The rule of 6

Today, I came across the rule of 6. This ludicrous rule states:

- No more than 6 slides without a picture
- No more than 6 bullet points per slide
- No more than 6 words per bullet point

There are no rules to follow when creating PowerPoint slides. There are only guidelines to apply, and common sense. The Pow'rFul Process clearly defines the repeatable process for you to follow when you are afforded the privilege of taking the platform.

Instead of trying to follow the rule of 6 and being afraid that the PowerPoint Police will haul you off the stage when you have 7 slides without out picture, put yourself in the shoes of the audience. When you are in the audience, do you care if there are 7 slides without a photo? Six is not the silver bullet. Common sense must guide you as you create your slideshow and present it.

Common sense for you to implement:
- Use high-resolution photographs.
- Use black slides liberally.
- f you must present content that does not have a photographic representation, then a maximum of 3 bullet points on any slide. (And use as many words as you need to get your point across clearly, but not one word too many).
- Tell stories and examples. Aim to tell one or two stories on every slide that you show.

But, please do not believe for a minute that the "Magic rule of 6" or "7-point solution" is a guarantee of a memorable presentation.

Data Dumps

This week, I again saw two data dump presentations, one after the other. Both presenters were blissfully unaware that the audience is literate.

Why does the typical PowerPoint Presenter follow this process:
1. Open PowerPoint.
2. Type in (or Copy and Paste) all the data known about a topic,
3. Get up and read the slides to the audience?

I don't know if most presenters are too lazy to plan the presentation before creating the slides, or just don't yet know about the Pow'Rful Philosphy that is documented in Dodging the Bullet Points for everyone to follow.

Either way, don't allow yourself to become one of the Data Dump Presenters. When you prepare a presentation, and each slide, use some common sense. Answer these questions while creating your presentation.
1. What is the purpose of this presentation? What do I want my audience to think, do or act differently when they walk out of here?
2. What slides best suit my purpose? Should I use graphs, or photos, or black slides?
3. What is the purpose of this slide. You must answer this question for each slide, so that you can craft the best slide for your audience, on every slide.

Have you been in presentations when the presenter wants to show you a website, or a spreadsheet and suddenly hit a technical glitch? The presenter frantically tries to produce the desired result while tech people start to fiddle and the flow of the presentation hits a brick wall.

Remember that Murphy lives in your laptop. Don't "go live" in front of your audience without tons of rehearsal. Rather, when you need to show your audience the intracies of your whiz-bang spreadsheet, then record it with Camtasia so that your PowerPoint slides go smoothly and you are not puzzled by the laptop's embarrasing gyrations when Murhphy sticks up his ugly head and while your audience waits patiently.

Whatever you do, do not do a data dump slideshow for your audience. Stand up, stand out, and do it right - think before you create your PowerPoint Presentation.

Please review my slides

Can you review someone's slides and predict the outcome of the presentation?

Slides and stories and delivery style are intertwined like wind, a sailor and his sailboat. Some sailboats are faster than others, but can a good sailor in a slow boat win a race against a bad sailor in a fast boat? Of course. Looking at photos of a slow boat and a fast boat won't get me place bets on who will win a boat race.

When I review a client's slides, I take pains to point out that the slides are merely one component of the presentation. Unless the client is simply reading the slides to the audience then I cannot determine the resulting presentaiton from just reviewing the slides.

I have learned that when I review slides that eliminating text is the easiest path to dramatically improve a presentation from Audience "Aggravation" to "Toleration". I have not yet met a presentation that suffers from reducing the volume of text on a slideshow. After removing text though the next levels of improvement become harder as we implement increasing levels of the Pow'Rful Philosophy.

The Pow'rFul Philosohphy advocates for your audience by developing slideshows with unique photos, images and supplementing your presentation with personal stories and examples. Stories and examples are not captured in the slideshow. All that a good slideshow has is photos, giant text and unique images. A good presenter works off this minimalistic slide show to devilver a great presentation by adding stories. A poor presenter mumbles through the slides, clueless as to what the photos represent.

When you review your slide shows, what do you see? Can another presenter take your slideshow and deliver the same presentation? If so, go back to the storyboard. No-one else should be able to deliver your presentation, even if they have your slideshow. You need to create a slideshow supports your unique presentation with your unique stories and examples.