I don't know if Managers think in terms of images. But I often end up with a spinning head after corporate presentations by Managers. Powerpoint - their best friend always turns me off. The most interesting thing about powerpoint which I have seen is that if you change the extention of a Powerpoint file from ppt to pps, it automatically becomes a slide-show file. I mean if you open a .pps file, it opens as a slide show. Similarly, change .pps to .ppt, and you can edit the slides. That's amazing.
The reason I talked about Managers thinking in images was that in most presentations, most Managers end up describing some image which they drew on powerpoint with great effort. The most favourite image is of a Pyramid. Most Managers would slice a pyramid at various leves and may be, cut it vertically too. And then they label all the blocks. Then they will describe each block, and its significance, Why the pyramid tapers, why we are at the 3rd level, why the vertical cut is a bottleneck for a syngergistic operation of the left and right blocks, why we should move up and what are the factors we should concentrate on so as to rise up. I don't know to what extent this imagery adds to clarity in understanding for others, but I often end up getting confused.
I think whenever there is a trend involved, we all have various ways of storing that information in the memory. When something increases or decreases, it may be remembered as a Pyramid. But one can also remember it as a downward or upward sloping straight line on rectangular coordinates. That has an added advantage of also telling you about what the x is with respect to which the y falls or rises. There could be many other ways people store information in their minds. Some may not use images at all. Some remember by relating the information to something else. Some may have videos...moving images. It may be sound for some. That's wonderful isn't it? The brain seems to save files in all formats. For example I can recall Shahrukh's voice. And as I recall it, I can feel the voice as if I am hearing it...yet I know I am just thinking about it. I can even think more about it and try to copy it by saying something aloud in my best imitation of that voice.
I don't think it's a good idea to avoid showing images altogether in presentations, because these are some standard images that make sense to a majority. And some people, mostly Managers, may have programmed their minds to understand or think in terms of those images. Possibly for this reason, all managers seem to understand each other. And others who have different ways of visualising data and trends tend to take time to grasp information shown in pictorial formats other than their own. So they end up taking longer time to process the information in their minds, convert into formats that their brain likes and end up appearing slow and confused. For me, not looking at the slides but just hearing to what the speaker says helps on some occasions. But as I said, some speakers go on describing their diagrams with all the pictorial details and I have no other option but to try to understand that figure. But then there could be people who understand diagrams better than spoken details. There could be people who are not good at reading and forming pictures in the mind. They may understand better if the picture itself is shown to them. Or there may be some people who remember in formats we cannot even think of. They just do an input-output...it just works. Even not all our data is in the form of images. It is a mix. It is far more complicated than that. How mind stores all the information is a mystery in itself.
It is definitely not possible to be well-intelligible to all. Better to follow standards, I guess.
The reason I talked about Managers thinking in images was that in most presentations, most Managers end up describing some image which they drew on powerpoint with great effort. The most favourite image is of a Pyramid. Most Managers would slice a pyramid at various leves and may be, cut it vertically too. And then they label all the blocks. Then they will describe each block, and its significance, Why the pyramid tapers, why we are at the 3rd level, why the vertical cut is a bottleneck for a syngergistic operation of the left and right blocks, why we should move up and what are the factors we should concentrate on so as to rise up. I don't know to what extent this imagery adds to clarity in understanding for others, but I often end up getting confused.
I think whenever there is a trend involved, we all have various ways of storing that information in the memory. When something increases or decreases, it may be remembered as a Pyramid. But one can also remember it as a downward or upward sloping straight line on rectangular coordinates. That has an added advantage of also telling you about what the x is with respect to which the y falls or rises. There could be many other ways people store information in their minds. Some may not use images at all. Some remember by relating the information to something else. Some may have videos...moving images. It may be sound for some. That's wonderful isn't it? The brain seems to save files in all formats. For example I can recall Shahrukh's voice. And as I recall it, I can feel the voice as if I am hearing it...yet I know I am just thinking about it. I can even think more about it and try to copy it by saying something aloud in my best imitation of that voice.
I don't think it's a good idea to avoid showing images altogether in presentations, because these are some standard images that make sense to a majority. And some people, mostly Managers, may have programmed their minds to understand or think in terms of those images. Possibly for this reason, all managers seem to understand each other. And others who have different ways of visualising data and trends tend to take time to grasp information shown in pictorial formats other than their own. So they end up taking longer time to process the information in their minds, convert into formats that their brain likes and end up appearing slow and confused. For me, not looking at the slides but just hearing to what the speaker says helps on some occasions. But as I said, some speakers go on describing their diagrams with all the pictorial details and I have no other option but to try to understand that figure. But then there could be people who understand diagrams better than spoken details. There could be people who are not good at reading and forming pictures in the mind. They may understand better if the picture itself is shown to them. Or there may be some people who remember in formats we cannot even think of. They just do an input-output...it just works. Even not all our data is in the form of images. It is a mix. It is far more complicated than that. How mind stores all the information is a mystery in itself.
It is definitely not possible to be well-intelligible to all. Better to follow standards, I guess.
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