The story goes that PowerPoint and slide-based presentations have been banned at Amazon.
To any corporate citizen, this almost seems like heresy to not allow PowerPoint. Instead, Amazon holds a “study hall” for the first 5 minutes of their meetings for everyone to read a memo about the meeting.
In Jeff Bezos’ 2017 annual letter to his shareholders he explains why the company does this. There is so much great content in the letter about business writing and excellence, I had to make this its own article. Here is a summary of what I learned.
On a personal note, I’ve seen what elevating standards at the corporate level can do. There was a recent VP that came to my company that immediately elevated the standard we previously had, and it made me take my level of work higher and find more joy in my work because I was doing better work.
This is the ultimate purpose of why Jeff Bezos banned slide decks.
Amazon’s stated goal is to “stay ahead of ever-rising customer expectations” by implementing high standards among their own organization. The letter goes into detail about what Amazon has learned “(so far) about high standards inside an organization.”
Bezos explains that “people are pretty good about learning high standards through exposure… If low standards prevail, those too will spread quickly.”
I’ve seen this over and over in my own career where, like a disease, lower standards start to take root and spread in a team. These are the two ways that high standards are achieved according to Bezo’s letter:
- You have to be able to recognize what good looks like in that domain.
- You must have realistic expectations for how hard it should be (how much work it will take) to achieve that result – the scope.
Understanding what good looks like is essentially table stakes for excellence. The second bullet point is where Jeff Bezos really shows his intelligence and wisdom.
Unrealistic beliefs on scope – often hidden and undiscussed – kill high standards. Bezos tells the story of a friend of his who wanted to learn how to do a killer handstand, and even hired a coach to achieve this. “The reality is that it takes about six months of daily practice. If you think you should be able to do it in two weeks, you’re just going to end up quitting.”
He then turns his focus to the writing of memos that his company does rather than slide-based presentations explaining it should take a week or so of iterations to complete a six-page business memo.
That is why the ban of PowerPoint is a lesson in establishing organizational excellence. “The key point here is that you can improve results through the simple act of teaching scope”.
“A culture of high standards is protective of all the “invisible” but crucial work that goes on in every company. I’m talking about the work that no one sees. The work that gets done when no one is watching. In a high standards culture, doing that work well is its own reward – it’s part of what it means to be a professional.”
That is the type of organization everyone wants to run and be a part of. A place where people work when nobody is watching and loves what they do.
Joshua Ballantine 