Edward Tufte reading
During my eight+ years in the business world before grad school, I was one of the people that Edward Tufte writes about when he says: “Some corporations and government agencues require employees to use designated PPPhluff and presentation logo-wear.” Therefore my comments are based upon business experience rather than academic (or a historian’s) experiences.
We were expected to use PowerPoint for major client meetings and especially new business presentations at my PR firm and the IT department provided standard templates for us to use. In spite of Tufte’s comments that PowerPoint slides create suspicions of minimal analysis, lack of creativity, and little credibility, we were expected to draft compelling slides in order to demonstrate our creativity. Quite honestly, if we did not provide a PowerPoint for a client to glance at and then ignore, we might not be meeting client expectations. PowerPoint is so commonplace in the business (and probably the academic) world that it might be conspicuous by its absence. So very ironic…
This is not to say that the business world does not realize the trouble with PowerPoint. In fact, I attended a management training session at my company called “Death to PowerPoint.” The instructors pointed out the over-use of the tool and how it limited creativity. We were encouraged to use hand-outs or other visuals selectively during client meetings as well. While we did use other materials and we all were sick of PowerPoint, this did not change the company mindset. Call it sheer laziness or resistance to change, PowerPoint reigned supreme.
Although I agree with much of Tufte’s thought-provoking yet humorous article (who can top the Gettysburg Address!), he does not consider cost when he writes about options besides PowerPoint. It would be wonderful to create glossy, four-color handouts for client meetings with detailed analysis and clear graphics, but often the budget does not exist for such items. Instead, projecting a PowerPoint presentation is viewed as a cost-effective way to provide a colorful display. And nearly everyone at the company for at least a few months is skilled enough with PowerPoint to design presentations on their own so no training is needed.