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Thursday, March 11, 2010

Best Kind of Status

Posted by Mike on April 11, 2008

For years now, PowerPoint has firmly established itself as the “best” way to status a group of people about a project. Is it effective? By effective, I mean, does it communicate well and encourage discussion?

I think that, to some degree, PowerPoint presentations invoke what I call the TV syndrome. The people in your meeting sag into couch potato mode and become passive in the meeting. Imagine an hour or more filled with someone reading 58 PowerPoint slides!

Wouldn’t it be better to go with a one-page status on 11 x 17 paper, as suggested in The Toyota Way? With this approach, the essential details are available to all, on paper. Discussion can then be centered around the most important items, looking to not only problem solve, but also to set and keep direction, and to give recognition to people and their achievements.

I think that it is worth trying.

4/18/08 – EDIT:

The 11×17 status report is better known as the A3 report in The Toyota Way.

Click here to see an example.

Filed Under: Project Management

  • PM Hut said,

    I recognize that powerpoint presentations are not the ideal solution but they do tend to work when the speaker is not boring.

    Now about the 11×17 paper, is there a link you can provide for more details on this?

  • Mike said,

    I hope I’m not too boring! ;)

    I put a link to an example as an edit at the bottom of the post.

    Mike

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