弃用PPT

罗伯特·格莱泽（Robert Glazer）在Quora上对“有哪些工具可以帮助我更好地组织会议？”这一问题的回答

Robert GlazerStudied Business & Organizational Psychology at University of Pennsylvania6y

罗伯特·格莱泽（Robert Glazer）毕业于宾夕法尼亚大学，主修商业与组织心理学，2018年

A few months back, a friend whose new boss used to work for Jeff Bezos at Amazon told me that the company actually banned PowerPoint presentations in favor of memos.

几个月前，一位朋友告诉我，他的新上司曾在亚马逊为杰夫·贝索斯（Jeff Bezos）工作。他提到，亚马逊公司实际上禁止使用 PPT，而改用备忘录。

That's right, instead of reading bullet points on a projector screen, Amazon employees read memos setting the tone of the meeting before anyone actually starts talking. I hadn't heard about this technique before, and was a bit skeptical of its legitimacy.

没错，亚马逊的员工不是在投影屏幕上阅读要点，而是在会议开始前，通过阅读备忘录来确定会议的基调。我之前从未听说过这种做法，对其有效性也有些怀疑。

It sounds crazy, right?

听起来是不是很疯狂？

But I was open to giving it a try at my company because it's hard to run a really good meeting. And if getting everyone literally on the same page improved meeting productivity, why not give it a shot?

但我愿意在我的公司尝试一下，因为组织一场真正高效的会议其实很难。如果能让每个人都真正“在同一页面上”，从而提高会议效率，为什么不试试呢？

I began by rolling out the memos at a few of our bigger meetings in the hopes of addressing the major time sink of starting every meeting with a lot of updates. Over the years, I've really tried to move away from update meetings, but they're necessary to some extent: It's important to keep everyone in the loop as the company grows. Nevertheless, going through a series of updates without any meaningful dialog or discussion is both boring and a poor use of everyone's time.

我首先在我们的一些大型会议中引入了备忘录，希望借此解决每次会议都要花大量时间做更新汇报的问题。多年来，我一直努力减少更新会议，但这种会议在某种程度上是必要的：随着公司的发展，让每个人都了解最新情况是很重要的。然而，只是机械地进行一系列更新汇报，而没有任何有意义的对话或讨论，既无聊又浪费大家的时间。

To my surprise, just a few months into this experiment, memos have caught on and been universally embraced across our company--by both those who write them and those who read them.

令我惊讶的是，仅仅几个月后，备忘录就在我们公司迅速流行起来，并被全体员工广泛接受——无论是撰写备忘录的人，还是阅读备忘录的人。

As we have extended the use of memos out across the organization, the advantages have become increasingly clear. Here are the top five benefits we have seen so far.

随着备忘录在公司内部的广泛使用，其优势愈发明显。以下是目前我们看到的五大好处：

1. Efficiency. While we don't necessarily make everyone read the memos in the meeting (which is what Bezos does), we do require everyone to read them before the meeting begins. We've found the memos give people a chance to get up to speed on a topic in advance, meaning we can hit the ground running. That saves valuable time.

2. Better questions and discussions. Since everyone now starts with the same information and has time to process it, questions are a lot deeper and more thought-provoking, which makes the discussion more robust. People who have had time to think issues through arrive ready to make their points.

3. A more level playing field. Too often, the same people in a company get all the attention. They're the ones who speak loudest or make the prettiest slides. Using memos gives all participants a chance to be heard and to share their thinking clearly, which makes it more likely that the best ideas and thinking will surface.

4. Strategic thinking. To write a memo, team members need to take the time articulate a point of view that is supported by facts. While a PowerPoint slide can list facts and figures, a memo requires deep thinking and a narrative, and writers have to really make their case. This is a great practice and a lost art in today's fast-paced digital world.

5. A historical record of ideas and decisions. If anyone misses a meeting, the memo is available to provide background and context. These memos also serve as a record of the reasoning behind decisions over time. You can save memos, make them searchable, add them to learning management system, use them for training, and more.

1. 提高效率：虽然我们并不要求在会议中阅读备忘录（贝索斯是这样做的），但我们要求大家在会议开始前阅读。我们发现，备忘录能让人们提前了解相关主题，这样我们就可以直接进入正题，节省了宝贵的时间。

2. 更深入的问题和讨论：由于每个人都从相同的信息出发，并有时间去消化这些信息，因此提出的问题更加深入和发人深省，使得讨论更加充实。有那些时间思考问题的人能够带着明确的观点参加会议。

3. 更公平的竞争环境：在公司里，往往总是那些声音最大或制作最精美幻灯片的人最受关注。使用备忘录则为所有参与者提供了表达观点和清晰分享想法的机会，从而更有可能让最佳的想法和思考浮出水面。

4. 培养战略思维：撰写备忘录时，团队成员需要花时间阐述一个有事实支撑的观点。虽然PPT可以列出事实和数据，但备忘录需要深入思考和叙事，作者必须真正阐述自己的观点。这在当今快节奏的数字世界中是一种很好的实践，也是一种失传的艺术。

5. 记录想法和决策的历史：如果有人错过了会议，备忘录可以提供背景和上下文。这些备忘录还可以作为决策背后推理的记录。你可以保存备忘录，使其可搜索，将其添加到学习管理系统中，用于培训等。

While you won't likely be getting business advice with your Prime subscription anytime soon, it looks as if Amazon, the company that rewrote the book on retail, is now doing the same thing for management.

虽然你可能不会很快通过 Prime 会员获得商业建议，但看起来，亚马逊——这家重新定义了零售业的公司，如今也在重新定义管理方式。

This post was originally featured in Inc.

这篇文章最初发表于《Inc.》杂志。

Robert Glazer is the founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners and the author of the international bestselling book Performance Partnerships. Join 35,000 global leaders who follow his inspirational weekly Friday Forward, invite him to speak, or follow him on Twitter.

罗伯特·格莱泽是加速合作伙伴公司（Acceleration Partners）的创始人兼首席执行官，也是国际畅销书《绩效合作伙伴》的作者。加入全球 35,000 名领导者行列，订阅他每周五的励志文章《周五向前一步》，邀请他发表演讲，或关注他的推特账号。

What are some tools I can use to better run my meetings?Quora