Thread regarding Shell Oil layoffs

@f7 what about underwear hammer fighting?

I got promoted by sharing my ideas through interpretive dance. That was clearly the best media to communicate in the office. But you have to pick the right background music or it doesn't work as well.

But, I only advocate dance because fist fighting and wrestling become a DEI lecture. If someone has one bruised eye they listened, if they have two bruised eyes it means that they don't listen. See everyone can just tell who is on board with an idea and who isn't.

powerpoint is popular here because this company promotes people with zero technical skills into technical leadership and so line managers needs the babying

@OP Might say that external PowerPoints work OK, especially if showing really dense technical information. But I would agree that internally, PowerPoints are not always the best way. Sometimes, a really deep discussion can be better. Problem is, in a Teams world, people need something to see. That may be part of why PowerPoint gets used so much. There is a bigger problem, though. Meetings that don't leave enough time to fully discuss or consider issues that really need consideration. Snappy is fine for some decisions but maybe not for others.

@OP PowerPoint isn't really the problem, in Shell PowerPoint tends to be information dense (e.g. more slide docs) - not like people are using pitch decks all day with no substance - moving content to documents would just be a change of form. The bigger issue is more whether they decks lead to useful decision making vs just of content for the sake of it. Too many meeting looking at said PowerPoints without clarity on who is accountable for making what decision is indeed and big improvement opportunity. The fact there is a capacity to spend so much time in non productive meetings leads then to views on org bloat...

Shell employees are obsessed with PowerPoint presentations because it’s seen as the easiest—and often the only—way to climb the corporate ladder. Why endure the struggle of doing work competently when there’s an easy shortcut? Leaders encourage and appreciate PowerPoints because they themselves advanced that way. True competence in one’s field is either unnecessary or even frowned upon. Leadership feels threatened by competence because they lack it themselves and are therefore insecure. As a result, they surround themselves with PowerPoint sycophants. Therefore, when one adapts to sycophancy and PowerPoints, they emerge as the clear winner at Shell. Shell Bangalore will be a clear winner in future, as the culture there is all about sycophancy.

This situation at Shell will persist until leadership is held accountable by shareholders for the billions of dollars being wasted within the company. For now, leadership is getting away with the excuse that falling oil prices led to lower profits, allowing them to keep their massive compensation packages while laying off hundreds of employees.

@OP It actually works very well, especially for technical presentations, which are the actually important ones. Of course, you should not just follow the slide deck like a set of instructions. You have to be natural, ad lib a little, and make sure to ask questions and make it conversational.

Wow! Two typos in one sentence. Epic!

I’m not sure, does PowerPoint have spellcheck? Prolbee.

I’m gonna need a 5 slide PowerPoint presentation from OP on English language. Thanks.