Further notes on PowerPoint
I used
LinkedIn to seek out further information about PowerPoint above and beyond what is in the
Rhetoric for Engineers lecture notes.
Christopher HuntleyI use PowerPoint all the time for documenting items like administrative tasks which require screen shots and some bullet points for step by step performance. I like it because it flows easily through many processes. When using it for a presentation, however, the rule of 6 applies:
- No more than 6 slides without a picture
- No more than 6 bullet points per slide
- No more than 6 words per bullet point
Bullet points are there to keep it simple. If everything the presenter can tell me can be [and maybe has been] put on a PowerPoint slide then why do I need the presenter?
When I give a presentation I expect to provide information that is not on the slides thus requiring thought and the audience paying attention.
Daniel JatovskyWhat a presenter should do is write and practice a speech without the use of PowerPoint at all. Such a speech should be interesting and compelling on its own. Then you add PowerPoint to illustrate key points and highlight important concepts.
Kevin MaloneyYour presentation and PowerPoint slides should be above all things persuasive. To be successful one should use PowerPoint as a visual aid: more graphs, pictures, visuals, etc.; fewer words and bullet points.
Christopher LiningerAtkinson, C.
Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and InspireTim SheaI like the 10-20-30 rule: A power point presentation should have no more than 10 slides, not last longer than 20 minutes, and have no font size smaller than 30.
Robert de LoghtAs for all presentations, the basis of it all should be a good plan, an overall structure that clearly points out which message has to be conveyed and how. This assumes planning and preparation - often a weak element.
Links supplied by various contributors:
I will throw in just one further comment myself here: one quick way to judge the readability of a slide is to place it on the floor and try to read it yourself standing up. If you can read your slide from that position, chances are your audience can see it from some distance from the projector.
Labels: recommendations
How does a small company attract and retain top talent?
These are summarized from a discussion, kicked off by Yogesh Jain on
LinkedIn two months ago. There were some outstanding answers, and I may have picked too many of them as is!
Jeff Goodell – there is a great opportunity for upward mobility within the company, that is, there is a great possibility for transitioning into roles of greater responsibility and at a greater pace.
Joy Jennings –
- Eliminate bureaucracy and/or layers of approval
- Give more vacation time than other companies in your industry
- Empower employees -- give them responsibility if they want it
- Encourage flex time -- let them come and go as they need
Andy Newman – consider educational opportunities and training development as retention tools. [And] regular communication is essential in small companies. If people don't know what is going on there they will bail for a large company.
Matthew Bowie – as long as the company doesn't have unsettling change, and shows employees just how much they mean, you will most-likely find the company with long-term employees just because they like staying in a family-type environment.
Janna Kay – bring your dog to work Fridays, bagel Tuesdays, yoga Wednesdays, team building exercises off site, flexible hours, believe and support work/life balance, supreme benefits package, great pay, mutual respect, positive company culture, bottom up input on company culture and policies, etc.
George F. Franks III – most people leave due to their boss. So it is very important that all managers and supervisors (anyone leading people) be trained, monitored, coached and that their employees have opportunities to provide feedback on THEM.
Joseph Campagna III – you can attract heavy hitters with the promise of future payout. Private stock option plans and profit sharing are two easy ways to do this. Multitudes will leave cushy Fortune 500 jobs if there is the opportunity [for more] than just a paycheck, even if it's [for] a long haul.
Larry Boyer – small companies are often able to go after and win some very interesting project work simply because large companies don't look at anything under a certain dollar amount and/or their overhead is so large as to make them uncompetitive with small companies.
Becky Fitzgerald – Knowledge workers care about being valued and adding value - make sure you acknowledge both sincerely, if you cannot, you won't keep them.
Michael MacKenna – Attention Small Business Owners and Management: INCLUDE your people in the decision process, open the doors, invite them to meetings, and your talent retention will increase right along with your profits.
Vimal Menon – there are many small companies who have a good work culture, code of conduct and ethics, high values which ensure the employees give back something to the society and also help them grow in confidence.
Lee Cendana – I would... include that a small company offer the best employee fringe benefits package as possible: medical, dental, vision, life, and/or cafeteria. [Also]
Ben Codi – the PEO (Professional Employer Organization)… helps small organizations attract and retain talent by providing the benefits and hr support highly qualified employees expect in this competitive business environment.
Labels: recommendations
Mary Anne Bitetto on Small Manufacturers using Outsourcing
Mary Anne Bitetto was assigned the following question in her management class: discuss why the manufacturing sector in the US has been losing jobs to other nations. Her answer, which I thought showed some insight, follows:
So far, a lot of the focus in this discussion has been on medium-sized to larger companies. Some primary goals for these corporations have been established: cutting costs and avoiding strict US environmental policies. Small businesses, however, are left out of the picture. The increasingly globalized economy, particularly since the onset of the internet, creates an environment conducive to small businesses and specialized products. For many of these businesses, reasons for outsourcing may go beyond cutting costs. It is possible that the small-business owner wants to maintain only a certain aspect of the product development. Perhaps he doesn't have the means to set up a large manufacturing plant. Since a lot of small businesses sell products that are specialized, it may not behoove the business-owner to expand if only a small customer demographic is targeted. Increasing in size to accommodate for all of the manufacturing processes may force the company to compete with larger ones. This could cause a shift of focus that may go beyond the scope of the original business plan.
Many small businesses are turning to outsourcing as a viable means to produce a product. For example, I was reading a magazine article a few years ago about an entrepreneur who had decided to start an online business selling custom stuffed toys he had personally designed. As someone who was able to work from his home office using design software, it was in his best interest to look elsewhere for manufacturing. A company in China was able to interface with his designs, and would send him samples of his designs so he could modify the patterns to get the look he wanted. In this way, he was able to control the aspects of the business he wanted, without having to move away from his artistically creative focus. This is indicative that inexpensive manufacturing processes could be increasingly used by small-business owners in order to quickly produce a specialized product without having to expand their businesses.
I also added, for her edification and yours, first, that for some small manufacturers labor costs, including medical benefits, are a great burden, unless the manufacturer has what amounts to a constant flow of work. Small companies have a tough time maintaining that. So nobody gets replaced after attrition.
Second, nobody is listening to W. Edwards Deming any more. (A great shame for the Western world.) In
Out of the Crisis, one of Deming's 14 Points is stated this way:
End the practice of awarding business on the basis of a price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
And this is what we're not doing any more.
Labels: education, engineering
Break Room Nightmares
On LinkedIn I asked the question, "what's the worst break-room behavior you've seen?"
Here's a summary of the answers. I love hearing stories like this.
- A view of someone's ugly bare-naked feet on a counter -- please understand that it is a common area!
- Someone late at night randomly distributed chicken throughout the office in the potted plants, desk drawers, light fixtures etc.
- One of my bosses farted in the middle of a meeting multiple times and remained completely stoic. You can't make shit like this up.
- I saw a guy melt a thermal cup in the microwave and his hot coffee was pouring out of the microwave door.
- At a former employer, an idiot who was cleaning the break room mixed bleach and ammonia. The toxic gases from this mixture caused an evacuation!
- I prepared my lunch, a salad, and someone comes along and starts taking things straight out of the bowl and eating them, LOL.
- Leaving leftover greasy food on the table thinking someone else may want the leftovers and not checking back later on to clean it up. The smell of pepperoni pizza at noon is no longer pleasant at 6 PM
- People who refill their water bottles at the water cooler and stick the entire nozzle into their bottle thus exposing the rest of us to their germs and cooties.
- Some people, likely those with adult ADD, who leave items like used coffee cups on the table and forget to throw them away, take the creamer and don't put it back, and press the "brew" button on the coffee machine when the pot is still half full, thus causing coffee overflow onto the counter (and by then they are usually off to a meeting).
- At one place I worked, free pretzels and chips were offered in the break room. My consumption stopped abruptly after noticing one individual digging into the tub with his hands as if he were playing in the sand at the beach...this same individual having been regularly observed to ignore use of the hand washing facility after visiting the men's room. Lovely. And then there were the stockpilers...those who would fill up their own buckets to ensure an adequate supply for the coming week's lunches.
- Whenever we would have cake at employee functions,a senior manager would cut the cake. Great, he's pitching in that sort of thing, right? Well, he would use his (unwashed) fingers to slide each piece of the cake onto people's plates. This meant he got frosting on his fingers, and would then lick the frosting off his fingers before going on to cut and touch the next piece. I could never bring myself to eat the cake. Yuck.
- A person I used to work with brought his jar of "Colon Cleanser" to the office and stored it in a cabinet in the breakroom. He put it right next to the coffee mugs. One morning I couldn't resist, so I suggested that this was a little too much information, and maybe he could keep it in his office or even just leave it at home. He looked at me like I was crazy. Then he told me "it works really fast" so he couldn't leave it at home; it might "work" during his commute (which was only about 5-10 minutes).
- Blocking where I need to get in the break-room really bothers me and when i see people coughing all over the place like they would be in their own house. Yuck!!
- How about showing off your tattoos?
- It isn't funny, but when I worked in a large office, I'd read MY newspaper. The number of people that would walk up and just TAKE a section of my paper was incredible.
Labels: diversions
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