Super White Template Has Arrived!!

Here you go!   Super_White_Template

White Template Almost Done!

Working on the next template – All White – Will be available tomorrow!

DK

New Super Green Template – Download it!

All right, it’s Template Thursday.  Today’s Super_Green_Template (Super_Green_Template_vfinal) is great for Pitching or Teaching and has a nice green color scheme.  Steal this and use it for your next presentation.  Let me introduce you to one of the slide layouts in this template.  It’s called the TrendWall.

Trend Wall

A TrendWall is a layout I like to use when I need to tell a complicated story.  In this case, I am using the TrendWall Layout to illustrate my background.  It is a virtual resume of everything I have done post-college.  I often use this layout as a slide where I introduce myself to an audience.

 

When I show this, the pictures themselves prompt me to tell my story which revolves around my family, my time in the Army, and my time at Microsoft.  Audiences love it, because it is so rich in detail and really helps me connect with the audience.

I have also used TrendWall’s to illustrate complicated problems.  You can use it to hold example photos of the problem at hand.

I have included three different TrendWall layout sets in the template.  Each has individual layouts for 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, and even 15 pictures. 

More on the other layouts in this template in later posts. 

Thanks for tuning in.

 DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com

Introducing Your Organization to the Modern Presentation Method

Change is hard!  Especially within an organization.  People are afraid to move from what is familiar, even if it is sub-optimal, to something that is unfamiliar.  People have been emailing me lately asking how they should introduce the Modern Presentation Method into their organizations.  My answer is simple.  Do it very slowly.  Find the low hanging fruit.  And then fix it.

I recommend you find a presentation that is given regularly in your organization.  Something that is repeated frequently.  Here are some examples.

• Sellers and Marketers:  Your core “pitch deck”.  The one you use whenever you are presenting on screen to prospective customers.
• Teachers:  Any class you teach frequently.  Just pick one that looks bad or is too long.
• Managers and Organizers:  All-Hands meeting.  Team or Project Status meeting.

 

The next time you need to do that presentation, create a second version of it using the Modern Presentation Method.  Then, when you are reviewing it beforehand with the stakeholders, show them   the before and after versions.  If you did a good job, they will love the new version created with the Modern Presentation Method.

To put my money where my mouth is, I am going to do a before and after of an AAR deck for a training unit at one of the Joint Readiness Centers.  We’ll see if I can get permission to post it so I can show you what I did.

Thanks for tuning in.

 DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com

Charts and Graphs

Today’s post will be a quick one.  These are for all of those people who are creating Pitch or Teaching presentations for onscreen or want a sharp on paper Organizing presentation.  Many times when you want to include a chart of a graph you can’t find one that looks clean enough in the standard chart templates.  Good charts and graphs are instantly understandable so they should be simple, with appropriate colors highlighting the important data, and with a minimum of text.

Well here are two in slide starters.  Blogs_and_Charts_v1

Doughnut Chart

The first is called a Doughnut Chart and it’s pretty self-explanatory.  I have made this one in grey scales so it will work with a large variety of backgrounds.  Multiple successive Doughnut Charts are great if you have one variable that are you are comparing over successive time periods such as year-to-year or quarter to quarter.

 

Pictorial Graphs

Pictorial Graphs are an even better method for single variable, successive time period comparisons.  The real advantage over Doughnut Charts is you use an icon or picture to represent the variable.  In this case, we could be talking about housing occupancy rates.  Again, simple, colors have meaning, and text is minimized.

 

Just a little taste, more to come in later posts.  Thanks for tuning in.

 DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com

Need to Review a PowerPoint Presentation? Then Build a Storyboard Using This Template!!

For three years here at Microsoft, one of my duties was to oversee all keynotes at our annual Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC).  For example, in 2010, I oversaw 42 different keynotes involving almost a 500 member virtual team that spanned Microsoft and dozens of partner companies. 

The Worldwide Partner Conference is a 15,000-attendee conference for the partner companies who sell Microsoft software or build solutions on Microsoft software.  These partners produce almost 100% of Microsoft’s $60 Billion revenue stream.  The show itself is an amazing event and two years ago in just the first 48 hours; we generated 1.4 MILLION page views on the show website.  Its high pressure, high stakes keynotes and presentations. 

One problem I encountered when I started the job was how do I get everyone on the same sheet of music?  How do I make sure we are telling a consistent story across all of the keynotes?  I found that when I sat down to a review with key stakeholders for one keynote, they wanted to know what the other keynoters were saying so they could coordinate messages.  However, when I would show printouts of others keynotes to them, they often would not understand because paging through a 10 or 20 page printout would hinder their ability to visualize the full presentation.  Therefore, I turned to Hollywood for my answer.  I started making storyboards of each keynote.

A storyboard is an 11×17 printout that shows all of the slides from a single PowerPoint presentation.  Here is an example of one.

 

Voila, my problem was solved!  It turns out, that when I would hand a storyboard to a reviewer, it would take them about 90 seconds to understand even the most complex of keynotes.  They could jot notes down right on the paper and instead of taking 10 or 15 minutes per keynote, we could do it in less than 5.  That is a huge timesavings and it generated a better outcome.  As a result, for the last three years, whenever I need to review a PowerPoint presentation with others I make a storyboard.  It only takes about 10 minutes.  Here is how to do it. 

 

Create a storyboard in PowerPoint

1. Open Presentation:  Open up your ready to review presentation in PowerPoint.
   Note:  These instructions are for Office 2010.  It is a similar procedure in Office 2007 but the steps do differ slightly.
2. Save Each Slide As A Picture:
   1. Choose File
   2. Save As
   3. Save: Go to the Save as Type pull-down and choose PNG Portable Network Graphics Format.
   4. Click Save
   5. Choose Every Slide:  You will be prompted by the following message “Do you want to export every slide in the presentation or only the current slide?”  Choose the Every Slide option.
   6. PowerPoint Creates Pictures:  PowerPoint will generate the graphics slide to the location you have chosen and then offer a confirmation message like what I have below when it is done. 
   7. Select OK
3. Make Storyboard File:  Open the Storyboard_Template.pptx (Storyboard_Template) presentation included in this blog post.  This is a pre-formatted 11×17 storyboard template.  Name it and save it.
4. Insert Storyboard Pictures:
   1. Go to Insert and Select Picture
   2. A File Explorer Window will open.  Navigate to the file folder where the PNG files are stored that you created in Step 2.
   3. Select only the content slides.  You can do this by holding down the CTRL key continuously while clicking each slide you want with left clicks of the mouse and click Insert.
5. Format Storyboard Pictures:  All of these PNG pictures will now be inserted into your storyboard template.   Do three things while these PNGs are still selected. 
   1. Select Picture Tools – Format
   2. Go to the upper right corner and change their width to 2″. 
   3. Click on Compress Pictures, on Target Output use the highest resolution available (either Print or Document Resolution is usually best.  Then select OK.
6. Organize The Storyboard Pictures: 
   1. Now all you have left to do is organize them in storyboard format.  Select the first slide (the one in the upper left hand corner and the farthest back and move it to the upper hand most spot.
   2. Move each subsequent slide in line with it.  PowerPoint 2010 has a very cool alignment feature that will help you keep them in line.  Do this for the remaining slides.
   3. The end result is a storyboard

 

Here is an infographic that shows you these steps visually.  The file is also attached.  How To Build A Storyboard Infographic

Note:  In step 5b, you can size down as far as 1.4″ in width, which allows you to get 80 slides on the 11 x17 or any number that is higher.  It is all about getting 100% of your slides on one page.  P.S.  If you have more than 80 slides, you should be using Garr Reynolds presentation method OR you have too many slides in your deck.

Print Out Your Storyboard

1. Setup Printer
   1. Choose File and then Print
   2. Click on Printer Properties
   3. Select Other Size for Paper
   4. Select 11×17 for both Input Paper and Output Paper
   5. Click OK
   6. Click OK
2. Setup Print Job
   1. Select Full Page Slides Pull Down
   2. Select Scale To Fit Paper
   3. Select High Quality
3.   Hit The Print Button 

Here is an infographic that shows you these steps visually.  The file is also attached.  How To Print A Storyboard Infographic

 

 

The simple act of creating a storyboard has improved the quality and speed of my reviews significantly.  The first few times you have to make a storyboard it will take 15 minutes or so, but after doing it a few times you will cut that down to less than 5.

Thanks for tuning in.

 DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com

Decision Briefing Infographic – Don’t Be A Tool!

Anyone who has ever been in the US Army knows and dreads decision briefings. The briefer gets up in front of the Old Man. He then proceeds to take the attendees of the briefing through a long, tortuous presentation, replete with slides containing lots of data that no one can read as he karaoke’s his way through the presentation. The worst offender use most of their allotted time, which leaves none for a cogent discussion. Today’s post is for all of you who are tired of this.

 

The Templates

I am attaching two templates today. One is a Word document(Decision Briefing Template). Yes, egads the ModernPresenter is proposing that you brief from a Word document! It is a simple outline for a three Course of Action decision briefing. Here are the rules for filling it out:

1. Put no more than four pages of content into the document. That is about 2000 words. The reason for this limit is that four pages can be read in 10 minutes.
2. No more than three Courses Of Action (COA). That is because most people have trouble comparing more than that. As a starter, one of the COAs could well be status quo – no change. Alternatively, you can have a conservative COA, a middle COA, and a visionary COA.
3. Send it out to the attendees beforehand as a pre-read and also to solicit their feedback prior to the meeting.

The second template is a PowerPoint template (Decision Briefing Template) for a decision brief infographic. It is 11×17. It is a single page representation of your Word document. Here are the rules for filling it out:

1. You get only one page. Period! This is designed to be a comprehensive problem overview and you need to limit it to one page.
2. Don’t send it out beforehand.

The Meeting Flow

Now, the decision briefing itself should follow this flow:

1. Send out the Word document pre-read and get feedback.
2. When the meeting starts, spend two minutes introducing yourself and give everyone a printed copy of the Word Document.
3. LET THEM SPEND THE NEXT TEN MINUTES READING THE DOCUMENT IN SILENCE. Most busy people have no time for the pre-read, so this gets every attendee level set.
4. Once the 10 minutes are up, hand out the 11×17 infographic. Spend no more than 5 minutes going over the recommended course of action and then open the meeting to a discussion where you facilitate.

 

A Real World Example

Back in 2004, I was an 11B NCO in Iraq. I was in a small Task Force (TF Chinook) that was charged with training and operation with one of the first 30 or so Iraqi Infantry Battalions. We were based on two FOBs near LSA Anaconda and we had a base camp on the Eastern side of LSA Anaconda. I was the #2 NCO in the Task Force. My First Sergeant ran the base camp on LSA Anaconda and S4. I ran S1, S2, S3, as well as acted as patrol leader on over 100 patrols. We simply did not have the manpower to do it any other way. Fortunately, I had the pick of the litter when it came to NCOs so my folks that were actually out running patrols and my staff folks were excellent, so we managed.

Now here was the problem. Our Iraqi unit was 50% Shi’a and 50% Sunni. Down to a man. An absolute recipe for sectarian disaster. And the unit was riddled with both insurgents and criminals. We had a wide variety of incidents where the Shi’a/Sunni rift caused us problems and both the insurgents and criminals in the unit took advantage of this rift.

Daily, my NCOs, myself, and other American units that were OPCON’d some of our Iraqi Companies were in danger from this problem. In the case of my NCOs and myself, we often did foot patrols with only two, three, or four Americans with ten times our number of Iraqis. Often on patrol, we (the Americans) operated hundreds of meters from each for hours at a time. In one instance, two American soldiers were killed by an insurgent who was a member of the unit while out on just such a patrol.

So here’s the problem. Most of the platoons were organized on sectarian lines. They were either all Sunni or all Shi’a. We hypothesized that we could train a better unit if we broke down the sectarian barrier. We also figured that mixing the sects would result in more security for the Americans on patrol as insurgent infiltrators would be less likely to try something shady or criminal if the Iraqi next to them was from the opposite sect.

So voila, Decision Briefing time! The Old Man asked me to put together a proposal. So being the good Microsoft guy that I am (at the time I was a reservist and my job back home was at Microsoft), I turned to the Army’s standard tool, PowerPoint. And the briefing was a mess. The Old Man, who is a sharp guy, didn’t understand my courses of action and worse pulled one of his own out of the air that seemed to fit the need. (Beware the Good Idea Fairy)

My courses of action were:

1. Status Quo – To do nothing and just accept the situation.
2. Manage The Influencers – To identify influentials in each of the two communities. One group was good officers, NCOs, and lower ranks who were highly regarded by their peers and move them into positions of influence (promote them) along with small numbers of their same sects into the platoons and squads manned largely by other sects. The second group was bead actors. Through good intel work we could identify potential troublemakers (insurgent and criminals) we would move them (through transfer and even promotions) to platoons comprised of the opposite sect.
3. Protect The Village Groupings – Align each platoon and squad by geographic location. Often times in Iraq a Shi’a village would be geographically close to a Sunni village. If we organized the units based on geographic proximity and created mixed units as a result we would still realize the benefits that we wanted and at the same time the Iraqis would benefit because they could still come to work as a group from their village. This would cut down on the number of Iraqi soldiers killed or wounded as they traveled to our FOBs because a large group was hard for insurgents to ambush as opposed to soldiers traveling in smaller groups.

 

The Old Man, who was frustrated with the situation wanted to just mix platoons and squads around in a 50-50 sect mix. It was the simple solution in his mind and was a logical alternative until you looked at the practicalities.

1. It was hitting a fly with a hammer. The bad actors in the unit never amounted to more than about 20% of the unit. The truly bad ones were probably only 5-7% of the total. Why put everyone through a move and risk alienating a large swath of the unit.
2. It would be an administrative nightmare. Why move around all 800 soldiers if we could get the same effect by moving only 1/10th as many?
3. The purpose of the move was to increase our security by putting bad actors in a place where they felt uncomfortable attempting a crime because they would have to do it in the presence of members of the opposite sect. If we did small strategic moves of very specific people, they knew we were doing it because of them. This put them on notice that we suspected them, which would have a psychological effect of “putting them on notice”.

 

So after the first briefing debacle I asked the Old Man to let me take another run at the problem. He agreed and I went back to the drawing board.

In the end, I created a Word document that cogently outlined my courses of action and then put together an overlay on PowerPoint. Instantly, when the Old Man saw the courses of action splayed on the printed out, paper slide, which included a map overlay of where each soldier in the Iraqi unit lived and where all if the SIGACTS were occurring he understood the various strategies. As a result, we had a fruitful discussion and the Old Man ended up making a good decision as a result. (We combined COA2 and COA3)

In the end, we moved key leaders (NCO, officers) as well as suspected criminals and insurgents around, broke up specific platoons, and the result was better training, better operations, and increased safety for both Americans and Iraqis. We never again had serious incident on patrol because of infiltrators in the unit. In fact, many Sunnis and Shiites ended up becoming close friends because of working closely and enduring combat together.

 

The Lesson Learned – Stop Satisficing Behavior!

So what’s the rationale behind doing decision briefings this way? Whether in the Army or the corporate world we are often faced with complex problems. Often times these problems can be categorized as:

1. Composed of multi variables
2. The facts may be unclear and the information available is unreliable
3. The situation may be new to the decision maker with no clear cut path to resolution
4. Ultimately a decision must be made by some date or time and someone, you, your boss, someone you work with must make that decision by the deadline

 

Therefore, we turn to tools that help us gather and analyze data and facts. However, technology cannot make the decision for us. It is up to the leader who owns that decision. As my friend Doctrine Man says, it is all about the Tool (in this case me) behind the tool (Word and PowerPoint).

The particular type of decision-making we are trying to influence is called Satisficing. Simply put, a person must make a decision in a situation with imperfect or overwhelming information and they often will choose the first course of action that seems to fit the need rather a more optimal solution. Satisficing is simply waiting until the last possible moment to make a decision because you don’t have all the information you need, or you have too much of it, and then picking the first logical alternative instead of properly weighing all courses of action.

Satisficing is what many people do when they vote. They have been overwhelmed with political ads and rhetoric and have no real cogent concept of the merits of the candidates and so they make up their mind in the actual voting both. And they pick the first candidate that fits their need as opposed to the one they might pick if they really knew the facts.

In the example above, I needed to break the Old Man’s desire to satisfice his way out of dilemma by getting him the right amount of information (neither too much nor too little) in a way that he could understand. I got lucky. I had a commander that gave me a do over and in the end it worked out for everyone, Americans and Iraqis.

Thanks for tuning in.

DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com

A Company Training Meeting Template

No one in the Army like training meetings.  I know that I hated them.  Someone gets up and presents a stunningly long deck of slides that eventually numbs the audience into resigned acceptance.  In fact, yesterday I was talking with a hard charging 11B E7 who has been selected for E8 and he was describing how his unit would conduct training briefings on Friday afternoon and they would drone on and on.

So to help all of you who hate sitting through the same I propose that instead of presenting a PowerPoint deck up on a screen you adopt a variation of what I have here.  This is a traditional company training meeting PowerPoint deck boiled down to a single 11×17 slide.  The beauty of briefing from a single 11×17 is that it puts the entire problem right in front of the audience.  Most people, me included, have trouble envisioning an entire 8 week training cycle in their mind.  In addition, when it is presented, piece by piece, slide by slide on screen, what is difficult becomes impossible.  This method resolves that.  It also gives the audience something to take notes on.

Here is an example of an 8-week training calendar on an 11 x 17.

 

Here is a single week’s schedule.

 

Moreover, here is the template that I used to build both.  This is what I call a slide starter.

 

The way to build one of these decks is very simple.  Open the slide starter file (Training_Meeting_Slide_Starter) and save as a new filename. 

Go to the instructions slide and select the appropriate content you want to add.  They are

Training Summary Table – This is for the details for each event during a single week.  It contains placeholders for all the key information the commander wants to summarize a training event such as training areas and supplies.

 

Notes – Here is where you put notes for each training event.

 

Weekly List – This is simply a list of each training event for a week, by date, with a simple red-yellow-green status.

Add your content until it is fully filled out and then print the 11×17.  Instructions on how to print 11 x17 are listed on the instructions slide.

Note:  Moving to 11×17 is a challenge at first for the briefer (it is a radically different approach to building the PowerPoint Deck) and it can be challenging for the person[s] being briefed.  I am interested in what you think about how we can overcome these barriers and what can be improved.

Thanks for tuning in.

 DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com

Stopping the Never Ending Story – For Sellers and Marketers

Today’s blog post is for all of you out there who use presentations to sell or market to an end customer. These are Pitch Presentations.

Now, one of the most annoying problems in presenting today is something called the Never Ending Story.  This type of presentation is too long and generally has a confusing storyline.  It goes on, and on, and on.  The way to prevent this is to apply the simple rules down below when you are building your presentation.

1. Only Include What Is Truly Important – There is a natural tendency to try to include every fact, detail, and data point in a presentation.  You have to fight this every step of the way.  Your goal should be to present the minimum amount of information necessary to drive the result you want.Move extraneous details to your slide notes and move extraneous slides to your appendix.  That way the data is still there and you can pull it out during the conversation post your presentation or give it out in a handout.
    
2. Plan To Present For Half Of Your Allotted Time – Most of the time you will have a 30, 45, or 60 minute meeting.  I almost exclusively present for only half of my allotted time.  The remaining time I leave to have a dialogue or conversation with my audience.  Your audience will always have questions and concerns and the best way to respect their opinions is to let them express them to you.I account for this 50% rule when I start Visualizing a presentation and I will set a slide count based on it.  So what does this mean?
   30 Minute Meeting or Presentation – 15 minutes of presenting = 1 to 12 slides
   45 Minute Meeting or Presentation – 22.5 minutes of presenting = 1 to 16 slides
   60 Minute Meeting or Presentation – 30 minutes of presenting = 1 to 20 slides
    
3. Use a Story Arc – Pitch presentations are always a story designed to excite, inspire, and activate.  Many people have trouble coming up with a story framework that does this.  Story arcs are specific story plots that you can use to help create your story framework.  Try using one of these time tested story arcs in your next pitch.   Below is just one of the more than 50 different story arcs that I use for Pitch presentations! 
   
   This particular presentation is called “A Day in the Life” (Day_In_The_Life_v1) and is useful for any product that the customer may have with them throughout the day, from smartphones to shoes.   I have included a PowerPoint deck built from the Super Blue Template that you could use as a starter deck to build a finished presentation.   
   Note – These are all 30-minute meetings, so 9 slides in this case.

    

Conclusions

So there it is, just three simple rules.

1. Cut the fat – Only include what is truly important for the audience to know and move everything else to the appendix or handouts.
2. 50% Rule – Only present for half of your allotted time.  Use the rest to have a conversation.  Enforce this by setting a slide count and sticking to it.
3. Use A Story Arc – Save yourself time and apply one of these time tested story arcs to your pitch. 

 

Thanks for tuning in.

 DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com

Slide Karaoke – Stop The Madness

Slide Karaoke is problem #1 with most presentations today.  Slide Karaoke is when a presenter puts up a slide with a bunch of text with bullets on it and then proceeds to read each bullet to the audience. 

Here’s the problem with Slide Karaoke other than the fact that presenter insults the audience by reading to them like a bunch of schoolchildren.  You see, the audience can read about three times as fast as the presenter can speak so the audience finishes reading well before the presenter finishes speaking and then they sit there bored and probably sullen.  In fact, if you have been in meetings recently I’ll bet you were a victim of Slide Karaoke. 

So how does the Modern Presentation Method help you solve this problem?  It’s as simple as 1-2-3. 

#1 – Convert Old Slide to a Slide Notes Slide

Take the old slide and move all of the text to a new slide built using the Slide Notes slide layout that is in every template I put up here on the blog.  The Slide Notes slides are a hidden slide and won’t project on the screen, they are there to hold the detail.  Here is an example of a before and after.

Before Slide	Converted To Notes Slide

 

#2 – Create a Content Slide and Apply a Layout from the Template

Read the new notes slide and see how many points you are trying to make.  In this example, there are only three points.  Now all you have to do is add a Content Slide and apply one of the slide layouts that match the number of points you are trying to make.  In this case, I applied the 3 Points – Style A layout below.  The audience will see this slide as it’s not hidden like the Notes Slide.      Here is an example of the layout before and after it is filled out.

3 Points – Style A Layout	Layout Filled Out

 

#3 – Spruce up the Content Slide with Graphics

Last, add some graphics to the right of the content that will help the audience remember the key points.  In this example, I went into my graphics library (also part of the Modern Presentation Method) and found these three.  The final slide looks like this.

The Result

The resulting slide is cleaner and much easier for the audience to understand.  They key points jump out at the audience!  The graphics take advantage of something called the Picture Superiority Effect, which helps the audience remember the key points for later recall.  Last, all of the important detail remains in the slide notes so if you give the PowerPoint deck to the audience as a handout, all of the important details stay with the deck.  In other words, problem solved.

Note:  I should point out that all of my templates are in 16×9 format.  I will add versions in 4×3 in an upcoming post.

Thanks for tuning in.

 DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com