The Power of Voice
Today I came across a Powerpoint version of Martin Luther King, Junior’s legendary “I Have a Dream” speech. Here’s a sample screen – a bar graph contrasting “dreams” versus “implementation” across the centuries:
I Have a Dream, in Powerpoint
The presentation is a slam-dunk spoof of how people tend to communicate through Powerpoint, and a reminder, to me, of the power of voice. What if Dr. King had relied on Powerpoint, reducing the power and beauty of his language and intonation to bullet pointed double-speak? On the flip side, what if more people took the time to communicate their ideas fully, and authentically?
I remember, one of the toughest parts of adapting to office life in my 20s was learning to speak in bullet points; otherwise, I found, people became impatient: Get to the point!. I’m not advocating that we all ramble on – there is, of course, a middle ground – but I think we need permission in more work environments to express complexity. Some things can’t be reduced to headlines; you can’t be succinct ’til you know what you want to say. When we communicate small, we think small.
On the subject of Powerpoint, here’s a presentation I gave last year at an event called Ignite DC – also a spoof of the medium – in which I employ every cheesy, annoying convention I know to communicate need-to-know data points about my dog, Cosmo:
Well Hello There
This here is my new blog. It feels weird to be writing the first post. I want to fast-forward to three months from now, when we’re past the introductions and the content is flowing freely, like cheap wine at happy hour. So for now, I’ll just point you to my About page, which tells you what you’re getting yourself into if you choose to stick around; and if we haven’t met, why, mosey over to this page about me to get a sense of why the hell you’d care what I have to say (or not).
For those of you who used to read Creative DC – it’s great to be back :)
