Do schools kill our creativity?

I came home last night to find my 8th-grade son working on a Powerpoint presentation for school.  Much to my horror, it was filled with bad clip art and dense text.  Here was a very creative kid who spends his spare time making films attempting to conform to the "accepted" practices of presentations for his school.  Scary.  But this is where it all starts.

So, join me today in helping children and your young colleagues understand that communication does not have to forced into bad Powerpoint and that there are better ways to get your point across.

With my son I suggested video and images from Flickr or even better taking his own photos to supplement the communication. 

This reminds me of a presentation at TED (the thought provoking conference that now posts all of its presenations and discussion online) by Sir Ken Robinson called "Do Schools Kill Creativity?  He talks about how a group of small children were asked if they could draw,  everyone in the room raised their hands.  When asked if they could dance, everyone in the room raised their hands.  When asked if they could sing, everyone in the room raised their hands.  And, then later in life - I can't remember what grade but judging by my son it happens before 8th grade - children were asked the same questions and nearly everyone didn't raise their hands anymore.  Their confidence was gone.   Where did it go?

Furthermore, do schools force our children to begin thinking in Powerpoint and Word instead of thinking, creating and then choosing to express some part of their ideas in this tool called Powerpoint as well as in tools called writing, drawing, video, audio, painting and songs?  It seems to me that it does and it seems to me that we all have to do whatever we can to stop it or we will be doomed to bad presentations and bad communication for generations to come.  And, judging by the environment out there a little better communication couldn't hurt.

What does "presentation" mean and how can we change that?

Present. For many years in the business world, this word meant Powerpoint. Now, however, due to many different things, that misconception is beginning to change. For the little part of the world that I have started to blog about i.e. selling in a virtual environment things simply have to change.

The economy, budget cut backs, the environment and fuel costs will demand that we in sales will have to get better at spreading the word about our products and services, building relationships with customers and prospects and closing deals without standing in front of the customer, taking them out to dinner or taking them out for a round of golf.

And, Powerpoint is simply not the way to communicate passion in a virtual environment. It is not the way to engage and delight your audience. And, most importantly, it will not help you build relationships and close deals in a virtual world.

I just read a great post on the Presentation Zen blog that has some great ideas on Powerpoint and banning Powerpoint. You can link to it here. In his post, Garr Reynold's talks about a book called The Designful Company: How to buidl a culture of nonstop innovation, by Marty Neumeier. This looks like a great book that I have ordered but not yet read (review to come). Speaking of books, if you haven't read Presentation Zen that is also a must read (another review to come). Both of these books are available on my Amazon widget on this blog.

Here are some of my ideas:

1) Surprise - Everyone who comes to your presentation is expecting the same thing. Powerpoint slides with lots of text. Don't do it. Start your presenation with a video or a photo or a story or something that starts things off in a way that is unexpected. Get your audience off their heels and onto their toes. Get your audience to put down their Blackberries and shut down their laptops. If you are selling virtually, your audience can be doing all of these attention-sapping things without your knowledge, so nip it in the bud from the first interaction.

2) Humor - You are human. Your audience is human. Humans like to laugh. They like to laugh so much that it has been found to signficantly reduce stress and even cure disease. So, don't be afraid to be yourself and use humor. Don't tell bad jokes or be inappropriate but don't force yourself to be all business either.

3) Mutlimedia - Bring in things that aren't expected, like drawing on a virtual whiteboard, or video, or a cartoon or create an innovative way to demo your product, use audience participation. The best place to go looking for ideas on this is to look towards Hollywood. Everyday we watch things on TV and film, where millions of dollars and a huge amount of creativity are spent to engage us. Take a look at a Ken Burns documentary or a film trailer to get an idea of how ideas are communicated in a major league way. Another great source of ideas is the TED website. TED is a conference where a lot of great presentations are given. I just found that TED has an iPHONE app as well (search for VenueM on the AppStore).

You only have a small window of time and, in the case of virtual presentations, only the small window of a computer monitor to get your point across. Shake things up. Do something different. Get your audience engaged. Build a relationship. Get them to remember who you are.

Good luck.