I met someone at Amazon the other day, explaining how they deal with communication (spoiler: no PowerPoint):

• For a decision, you have to write a memo (2 pages max), no slides / PowerPoint

• The memo gets handed out in the meeting (no pre-reading), and people have 30 minutes to read it in silence

• Then, the discussion follows, going straight to Q&A, no presenting

There are obviously some good things about this approach:

• No time wasted on designing 100+ page PowerPoint decks

• No time wasted in sitting through presentations where people are reading slides from the screen

• Less risk that people will jump in the conversation without having done their homework

• No pre-reading late at night after the kids are asleep

But…

• Writing a good memo might be more time consuming/difficult then creating a quick presentation

• Some information on which you want to base a decision is better presented visually than in paragraphs (pros/cons, graphs with trends, tables with financial data)

• Sometimes, you actually need some time to ponder things over before making a big decision.

On balance, it is probably the right thing to do because it creates a strong cultural statement.

(BTW, I am going to experiment with uploading the cover images in colour, a nice change for 2019, what do you think?)

Photo by Luca Micheli on Unsplash