Monday, September 20, 2010

U.S. Army Discusses Ditching PowerPoint, Internet Explorer


I was in a tech group that literally banned powerpoint for internal presentations. At first I thought it was a great idea. But there were times when I had to describe a software architecture and having to draw the thing from scratch on a white board, especially since I can't draw worth a damn, was a pain and there were all sorts of confusions that would have been cleared up if I was able to bring in a simple picture already created.



The thing is there was just as much BS in this group in fact in some ways more. The guy in charge really had no clue about the technology. He had read some things about techniques for collaboration which is where he got the idea to ban powerpoint but ultimately his lack of knowledge led to people kissing his @ss in meetings rather then actually communicating.



Then I was in another group. The guy who led this one allowed but discouraged Powerpoint. He also was very technical and hated to have people suck up. When he didn't know something he asked questions rather than try to hide it. If someone started going off on a tangent he would cut them off and get the group back on track. For him a good meeting was one that ended early. Now those were the productive meetings.



That's my point. Banning Powerpoint is just a gimick, the real problems are leadership and a corporate culture that frowns on BS.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

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