The power of PowerPoint: A visual perspective on meaning making in strategy

Abstract

Research Summary: Relying on ethnographic data from two consulting engagements, we find that strategists use three visual mechanisms (depiction, juxtaposition, and salience) to create PowerPoint slides. These visual mechanisms prompt meaning-making through the conversations they stimulate, creating strategic visibility. As participants react to visuals, they enact revised interpretations of the strategy, reflecting strategic resonance. Based on the interactions among these three subprocesses (visual mechanisms, strategic visibility, and strategic resonance), we develop a process model for how visuals influence meaning making in strategy engagements. We contribute to existing strategy practice and process studies by explaining how visuals help broker divergent interpretations of a strategy and give rise to new understandings, especially when issues are politically sensitive or analytically complex. Managerial Summary: The purpose of this study is to understand how strategists use visual information (specifically in PowerPoint slides), and its effects on the strategy process. We find that strategy conversations are influenced by the techniques strategists use to create slides, which in turn shape the kinds of follow-up actions taken. The implications are that: (a) PowerPoint slides can be designed to help tackle complex issues, for instance, when participants have divergent opinions or in politically sensitive situations, and (b) those who craft and edit PowerPoint slides strongly influence the direction of the strategy. The skillful use of PowerPoint is therefore crucial in allowing managers to shape the nature and speed of strategy engagements. K E Y W O R D SPowerPoint, strategy consulting, strategy as practice, strategy process, visual semiotics Received: 29 August 2015 Revised: 31 May 2017 Accepted: 16 August 2017 Published on: 23 January 2018 DOI: 10.1002DOI: 10. /smj.2727 This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In retrospect, it was great that we found a name so distinctive…it suggested our goal of putting power into the hands of the individual content originator. The "Power" in "PowerPoint" was thought of, not as in "Powerful," but as in "Empowerment." Robert Gaskins, Inventor of PowerPoint. (Gaskins, 2012, p. 165) | INTRODUCTIONHow do strategists create visual representations of strategy, and why does visuality matter? Despite the ubiquity of visuality in the social accomplishment of strategy, visuals have been relegated largely to the background in theoretical accounts of strategy processes (Meyer, Höllerer, Jancsary, & Van Leeuwen, 2013). Although Mintzberg (1994, p. 240) once declared that strategy cannot be "tangible," since it consists of abstract concepts in the minds of people, a growing body of work-particularly in the strategy as practice area-is focused on examining the role and impact of materials used by strategy actors to achi...

Visuals in Open Strategy

“…In extant strategy studies on PowerPoint, the heavy work of meaning making in strategy falls largely to discourse (Kaplan, 2011;Mirabeau and Maguire, 2014), where we find that visual features play an auxiliary role to the meaning making arising from discourse and practice. Knight et al (2018) recently examined the visual features of PowerPoint slides across two consulting engagements and the ways in which these opened up and stimulated engagement and discussion across disparate teams. The study reviewed PowerPoint presentations arising from consulting interventions of a strategy consulting firm at varying stages of their development.…”

“…As we saw in the introduction of this chapter, Barry and Elmes (1997) recognised that strategy narratives depend on the "cloth" from which they are tailored, but went on to anchor their theorizing in what is read, spoken or heard. The purpose of the PowerPoint study by Knight et al (2018) was to examine the visual components of this 'cloth', by examining how strategists use visual information (specifically in PowerPoint slides), and its effects on the strategy process. The findings show that strategy conversations are influenced by the techniques strategists use to create slides, which in turn shape the kinds of follow-up actions taken.…”

“…A firm, for example, could allow strategy visuals in their social media communications (Baptista et al 2017) to be co-created by a wider audience of internal and external stakeholders by adjusting the editing rights and access to these visuals. Later in this chapter, we will explore in detail a visual study of PowerPoint slides, to demonstrate that slides are not an end product, but a visual tool that can stimulate engagement and wider discussion, and, as such, allowing for both transparency and inclusion (Knight, Paroutis and Heracleous, 2018). Accordingly, in this chapter we argue that investigating the role of visuals can enrich our understanding of strategy and open strategy in particular, for example, around the interconnections strategy enables and the richness of reasons behind strategizing success and failure.…”

“…Unpacking how strategy is visually made and executed is an exciting new frontier in strategic management research. A number of recent studies showcase the efforts of scholars to capture the complex processes and outcomes enabled through the intersection of visuality with talk and text (Jarratt and Stiles, 2010;Gylfe et al, 2016;Kaplan, 2011;Knight and Paroutis, 2018;Liu and Maitlis, 2014). In viewing strategic decisions and actions as embedded in particular discourses, the discursive lens has yielded useful insights into organizational functioning and strategic practice (Heracleous and Barrett, 2001;Paroutis and Heracleous, 2013).…”

Greatness Takes Practice: On Practice Theory’s Relevance to “Great Strategy”

“…By close examination of micropractices, strategy as practice researchers show how all kinds of details can shift the outcomes of strategizing work. Small things make a difference, whether it is the deft use of strategy discourse (Balogun et al 2014, Wentzel andKoch 2017), the artful sequencing of agendas (Jarzabkowski and Seidl 2008), the manipulation of standard strategy tools (Kaplan 2008, Knight et al 2017, control over emotion and exhaustion (Clarke et al 2012, Liu andMaitlis 2014,), the location of strategy retreats (Johnson et al 2010), or even the choice of seating positions (Jarzabkowski et al 2015b). This kind of strategy as practice research helps make the manager a shrewder strategy practitioner, able to dodge distractions, and outmanoeuvre rivals in order to advance his or her own agendas.…”