Dilbert creator Scott Adams is one of those people who was able to take a personal setback and turn it into something extraordinary: he turned the inanity of his workplace experiences into a successful career. Currently, the Dilbert comic strip runs in 2,000 newspapers in 65 countries and printed in 25 languages. Adams has also published several books compiling the strips and several actual business books that feature his characters. Not bad for a former bank teller.
To the uninitiated, Dilbert draws its humor from ordinary office situations. It pokes fun at the silliness of rank-and-file employees (at least in its own world) while taking witty potshots at the self-importance and absurdity of the higher-ups.
One of the most common office-related topics that the comic strip has tacked is PowerPoint presentation. Some of the strips about it are funny. When you look beyond the ridiculousness, however, you will see serious lessons in there somewhere. Here are just some examples:
Add Value to Your Slides (Make sure your audience will get something from them)
Make Your Slides Interesting (Or risk putting your audience to sleep)
Don’t Read From Your Slides (and avoid bullet points, if possible)
Impress the Audience with Visual Aids (Such as Pie Charts)
There you have it. Comic strips can make your day as you sit back and read the morning papers. But when you think about it, they do more than just entertain. Just take these Dilbert strips. Hopefully, these samples would inspire you to create or design PowerPoint presentations that won’t put your audience to sleep or make them think of harsh things to do to you. When in doubt, you may just leave everything to the professionals.
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