US army creates world’s worst PowerPoint slide
ABOVE: COMA AT 30 PACES: The US military's Afghanistan-explained slide, credited to PA Consulting. PA maintains an Auckland office, if this type of work appeals.
Via the most excellent NZ Trade & Enterprise, our government has long warned about the dangers of Death by PowerPoint.
The US military bureaucracy has been a little slower on the update.
A slide shown by General Stanley McChrystal, head of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan (above), is now zinging around the internet, held up as a metaphor for America’s tangled policy in the region, and an example of the perils of over-reliance on Microsoft’s presentation software.
“When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war,” The New York Times reported General McChrystal as saying when he first unveiled the slide last year.
But as in the Middle East and Afghanistan, things are slowly starting to dawn on Uncle Sam.
“PowerPoint makes us stupid,” Marine Corps General James N. Mattis of the Marine Corps, the Joint Forces commander, said this month at a military conference in North Carolina, reported the Times.
He spoke without slides.
Another member of the brass, Brigadier General H R McMaster, told the same conference that PowerPoint was "an internal threat" (remember when they used to root out Commies?).
“It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,” he told the Times, “Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.”
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Comments and questions9
We at Prezi (a slideless presentation tool) couldn't resist sending you our solution to the slide in the NYTimes article "We Have Met the Enemy and He is PowerPoint". We know that any tool can be used to make a bad presentation, but the wrong tool can completely lose your message.
We believe that the lack of focus, not the complexity of the slide, is the problem. Without focus, you cannot foster a dialogue. And, without dialogue, you cannot make a persuasive point. In Prezi, you can use size and scale for layering information to avoid showing an overwhelming number of details in one view. That way your audience can focus on a specific point, without getting lost in the details. When your audience is with you, they’re more likely to ask questions and engage in dialogue – helping you make your point.
The same slide could have been more clearly presented in Prezi. Here’s how:
https://prezi.com/kozirkcvpmzm/de-spaghettization-of-a-ppt-slide/
We are convinced that the military (and really anyone) could make more persuasive points by conveying information in a way that fosters dialogue.
[Congratulations. You've achieved the same spaghetti effect, but with motion sickness thrown in. - Chris Keall]
I'd like to see the build associated with that slide. Magic
An indictment of out-sourcing, surely. It wasn't the US Army that created this.
There goes my PowerPoint Ranger Tab.
The Taliban fired the Agency after seeing ths....
I really didn't see a difference other than the ability move around the screen. Is there something else to Prezi that I am missing?
Looks like the Same Power Point they're using to run our Country at this Current time and you see how well that's working! hahaha
kateWe are convinced that the military (and really anyone) could make more persuasive points by conveying information in a way that fosters dialogue.
Powerpoint slide for presentation is great tools, thanks. Pola gaya hidup Sehat
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