War is....PowerPoint?

Image via Wikipedia

So, you think you've had your fill of endless PowerPoint presentations in your job? Be glad you're not in today's military!
Colonel Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. - a veteran of both the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts (thanks, man - doc!) - has "stepped out on the ledge" a bit to shine a light on how war is conducted today - largely by PowerPoint (at least where the top generals are!). As a reservist serving in the headquarters' staff for the the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command in Afghanistan, Col. Sellin took out the driver and penned a column criticizing how the generals are conducting the war based on endless PowerPoint briefings to a bloated headquarters staff (Sellin said there was so much Army brass at the command center that: "Around here you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a colonel."). Col. Sellin further wrote that:

"For headquarters staff, war consists largely of the endless tinkering with PowerPoint slides to conform with the idiosyncrasies of cognitively challenged generals in order to spoon-feed them information."

You can read Col. Sellin's complete, original column that "stirred the pot" at the link below:
Outside View: PowerPoints 'R' Us

And coverage of it here, from Federal Computer Week:
'War consists largely of endless tinkering with PowerPoint slides'

and here, from Wired:
Colonel Kicked Out of Afghanistan for Anti-PowerPoint Rant Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/08/anti-powerpoint-rant-gets-colonel-kicked-out-of-afghanistan/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WiredDangerRoom+%28Blog+-+Danger+Room%29#ixzz0yBmCHD2L

Since the column appeared, Col. Sellin got an early ticket home from the Afghan front. A New Jersey native, he plans to return to work for an IT firm in Finland. However, his criticism of the military overreliance on PowerPoint is still spreading on the Web. Col. Sellin is not alone in recognizing the "War by PowerPoint Slides" mentality that pervades military leadership today. In April, General Stanley McChrystal, who at that point oversaw the military effort in Afghanistan, criticized his own organization's overuse of PowerPoint: “It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control. Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.”

So, does your organization over-use PowerPoint? How can you avoid falling into this tech trap? Post your thoughts here.....

David

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