I am always amazed at how Powerpoint presentations have become the standard support to structure thinking in organizations. I sometimes feel old-fashioned because I prefer to work on memos to get my thoughts in order. Luckily I am not alone: Jeff Bezos at Amazon has banned powerpoints in favor of structured memos, as explained here or here. And I truly believe that memos have substantial benefits.
Powerpoint presentations are everywhere in organizations. I even know some that use this support for their commercial proposals! This tool has great benefits in terms of sharing, but it also structures the thought process in a certain way: bullet points, overall structures that are fit for presenting.
Memos are of course less sexy when it comes to sharing ideas but I find that they allow a more structure thought build-up. That is possibly because a certain logic needs to be developed throughout the document, which is not so much the case in a powerpoint presentation. Also, there are much less possibilities to be distracted by some graphical representations.
My personal process when developing detailed thoughts about an issue is to write a memo and work around structuring it in a satisfying manner. If needed I may produce an additional powerpoint presentation, but I find the memo format much more amenable to the development of a structured approach.
If you find you are producing too much powerpoint thoughts, try to structure your thinking using memos. It is worth it!
