Some people fixate on appearances more than actual results.

What would you do if your commanding officer kept rejecting your team’s work, not because it was wrong, but because it didn’t look busy enough? Would you explain it again, and hope he understood? Or would you find a way to meet his expectations without changing a thing?

In the following story, one lieutenant finds himself in this very situation and pulls off the perfect visual effect. Here’s how it all played out.

Army Slide Show

I was a Lieutenant in the Army in the early 1990s. I was assigned to the training office at the staff level.

Every 3 months, my Sergeant-First Class (SFC) and I had to put together these slide shows for our Battalion Commander to present to our Division Commander (DC). This is how our unit received approval for our budget for training.

This was before you could do a PowerPoint presentation. The slide shows were printed on acetate, and we had several dry runs with our Colonel (COL) and the Co Commanders before the actual presentation.

The company’s monthly calendars were included. One time, our COL didn’t think the calendars looked full enough and insisted that more training be added.

All it took was a little creativity.

The problem was that the calendars were actually full. It was just the way the calendars looked when printed.

After the COL harping on the calendars after the 3rd trial run, my SFC came up with a brilliant suggestion. (I was very lucky to work with him.) I implemented it, and the COL approved the slide show, and we proceeded with the briefing for the DC.

Later, one of the Co-Commanders and my direct supervisor asked how I solved the calendar issue.

I said that SFC suggested I increase the font to make everything look fuller, and that is what I did. It worked perfectly and got the COL off the calendar issue.

Wow! That was some quick thinking.

Let’s see what the folks over at Reddit think about what happened.

According to this reader, the story is still relevant today.

Here’s someone who explains the maliciousness of it all.

People get very picky with PowerPoints.

This would’ve been a great trick to know.

That was some quick thinking!

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.