Storytelling
Peter Singer TED talk
There are 9 essential ingredients to Storytelling. They are given here in no particular order.
Single focus.
Ensure you have a single focus with your story - a POV – the one thing the audience will take away.
Repeat it often. Represent it often. Importantly, make it relevant to whomever you are talking.
In broad-based presentations, look to reference the “main headlines of the day”.
Today, it’s about global division and uncertainties.
In the 90’s, prosperity.
In the 80’s, recession.
2. Surprise and Unexpected focus.
If giving a presentation on Talent Recruitment & Management don’t title it: “Talent Recruitment and Management”.
Instead, Title it: “2004 - the year the world changed forever” as a pivotal theme.
Why?
This was the year the Global Sociological watershed in Social Networking originated, where Google, Facebook, Orkut and 5 others broke onto the scene and today account for 1.4 billion+ users online or 56% of all global online users.
Then tie your presentation back to how talent and organizations of today have, in just a few decades, needed to change how they communicate, think and work.
3. Trivia.
That creates awe, surprise and inspires understanding.
In a presentation on Leadership and Image, you might reference the fact that Don Draper – the protagonist in the 2009 Mad Men TV series, a fictitious character - was ranked the world’s most influential man per Ask Men - the #1 men’s lifestyle magazine, over anyone living.
4. Building relationships between #’s and real events and things.
If discussing advertising on social networking sites, the fact that the top 8 social networking sites have the same number of users as the combined total population of 8 America’s. (visualize this)
5. Progressive thought through time – where each links to the other in some way.
In presenting the importance of social change, the fact that the Big 4’s – 4000BC (first known civilization emerges), 400BC (Egyptians successfully revolt against Persian rule), 4AD (Birth of Christ) and 2004 (8 of the top 24 social sites enter the market, today capturing 56% of the total user base)
6. Avoid “We think that…” or “I believe ….” Claims.
Every time you make a claim, provide third party evidence to support it.
“The Mayo Clinic diet suggests the way to lose weight is …….” vs. “We think that the way to lose weight is to….”
7. Anecdotes, Examples, Quotes and Analogies.
Use one or more of these tools to emphasize your core points throughout your presentation or speech.
However, once used, do not make the classic mistake of then explaining the point further.
The beauty of these tools is that they make the point – nuff said!
8. Unify story telling with logical persuasion.
If presenting your thoughts of why Gen X has it tougher than Gen Z’s, ensure you show the numbers to support your claims.
9. Emotional openings or conclusions.
Think of using something like Steve Job’s final speech narrated version of Think Different – “The Crazy Ones” commercial to open or conclude a talk on Innovation.
In the End:
Don’t mistakenly use “story” telling as an excuse to wax loquacious - become verbose.
Instead, first think pithy then use these 8 tools to embellish upon your single focused story line, turning your talk into a powerful and enduring story!
Source: Over 4 decades of learning from and teaching personnel at some 500+ marketing agencies and over 100 of the Fortune 500, teaching their C-suite how to turn their presentations and speeches into enticing and interesting stories.
Next Month: Winning Your Case. Following the legal case building approach, taking the common informative presentation and speech outline and turning it into a persuasive powerhouse that “proves” your case.
