Narrative memos versus powerpoint bullets

The bulk of commentary about business leaders seems to fall into two extreme categories - visceral, unthinking hatred or sycophantic, hagiographies. The haters too easily dismiss all accomplishment as luck and the sycophants see all quotidian actions as divinely inspired. There is comparatively little that is balanced and skeptical. Or so it seems to me.

Which is a pity. While not supermen, most accomplished executives are smart, seasoned, experienced. They do have things to teach the rest of us. Not all their accomplishments are simply a result of being in the right place at the right time. The challenge is to distinguish between what are irrelevant actions and decisions from those that actually are positively contributive to the beneficial outcomes.

From Bezos's Behind-the-Scenes Role in the Washington Post's Web Growth by Gerry Smith there is this intriguing aside.

As he’s done at Amazon, Bezos requires Post executives to write lengthy memos outlining their projects instead of using PowerPoint presentations, believing that narrative writing forces people to think more deeply.

I have no idea whether this is actually an independent variable with strong predictive value but I am predisposed to believe so. The argument is that forcing people to write things down in narrative fashion forces them to think through second order issues more constructively. They have to figure out what is truly relevant evidence to support their argument. They have to organize the argument in a coherent fashion. They have to consider and address the counter arguments. All things that are easily dispensed with when creating a list of powerpoint bullets.

It is the difference between stream of conscious and considered conversation.