PowerPoint paradox — facilitating communication &hampering innovation

“PowerPoint presentations too often resemble a school play — very loud, very slow, and very simple.” — Edward Tufte

Remember the days when asking someone to share their presentation almost felt like an apology? Like you were subtly borrowing their ideas without saying it. Now, it’s a whole different ball game. PowerPoint has become the go-to in the business world. It’s like we’ve decided that no conversation is complete without a PowerPoint in the background. Kind of normalizes the idea that we need these slides to communicate, doesn’t it?

Throughout my extensive career, I’ve been lauded for my creativity and knack for efficiency and great communications. Yet, most recently, I’ve found myself amidst a sea of individual types who are fixated on condensing every idea into PowerPoint slides, most often destined for the digital catacombs of their company’s document management system. These slides, more often than not, end up as forgotten relics, occasionally plundered for a slide or two, then abandoned.

As someone whose roots are more aligned with the no-nonsense, visual-frill-free environment of an engineering department, this…