Stepping outside the usual is an important task for all of us. One of the biggest ways many of us fail at this task is our presentation templates.
The PowerPoint template has become an organizational beacon. Marketing departments set and mandate a specific form and format for all to use. Standard documents all end up looking the same; with the same colors, pictures, fonts and adornments. This is not a formula for innovation.
Yes, the standard PowerPoint template can become a way of preventing innovation. By seeing the same format every day, and using that same starting point every day, your most creative people are constantly being told “don’t try to do better than this because we won’t let you.” It’s often not intentional, but it is happening. Whether we like it or not, these small signals can cause massive ripple effects through an organization.
(Surprisingly) I enjoy to mix it up when it comes to formats of presentations. On every new project I try to start with some new format of the Master Template.