Kudos to Meg for forwarding me this article by Elisabeth Bumiller. For anyone who has spent a little time "touching up" your order, SITEMP, etc this article will be everything you've discussed with your peers. When the article cited "powerpoint rangers," I knew this reporter had done some digging.
The article and it's sources all state that PPT "dumbs" down and prevents critical thinking. That is similar to that horrible saying, "guns don't kill people, people do." PPT is just the tool that commanders choose to convey information. Commanders are ultimately responsible for assuring that his or her subordinates understood what was conveyed and if they didn't understand. The commander should also make his PPT slides about conveying the most appropriate information that PPT can. Too often I would see a commander fail to convey the proper information (most likely because he or she failed in her mission), but through PPT and its 3D effects, warping, etc the audience would be glamored and we would all leave the meeting with blank faces. It works most of the time.
I believe the congnative problem is that most briefers keep one slide up and talk the bullets. It's like the presenter made 3x5 index cards to keep him or herself on track and instead of looking down at them occasionally, put them on the wall so everyone could just tick down the list (because the other problem is the military just has too many damn meetings and you can't wait to get out of the meeting because you already know all of the information.) Everyone shuts down. If you have numbers send it in a goddamn email. If you have general, non-specific ideas or symbology to convey use PPT. IF YOUR PPT PRESENTATION IS ONE SLIDE AND IT CLOSES DOWN MAILBOXES BECAUSE OF ITS SIZE YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM!
What this article really needs to talk about is that officers are just about the fluff. We aren't results-based managers of people. We are egotistical time-wasters looking for another BULLET for our OERs. We of course is the "royal" we.
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