Hello!
We are in the process of of trying to brand our company and have created standards for all written communication. While I believe it is a positive initiatve for our company, we are left with 2 fonts and 1 Powerpoint template. The template is not engaging at all. I do not want to create training the is "death by PowerPoint" but I would like the content to appear intersting. Has anyone ever dealt with the conflict between the brand and effective learning? Any advice on articles that I can site to help me plead my case.
Thanks for the help!
Susan

Hi SS -- Perhaps your marketing department needs to be reminded that marketing a product is a different animal from helping people learn. While the two can often cross over into one another, there are certainly different goals involved. Perhaps there is a way to ensure a professional, branded look and feel to the training overall without compromising that which is most important for YOUR needs -- helping people learn something. The first step in that is to use PowerPoint ONLY when it enhances the learning -- in those cases you can make sure you use marketing's backgrounds and company logo...etc. However the PowerPoint slides themselves should reflect good *instructional* purpose, not marketing purposes (although marketing could learn a thing or two from good instructional design, and vice versa). There are some really amazing books about using visuals to aid instruction -- here's one I've been reading very recently -- Creating Graphics for Learning and Performance by Linda L. Lohr.

Enjoy and good luck!

Thanks so much for the words of encouragement and advice.
Susan

Susan, the term "Death by PowerPoint" often refers to the tendency by some to load the slide up with paragraphs of information, resulting in the presenter reading to the attendees. Truly, this is death. We often forget that the students could read the information much faster than it can be read to them, so it creates frustration and resentment on the part of the people in the audience.

Instead, bulleted phrases to guide the presenter make for a much more palatable presentation. Supporting graphics that materially add to the discussion are extremely helpful - keeping in mind that a picture is worth at least 1000 words. But again, make sure the photo/graphic adds to people's understanding and isn't simply window dressing.

Simple things like text size can make or break a presentation. As I'm sure you're aware, just because you can read it on your computer as you create the slide, doesn't mean your audience will be able to see as well when it's projected in the classroom/meeting room. As a thumbrule, I use 16 pt fonts (typically Arial) in my presentations. But I also take the time to project it in the room I'll be in (when I know this information) to make sure it works as well as I'm expecting.

Presuming the template you are being provided is simply a starting point - say a repetitive header or some corporate graphical design - you can easily make the presentation much more appealing, and your audience much more appreciative, if you put my small bit of advice to work. I deal with this all of the time with companies. They want everything branded. Okay. Fine. But as was already pointed out, there's a difference between branding and learning. Assuming you can combine the two by providing lean PP presentations that don't look like a book (refering to my paragraphs of text remark) being projected onto a screen, you will find good success.

Regards and best of luck,

Del Laughery
President, Instructional Dynamics

Susan

Take a look at:

Powerpoint

ME was on top form in that thread!