Bullet Point Haiku...

This morning on CNN, I saw an example of what I call "Bullet Point Haiku". The anchor was talking about travel off camera while the audience was treated to an elegant electric blue background with three bullet points that read something like this:

• Expect flight delays
• Don't travel to Florida
• Hurricane Wilma

Now that's Haiku in its truest sense: 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables...and even a reference to something in nature or the seasons, which is part of this traditional Japanese poetry form.

As I drank my first cup of coffee, these three bullet points got me to thinking -- what if I designed an entire PowerPoint presentation using nothing but bullet point Haiku?

Imagine it: gentle new age music plays. Birds sing. Crickets chirp. A babbling brook meanders through the sound system. The first slide arises on the screen:

• Quarterly Report
• Sales are up; profits are down
• Let's blame Katrina

Slide Two:

• People need our stuff
• Increased sales for rebuilding
• But fuel costs more

Slide Three:

• The Fourth Quarter Plan
• People, let's control our costs...
• ...and raise our prices.

Quite frankly, these three slides could jolly well become the thoughtless, heartless boilerplate for just about every corporate webcast / slideshow / third quarter update I've seen this month.

Blaming Katrina for poor performance ... in almost Haiku form... seems to be all the rage. At least it's a step up from "the dog ate our financial statements" that was in fashion a few years ago.

But apparently, we've still got a long way to go....

¶ 10/24/2005 11:47:00 AM