On the face of it, Beyond Bullet Points has a lot of things going against it. First, it is a book about PowerPoint. Buy a book about a program most people hate? Second, it’s published by Microsoft Press. One would think it would be entirely propaganda.

Most PowerPoint Presentations are simply horrible. I’ve been driven to the “bullet point” presentation style and hate it. Thinking I would have nothing to lose, I bought Beyond Bullet Points.

Am I glad I did.

Cliff Atkinson takes the normal approach to creating a PowerPoint presentation and turns it on its head. The book, no kidding, is practically a page turner. How can this be?

Before doing anything with a PowerPoint deck, the book takes you through how people learn, especially how they learn a lot – like when you do your presentation. Through this research on how people learn, you finally understand why bullet points in a presentation really do turn you off. Yet, we do them anyway.

After explaining the research, the book then goes through the basic structure of a presentation – and it is the classic story structure. Building this structure out – in Word, of course, since this is a Microsoft publication! – then allows translation of your key points into the presentation.

Following the story structure and then implementing the simple steps to create the work in PowerPoint would be enough to buy the book. But Beyond Bullet Points then takes you through building a complete presentation following the structured plan.

The book even comes with its own CD that gives you the templates to follow using Office 2007.

If Bill Gates had followed the advice in this book – if most of Microsoft followed the advice in this book – presentations would be much more meaningful across the board.

Cube Rules Rating: 5 of 5 cubes

Beyond Bullet Points is a classic way to present information the right way. If you do presentations, you need to follow the process outlined in this book.

Scot

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Meetings are necessary to accomplish your objectives. But they are one of the largest time wasters on the planet.

Yet, participating in meetings is critical to your professional brand, visibility in the organization and networking. In order to navigate the cubicle maze of meeting management, I’ll offer five critical meeting participation points you need to check for each meeting.

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In this five minute podcast, I look at the most important rule of networking and four ways to help implement that rule.

Career Management Tips from Cube Rules is published weekly, though I am posting a bit more often right now to get a good base of content here and on iTunes.

You can subscribe to this podcast series here on the blog. Or, search “Career Management Tips from Cube Rules” to subscribe at iTunes.

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Back at work for the week – the summer is almost gone here in the Northern Hemisphere. I had a weekend of errands, sleep, and a few thunderstorms. All in all, not bad.

To get you back into the swing of things, here’s some articles to help on those Monday morning work blues….

Worshiping the Hammer

Timothy L. Johnson tells it like it is on Carpe Factum.

“I couldn’t help but make a couple of playful swipes at Six Sigma, Lean, Agile and UML.  Mind you, I have nothing against these tools per se, but I have taken exception with the people who worship use them.”

Yup. When your site title means “Seize the Accomplishment,” accomplishments trump worshiping process.

How to fix your thinking

I’ve become a fan of David Bullock. A lot of what he writes about is oriented to running your own business – exactly what career management is about. This article gives you some reality-based questions on where you are in your life. Honestly answer his questions. You will be better for it.

Just Say “No” to Corporate Speak

Imagining opening up a blog post and the first two words are your name. Well, there I was, the first two words on this blog post. Barbara Safani writes about where corporate speak really begins: the job description. She even found a job description done the right way. Take a look and tell me if you’d want the Operations Manager position or the Program Manager.  And if you really want the Operations Manager position, please let me know why!

You Have to Get Dirty

Debra Moorhead always comes up with the right perspective. This time she talks about those reusable grocery bags needing to get dirty. And then relates it learning by doing. And firing someone. Wow.

Why Bringing your On-line Community Off-line is So Crucial

Ryan Paugh of Employee Evolution tells us why social networks have a short shelf life and the importance of getting your on-line community communicating off-line. Can we talk?

Enjoy your Monday!

Scot

Here’s a secret: companies will make big changes when the people in upper management are changed.

In only this aspect is company management like sports teams – the first sign of changes coming to a team are when the owner, general manager or the coach changes.

Does your new CEO have a reputation for operational excellence? If so, the first change in your company will be laying people off because there is too much cost to run current operations.

Does your new CIO have a background in outsourcing work and your company doesn’t outsource? It will. Maybe your job.

Cube Rules Members have exclusive access to this report.

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What book are you reading this weekend?

Scot