Should I use slides in my presentations? Almost never

Jerry Weissman, in HBR, says that "slides, as they are conventionally designed today, hinder rather than help presenters. The all-too-common complexity of the slides forces presenters either to skim over them or, in the worst case, read them verbatim. This unholy alliance also fragments the narrative because each slide is discussed individually with no relationship to the next.  When we exclude the slides in the practice, presenters focus on telling their story, connecting the dots and creating a clear progression."

I have found this to be true. Being free from slides gives us more flexibility to move around the room, flow with the story and make eye-contact. I actually think good presenters do "soul-contact"; not just a superficial and fleeting look. 

I also agree with him that it is not necessary to eliminate the slides completely (though I disagree with his explanation that this is due to the "deep entrenchment of PowerPoint in business today"). Instead, he continues saying, "use simply-designed slides that serve only to support your narrative and reinforce the primacy of the presenter."

PS: I also liked the summary of steps that HBR gives us to prepare a good presentation:

• Create a clear narrative. Don't start by creating slides. First get your story down, and design slides or collect data to illustrate that compelling narrative.
• Do a dry run. Read through the slides aloud. Do it seated in front of your computer screen so that you don't have to think about your body language.
• Rehearse without slides. Finally, do a run-through while standing in a vacant conference room without your slides. This will allow you to concentrate on the story, as well as your eye contact, gestures, posture, and voice.

Learning facilitation instead of knowledge management

I do not really like the term of “knowledge management” because it has an unpalatable mechanicistic, bureaucratic, top-down, linear, control-based, externally-driven flavour.   This is why I prefer the term "learning facilitation". For me it means a less predictable, less manageable, less controlable, more realistic process that is about creating good conditions for people and organisations to learn more effectively.

What is PMSD?

PMSD stands for Participatory Market Systems Development. It is an approach designed by Practical Action to improve how markets work to reduce poverty sustainably and at scale. 

PMSD tries to achieve this with the participation, ownership and leadership of the market actors who belong  to those market systems; not with the leadership and ownership of the NGO. Participation is not just about the NGO consulting the market actors, coming up with the solutions that make sense for the NGO, and then convincing the market actors to implement these solutions. PMSD can only work if the NGO behaves as a facilitator. In other words, as an agent who makes it easier for market actors to transform their market systems in ways that make sense to them.

PMSD is also pro-poor (the term that is starting to dominate the jargon is "inclusive").  This means that the relative benefits for the poor (I prefer the term "marginalised") have to be greater than the relative benefits for the rest of better off actors. 

So, what does this idea of "relative benefits" or gains mean? It means that the benefits are relative to the initial situation of each actor.  For example, if the average marginalised farmer makes an average of 1 dollar/day at the beginning of the project and two years down the line they are making 2 dollar/day, their relative gain was 100%.  Now, if we look at a successful retailer who was making an average of 1,000 dollar/day at the beginning of the project and two years down the line they are making 1,200 dollar/day, their relative gain was 20%.  In this case, the impacts of the project are considered pro-poor.

PMSD is without doubt a fascinating approach to the field of Inclusive Market Development (IMD) that combines economics, sociology, anthropology, politics, business management, social communication, systems theory, complexity, psychology and even quantum physics and zen...

Personally, IMD and PMSD in particular are a manifestation of my ideals: collaboration, win-win outcomes, synergies, openness, fluidity, connectedness, tenderness, adaptability, and appreciation of the infinite complexity of the universe around us.