Slides To Avoid: Agenda
November 07, 2006 Filed in: Slides to
Avoid
Is it me, or do we see agenda slides just about
everywhere? We presenters can't seem to help
ourselves, and, before any meeting or presentation, a
slide like this will be staring everyone in the face.
Now don't get me wrong. It's appropriate to pass out
agendas from time to time. Just because I can't think
of an example doesn't mean they don't exist. However,
the agenda has no real reason to be incorporated into
your slides.
Your audience can handle solid food. An agenda slide is a form of spoon-feeding – plain and simple. In most settings, your audience is intelligent enough to follow what's going on without point-by-point preparation. Chances are good you are working with professionals who are quick and flexible in their thinking. An agenda slide kind of insults that intelligence.
Who's going to remember anyway? Honestly, five minutes into the talk or meeting, no one is going to remember all of the agenda points. If you handed out an agenda, why did you stick it on a slide? That's just redundant.
Only three more items, and we're outta here! Face it – you just gave the meeting participants a checklist. They will continually refer back to your agenda to see how close you are to finishing. It becomes more of a distraction than a facilitator to anything.
I know I'm going to get some flack from colleagues regarding this post. Agenda slides are old hat. We're used to them, so why bother eliminating them? Quite simply, it comes down to the small touches. If you want your presentation to stand out as unique and individual, sidestep cliché and the mundane whenever you can. An audience won't be distracted by the absence of an agenda – and that is exactly what you want.
Your audience can handle solid food. An agenda slide is a form of spoon-feeding – plain and simple. In most settings, your audience is intelligent enough to follow what's going on without point-by-point preparation. Chances are good you are working with professionals who are quick and flexible in their thinking. An agenda slide kind of insults that intelligence.
Who's going to remember anyway? Honestly, five minutes into the talk or meeting, no one is going to remember all of the agenda points. If you handed out an agenda, why did you stick it on a slide? That's just redundant.
Only three more items, and we're outta here! Face it – you just gave the meeting participants a checklist. They will continually refer back to your agenda to see how close you are to finishing. It becomes more of a distraction than a facilitator to anything.
I know I'm going to get some flack from colleagues regarding this post. Agenda slides are old hat. We're used to them, so why bother eliminating them? Quite simply, it comes down to the small touches. If you want your presentation to stand out as unique and individual, sidestep cliché and the mundane whenever you can. An audience won't be distracted by the absence of an agenda – and that is exactly what you want.