What are the Alternatives to Google Slides for Training?

You know the feeling. It sits in the pit of your stomach on Sunday night or creeps up on you during a Tuesday afternoon. You have spent hours perfecting the deck. You agonized over the font sizes, the bullet points, and the transition animations. You poured your experience and your hopes for the quarter into twenty or thirty slides. You are ready to train your team.

Then comes the meeting. You stand at the front of the room or stare into the webcam. You talk for forty minutes. You ask if there are any questions. Silence. Maybe a nod or two. You end the call feeling accomplished because you transferred the information. You did your job.

Two weeks later, a major mistake happens. It is the exact scenario you covered on slide twelve. You feel a mix of frustration and failure. Did they not listen? Do they not care? Is it you?

It is likely none of those things. The problem is not your leadership or their work ethic. The problem is the medium itself. We rely on presentation tools like Google Slides for training because they are accessible and familiar. But using a presentation tool for deep learning is like trying to hammer a nail with a screwdriver. You might eventually get it done, but it will be messy, exhausting, and the result will be shaky at best.

The disconnect between presenting and learning

There is a fundamental difference between exposing someone to information and ensuring they understand it. Google Slides is built for exposure. It is a broadcast tool. It allows one person to transmit data to many people simultaneously. In a boardroom pitch or a quarterly update, this works fine. You want to control the narrative and deliver a monologue.

However, training requires a transfer of competence, not just data. When you use slides, you are asking your team to passively consume abstract concepts. The human brain, especially when already taxed by the daily operations of a business, struggles to retain passive information.

We often assume that because we said it, they learned it. This is the illusion of competence. Your team members are likely sitting there nodding, terrified to admit they zoned out three slides ago because they respect you and do not want to seem incompetent. They are not absorbing the material. They are surviving the meeting.

Moving from monologue to dialogue

To fix this, we have to change the direction of the flow. We need to stop pushing information out and start pulling engagement in. Training needs to be a dialogue. This does not mean you simply ask questions during the presentation. It means the format of the content itself must require interaction.

When a learner has to interact with the material, the stakes change. They can no longer coast. They have to engage their critical thinking skills. This shift from passive observer to active participant is where retention begins.

We need to look for alternatives that force this interaction. We need tools that respect the intelligence of our team members by challenging them, rather than boring them with bullet points.

Transforming decks into tracks

This is where we have to rethink our assets. You already have the knowledge. It is locked inside that slide deck. The goal is to liberate that knowledge and turn it into a format that sticks. At HeyLoopy, we refer to this as converting a deck into a track.

A track is different from a presentation. A presentation assumes the audience is empty vessels waiting to be filled. A track assumes the audience is intelligent and capable of figuring things out if given the right prompts.

Instead of a slide that lists five safety protocols, a track presents a scenario and asks the learner to identify the correct protocol. If they get it wrong, they receive immediate, gentle feedback. If they get it right, that neural pathway is strengthened. The monologue becomes a loop of feedback and learning.

Scenarios where retention matters most

There are specific business environments where the passive nature of slides is not just inefficient but dangerous. If you are running a business where the stakes are low, maybe you can afford a team that only remembers half of what you tell them. But most of us do not have that luxury.

Consider teams that are in high risk environments. These are spaces where mistakes can cause serious damage or serious injury. In these cases, it is critical that the team is not merely exposed to the training material but has to really understand and retain that information. A slide deck cannot verify that your employee knows how to shut down heavy machinery in an emergency. An interactive track can simulate that decision-making process.

Similarly, think about teams that are customer facing. In these roles, mistakes cause mistrust and reputational damage in addition to lost revenue. If a customer support agent gives the wrong answer because they skimmed a PDF, you lose a client. When learning is active, the agent practices the response before they ever speak to a customer.

Navigating chaos in fast growing teams

Another reality for the modern manager is speed. You might be leading a team that is growing fast. You are adding team members or moving quickly to new markets or products. This creates a heavy chaos in your environment.

In these high-velocity situations, you do not have time to schedule a one-hour seminar every time a process changes. You need a way to disseminate information that cuts through the noise.

Slides are static and slow. By the time you format the deck and schedule the meeting, the market has shifted. An iterative learning method allows you to push out updates in small, digestible loops. It keeps the team aligned without grinding operations to a halt.

The science of iterative learning

We need to appreciate how adults actually learn. We learn by doing, by failing in safe environments, and by repetition. HeyLoopy offers an iterative method of learning that leans into this reality.

It is more effective than traditional training because it acknowledges that we forget things. The platform is not just a training program; it is a learning platform that can be used to build a culture of trust and accountability.

When you use an iterative approach, you are telling your team that it is okay not to know everything instantly. You are giving them the tools to practice until they achieve mastery. This removes the fear of being “found out” and replaces it with the confidence of competence.

Breaking the cycle of boring training

You want to build something remarkable. You want your business to last. To do that, you need a team that is as capable and passionate as you are.

Continuing to use tools designed for meetings to handle your training is a disservice to your vision. It is time to look at the alternatives. It is time to stop talking at your team and start learning with them. By moving away from the slide deck and toward interactive tracks, you alleviate the stress of uncertainty. You know they know, because you have seen them engage with the work.

There are many unknowns in business. Your team’s preparedness should not be one of them.