Posted on Feb 23, 2015
Changing Paradigms: Pentagon Leader Bans the use of PowerPoint. What do you think?
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Edited 10 y ago
Posted 10 y ago
Responses: 53
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Concur with most of what has been said about it being a good briefing tool. The other problem is understanding how organizations communicate. You can't come into the DOD and just say, "No more Powerpoint." That would be like walking into the State Department and telling them they spend too much time writing correspondence on long winded memorandums. It's how they communicate. They write. We present. The discussion is good, as long as you have the right people there. The problem becomes properly conveying your intent without the use of PPT. Often, higher ranking personnel know enough about a subject to go over the highlights at a strategic level, which is fine unless someone asks some detailed questions. Then you have to have the people that actually did the work there briefing or discussing. That's when you get a LTC or a MAJ talking to the secretary of defense...and that just ain't likely to happen. No one sees the Wizard of Oz.
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MAJ (Join to see)
At this point it is only at the top but I agree with what you are saying here. PowerPoint over kill has been the problem. In a command staff it helps track changes visually and "no change, Sir, Gentlemen" is good enough. My favorite moment was when a General was receiving a briefing and an attachment to Brigade decided to give 150 slide presentation of combat slants pictures of Pvs-14s and who carried them parts on order. The general stood up walked to the guess NCO and said did you tell not to do this? Great walked over got coffee sat back down, then stop wasting everyones time too bad the Brigade CDR isn't here right now, site down MSG you got five minutes to save your boss brief now. Later he told the Brigade CDR from now on the next person who shows a picture of a gun truck and gives him maintenance status will be resigned and he was sorry the Brigade was getting that type of support. If someone from the Brigade does it then the out come will be different. It was supposed to be a capabilities brief. Later the officer led a leaflet drop in which the pilots were not given a grid and the officer used terrain to tell them where to drop. His GPS was left at the TOC. The leaflets were dropped into Syria during the surge. He was taken somewhere else in theater far away from the Brigade CDR.
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COL (Join to see)
There's a difference between stupidity and proper use of a briefing. We did the same thing on transparencies and butcher block in the 90's.
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PPT doesn't have to be boring. I've seen some mixed / funny / dirty / laughable / surprise slide in every boxed presentation. Never critique without alternatives so, I might suggest these substitutes. Remember, when presenting alternatives to a Physicist, always run your fingernails down the "chalkboard" first - they like it.
1. No
2. No
3. OK! On sale too!
1. No
2. No
3. OK! On sale too!
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PowerPoint, can be a necessary evil. The problem is, some people think that they need to get "very detailed" with PowerPoint. I once attended a briefing to a COL with over 380 slides!...
I've also attended briefings to a GEN with just 30 slides... If a section needed more than two slides to get the point across the GEN would refuse to take their briefings...
The Russians used to have a saying: "While America is presenting their PowerPoint Briefings, we'll be rolling across the Fulda Gap" - or something along that line...
I've also attended briefings to a GEN with just 30 slides... If a section needed more than two slides to get the point across the GEN would refuse to take their briefings...
The Russians used to have a saying: "While America is presenting their PowerPoint Briefings, we'll be rolling across the Fulda Gap" - or something along that line...
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It is the plan and not the presentation. There is way to much glitz out there. It doesn't matter if the plan works as long as it looks good. It is the classic "if you can't dazzle them with brilliance then you baffle them with bull****." I have seen this down sour. I have seen doctrine get so perverted it with a presentation that if you were to brief it as a stand alone product without a projector it would make no sense. They just want it to look pretty and make it work where it shouldn't.
The plan should be solid. It isn't the powerpoint that should validate the plan. It is the back brief that should.
The plan should be solid. It isn't the powerpoint that should validate the plan. It is the back brief that should.
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I took a hit on an OER as a Sr LT/Jr Captain because I wasn't good with powerpoint though it does say that. I went to Ranger School so I could lead killers but my lack of skills with powerpoint costed me. I never had a proper powerpoint course but it was a meteric.
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SP5 Michael Rathbun
Um... mebbe it's just an NCO thing, but we were taught that if somebody under your charge is not trained in something needed for the mission, it is not that person's fault.
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MAJ (Join to see)
Yes, I on another deployment defended a SSG who was doing a SFC job in a field had neither the experience nor the training I pulled a senior officer aside and had a very dirrect coversation with him. The situation changed.
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LTC Hillary Luton
SP5 Michael Rathbun Yup, that's an NCO thing. As officers we are taught if you haven't learned how to do something, its your own darn fault and you better get busy learning. Probably why I sucked as a lieutenant. Instead of having mentors, I had critics.
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SP5 Michael Rathbun
LTC Hillary Luton, that may explain much of the very useful but extremely off-the-syllabus block of instruction on the general topic of "Officers: Threat or Menace?" I got in school.
(We were notionally on break, but some of us loved to hear the nuggets from this source -- the presenter was one of those iconic Master Sergeants who most likely shaved with a blow torch; you could almost see the Brown Shoes.)
(We were notionally on break, but some of us loved to hear the nuggets from this source -- the presenter was one of those iconic Master Sergeants who most likely shaved with a blow torch; you could almost see the Brown Shoes.)
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So this will force them to focus on the "so what" instead of data generation and display.
Many historic operations were fought with less then 15 pages of OPORD and 1 graphic (map with relevant overlay. In an effort to do the easy mental part leaders ask for more products instead of focusing on the qulaity ones that make them make decsions.
Many historic operations were fought with less then 15 pages of OPORD and 1 graphic (map with relevant overlay. In an effort to do the easy mental part leaders ask for more products instead of focusing on the qulaity ones that make them make decsions.
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