Microsoft’s CEO wants ET method of presentation, not PowerPoint

From an interview of Steven A. Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, in The New York Times, May 16, 2009:

Q. What’s it like to be in a meeting run by Steve Ballmer?

A. “I’ve changed that, really in the last couple years. The mode of Microsoft meetings used to be: You come with something we haven’t seen in a slide deck or presentation. You deliver the presentation. You probably take what I will call “the long and winding road.” You take the listener through your path of discovery and exploration, and you arrive at a conclusion.”

“That’s kind of the way I used to like to do it, and the way Bill [Gates] used to kind of like to do it. And it seemed like the best way to do it, because if you went to the conclusion first, you’d get: “What about this? Have you thought about this?” So people naturally tried to tell you all the things that supported the decision, and then tell you the decision.”

“I decided that’s not what I want to do anymore. I don’t think it’s productive. I don’t think it’s efficient. I get impatient. So most meetings nowadays, you send me the materials and I read them in advance. And I can come in and say: “I’ve got the following four questions. Please don’t present the deck.” That lets us go, whether they’ve organized it that way or not, to the recommendation. And if I have questions about the long and winding road and the data and the supporting evidence, I can ask them. But it gives us greater focus.”

– Edward Tufte, May 18, 2009

http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0003RO&topic_id=1

One can only hope that the materials sent out before the meeting are not PowerPoint stacks crammed full of text.