The Art of Presentations

Patti Gilchrist, PMP, is a Senior Technical Manager with more than 20 years of IT experience. Visit her website at www.freepmstudy.com

  Communications Management   Knowledge Management   Lessons Learned  

Throughout the lifecycle of a project, it is essential that project managers effectively facilitate the flow of critical project information to team members and report project status to all participants and stakeholders.To achieve this, PMs can use a combination of verbal, written and visual communication.

Project managers need to be able to explain project details at varying levels of granularity, tailored to the specific audience. And displaying project information as visually appealing reports enhances comprehension. Thus, visual communication plays a significant role in the communication process to make complex concepts and technologies more understandable.

The most critical skill set for a PM to possess is the ability to communicate creatively. So perhaps the art community can offer some tips to improve our ability to communicate creatively and visually. Interestingly, Steve Jobs was influenced by 20^th century European artists and uses design theories and artwork of world-renowned artist Pablo Picasso in order to indoctrinate employees into Apple’s culture and educate them on the company’s design theory. (Pablo Ruiz y Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who is one of the best-known figures in 20^th century art, and is known for co-founding the Cubist movement.)

Apple …

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