Prosperous Project Management: Reading slides

Prosperous Project Management

Tips, techniques and pragmatic strategies for excellent Project Managers, Toastmasters and high personal achievers. Wayne Botha is a rare Project Manager, with passion for achieving results through Project Management, while improving inter-personal relationships, and developing Project Managers in the process. Wayne is a faculty member at Toastmsters Leadership Institute and Axia college of University of Phoenix.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Reading slides

Yesterday I attended a workshop on SDI and the Relationship Awareness Theory. With my degree in Psychology, and having taken more personality type tests than I can remember, I found the Relationship Awareness Theory to deliver pragmatic results. The Strength Deployment Inventory impressed me as a valid instrument. I am a Green-Blue which means that I first analyze, then nurture relationships.

We had 100 participants. Slides were up with directions on how to complete the activities. It was impossible to read the slides while the presenter was talking and 99 other people were shuffling papers, mumbling and assisting neighbours. I found that just as Prof. John Sweller confirmed in his study - we cannot focus on interpreting text on slides while someone is telling us the same information. I was reading the text, but could not interpret it with the noise.

This is just a not so gentle reminder. Do not put text on your slides and then read it to the audience. Put photos on your slides and speak your story. If you have an activity, then show the steps on your slides with animated slides so that your participants can see what is expected.

Labels: PowerPoint

2 Comments:

At November 12, 2009 10:47 PM , Ellen Finkelstein said...

I've just started a Campaign Against Death by PowerPoint. One cause is reading the text on the slides. You're so right that audiences can't read and listen at the same time. The idea is to give audiences the power to do something about it by giving the presenter an invitation to download a white paper that explains all of that. Forgive me for including a URL, but I'm trying to be an evangelist for this. You can get the invitation at www.tellnshow.com.
At November 16, 2009 4:49 AM , Wayne Botha said...

Hi Ellen,

Thank you for your post - not a problem to include your link. I am happy to support your campaign. All audiences will benefit from improved presentations. Good luck

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About Me

Name: Wayne Botha

Location: South Windsor, Connecticut, United States

Wayne Botha is one of those rare people who can say he is a project manager, author and speaker and mean it. He is a past Area Governor for Toastmasters International and an enthusiastic Toastmaster. Wayne is a faculty member of Toastmasters Leadership Institute and has trained audiences in South Africa, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and the USA. With an MBA in eCommerce, and a PMP certification, Wayne is sought out to speak at Toastmasters and Project Management conferences. Wayne's colleagues and friends often tease him about his South African accent.