According to Walter Isaacson, author of the book “Steve Jobs,” the former CEO and co-founder of Apple hated formal presentations and loved face-to-face meetings. This is how the Californian genius put it.
Every week, he brought his executive team together to brainstorm ideas without a predefined agenda. On Wednesday afternoons he did the same with Apple’s marketing and advertising team. This he did after solving his odor problem.
No introductions. No slides. No formal agendas. “I hate the way people use slideshows instead of thinking. People were facing a problem creating a presentation. I wanted them to participate, to discuss things at the table, instead of showing a bunch of slides.“, said Steve Jobs.
People who know what they are talking about do not need PowerPoint, it is the summary of what they thought Steve Jobs. That is why he did not need a presentation to find out how a specific job or a new publicity action was going.
It is true that sometimes a presentation makes sense, but usually only when a decision has already been made or a process established. Presentations are fine for sharing information.
Presentations are terrible for solving problems on the fly, says Apple co-founder
And science agrees. A study found that PowerPoint presentations lead to distraction, boredom, lack of engagement, and decreased retention of information.
A Harvard study concluded that PowerPoint presentations were not considered better than presentations without visual aids.
Since the goal of any meeting is to get tangible results—if not, why have the meeting—skip the presentations. Pose a problem. Bring up a possibility. And then participate and discuss things at the table. That is what Steve Jobs defended, a genius in the face to face.