Weeknote #4: An ode to slide templates and trying our best
I never thought I’d miss a PowerPoint template. But this week, while staring at some miserably bland slides, I was overwhelmed by choice.
The big focus for this weeknote
In the latest ‘first day of school’ moment setting up my communications consultancy I needed to make a few slides. Something simple for a kick off meeting that I’ve done thousands of times for in-house projects. But on opening Google Slides I was immediately overwhelmed by 'Blank presentation'.
I bounced between there and Canva, rejecting templates and becoming increasingly frustrated. Then that nagging feeling kicked in: I’m sure some AI tool is supposed to make this faster. Chasing that promise I ended up watching a video from a creator I like who is obviously smashing it thanks to this one simple tool that makes their slides for them. Yet more time wasted and anxiety gained.
Eventually I just wrote the slides. And I was done in about 20 minutes.
Writing this weeknote has left me thinking about all the bits of infrastructure that you take for granted. So thanks to anyone that has made template slides I’ve used in the past. Working alongside a good designer is wonderful.
That feeling also stuck with me after reading Lauren Pope’s brilliant new report on AI in charity content. It shows that 9 in 10 content practitioners use AI, yet almost the same proportion (87%) have had no formal training. Most usage is individual and isolated, including people using LLMs as private sounding boards, which I’ve unintentionally caught myself doing since setting up this solo business.
The report recommends dedicating time and space to being open about using tools and where they’re helping or not. Again, working alongside people to get the best from the new machines seems sensible.
Wins and progress
I did actually finish the slides and make them look good.
Had a great in-person coffee catch-up. The local networking with real humans continues.
Another productive discovery call will hopefully lead to a new brief.
I enjoyed reading Dmitry Shishkin’s latest work on an AI layer for his famous ‘user needs for news’ model. It’s informing some thinking I’m doing around editorial strategy.
What’s on my mind
Wednesday was National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada, my first as a new permanent resident.
Autumn means we’re entering kids giving each other gross viruses at daycare time. Juggling our days gets interesting now.
How easy it is to fall into the trap of looking for AI shortcuts when focusing on what you’re good at first is what’s actually needed.
Did Anthropic's AI make a solo scientific breakthrough? Or was it inspired by a scientist's chat history?
My takeaway
We’re all just trying our best in a field where the rulebook feels like it's being rewritten weekly. For in-house teams the promise from those above is that AI will lighten the load. You just need to go away and experiment to find out how.
But as the AI in charity content report highlights, that leaves people working in silos — potentially even within the same content team. If our processes, best practices, wins and learnings remain hidden in private chats with AI, we can't move the practice forward. It means we're ultimately thinking about ourselves rather than the people we make stuff for.
I’ve personally found some real benefits to accessing a broader range of tools than just Microsoft Copilot since going solo. As well as some annoying stuff. This aligns with the 35% who said the impact of AI on their work is mixed, with some good bits and some bad. But the report suggests that having some structure in place, like an AI Policy for starters, can help. Those with support from their organisation to learn and share seem to be getting more out of these tools.
It’s a bit like the slides. Having a simple template that everyone starts with might just stop you getting overwhelmed.
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