questions that constantly trouble every beginning presenter and public speaker.

I do not want to over-simplify these five riddles (They are serious questions.), but I’m about to offer you one solution for all of these five, very different problems.

It might be called “Wayne’s Super Fix.”

In part two I will reveal my secret fix, , , one that no public speaking coach ever talks about.

Wayne

PowerPoint Connection, Wayne Kronz

Recently I wrote a post about three connections every presenter must make for public speaking success. Speaker to Audience, Message to Audience, and Known to Unknown.

Today, let's look further into the "connection concept." I am interested in this idea concerning the use of PowerPoint.

If you use PowerPoint a lot and you want to increase the impact of your presentations consider this. . .

Every chart you use.

Every quotation you site.

Every bullet point statement you make.

Every key word. Every image. Every question you ask.

Every single element of your presentation.

"Will this connect to my audience?" "Really?"

If it doesn't have a "magnetic force" about it, dis-card it. Your presentation simply does not need the "fluff."

It make no difference whether it's a word, sentence, chart, illustration or image.

Connection is everything. People will not go to sleep if they are connected. If they are not,
the heads will not.

So constantly be asking yourself the question--"Will this connect with my audience?”

Wayne

Makepeace Graphic Design 101, Clayton Makepeace

Recently, I’ve been writing about the new profession of Information Designer. (And, you are one of them, if your speak, present or in any way offer information to any kind of an audience.)

Makepeace Graphic Design 101, Clayton Makepeace

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In this profession, you deal with words and images! And you add much focused effort to insure that those words and images have the greatest positive effect on your audiences.

And, in this profession, formatting is a big deal. Well-formatted material can vastly improve the effectiveness of your message.

If formatting information is new to you, there is one best place to learn the most, the quickest. It’s Clayton Makepeaces’ blog post entitled Direct Marketing Graphic Design 101 .

Print it out and three-hole punch it and put it in your Secret Hot Ideas Notebook.

(You do have one, don’t you?)

To help you see the very practical things you’ll learn, I have created a quotation slideshow. Enjoy it and learn from it, , , and watch it often. And tell people about it.

Wayne

P.S. Though Clayton is a “back-east-er” to me, I have set his quotations over morguefile.com images of (southwestern) cactus. I did so for a particular reason. To allow you to learn a couple of things about me.

As you watch and re-watch this slideshow, pay close attention to the landscape in the first three slides.

This environment has made a unique contribution to my life and who I am as a person, , , and I’ll post the story in a few days.

Information Design, Wayne Kronz, Part Three

This is part three in a series of articles about the basics of a new category of professions, The Information Designer.

Here are my guidelines on how to achieve efficiency and effectiveness with the information you produce, i.e., newsletter, ebook, home study course and your speeches and electronic presentation material, etc.

It may help you to re-watch the musical model posted on May 10.

Easy Words. It is imperative that your audience knows the world you are using. The more understandable, the better.

Easy to Read. It’s even more important that your audience can actually read the words you use with as little effort as possible.

Contrast. It’s a seldom talked about part of readability. The right words, with the wrong blending of background to text will kill the effectiveness of your information design efforts.

Clarity. This refers to the graphic and editorial consistency of your info design. Lot’s of thinks can be done to increase the clarity of your message.

Image Effect. The use of symbols, drawings and photo images can vastly increase the effectiveness of your information design. Do not hurry this part of the process. Always use images that have preconditioned meaning to your audience.

Few Elements. Cognitive Load scientists, insist that it’s easy to overload the minds of your viewers. Fewer items on your list, less pages in your brochure and fewer slides in your electronic presentation will usually help the users of your information.

Logical Order. The order of your instruction, direction or speech must make logical sense. Only then will the design of your information bring you the positive results I have described in this article and model.

If you attend to the above details of your information design, you'll begin to get the result you want.

More about Information Design later.

Wayne

Email Blueprint, Wayne Kronz

Email Blueprint, Wayne Kronz

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If you are like most public speakers who are beginning to build an online presence you’ll discover the need to write an autoresponder series of emails.

I ran into an article by Richard Stooker entitled, 7 Keys to an Effective Autoresponder Email. So I did a simulated whiteboard model about the process Richard covered. You can read his article at this link.

I am thankful to SlideBoom and iSpring for the capability to produce and offer you this type of presentation. To my knowledge it’s the only service that converts PowerPoint and maintains all of its features short of having someone produce a complicated full flash program.

Thanks, BoomTeam!

Wayne

Money 911, Jean Chatzky

Money 911, Jean Chatzky

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Jean Chatzky is a financial journalist, author, motivational speaker and expert on personal finances. She is presently the financial editor for NBC's Today Show.

Her current book, Money 911: Your Most Pressing Money Questions Answered, Your Money Emergencies Solved, is packed full of tons of very useful information. Here is my latest quotation slideshow featuring many of these practical quotes.

Enjoy,

Wayne

Secrets fo Social Media Marketing, Paul Gillin

Secrets of Social Media Marketing, Paul Gillin

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Paul Gillin advises business-to-business marketers on online channel strategies they can use to reach buyers cost-effectively.

Paul is an accomplished speaker and media spokesman. He has spoken at many conferences about the latest technology and social media trends. His ability to talk about complex technology topics has made him a favorite business communicator.

His newest book, Secrets of Social Media Marketing: How to Use Online Conversations and Customer Communities to Turbo-Charge Your Business!, includes a many nuggets of wisdom any present day business person can put into practice immediately.

My latest quotation slideshow features many of these timely bits of information, , , bits you can use in your very next presentation.

Wayne

Information Design, Wayne Kronz, Part Two

I have decided to make three parts out of this Information Design post. This, then is Part Two.

Here, I present eight views of a pleasant user experience.

Give Directions. Whether it’s the signage at an amusement park or a corporate policy manual, users must “know where to go next.”

Eliminate Lost. This is when information does not perform it is suppose to. In the amusement park and the corporate policy manual. And in your seminar and your blog. Good info design eliminates “lostness.”

Life or Death. One purpose of information our safety. I learned this back in the mid 50’s when I was creating training aids for the US Army at Fort Leonard Wood and Fort Benning.

We were sending young soldiers into battle, so the format of the information had life or death implications.

Consider also, a scuba diving manual, the instructions (plus the seat pocket card) of a flight attendant or signage at the rim of the Grand Canyon (where you can easily fall 400 feet).

Solve Problems. It’s a huge issue in business and in life. One person has done more to address communications as a problem solving tool than anyone I know. That is Dan Roam in his book,The Back of the Napkin (Expanded Edition): Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures. Get it and live by it!

Speed and Man Hours and Money. Time is money, so they say. And having the right information at the right time can make any company money. Need I say more?

Work and Results. The key element of information design is, , ,does it work? It’s all about results. Simply put, if it doesn’t work it’s not good design.

Save Money!

Best Experience. To many in business the key to success is that your customers have the best experience with your product or service as possible. It may be reading your book, watching your Powerpoint show, or simply enjoying your blog and ezine. User experience is the bottom line.

OK, how do you do it? That will come in Part Three.

Wayne

Connection, Wayne Kronz

Connection, By Wayne Kronz

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In my premiere seminar, How to Draw Your Message for Fun and Huge Profit, I start the second section by showing a simple horizontal line about a foot long.

Then I explain that there are at least six types of message any presenter can illustrate with a single line.

The first thing a line can do for any speaker is show connection. Next, I say, “Don’t take this line concept lightly!”

“Connection is vital to the success of your presentation.”

Connection must take place on several levels if your speech is to be a smashing hit.

Level one: The connection of the speaker and the audience. By audience, I mean each member, individually and the group, collectively. It’s a two-way street.

The audience must connect to the speaker, and the speaker must connect to the audience, before the speech, , , or they will not even attend your event. This connection has to happen within the limits of the promotional material and their relationship with you.

So, If you’re working our first little diagram with me (as all participants do), you’ll write at one end of the line “Speaker” and the other end, “Audience.”

This connections is vital, even weeks before your program.

Level two: The connection of your message to your audience. Sense, so they say, “you are your message,” this is all similar to Level one, except it is a lot more internally and emotionally driven.

And much of this creditability can be established in the first moments of your speech.

Level three: The connection of the known to the unknown. This is critical to sound teaching and learning. This point underlines the necessity for a presenter to really know their audience and what the already know about your topic.

Good teachers know what their students already know and then build upon that platform.

So, by now, , , if you are keeping up with our simple little line diagram, you might have drawn two more little lines and labeled the ends of the second, “message” and “audience.”

And the third line, “known” and “unknown.”

Never underestimate the power of a simple line to help you make your point.

Wayne

Thinkertoys, Michael Michalko

Thinkertoys, Michael Michalko

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Michael Michalko, author of Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques (2nd Edition), is one of the most highly sought after creativity experts in the world today.

A former officer in the U.S. Army, Michael organized a team of NATO intelligence specialists and academics in Frankfurt, Germany, to research, collect, and categorize all known inventive-thinking methods. His team applied the methods to various NATO military, political, and social problems and produced many breakthrough ideas and innovative solutions to new and old problems.

Michael later applied these creative-thinking techniques to the corporate world with great successes.

Now days, Michael has been teaching creative-thinking workshops and seminars for corporate clients around the world.

His book, is must reading for anyone who realizes the importance of using visual aids in public speaking.

Here’s my latest Quotation Slideshow featuring quotes from his one-of-a-kind book. Joy!

Wayne

Information Design, Wayne Kronz, Part One

Information Design, Wayne Kronz

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It’s a new world out there, like it or not. Many say there is a new profession budding: The Information Designer.

I have broken this post into two parts. But the whole musical model is included with this post.

This new field is defined as people who prepare information so it can be used by its users with maximum efficiency and effectiveness.

To help you understand this huge arena, I have prepared a three part musical model. Follow alone with me, , , this is material every presenter should be aware of.

1. Right Info. (It seems to me. this is a given.) First it should be needed information. All to many publications include a lot of extra information, data and/or fluff.

This is where writing and editing play such a huge part. And there is a lot more to this idea.

2. Right Form. This is where the Graphic Designer comes in. And all to often, they muddy the water rather than make communication really clear.

(*But how are we going to put it in the “right form?” More on that latter.)

3. Right People. You don’t prepare information the same way for children as you do for seniors. Or lawyers and single mothers. This is where knowing your audience is so critical.

4. Right Place. It matters not that information is polished to perfection, if it is not accessible to the people who need it, when they need it, , , and this is all a part of the total information design process.

5. Easy, Natural and Pleasant. All of the information being prepared must be done in a way that the user finds their whole experience easy, natural and pleasant.

I’ll go a step further and say that traveling, studying, learning and entertainment should be fun. And that, because of the information's design.

6. Efficiency. This has to do with how little effort the user has to apply to get the benefit of the information. The fewest number of words that have to be read, the fewest number of signs or the streamline-ness of a software platform.

7. Effectiveness. Effectiveness is the watch-word of good information design. It’s all about the users experience in processing the information and accomplishing their end goals.

In part two of this article, I will presented eight views of such a pleasant user experience. Plus how to accomplish success as an Information Designer.

Wayne

MOJO, Marshall Goldsmith

MOJO, Marshall Goldsmith

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Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It is an interesting book. Marshall Goldsmith has packed it full of wisdom any public speaker or presenter can use in their next presentation. For personal improvement speakers it is a gold mine.

So I have built another quotation slideshow to help you see the value of Goldsmith's book.

Enjoy,

Wayne

Productive Thinking, Tim Hurson

The Productive Thinking Model, Tim Hurson

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Readers of this blog have known for a long time about my extreme interest in the topics of creativity and innovation. In my study I have accumulated several "Innovation Hero's," the likes of Patricia Seybold, Madan Birla, Ken Robinson, Tim Brown and most recently, Tim Hurson.

Productive Thinking is a signature theme of Hurson's. I have created a musical model to help you see what he means by Productive Thinking. Enjoy!

Wayne

My Shocking Confession, Clayton Makepeace

My Shocking Confession, Clayton Makepeace

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Most public speakers and presenters will not recognize the name, Clayton Makepeace. You should. He is a writer, extraordinaire. And nearly everything he writes in his blog, has tremendous value in about anything you do up front, creating your information products or promoting your programs, in general.

He can also be quite entertaining to read. Such is the article, "My Shocking Confession," from which I am taking the quotations for today's slideshow.

(Also he maintains an incredible group of guest writers who are also world-class marketers and writers.)

Check out Claytons blog and enjoy (and put to use) all his fine material.

Wayne

Tim Brown, Creativity and Play

This is Tim Brown. Author of Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation. He is one of my favorite creative gurus. He did this TED* Conference lecture in 2008.

I love it. And I think you will too.

And, low and behold, I came up with the musical model shown here, below. I'm sure you will be able to apply this model to your topic.

Tim Brown; Creativity and Play

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Wayne