MD Leader

PowerPoint is an essential ingredient for many presentations. Remembering it is an ingredient and not the whole meal can be the key to successful communication. We communicate to transfer ideas, an overly complicated PowerPoint diverts attention from the presenter to the medium and reduces knowledge transfer. When it comes to PowerPoint, less is more.

Keeping It Simple:

• Pick a simple format and stick with it
• Use no more than four to seven lines per slide
• Simplify the wording of each line
• Reduce lines of text when including images
• Rarely use animation, it usually distracts the audience
• Rarely use sound, sound as well can distract the audience

Your audience can read text on the slide, you do not need to read it to them. Your verbal presentation should amplify each slide’s context adding depth and understanding.

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My employer, Ministry Health Care, partners physician leaders with a non-physician leader.  The teams are intended to provide patient centered vision from the clinician and strong administrative management skills from the partner.  The concept works well when the two truly work as a team.

My partner is Ministry’s CIO.  Behind closed doors we sometimes agree and sometimes disagree but the collaboration always produces a stronger deliverable than either of us could have accomplished in isolation. Once the door is opened, we present a united front. Communication of vision is so important, we just cannot afford to disagree in public.

Ministry is a large organization spread over north and central Wisconsin. Though we often present together, more often we go our separate ways to appear in front of diverse audiences.  We work hard to present the same message using the same PowerPoint presentation. The current PowerPoint is constantly updated but the document is located on QuickBase which can be accessed from any internet connection.  We access the latest version just prior to each presentation.  We also use a custom design template with an embedded graphic for each type of presentation. The various templates help to tie the message together.

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