I met someone at Amazon the other day, explaining how they deal with communication (spoiler: no PowerPoint):
For a decision, you have to write a memo (2 pages max), no slides / PowerPoint
The memo gets handed out in the meeting (no pre-reading), and people have 30 minutes to read it in silence
Then, the discussion follows, going straight to Q&A, no presenting
There are obviously some good things about this approach:
No time wasted on designing 100+ page PowerPoint decks
No time wasted in sitting through presentations where people are reading slides from the screen
Less risk that people will jump in the conversation without having done their homework
No pre-reading late at night after the kids are asleep
But…
Writing a good memo might be more time consuming/difficult then creating a quick presentation
Some information on which you want to base a decision is better presented visually than in paragraphs (pros/cons, graphs with trends, tables with financial data)
Sometimes, you actually need some time to ponder things over before making a big decision.
On balance, it is probably the right thing to do because it creates a strong cultural statement.
(BTW, I am going to experiment with uploading the cover images in colour, a nice change for 2019, what do you think?)
Photo by Luca Micheli on Unsplash