Working On Me

In my last post, I touched on the link between expectations and experience, and suggested writing tomorrow's journal entry today, based on what you expect to happen. I would like to suggest you try another spin on this idea, which is to write tomorrow's entry based not on what you expect to happen, but on what you hope might happen.

What you're trying to do in this exercise is to put you subconscious to work. It will try to find a way to produce the positive outcomes you describe, meaning your day is more likely to be a succesful one.

Here is an interesting journaling exercise you can try from time to time. Try to imagine yourself one day in the future, when you'll be recording the events of the day and your feelings. Now write down today what you imagine you would be recording tomorrow.

When you get to tomorrow's session, read back what you wrote and consider how close your predictions came to your actual experience of the day. What had you foreseen perfectly, for instance, and what hadn't you anticipated at all?

Once you've done this a few times, look for themes. Are you surprised regularly by similar factors? Do you have any blindspots? How far do your expectations shape your experiences?

Exhibit B is another prime candidate for PowerPoint Room 101.

There are some good things about this slide. Notice how the title is at the left rather than the top. This sort of variation from slide to slide will help to maintain interest. Also, there is the recognition that linking concepts to pictures will aid retention.

Problems?

1. Look at the big image to the left. It’s a picture of somebody talking, so theoretically it matches the concept it is used to represent. However, the man actually looks quite angry, almost as though he is snarling the words. In view of the three things we’re highlighting, this is highly inappropriate. It’s the picture which will linger in memories, not the words.
2. Notice how contrived some of the links are. Powerful = weightlifter? This is a sign of the designer having three things: (a) a mistaken belief that here needs to be a picture for everything; (b) a small clipart collection; and (c) a limited imagination.
3. The graphical styles here are completely at odds with each other. Stick men, cartoon heads and photo-realism shouldn’t be together in the same presentation, let alone on one slide.
4. The typography of the main heading to the left needs work. Having the word ‘new’ all alone on the line strikes a discordant note and inappropriately emphasises newness. Stretching the text box slightly would put matters right.
5. On the right hand side of the slide, we have what is fundamentally a bullet list, albeit one decorated with pictures. Moving the second picture to the left and putting the word ‘successful’ to its right would break up the tyranny of the vertical list.
6. If a picture really does paint a thousand words, given that we have put an appropriate picture on the slide, why bother with one word? Could the picture stand alone, particularly since the speaker will be filling out the detail when he speaks?

And while we’re on the subject of clichés (“a thousand words”? For goodness’ sake!) have you seen any of those clipart pictures before? There are clipart clichés as well as verbal clichés. Many of of us can remember the days of Word 6 with its tiny clip art collection. For a few years back in the early 90s, that bald man scratching his head and the angry man thumping the table must have been on the screen more often than Carol Vordeman. The next time you use the little stick men in a huddle to represent teamwork, or the flashing lightbulb to symbolise an idea, at least consider whether there is any other way you could depict these concepts.

As promised, I'm going to critique a couple of nasty powerPoint slides. Let’s start with a truly hideous example of what is possible in PowerPoint. Have a look at Exhibit A.

So, where do we start with this one? This slide has a number of errors:

1. I think the first point is that the sidebar and the slide title are vying for attention quite loudly. It’s a battle that either of them could win, but your text stands little chance of scoring a hit in such heavy crossfire!
2. And speaking of that sidebar, it has stolen a good 20% of your screen space. Up on the wall, that’s a huge acreage which you can’t use for anything else.
3. Your logo is also cramping your space. Without the contrived short bullet at the bottom, you’ve lost another third of the remaining slide space. And what is that logo doing there on every slide? Do your people really need a constant reminder of who they work for or which company is presenting to them? A logo belongs only on your welcome slide. Have this showing for 10 minutes prior to the start of the presentation, and anyone wandering into the wrong room will as a result of your logo quickly realise their mistake and be on their way.
4. Typographically, there’s a lot going on for a single slide, including text oriented at three different angles. As a general rule, no more than two fonts should be used per slide (one for the heading, one for body text) and these ought to be consistent between slides. Any orientation other than horizontal, left to right should be used very sparingly for extreme emphasis and only once on any one slide. 
5. And what about the words themselves? Do they support what you will say, or do they replace it? To appropriate an old analogy, a PowerPoint slide should be used rather as a drunkard uses a lamppost: for support, rather than for illumination. If your slide says everything you are going to, just send the slides and stay in bed. The first two points could have said just, “Lead generation” and “servicing” instead of stealing the speaker’s thunder entirely.
6. When bullet points span more than one line like this, you should really put more white space in between them to make them stand out as individual items.
7. That last bullet point says an awful lot about the speaker, and nothing that’s good. A skilful speaker will not need this pseudo-cheerful, pseudo-jokey prompt because he will have created a fun element already. An unskilful one will find that the only humorous response this bullet provokes is ironic and at his expense.
8. While we’re on the subject of bullet points, they should be used sparingly. Slide after slide of the damned things is dreadfully tiring, ultimately resulting in a phenomenon known as ‘death by bullet point’ in which the audience’s attention leaves the room after three slides, followed after three more by their will to live.

Like most people who encounter PowerPoint for the first time, I was infatuated at first sight. Suddenly I had the power to create the sorts of wonderful presentations that in the early 90s were seen only on the television news.

But the more I've used it, and the more I've seen it used, the more I have come to realise how much skill is required to make PowerPoint work well for you. The honeymoon period ended. I've sat in front of too many 100-slide bullet-point presentations and too many full paragraphs rendered on-screen in 12-point Arial.

Over the coming days, I'll post a couple of inept slides or the sort I see all the time and explain why they are bad. In the process, I should be able to extract a few principles of good PowerPoint design.

Ernest Hemingway said, "The first draft of anything is rubbish." Except, of course, being Ernest Hemingway, he didn't actually say "rubbish". He meant that the initial job of putting something on paper for the first time is not to produce something good, but rather just to get it down, to have a starting point.

I've struggled with this approach, because I always want to write in final draft. If there's a misspelling, I have to correct it before I can move on; if I'm half way through a sentence, I have to finish it grammatically, however tortuous it may as a result become. But the discipline of Hemingway is worthwhile, because creating for the first time is so, so much harder than subsequent editing.

You've read about or thought about a new technique, a new approach or a complete change of outlook. You've given this a lot of thought, and have committed to change. This is the first day of the rest of your life. You start the day full of hope and energy, but end it tired and disappointed.

Does that sound familiar? The bigger the change you've committed to, the more likely it is to happen. Why? Because the only movement has been inside your head. You've made a commitment, but the world doesn't know that, not yet at least. Depending on what the change is, it could be days or weeks before you see any tangible results, but because you've made the internal step, you're looking at the world through different eyes, impatient for results.

You can avoid some of this pain by realistically evaluating what is likely to happen before you embark on the change. Consider that the world knows nothing of your change, and try to imagine when you might see some results and what they might look like. Make a note of your conclusions, and refer to it in the early days of change, when the world hasn't caught up with you yet. By dong so, you are more likely to maintain the motivation to see it through rather than crumble when the battle is almost won.