We tell stories every day, to everyone. So why wouldn’t you tell your presentation as a story? We share knowledge through stories, we build relationships through stories and we are entertained by stories. Forging a connection with your audience on an emotional level is crucial to guaranteeing a lasting influence.
People remember stories, for example we all have a favourite childhood story, personally mine is ‘Where the wild things are’, but these stories stick with us because they capture our imagination and evoke emotions. Good storytelling can allow a difficult subject to be easily understood; easily remembered stories will be shared with others, spreading your messages. Powerful stories have the ability to change our behaviour and challenge us to think differently.
You can do exactly the same with your presentations; every presentation will have a story to it. So how do you make your presentation into a good story? Take the context of your story and shift it to somewhere else, for example if you’re the finance guy set your story not in the accounts department but in a football dressing room. Make things happen, describe the events that changed the playing field or instigated a new direction. Data can be woven in to the story to give it context and detail. The information can be reshapes into meaning when put into a story. Make sure you add a human part to your story, give the audience someone to care about and cheer on. Lastly make sure your story has a strong positive end. You need to leave your audience with the ending they expect and will remember long after they leave the conference room.
Storytelling is used every day in classrooms, court rooms and meeting rooms, this is no coincidence. Stories are able to cover every topic you could think off, sacrifice, obstacles, triumph, personal achievement, making tough decisions…the list is never ending.
By using a story to create your presentation you are allowing the audience to see the meaning in the messages. You are connecting them personally to you and your presentation. These kinds of emotional connections will stay with them long after the event.
Talk to us to find out how you can create the presentation that everyone will talk about long after your next event.
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