How to avoid death By PowerPoint | David JP Phillips | TEDxStockholmSalon — Transcript

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1. 0:00Translator:
2. 0:11Okay, ladies and gentlemen, welcome.
3. 0:14There is a question
4. 0:15which has puzzled me for quite a while,
5. 0:18and that is, Why do our PowerPoints look the way they look?
6. 0:22Or rather, How on earth, can we accept that they look the way they look?
7. 0:26How can you do that?
8. 0:29And do you know
9. 0:30what's even more intellectually challenging for me to understand?
10. 0:33It's, How can a person sit over here in this meeting room with 10 others,
11. 0:37observing this dismally bad PowerPoint
12. 0:39filled with charts, graphical elements, page numbers,
13. 0:45fading away five, seven minutes, thinking of other things?
14. 0:48You know the feeling, the boredom, the waste of time?
15. 0:53This person, after 40 minutes,
16. 0:55he or she will stand up, a bit dazed,
17. 0:58trotting off to his own office, coming to his own computer,
18. 1:01flipping it up, going like, 'Oh my god, I've got a presentation tomorrow,
19. 1:05and I do have a PowerPoint to build.'
20. 1:07(Laughter)
21. 1:08Now, what is the chance that this person will build an equally bad PowerPoint
22. 1:12as the one that he or she was herself tortured by
23. 1:15in the other conference room?
24. 1:17Is that a big chance?
25. 1:20Yeah.
26. 1:21Now, what is that?
27. 1:23Why do we do that? Is that vengeance?
28. 1:25Is that where you go like, 'You did that to me.
29. 1:28Phew! I'm going to do it to you. You got it coming, bro'?
30. 1:31Is that the case? I don't think so.
31. 1:34I don't think that's got to do with vengeance, intelligence.
32. 1:38I think it's got to do with something else.
33. 1:40Now, my passion in life is the brain,
34. 1:43and an even bigger passion that is presentation skills.
35. 1:46And I love combining these two.
36. 1:49And about four years ago,
37. 1:51I got so, so upset I blew my top
38. 1:56because the way that we do neural executions
39. 2:00all over our boardrooms today is just -
40. 2:03it's not fair to our intelligence as being Homo sapiens.
41. 2:07So I thought there's got to be something we can do about this,
42. 2:10so I searched the world, I looked for seminars,
43. 2:13I looked for training programs, I looked for books
44. 2:16that could solve this question for me,
45. 2:19but there was none to be found.
46. 2:21So I thought, 'Well, I'll just do as Franz Kafka said,
47. 2:25"If it isn't written, write it yourself."'
48. 2:27And four years later,
49. 2:29I have the great honour to stand here in front of you.
50. 2:32What am I talking about?
51. 2:34What are the PowerPoints I'm referring to?
52. 2:36They can look like this.
53. 2:37Now, this is one of the top three universities in the world,
54. 2:41advising their students and their teachers on how to build great PowerPoints.
55. 2:48I received this from a customer,
56. 2:51and you've got to be semi-blind
57. 2:54in order to even have something like this in the company.
58. 2:58I love this one.
59. 3:00This one was awarded the prize of being the worst PowerPoint
60. 3:03delivered by a public CEO in 2010.
61. 3:06It's a nice prize to pick up, isn't it?
62. 3:08'Oh yes, thank you.'
63. 3:09(Laughs)
64. 3:10Well done, mate.
65. 3:12And then you're like, 'This is bad. Can it get worse?'
66. 3:16Yes, it can.
67. 3:17(Laughter)
68. 3:20Now, this is the UN in Afghanistan,
69. 3:23the US military describing the situation in the area.
70. 3:28And, well, there are no comments on that.
71. 3:32But then we get this one.
72. 3:33'My god, David Phillips, this has got to be the thing.
73. 3:37This has got limited amounts of text.
74. 3:39It's got a supporting image.
75. 3:41It's got a clear headline.
76. 3:42This is the truth.'
77. 3:45Well, the thing is,
78. 3:47if you recognise yourself in any of these,
79. 3:49which I think you do, nodding away,
80. 3:53I want to make you aware of the following:
81. 3:55that if you've delivered a presentation with something like that behind you,
82. 4:0290% of what you said
83. 4:06was gone within 30 seconds.
84. 4:09And then you go, 'No, no, no way, Jose,
85. 4:13that is way - I know it's bad, but it can't be that bad,
86. 4:16can it now, really?'
87. 4:18Well, just let me give you an example of really how bad your working memory is,
88. 4:21and mine, for that case.
89. 4:23I want you to imagine this situation.
90. 4:25You're at the train station, waiting for the train.
91. 4:28You can see it coming on the horizon.
92. 4:30You're fiddling away, you finally find where you put your ticket.
93. 4:33And you take it out, and you go, 'Car five, seat 42. Got it.'
94. 4:37Have you?
95. 4:38(Laughter)
96. 4:39You have absolutely no idea where you're going to sit, do you?
97. 4:42So, you're like, 'Is this only me, or ... Well, I'll check. Five, 42.'
98. 4:46You put it down again.
99. 4:47Have you got it?
100. 4:48No, you haven't got it.
101. 4:49You'll do this on an average of six times before you sit down.
102. 4:53I've seen people in the train go,
103. 4:56'Five, 42, five, 42. Yes, this is my seat, check.'
104. 5:00Now, the bad news in the situation is this:
105. 5:03you do not have a separate working memory for PowerPoint
106. 5:07and a separate working memory for train tickets.
107. 5:10It's the same dismally bad working memory for both activities.
108. 5:17So, I might be harsh when I say this,
109. 5:20but there is one man on this earth
110. 5:22who knows more about the brain than anybody else,
111. 5:25one of the most leading neurologists called John Medina,
112. 5:27and he puts it like this.
113. 5:29[If companies would have as little respect for business
114. 5:32as they have for presentations,
115. 5:33the majority would go bankrupt.]
116. 5:35And it's with his words that I welcome you to 'How to Avoid Death by PowerPoint'.
117. 5:42Now, my objective for this evening, for these 18 minutes,
118. 5:45is to give you five design principles
119. 5:49that will cognitively and psychologically optimise your PowerPoint slides.
120. 5:54And if you haven't used them before,
121. 5:57they will make a tremendous difference
122. 5:59to every PowerPoint you'll be delivering from this day and on.
123. 6:05So, let's start.
124. 6:06The first one of these five is one message.
125. 6:08I received this from a customer,
126. 6:10and I said, 'Hey, we've got a lot of issues in here,
127. 6:13but let's start with the first one.
128. 6:15You've got two messages.
129. 6:16Let's move one of them out of the way, and just bring one message per slide.'
130. 6:21So, why should we only have one message per slide?
131. 6:24Well, I'll give you this beautiful example.
132. 6:26You're at this nice party, you've got the music going boom-boom,
133. 6:29you've got this person you're chatting away to,
134. 6:31you're having a good time.
135. 6:33(Imitates chatter)
136. 6:34And then you hear your name; you hear your name spoken somewhere.
137. 6:37Your entire attention is now diverted in that direction,
138. 6:41and with this person, you're just nodding away
139. 6:43hoping that you're nodding in the right instances, yeah?
140. 6:46Yes, yes, yes.
141. 6:47After a minute, this one stops talking about you,
142. 6:49so you divert your attention straight again.
143. 6:51Now, that person will then say, 'Well, don't you agree?'
144. 6:55And don't we just love that situation?
145. 6:57We have got no clue what they've been talking about.
146. 7:00The same thing goes for PowerPoint.
147. 7:01If you've got more than one message,
148. 7:03the chance is big they will be focusing on this one and not that one,
149. 7:07or that one and not this one.
150. 7:09Just make it simple for human beings.
151. 7:11Have one message per slide.
152. 7:12We are extremely limited to understanding more.
153. 7:17Let's move on. Go to working memory.
154. 7:19I've already given you this bad vibe that your working memory is bad,
155. 7:23and I'm afraid I'm not coming with better news.
156. 7:27I'm coming with worse news, and it goes like this.
157. 7:30This equation has the basis of John Sweller and Mayer,
158. 7:35and they come to the conclusion
159. 7:36that there is something in our brain called 'the redundancy effect',
160. 7:39and it works like this.
161. 7:41If you have text, sentences on your PowerPoint,
162. 7:45and you persist with the annoying idea of speaking at the same time,
163. 7:51what will be remembered by the audience
164. 7:54is zero.
165. 7:55(Laughter)
166. 7:57Or very close to zero.
167. 7:59Now, why is that? How does that come about?
168. 8:03Well, it can't look like this. It's just not practical.
169. 8:07You can't stand and have this and talk at the same time.
170. 8:09So, what are you supposed to do?
171. 8:11Well, use PowerPoint for what it's supposed to be used for.
172. 8:15Pick it like this, pull down your text into the documentation field,
173. 8:18and use the area up there for the presentation material:
174. 8:21short, sweet bits of text and an image.
175. 8:24That is what enhances your image.
176. 8:26That is what enhances your message.
177. 8:28So use PowerPoint as it's supposed to be used.
178. 8:33Come to the third of these five principles,
179. 8:35and that's size.
180. 8:37Before I go into that,
181. 8:38I want to make you aware the following.
182. 8:42Every time you open your eyes for the rest of your life,
183. 8:45you will focus on four things:
184. 8:47moving objects, signalling colours, like red, orange and yellow,
185. 8:53contrast-rich objects and big objects for the rest of your life.
186. 8:58Give you a practical example of that.
187. 9:00Imagine yourself being home with a friend, a really good friend.
188. 9:03Now, the television is on, but the sound is off.
189. 9:07You're having a great conversation,
190. 9:09but do you find it easy to not look at the television?
191. 9:12No. Why not?
192. 9:14Because it's got moving objects,
193. 9:15it's got signalling colours, it's high in contrast,
194. 9:18and they're usually very big these times.
195. 9:22So, why not use this to our benefit?
196. 9:25If you look at this, where is your attention drawn to
197. 9:27without you even having a chance of controlling it?
198. 9:30It's going to the big three all the time.
199. 9:33Have a look at the practical situation; have a look at this.
200. 9:36Where are your eyes drawn to?
201. 9:37I can see that they're drawn constantly to the headline.
202. 9:41Now, how often is the headline the most important part in a PowerPoint?
203. 9:45It's very rare.
204. 9:48Even so, every PowerPoint template is built like this,
205. 9:52where the headline is the biggest object, and the content is the smallest -
206. 9:56going absolute opposite to our biological reactions.
207. 10:00So, what does this look like if we just show you an example?
208. 10:03Well, now I've reduced the title, and it looks like this.
209. 10:06Do you see how your eyes now fall down into the content?
210. 10:09Now they're sucked into the headline,
211. 10:11(Laughter)
212. 10:13and now they're falling down into the content.
213. 10:15So I can control exactly where you are,
214. 10:18but why do people build PowerPoints
215. 10:21where people will be spending 70% of the time on the headline
216. 10:24when it's not the most important part?
217. 10:27So, what I want you to take with you from this
218. 10:29is the most important part of your PowerPoint
219. 10:31should also be the biggest, nothing else.
220. 10:35Moving on to number four, contrast.
221. 10:41Contrast controls your focus.
222. 10:44So, what does that look like?
223. 10:45For instance, if I show you a list like this,
224. 10:47your eyes are over the place
225. 10:49because you don't really know what to focus on.
226. 10:51So, I'll use a built-in functionality into PowerPoint, which goes like this.
227. 10:55I'll show you the first subject, I'll take it away with contrast,
228. 10:58and I'll show you the second one,
229. 10:59and I'll do it again and again and again and again.
230. 11:03You're now following exactly the white spot.
231. 11:05If I do this - dun-dun-dun-dun -
232. 11:07I can see your eyes just wobbling around,
233. 11:09and you're a bit like a kitten going after a little laser pointer on the wall,
234. 11:13going like, 'Where is it? I've got it. I've got it.'
235. 11:16Because you're following where the white spot is, and not the rest.
236. 11:20Now, this is a beautiful example.
237. 11:21Please do use this.
238. 11:23Use it because you can show amazing big tables like this
239. 11:27if you use the effect of contrast, the principle of contrast.
240. 11:29Look what this looks like.
241. 11:31Your eyes are all over the place; you don't know what to focus on,
242. 11:34but I just apply the principle of contrast,
243. 11:36and it looks like that, and suddenly, you know exactly what to focus on.
244. 11:40Here, they're all over the place,
245. 11:41and here, they're exactly where I want them.
246. 11:45Now, there's a big, major drawback with PowerPoints,
247. 11:49and that is that the majority of companies on this earth today,
248. 11:53they persist in having white backgrounds in PowerPoint.
249. 11:57Look at that.
250. 11:58Oh, it's bright, it's shiny.
251. 12:00Could you tell me who has the highest contrast, me or the screen?
252. 12:04Well, the screen.
253. 12:06Who's usually the biggest, me or the screen?
254. 12:08Well, the screen.
255. 12:09So the only option I have is dress myself up in signalling colours
256. 12:13(Laughter)
257. 12:14and jump around on stage in order to balance that problem out,
258. 12:18and that is obviously not a good corporate strategy
259. 12:21in the long term, would it be?
260. 12:23I think the long-term strategy is to just switch it around.
261. 12:26PowerPoint is not supposed to have white backgrounds.
262. 12:29If I do this, your eyes relax.
263. 12:31You focus on me.
264. 12:32I'm the biggest object.
265. 12:33I'm the most contrast-rich object.
266. 12:37I got your focus.
267. 12:38Why is that important?
268. 12:40It's important because I am, I always have been,
269. 12:45and I always will be the presentation.
270. 12:48That is my visual aid.
271. 12:56Moving into the last principle, and that is objects.
272. 13:03Now, this is one of the most severe principles,
273. 13:06and it goes like this.
274. 13:07How many objects do I have here?
275. 13:10If you count them quickly, you'll see that I've got 16.
276. 13:12Do you see this little beauty at the end as well
277. 13:14which goes 'page 12 of 95'?
278. 13:17What is that?
279. 13:19Why do we do that?
280. 13:20That only creates anxiety.
281. 13:22If anything, you are, 'Oh my god, I can't take 83 more of those.'
282. 13:26(Laughter)
283. 13:28But, it can also create hope
284. 13:31because imagine ...
285. 13:33imagine when it's 90 out of 95.
286. 13:36'Oh, I can see the lights; I can see the end of the tunnel.'
287. 13:42Kidding aside, don't do that.
288. 13:45Now, there are so many ideas out there
289. 13:47on how many objects you're supposed to have in PowerPoint,
290. 13:51and once and for all, I just want to put my foot down
291. 13:54and state to you that this is the perfect amount.
292. 13:57In order to do that, I want you to just feel it yourself.
293. 14:00How many objects are you supposed to have?
294. 14:02And we're going to do that by showing you a couple of balls.
295. 14:06I'll throw up the balls.
296. 14:07I want you to nod to me when you've counted them.
297. 14:09Simple instruction. You with me?
298. 14:12Cool, here we go.
299. 14:13Boom.
300. 14:16Alright, takes you about two seconds.
301. 14:19Good. Well done.
302. 14:21Your next set of balls.
303. 14:22Count them, and nod to me when you've counted them.
304. 14:25Here we go.
305. 14:27Excellent. Yeah.
306. 14:28That took you about 1.2 seconds if you're normal,
307. 14:30which about 90% of you seem to be.
308. 14:33(Laughter)
309. 14:34We'll have the third set of balls, the last one.
310. 14:37Look at this, nod to me when you've counted them.
311. 14:40Oh, what was that?
312. 14:43I just pressed the button, and you nodded simultaneously.
313. 14:47That will, if you are normal, take you 0.2 seconds,
314. 14:51two-tenths of a second.
315. 14:53This will take you 1.2, this will take you two-tenths of a second.
316. 14:57And for anyone of you who - you're good at math,
317. 15:00you'll find out that that number is approximately 500% difference.
318. 15:05How is that even remotely possible?
319. 15:07There are only two objects in difference.
320. 15:11Well, might I suggest the following:
321. 15:13this one you have to count,
322. 15:15and this one you see.
323. 15:17Could that be correct?
324. 15:20So what you've just experienced is the following:
325. 15:22that the cognitive process of counting
326. 15:24takes 500% longer time, requires 500% more energy resources
327. 15:30to execute than just seeing.
328. 15:36So, what I want you to keep in mind at all times,
329. 15:41what I want you to keep in your head is this:
330. 15:44[Sex]
331. 15:45which is the Swedish number for this:
332. 15:48[Six]
333. 15:49(Laughter)
334. 15:51The magical number is six.
335. 15:53It's not five, it's not seven, it's six.
336. 15:57And I want to make you aware of this.
337. 15:59When you go into a presentation in the future,
338. 16:01and you've built this amazing PowerPoint,
339. 16:04if you've got more than seven objects, or seven or more objects,
340. 16:08you have to be aware that all the people in there,
341. 16:10they have to use 500% more energy and cognitive resources
342. 16:13to understand what's in your PowerPoint.
343. 16:16Now, how do you think
344. 16:17their energy-saving brain by nature behaves?
345. 16:19Will it go like, 'Ooh, I'll easily invest 500% more cognitive resources
346. 16:24to understand this weird slide'
347. 16:26or, 'I won't'?
348. 16:28'I won't.'
349. 16:29And you've just incurred death by PowerPoint.
350. 16:33Now what does this look like in real life?
351. 16:36Well, have a look at this.
352. 16:37Sixteen objects - can we agree that that's too many?
353. 16:40Yes, we can.
354. 16:42So, what does it look like if we reduce it?
355. 16:44Look at this. We go from this to this.
356. 16:48And this is where your brain goes, 'Ahh'.
357. 16:52And this is where your brain goes, 'Ugh'.
358. 16:55Ahh.
359. 16:57(Laughter)
360. 16:58Ugh.
361. 17:01And I assume that in the future
362. 17:04when you deliver PowerPoints to your colleagues, to your fellow people,
363. 17:10you want them to go, 'Ahh'
364. 17:14when you show them your slides.
365. 17:16You don't want them to go, 'Ugh'.
366. 17:23Now, there is - have you seen this movie,
367. 17:27'The Rain Man' by Dustin Hoffman?
368. 17:30Seen that?
369. 17:31It's a beauty, isn't it?
370. 17:33He comes into this cafeteria, and somebody drops toothpicks,
371. 17:35and he goes like, 'Boom, 247.'
372. 17:38It's amazing, isn't it?
373. 17:40His perceptive limit is here.
374. 17:43Your perceptive limit
375. 17:45(Laughter)
376. 17:47is here.
377. 17:50Now, what amazes me
378. 17:51is that whichever country I go to, whichever company I see,
379. 17:56it seems like they build PowerPoints
380. 17:58in the hope that all their fellow colleagues are autistic or savants,
381. 18:04(Laughter)
382. 18:06which obviously is not the case.
383. 18:11So, but then you go like this, 'But, David, my god.
384. 18:16This means that I have to have more slides.'
385. 18:20(Laughter)
386. 18:23'Yes, that is entirely correct.
387. 18:26You have understood me clearly.'
388. 18:28I want to make one thing clear here,
389. 18:30and that is that the amount of slides in your PowerPoint
390. 18:33has never been the problem.
391. 18:38It is the amount of objects per slide which has been the problem.
392. 18:45The stupid idea
393. 18:46that corporate organisations all over the world -
394. 18:48they've come up with limitations going like,
395. 18:51'Ooh, we've got this clever idea:
396. 18:53You can't use 40 slides. You can only use four.'
397. 18:55So what do people do?
398. 18:57(Laughter)
399. 18:58Well, they take the content of the rest 36,
400. 19:01and they jam it in the first four.
401. 19:03My god, is that counterproductive or what?
402. 19:07And we call ourselves intelligent.
403. 19:11No, no.
404. 19:12Alright, so compared -
405. 19:14I started off with 95 of those.
406. 19:19We ended up with 135 of these.
407. 19:23And yes, it gave an immediate result
408. 19:26to the application that we were working for.
409. 19:30So, to summarise this.
410. 19:33Let's have some fun and do a cross-examination
411. 19:35because obviously I have to prove my point.
412. 19:37Do you remember more than 90% of what I said?
413. 19:41I'm not going to be that harsh.
414. 19:42Let's do a crossword instead.
415. 19:45It's going to go like this.
416. 19:46Words are going to come up.
417. 19:48I'm going to ask you to scream them out as loud as you can as we go along.
418. 19:51How many messages are you supposed to have per slide?
419. 19:54(Audience) One.
420. 19:55One. Very good.
421. 19:56(Laughter)
422. 19:58I think you were looking for a different word there.
423. 20:00(Laughter)
424. 20:03What can we use to steer our focus?
425. 20:05(Audience) Contrast.
426. 20:06Yes, and another one?
427. 20:07(Audience) Size.
428. 20:08Well done.
429. 20:09What should we avoid using if speaking at the same time?
430. 20:12(Audience) Sentences.
431. 20:13Beautiful.
432. 20:14And what kind of background should we have?
433. 20:16We should have dark.
434. 20:18And finally, now you can say it.
435. 20:19How many objects per slide?
436. 20:21Six. That is magnificent.
437. 20:24Thank you very much.
438. 20:25(Applause) (Cheers)