OT: PowerPoint is the enemy!

[copeab]

Apparently an over-reliance on and and obsession with PowerPoint presentations is a problem for the US military:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html?no_interstitial

[Webstral]

Like any tool, PowerPoint has its good uses. Like any tool, PowerPoint has been adopted by people who can see that others make good use of it but don't know how to make good use of it themselves.

Webstral

[pmulcahy11b]

That's got to be the best illustration of "design by committee" I've ever seen. Well, no...there is the platypus...

[perardua]

That reminded me of this report on the functioning of British Army staffs and formation HQs during Operation Telic, which were massively overmanned and apparently spent most of their time coming up with endless and hugely detailed plans for every contingency, to the detriment of their ability to control operations. A discussion about this on the ARRSE forums led to the conclusion that at least one factor in this is the availability of word processors and powerpoint - the belief they had was that if there was a capability to turn out long, detailed sets of orders reasonably quickly, they would do so, regardless of how necessary it was.

http://www.dodccrp.org/events/9th_ICCRTS/CD/papers/068.pdf

[pmulcahy11b]

I'll bet I know how that Poiwerpoint diagram came about.

Some low-level staffers (probably enlisted men and NCOs) were given the task to come up with a simple diagram to show the goals of the war. It was probably simple and succinct at that point. They gave it to their officers, who immediately realized they had to make their mark on the diagram and demanded changes. The changes were made, and it got forwarded up the chain of command. At every level, someone had to leave their mark on the diagram. And so it turned into more and more of a mess. By the time the high-ranking generals got a hold of it, it was a giant mess, but even four-star generals can't resist leaving their mark, despite the fact that it just put a crown on the mess. Everyone was proud of themselves, and junior achievement medals were handed out like candy, except for the original staffers, who were just disgusted. Every dog has to piss on the same fire hydrant.

We had a joke in the Army that we would always know when a new general took charge of TRADOC (Training and Doctrine Command), because all the manuals would be changed and the old ones would become obsolete. That joke wasn't that much of an exaggeration.