American Idol, Karaoke, and the Corporate Culture Crisis

Another season of American Idol begins this week. And American Idol is a pop culture phenomenon based on...Karaoke.

I wrote of PowerPoint Karaoke last week -- and how your church is not a Karoake bar last month -- then I read the final paragraph in an article from Wall Street Journal writer Jared Sandberg...

Larry Chung, a software developer, doesn't criticize fellow presenters, he says, "because I know the tables could be turned a few weeks later." To him, PowerPoint presentations are like corporate karaoke. "For the most part, it's tough to listen to," he says. "We all applaud each other even though we know how bad it stinks."

If something as vapid as an American Idol song gets a brutally honest performance evaluation -- do we not owe the same to our valued corporate colleagues?

Or is it just easier to endlessly snipe about "Death by PowerPoint"...as if PowerPoint was the problem ...and not the presentation? ¶ 1/16/2007 02:48:00 PM