jbennett

Is PowerPoint Oversimplifying Our Military Strategy? (Switched)

Apr 28th 2010 1:35PM I once briefed the Joint Chiefs of Staff before the days of PowerPoint. We had to reduce our presentation of real slides for use on an opaque projector. The Chiefs also got copies of the slides and the script of the presentation ahead of time. Except in my case, where I was told hours before the briefing that the Chief of Naval Operations thought that my 17 slides were too many and would confuse or lose his counterparts regarding this vital Navy-oriented program. This threw the system into turmoil and I ultimately told all the people between me (a lowly O-5) and the Chiefs that I would take four or five slides from the 17 and talk to them. I was still handwriting my new script when they called me in for the briefing. Of course after the briefing is done, they kick the subject matter expert out and come to a decision on what to do.