Marines say no more ‘death by PowerPoint’ as Corps overhauls education

[OldSolduer]

I have received a fair number of compliments recently for the (apparently revolutionary) use of PPT in the following manner:

1) black letters on plain white background; and
2) putting key concepts or phrases on the slide, but otherwise speaking extemporaneously.

I swear to god- that was the basic jist of my instructional techniques course, over 30 years ago…

When we used OHPs that was the thing - the whole fucking lesson wasn't on the OHP - just the highlights and graphics you needed.

AND we taught we did not recite some bafflegab dreamed up by some so called "genius".

Oh and we all believed in the ABCs - Accuracy, Brevity, Clarity.

AND the Oilers LOST !!!

 

[FJAG]

When we used OHPs that was the thing - the whole fucking lesson wasn't on the OHP - just the highlights and graphics you needed.

AND we taught we did not recite some bafflegab dreamed up by some so called "genius".

Oh and we all believed in the ABCs - Accuracy, Brevity, Clarity.

AND the Oilers LOST !!!

One of the main reasons that we kept our OHPs restricted to the basics was that the QM had very limited supplies of talc and Staedtler's available to make them out of. Ours always issued them out like they were gold.

 

[daftandbarmy]

When we used OHPs that was the thing - the whole fucking lesson wasn't on the OHP - just the highlights and graphics you needed.

AND we taught we did not recite some bafflegab dreamed up by some so called "genius".

Oh and we all believed in the ABCs - Accuracy, Brevity, Clarity.

AND the Oilers LOST !!!

Don't forget the light sabre....

 

[Cloud Cover]

Absolute Power Point …corrupts

 

[Halifax Tar]

When we used OHPs that was the thing - the whole fucking lesson wasn't on the OHP - just the highlights and graphics you needed.

AND we taught we did not recite some bafflegab dreamed up by some so called "genius".

Oh and we all believed in the ABCs - Accuracy, Brevity, Clarity.

AND the Oilers LOST !!!

When I see OHP all I think is Oliver Hazard Perry class Frigates.

Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Rudburg]

When I see OHP All I think is Oliver Hazard Perry class Frigates.

Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The world's most famous frigate class, entirely because of this line.

 

[dimsum]

I have received a fair number of compliments recently for the (apparently revolutionary) use of PPT in the following manner:

1) black letters on plain white background; and
2) putting key concepts or phrases on the slide, but otherwise speaking extemporaneously.

I swear to god- that was the basic jist of my instructional techniques course, over 30 years ago…

Another thing that people don’t seem to do is animate slides. Instead of the COIN “eye chart” it could be X number of slides which the briefer will click to explain the current part of the briefing. When they click it, the slide “builds” to include only that part that they’re talking about.

I also click-animate the points themselves on the slide, so people aren’t subconsciously “looking ahead” of my brief.

The sad part is that I find the CAF templates better than some multinational ones I’ve seen. When the US folks have to say “sorry for the eye chart” every other slide in their template, that’s just a crappy presentation style.

 

[daftandbarmy]

The sad part is that I find the CAF templates better than some multinational ones I’ve seen. When the US folks have to say “sorry for the eye chart” every other slide in their template, that’s just a crappy presentation style.

An infamous example

Pentagon's Craziest PowerPoint Slide Revealed​

But that slide was child's play compared to the three-foot wall chart the military uses to explain its gajillion-step process for developing, buying, and maintaining gear. The "Integrated Acquisitions Technology and Logistics Life Cycle Management" diagram is kind of a precis to the whole interminable progression, from "decompose concept functional definition into component concepts & assessment objective" to "execute support program that meets materiel readiness and operational support performance requirements and sustains system in most cost-effective manner." Stare long enough, and you'll start to see why it takes a decade for the Defense Department to buy a tanker plane, or why marines are still reading web pages with Internet Explorer 6.

Pentagon's Craziest PowerPoint Slide Revealed

And you thought winning the Afghanistan war was tough. Try building the Army’s new armored vehicle. Or piecing together the Navy’s new network. All of the complexity of the Afghan conflict — and all of the bureaucracy NATO used to manage the counterinsurgency effort — was summed up by a single...

www.wired.com

 

[FJAG]

A chart like that shows exactly what is wrong with the procurement and life-cycle management of equipment.

 

[Haggis]

Worst brief I ever delivered was about 3 months later, to the DM and CDS, where the assumption of prior knowledge of the issue did not survive the second slide of the deck. Apparently waving away a nine figure cost was not the correct approach.

It worked for ArriveCan. My, how times have changed.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

A chart like that shows exactly what is wrong with the procurement and life-cycle management of equipment.

Our national HQ came up with a process flowchart of their idea of how we should do things that occupied 20' of wall space when printed out. Thankfully we managed to reduce that in the regions by a significant amount after we sent then a picture of there idea's.

 

[Rifleman62]

A chart like that shows exactly what is wrong with the procurement and life-cycle management of equipment.

Now you have seen the Bible of CF procurement bureaucracy.