Next Level of Productivity: PowerPoint?

It's happened twice. I go into a company, rebuild their network, and clean up their workstations. The result is that increased productivity appears in one form: PowerPoint. Suddenly everyone is doing presentations. It's happening here like it occurred at my last gig. This is funny and odd but I think the reasons are somewhat clear.

The task that once took three hours only takes two, so employees want to enhance their output. PowerPoint is easily accessible because it uses similar logic to other programs used by staff (i.e. Word, Excel, Outlook). There is plenty of online help (find) and instant gratification couldn't be more attainable.

Projectors are also easy to use. Anyone with the drive to see their work on a wall will spend energy learning to use a projector. And projectors often come with presentation remotes, which are also relatively easy to learn and allow staff to be techno-cool (though included projector remotes aren't nearly as user-friendly as third party presentation remotes. This Logitech (shop) is my favorite right now). So there is an element of fun to this.

The real driving force is that most non-profit departments (especially in small companies) do their own marketing. The easy visuals offered by PowerPoint make for a better pitch and in the end, one hopes, this means growth for the company. I'm not sure if this is success but it is interesting to see where the first steps after a major overhaul take us. Now, if only people knew how to use PowerPoint well (info).

Books I've suggested to staff:
PowerPoint 2003 Personal Trainer (shop)
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (shop)

Tags: nptech powerpoint