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    Say It With Charts: The Executive’s Guide to Visual Communication
    Say It With Charts: The Executive’s Guide to Visual Communication
    Say It With Charts: The Executive’s Guide to Visual Communication
    Ebook292 pages1 hour

    Say It With Charts: The Executive’s Guide to Visual Communication

    By Gene Zelazny

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    About this ebook

    Step-by-step guide to creating compelling, memorable presentations

    A chart that once took ten hours to prepare can now be produced by anyone with ten minutes and a computer keyboard. What hasn't changed, however, are the basics behind creating a powerful visual - what to say, why to say it, and how to say it for the most impact. In Say It With Charts, Fourth Edition --the latest, cutting-edge edition of his best-selling presentation guide -- Gene Zelazny reveals time-tested tips for preparing effective presentations. Then, this presentation guru shows you how to combine those tips with today's hottest technologies for sharper, stronger visuals. Look to this comprehensive presentation encyclopedia for information on:


    * How to prepare different types of charts -- pie, bar, column, line, or dot -- and when to use each
    * Lettering size, color choice, appropriate chart types, and more
    * Techniques for producing dramatic eVisuals using animation, scanned images, sound, video, and links to pertinent websites

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMcGraw-Hill Education
    Release dateMar 15, 2001
    ISBN9780071501859
    Say It With Charts: The Executive’s Guide to Visual Communication

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      Book preview

      Say It With Charts - Gene Zelazny

      Copyright © 2001 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a data base or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

      ISBN: 978-0-07-150185-9

      MHID:      0-07-136997-X

      eBook conversion by codeMantra

      Version 1.0

      All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps.

      McGraw-Hill Education eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions or for use in corporate training programs. To contact a representative, please visit the Contact Us page at www.mhprofessional.com.

      TERMS OF USE

      This is a copyrighted work and McGraw-Hill Education and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work. Use of this work is subject to these terms. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reproduce, modify, create derivative works based upon, transmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish or sublicense the work or any part of it without McGraw-Hill Education’s prior consent. You may use the work for your own noncommercial and personal use; any other use of the work is strictly prohibited. Your right to use the work may be terminated if you fail to comply with these terms.

      THE WORK IS PROVIDED AS IS. McGRAW-HILL EDUCATION AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO GUARANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WORK, INCLUDING ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORK VIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. McGraw-Hill Education and its licensors do not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work will meet your requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free. Neither McGraw-Hill Education nor its licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any inaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any damages resulting therefrom. McGraw-Hill Education has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed through the work. Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill Education and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise.

      To Ken Haemer

      If we define originality as undiscovered plagiarism, then this book is original. Much of the credit for the ideas presented in this book belongs to the late Kenneth W. Haemer (formerly Manager, Presentation Research, AT&T). Over the years Ken was both mentor and friend. Thank you, Ken. I miss you.

      If Ken made me think, then McKinsey & Company, Inc., provided me with a home to apply and advance my ideas. And so, let me also thank the hundreds of professional consultants I work with at McKinsey. It’s a privilege and a pleasure.

      Last, many, many thanks to all of you who have assisted in making this book a reality.

      CONTENTS

      Introduction

      SAY IT WITH CHARTS

      Section 1

      CHOOSING CHARTS

      A. Determine Your Message

      B. Identify the Comparison

      1. Component Comparison

      2. Item Comparison

      3. Time Series Comparison

      4. Frequency Distribution Comparison

      5. Correlation Comparison

      C. Select the Chart Form

      1. Pie Chart

      2. Bar Chart

      3. Column Chart

      4. Line Chart

      5. Dot Chart

      Section 2

      USING CHARTS

      Component Comparison

      Item Comparison

      Time Series Comparison

      Frequency Distribution Comparison

      Correlation Comparison

      Section 3

      SAY IT WITH CONCEPTS AND METAPHORS

      VISUAL CONCEPTS

      Linear Flows

      Vertical Flows

      Circular Flows

      Interaction

      Forces at Work

      Changing Course

      Leverage/Balance

      Penetration/Barriers

      Filters/Screens

      Interrelationships

      Processes

      Segmentations

      VISUAL METAPHORS

      Games

      Sports

      Puzzles/Mazes

      Optical Confusion

      Steps and Stairs

      Strings and Things

      Punctuation

      Words, Words

      Drips and Drops

      Office Stuff

      Going and Coming

      Coming and Going

      Far Out

      Etc.

      Section 4

      SAY IT.COM

      Ensure Legibility

      Use Color with Purpose

      Let Content Drive Special Effects

      Index

      What do you mean, what does it mean?

      Introduction

      SAY IT WITH CHARTS

      It’s 9:00 a.m. on the third Tuesday of the month, time for the monthly meeting of the Steering Committee. To set the rest of the day’s proceedings in perspective, the committee chairman has asked a bright, fast-rising manager—let’s call him Frank—to prepare a brief presentation on the state of the industry in which we compete and our company’s performance as a stepping-stone for new investment opportunities.

      Intent on doing a good job, Frank has done much research, worked on his story line, and prepared a series of visual aids to help him say it with charts. Like most of us, Frank realizes that charts are an important form of language. They’re important because, when well conceived and designed, they help us communicate more quickly and more clearly than we would if we left the data in tabular form.

      When charts aren’t well conceived or designed, as we’re about to see in Frank’s examples, they serve more to confuse than to clarify. Let’s sit with the audience and listen to Frank’s presentation as we comment, quietly, on the effectiveness of his visuals.

      Frank begins: Good morning ladies and gentlemen. My purpose is to present a brief overview of our industry and our company’s performance. My objective is to gain your support for expanding into developing countries. I’ve designed a few visual aids to better place my findings in perspective.

      First, let me point out that we compete in a healthy industry. As you can clearly see from this exhibit, for the 11 measures of performance shown across the top and the three types of companies within the industry listed down the side, performance is excellent.

      And there you sit in the audience, wondering whether your eyesight is failing, as you try in vain to read the numbers.

      Frank continues: Within the industry, our performance has been outstanding. For instance, our sales have grown, considerably since 1996, in spite of the decline in 1998, which, as you know, was the result of the strike.

      Oops, you whisper, did I just miss something? I could swear I heard Frank say that sales have grown considerably, but what I see is a series of pie charts that show our major product’s share increasing. Oh! Wait a minute. I see! He’s referring to the figures underneath each pie. . . .

      Frank goes on: Compared with our four major competitors, we rank first in return on investment with 14 percent. . . .

      What ranks first? Who ranks first? you say. "From the

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