Issue #3

It is scary to think that PowerPoint has become so deeply engrained in the military’s culture; undermining the communication it was originally meant to facilitate. Bumiller points out that leadership in the military shares the same view, that “death by PowerPoint” stifles discussion, critical thinking, and decision-making. In light of the article it would seem that PowerPoint has effectively become the bottleneck for internal communication and the weapon of choice when putting the media to sleep.

In my experiences I have found PowerPoint to be an incredibly useful tool to communicate. But the thing I don’t like about PowerPoint is the amount of time you can consume worrying about the formatting and the animation that goes into each slide. Those little details can suck up all your time, and in the end the presentation can still not serve its purpose. Bumiller points out that slide preparation ties up junior officers and that it diverts useful time to something that may very well be too vague to communicate the message intended.

If the military were to take a audience-centered approach to its messages it would communicate better internally. It can start with things as simple as cutting time on slide preparation and meetings by making messages more concise. Points should be more direct and intentional by approaching presentations with an active voice. Messages would also be more personal to the listeners if the “you” attitude was used. More listeners would think, “this is about me, I should listen.” I am sure that the diagram in the article was not developed with the audience in mind, it looks more like the map of someone's brain, than a strategy model. By simply turning the focus from self to the audience it would help the military restructure it communication process.