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15 Seconds to a Better Presentation | Inc.com

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15 Seconds to a Better Presentation | Inc.com

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It takes an audience about 15 seconds (at most) to decide whether your presentation is worth their attention. Fritter away those fifteen seconds and your audience will either mentally check out or pull out their phones to start texting.

Here's how to begin a presentation so that your audience really sits up and takes notice.

1. Have somebody else introduce you.

Don't waste time explaining who you are and why you're there. Write a short (100 word) bio and a short statement (50 words) of what you'll be talking about. If you were invited to speak, have whoever invited you read this information to the audience. If you called the meeting yourself, put that information in the invite.

2. Do not tell a "warm-up" joke.

I have no idea how the "warm-up joke" became part of conventional business wisdom. Most of the time, the "joke" consists a weak attempt at situational humor (like "why are these meetings always on Monday?") that merely communicates that you're nervous and unsure of yourself. The rest of the time, the "joke" is a long story with an obvious punch line that tries everyone's patience.

3. Do not begin with "background."

Many presentations begin with a corporate background that's intended to build credibility. (Example: "Our company has 100 years of expertise!") The problem here is that at the start of a presentation nobody cares about your company. You're asking them to translate your background information into something that's meaningful to them and their business. Why should they bother?

4. Open with a startling and relevant fact.

To get an audience focused on what you're going to tell them, you must first break through the "mental noise" that causes their attention to waver. This is best accomplished by a slide showing a fact that is new to the audience and important enough to capture their attention. Build the rest of your presentation to answer the business questions that this initial fact has raised in their minds.

Here are two samples presentations to help explain these points:
BAD:
"Hi, I'm John Doe from Acme and I've been working in the widget industry for 20 years. And boy, has it been an exiting time (just kidding!) Acme is the industry leader in widgets with over a million satisfied customers!! I'm here today to talk to you about how we can help you save big money on your purchases of high quality widgets."
BETTER:
"Yes, one million dollars." (Pause.) "That's how much money you're losing every year because of widget failure. Fortunately, there IS a better way and I'm going to explain how you can easily save that money rather than waste it."

Needless to say, the slides in the above example are simplistic. The "better" example could probably be made more visually rich, perhaps with an illustration of money going down a drain (along with the $1m).

What's important here is that you realize why the surprising and relevant first slide is far more likely to capture the audience's attention than the typical rambling intro.

Please note that the "startling and relevant" fact need not be an attempt to generate fear. The fact could just as easily be about possible opportunity, the achievement of a long held goal, or something else that inspires. As long as it's surprising and relevant, the audience will listen.
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It takes an audience about 15 seconds (at most) to decide whether your presentation is worth their attention. Fritter away those fifteen seconds and your audience will either mentally check out or pull out their phones to start texting. Here's how to begin a presentation so that your audience really sits up and takes notice.

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The Golden Rule of Giving a Great Presentation - hr bartender

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The Golden Rule of Giving a Great Presentation - hr bartender

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For many of us when we're asked to do a presentation, we have to wear three hats:

Developer - We have to put together the outline, references, resources, etc. We're the developer of content. The good news is we're also the subject matter expert. We know our stuff. So this step is about curating the right information.

Designer - This one is a bit tougher. Often when we tell people to draw or be creative, the first response is "I'm not an artist!" But when developing a presentation, it's part of our job to incorporate visuals into the content that will help us tell an engaging story.

Deliverer - Lastly, we're responsible for communicating the content. Whether it's on a webinar or a conference stage, we have to bring the content to life. We need to practice our platform skills and come prepared to share the content we've created.

Even the best developers, designers and deliverers need help telling their story. It's hard to wear all three hats successfully. Sometimes we get two of them perfect, and the third one...well, not so much. I know for me, my love of minimalist design can have an impact on the way my presentations are received. (Translation: maybe I need to put more images in my presentations.) The question is "How do I make that happen?!"

That's why I was very excited to be invited to the Association for Talent Development's (ATD) Visual Storytelling Certificate Program. The program was delivered in partnership with Duarte Inc. They were the firm responsible for creating the graphics for Al Gore's keynote that formed the basis for his Academy-Award winning film, "An Inconvenient Truth." I figured if Al Gore needs help with his PowerPoint, then I shouldn't be afraid to spice up my presentations. Our facilitator, Michael Duarte, said during the session, "Take a risk and lose a fear."

What I learned was amazing. If we want to tell a good visual story, we have to start with good content. I wish you could see the StoryMap template they gave us. It provides a clear, logical way to organize content. More importantly, it gives us the shape (or flow) for a great presentation. I learned that every great presentation has a formula. The logical part of me loved this. From Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a Dream" speech, to Steve Jobs' iPhone launch keynote and even the Gettysburg Address - they all follow a formula.

Nancy Duarte explains the formula in her TED talk on " The Secret Structure of Great Talks "

After learning the structure of a great presentation, we focused on creating visuals to support the story. I will share with you one very cool activity we did called "wordmapping." I've mentioned before that visuals are a very important part of learning. But practically speaking, with all the copyright laws out there, it can be a challenge to find images that can really support our content.

Wordmapping is similar to mind mapping but with images. With wordmapping, you can visualize concepts in a new way. For example, let's say you're planning a presentation on workplace security. What's the first image that pops into mind? Some people might say a padlock.

But instead of using the image of a padlock, do this instead:

What does a padlock make you think of? (1)____________________

What does (1)___________ make you think of? (2)______________
"Never give a presentation you wouldn't want to sit through."
What does (2)___________ make you think of? (3)______________

Now you have 4 image options: a padlock - if you must, plus (1), (2), and (3). From a design perspective, we get to be more creative. We have more flexibility. And we allow our audience to use their creativity as well. That's why the golden rule to presentations is this:

That was the big takeaway for me. I want to sit through presentations that makes me think. I like facilitators who don't spoon feed me information. A simple activity like wordmapping made me realize that I don't have to sacrifice images to give my audience their space to think. I don't have to use literal images to tell a story.

If you're like me and you're looking to step up your game when it comes to designing great presentations, check out Duarte's Visual Storytelling program being offered by ATD. They provide tons of resources that you will immediately use back in the office.

Lots of people say it's time to kill PowerPoint (or Prezi or Keynote, whichever one you use). I say it's time to use it more effectively. Visual learners like it. And if we're supposed to be learner centric, then it makes good business sense to deliver what our audience wants.

Image courtesy of Sharlyn Lauby

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The Golden Rule of Giving a Great Presentation - hr bartender

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For many of us when we're asked to do a presentation, we have to wear three hats: Developer - We have to put together the outline, references, resources, etc. We're the developer of content. The good news is we're also the subject matter expert. We know our stuff.

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Become a Better Public Speaker by Imitating These TED Talks

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Become a Better Public Speaker by Imitating These TED Talks

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Become a Better Public Speaker by Imitating These TED Talks

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Imitation can be the best form of learning if the source is right. If you want to become a good presenter, the best TED Talks can show you the finer points of public speaking.

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A little more than a year ago, on a trip to Nairobi, Kenya, some colleagues and I met a 12-year-old Masai boy named Richard Turere, who told us a fascinating story. His family raises livestock on the edge of a vast national park, and one of the biggest challenges is protecting the animals from lions-especially at night. Richard had noticed that placing lamps in a field didn't deter lion attacks, but when he walked the field with a torch, the lions stayed away. From a young age, he'd been interested in electronics, teaching himself by, for example, taking apart his parents' radio. He used that experience to devise a system of lights that would turn on and off in sequence-using solar panels, a car battery, and a motorcycle indicator box-and thereby create a sense of movement that he hoped would scare off the lions. He installed the lights, and the lions stopped attacking. Soon villages elsewhere in Kenya began installing Richard's "lion lights."

A version of this article appeared in the June 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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For more than 30 years, the TED conference series has presented enlightening talks that people enjoy watching. In this article, Anderson, TED's curator, shares five keys to great presentations: Frame your story (figure out where to start and where to end).

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Once upon a time, there was a man named Patrick Kelly, who started a company called Physician Sales & Service (PSS). Pat loved to tell stories at work. He told stories about growing up in the Virginia Home for Boys. He told stories about fighting in Vietnam. But his favorite story involved PSS's battles with a bank in Jacksonville, Florida, where the company is headquartered. It seems that in the early days, PSS was growing too fast for its own good. Or so the bankers said. The company kept exceeding its available lines of credit, and banks kept rejecting its loan applications. But this bank actually called a loan - which forced PSS to raise equity from its employees.

Somehow, a few years later, a charming loan officer managed to lure Kelly back to the bank. But soon PSS was receiving the same treatment as before. It got bigger, so the bank got nervous - and eventually reneged on the loan. That's when Kelly vowed to his staff, We're going to bury that bank.

So he ordered a casket and a headstone. He assembled every loan agreement he'd ever signed with the bank, plus every gift (every golf ball, every mug) he'd ever gotten from it. He placed the artifacts in the casket, dug a grave in his backyard, and invited his PSS colleagues to a funeral. Afterward, one staffer asked a question: "Pat, it's such a beautiful day, why didn't we get in your boat and have a burial at sea?" Kelly's reply: "You never know when I might have to dig up that casket and kiss that bank's ass again."

PSS employees chuckle whenever their CEO tells this story. And they learn, or relearn, an important lesson: No matter how badly other people treat you, no matter how confident you get about your future, never burn your bridges. The power of this story inside PSS also offers a lesson about leadership itself: In the new world of business, where it's every executive's job to make sense of a fast-changing environment, storytelling is the ultimate leadership tool.

"Leadership is about change," says Noel M. Tichy, a professor at the University of Michigan Business School and the coauthor of The Leadership Engine (HarperBusiness, 1997). "It's about taking people from where they are now to where they need to be. The best way to get people to venture into unknown terrain is to make it desirable by taking them there in their imaginations."

In other words, by telling them stories.

To be sure, recognizing the power of storytelling is hardly an earth-shaking breakthrough. There's Homer, there's Shakespeare - there's even Spielberg. "Humans are storytellers," says Peter Orton, who spent 15 years as a Hollywood script- writer and story editor before enrolling at Stanford to write a PhD thesis on the effects of story structure on audiences. "Stories enhance attention, create anticipation, increase retention. They provide a familiar set of 'hooks' that allow us to process the information that we hang on them."

Orton now works from Hillsborough, North Carolina as a learning-technologies consultant to IBM's management-development division, based in Armonk, New York. In training sessions on "effective narrative," he teaches IBM managers about a central Hollywood ritual - the story meeting. "Stories use plot and character to generate conflict," Orton says. "Every script-writer knows the story elements that increase the chance of hooking an audience: a protagonist the audience can empathize with, something important at stake, mounting jeopardy, a formidable antagonist."

Noel Tichy tells much the same story in workshops with clients such as Ameritech, Royal Dutch/Shell, Coca-Cola, and US West. Business leaders, he says, need "a teachable point of view - a set of ideas about success in the marketplace and a set of values based on personal and organizational success." The best way to communicate that point of view is through a story - actually, through three stories. First there's the Who I Am story, which draws on personal experience: "The most effective leaders are in touch with their personal stories." Then there's the Who We Are story - a narrative that provides continuity amid rapid change. Finally there's the Where We Are Going story. "Pretend that you're on the cover of Fortune - I mean Fast Company - five years out. How did you get there? What will you be doing?"

Tichy also advises would-be storytellers to practice before they preach. In his workshops, executives share their stories in small groups and before a video camera. "Businesspeople are always describing the future with bullet points," Tichy warns. "That's stultifying. If you put people to sleep, they don't remember a thing."

Hewlett-Packard is a company that recognizes the power of stories. Most everyone at HP has heard about the time that Bill Hewlett found the door to the supply room locked, snapped it open with a bolt cutter, and left a note reading, "Don't ever lock this door again." It's a great lesson in prizing trust as well as order. Or about the time that Dave Packard toured an HP factory, saw a cheap, thin prototype for a new product, twisted it into a mangled ball, and declared it "a hunka junk." It's a great lesson in prizing quality as well as cost.

Back in 1989, when HP celebrated its 50th anniversary, it hired Karen Lewis, formerly an archivist at Harvard University, to create a corporate archive. Lewis has collected documents and blueprints. But she's also gathered more than 100 oral histories - from people on the front lines as well as in the executive suite. "Stories are leadership tools," Lewis says. "They're about our culture, our common roots."

Pat Kelly doesn't need an archivist to preserve the stories of life at PSS (now called PSS/World Medical Inc.). That's his job: "We've never had a policy manual. The way we pass along our values is to sit around the campfire and share stories." These days, the fast-growing company has annual revenues of $1.3 billion and employs nearly 4,000 people around the world. Kelly spends much of his time visiting company locations and "stoking the campfire." And he's just published a book that tells the PSS story in fascinating detail.

Faster Company (John Wiley & Sons, 1998) is an entertaining, instructive account of PSS's 15-year rise to prominence and prosperity. Kelly hopes it sells lots of copies. But that's not why he wrote it: "Now I have something to put in the hands of all my employees and say, 'This is the way we treat each other. This is the way we treat our customers. If you understand this, you'll make it here, and we'll all be extraordinarily successful. This is our story.' "

Elizabeth Weil lweil@ix.netcom.com , a regular contributor to Fast Company, has begun a new chapter in her life story. She is writing a book about the race to build cheap, reusable commercial rockets. It will be published by Bantam.

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Once upon a time, there was a man named Patrick Kelly, who started a company called Physician Sales & Service (PSS). Pat loved to tell stories at work. He told stories about growing up in the Virginia Home for Boys. He told stories about fighting in Vietnam.

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Signature StoriesBrad Montgomery, Funny Motivational Speaker

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Signature StoriesBrad Montgomery, Funny Motivational Speaker

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Brad Montgomery, Funny Motivational Speaker

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by Doug Stevenson 2004

This is the "Signature Stories" Issue â€" Part One

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"There are two ways to persuade people. The first is by using conventional rhetoric, which is what most executives are trained in. That's not good enough, because people are not inspired to act by reason alone. The other way to persuade people â€" and ultimately a much more powerful way â€" is by uniting an idea with an emotion. The best way to do that is by telling a compelling story."

Bronwyn Fryer, Senior Editor at Harvard Business Review

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SIGNATURE STORIES: Part One â€" Choosing Your Million-Dollar Story

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My definition of a signature story is a story that you become known for, maybe even famous for. Over time, you become so good at performing this story that people ask for it again and again. I know speakers that have made over a million dollars with one good story. Check that...one great story. I am one of those speakers.

My Streaking Story is my million-dollar story. I've told it over 250 times and never tire of it. Would you like to have a million dollar story? This series is about how to do it.

Choosing the Right Story

In part one of this series, I want to focus on choosing the right story. In my book, Never Be Boring Again - Make Your Business Presentations Capture Attention, Inspire Action, and Produce Results, I have identified seven types of stories. They are:

Story Type #1: Vignettes

More often than not, when business speakers tell me they love to tell stories, they're referring to a type of story called a vignette. A vignette is defined as a short illustration â€" a brief, descriptive incident or scene. In other words, it's a mini story. It usually only takes a minute or so to tell, and it isn't as crafted or developed as a full story. The vignette, also known as an anecdote, is the simplest and most common form of business story, however it has less impact on an audience than a carefully structured story.

Story Type #2: Crucible Stories

A crucible is defined as a severe test. Crucible stories are stories of great loss, hardship, or pain. Olympic athletes, cancer survivors, and people who have overcome incredible odds tell crucible stories. They are often survivor stories that tell of near misses, encountering danger or severe challenges, and coming out alive. They are powerful because these "tests of the human spirit" are real, and because they reveal our human frailty, resilience and strength.

Because crucible stories deal with "life-and-death" matters, they have the potential to move audience members to a deep level of vulnerability and take them on a roller-coaster ride of emotion from depression to joy. As a result, presenters who share these high-impact stories need to have courage, honesty and a willingness to be vulnerable. They must take responsibility for consciously crafting their story and delivering it with integrity. There can be no artifice or insincerity.

Do you have a crucible story that taught you a profound lesson? If so, you have a responsibility to share it. For those of you who cannot sing, crucible stories give you an extraordinary voice. They enable you to create a blanket of intimacy that warms and comforts other individuals. When presented with delicacy and grace, stories of overcoming adversity are like medicine for the soul. They heal invisible wounds with the gentleness of a caress. Like time-release medicine, they work slowly, over time. You may not be present when the final healing takes place, but you can play an integral part in its process by telling your crucible story.

Story Type #3: Imbroglio Stories

An imbroglio is defined as an acutely painful misunderstanding or embarrassing situation. Think of a time when you unwittingly found yourself in deep trouble, and you have the makings for an intriguing imbroglio story. Ironically, some of your funniest stories will come from your most humiliating moments.

Imbroglio stories allow us all to be comedians.

You probably don't have to look too deep into your past to find a moment where you made a wrong turn, got in over your head, or rushed into a hasty decision that backfired. Perhaps you're thinking of one right now. Did a family vacation turn into a fiasco? Did you ever try to impress a date and do just the opposite? Did a job interview turn into a comedy of errors? How about that home repair project that turned into a money pit? When we tell our imbroglio stories, people relate to us because they've had imbroglio moments, too. Identify the point that your "mortifying-at-the-time" experience could illustrate, and then plan it into your next presentation. You'll show that you're human and your audience will identify with you.

Story Type #4: Minerva Stories

Minerva was the Roman Goddess of wisdom. When you have a story or parable that draws upon ancient wisdom, whether from the Bible or a traditional American folk story, that is a Minerva story. Other resources for Minerva Stories include:

* Native American Indian stories

* Greek and Roman Mythology

* African-American folk stories

* Celtic folk stories

* Traditional American folk stories

* Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi and other religious stories

* Mythological stories and folk legends

Developing Minerva stories usually involves research and memorization because the stories themselves already exist in written, recorded, or visual form. Your goal is to interpret these legendary tales for modern day audiences so your listeners clearly "get" how the accompanying insight is timeless and universal.

Story Type #5: Credibility Stories

Credibility stories are any non-personal stories (meaning they didn't happen directly to you) you find from outside sources such as books, articles, radio shows or TV broadcasts. They may relate to a current event, news story, or international incident that recently happened that "proves" a point you want to make in your presentation.

If you speak about management or leadership, all you have to do is look at the daily headlines to find plenty of "real-life" material. If your topic is Change, you could share a story pulled from the newspapers about an intrepid manager who was laid off only to rebound and use her severance package to start her own, now thriving, company.

Credibility stories do not make good signature stories, however, because they did not happen to you. Be sure to use stories from other experts sparingly. If other people's insights form the bulk of your presentation, it's in your best interest to stop speaking on that subject. Audiences want to hear what YOU have to say on your topic, not what everyone else under the sun has to say about that topic. You have no reason to be speaking on a subject unless you have some personal experience, insight, or recommendations to offer. Remember, credibility stories from other sources are there to add authority to your own insights, not replace them.

Story Type #6: Pattern Stories

When stories cover a period of time (from days to months or years) or when multiple stories share a common theme, they are called pattern stories. Though the circumstances may change from scene to scene or over the expanse of time, the plot structure builds on the use of a repetitive pattern, which gives the story a resonant structure.

This is a sophisticated technique that the best professional speakers use. They know that a well-crafted pattern can build suspense, anticipation, and a satisfying sense of full-circle completion in listeners. The first time you introduce a specific gesture or phrase, your audience will simply notice it. The second time, they will realize that a pattern is emerging. The third time they will "get wise" to the pattern and begin to anticipate and enjoy it. You may even see a few smiles of recognition or titters. By the fourth time, especially if you add a little attitude and exaggeration, the group will laugh out loud because by now they are "in" on the joke.

Pattern stories work well at the beginning of your talk because they engage and tickle the minds of participants. They can also be introduced towards the middle of the talk, but be sure to allow enough time to reiterate the pattern so it "matures" and the audience "gets' the joke or receives the full value of the repetition. In some cases, your entire presentation may be one intricately crafted pattern story.

Story Type #7: Instructional Stories

Instructional stories rely heavily on narrative structure and often contain multiple points. While I teach that each story should only make one point, instructional stories break that rule. They must be crafted efficiently though so they don't confuse the audience.

Instructional stories move back and forth from the story to the lesson. They look, sound, and feel different from other stories. First of all, they are more cerebral. The action in instructional stories is minimized and the narrative is maximized. In other words, there's more TELL than SHOW. Instructional stories exist to teach rather than entertain, however they can have humor and entertainment. Because of my background in comedy, I'm convinced that almost any story can and should have humor, but in the case of the instructional story, the focus is on the clarity of the narrative.

You've probably heard the military advice about how to give a briefing: "Tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em; tell 'em; and then tell 'em what you told 'em." I usually don't suggest that much repetition, however that advice is wise when it comes to telling long instructional stories that cover multiple points. It's our responsibility to make sure each point is illustrated logically, that it builds upon the preceding point, and that in the end, all three points form a contiguous body of knowledge. By following a clear, clean structure, participants will be able to concentrate on and follow what we're saying instead of getting hopelessly lost.

Stick with Personal Stories

When choosing a story to develop into a "million dollar signature story," stick with personal stories. Of the seven types of stories that I've just listed, Crucible, Imbroglio and Pattern Stories work best as a Signature Story. That's because you lived them, you were there. You can recall details and provide insights that will make the story come alive.

Signature stories don't have to be based on profound experiences. They become signature stories through development and performance. Ordinary experiences can become amazing stories if you understand how to develop them.

Pick Three Potential Stories

I'd like you to choose three stories that have the potential to become signature stories. Here are some criteria to follow:

* You learned a life lesson

* It was a memorable experience

* It was powerful and made a lasting impression on you

* It was a turning point for you

* There was a clear and present danger or obstacle

* You'll enjoy telling the story for years to come

Part Two of this series will guide you through the Nine Steps of Story Structure. You'll learn how to write and craft the narrative of the story so that it has all of the elements of a good story, including one clear and concise point.

--
Copyright 2005 by Doug Stevenson. Reprinted with permission. Doug Stevenson is the creator of the Story Theater Method. He is an author, keynote speaker, and workshop leader. Reach Doug at www.storytheater.net or 800.573.6196

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by Doug Stevenson 2004 This is the "Signature Stories" Issue â€" Part One ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "There are two ways to persuade people. The first is by using conventional rhetoric, which is what most executives are trained in. That's not good enough, because people are not inspired to act by reason alone.

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Mayo Clinic Music Fun | Sharing Mayo Clinic

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Mayo Clinic Music Fun | Sharing Mayo Clinic

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We've highlighted the contributions of music to the healing environment at Mayo Clinic in some previous posts, but here's another video from last fall that we discovered on YouTube. The exuberance of this older couple playing in the Gonda Building will brighten your day.

For more background on how this video came to be, see the touching story of the patient, Sharon, who captured it, told from the perspective of her daughter, Jodi, who accompanied Sharon to Mayo Clinic for the first time last September.

Update (2/27/10): Mr. and Mrs. Cowan returned to Mayo Clinic this week and provided a concert for visitors and staff. See this post to watch video of that special event.
For information on Mayo Clinic's other social media sites, including our Facebook page and YouTube channel, see 10 Ways You Can Use Mayo Clinic's Social Media Tools.
Update 5/25/09: See this post for an interview with Mr. and Mrs. Cowan at their Ankeny, Iowa home.

Click here to read and listen to other Mayo Clinic patient stories.

Update (5/10/09): This morning's Des Moines Register has a feature on the Cowans and how they've become a YouTube sensation without owning a computer. If you enjoyed this video, you'll want to be sure to check that out, too.
If you would like to share this video with others, use the sharing toolbar below to post to Facebook or other social sites, or copy and paste the URL into an email or post to Twitter.
Update (5/3/10): You may also enjoy this 1996 feature story about Mr. and Mrs. Cowan, which Iowa Public Television recently uploaded to YouTube:

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We've highlighted the contributions of music to the healing environment at Mayo Clinic in some previous posts, but here's another video from last fall that we discovered on YouTube. The exuberance of this older couple playing in the Gonda Building will brighten your day.

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The Power of Stories in the Corporate Environment

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The Power of Stories in the Corporate Environment

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The Power of Stories in the Corporate Environment

Stories and the way we tell them have provided insights into our individual and cultural values since we began telling them. In stories we find our history, our future dreams and our visions.

Stories can present to the world our ideals and our motivations. If we know clearly what stories are being told about our projects, our organisations, our leaders then we can understand past events and organise future strategies more effectively.

Campaign stories, success stories, life stories, the corporate history, motivational stories, problem solvingstories, inspirational stores - there are so many useful story forms that businesses and corporations canaccess and utilise.

In a paper entitled 'Organizational Story and Storytelling: A Critical Review' in the Journal of Organizational Change, 1996, Mary E.Boyce, Professor, Dept. of Management & Business, Whitehead College, University of Redlands, California said,

'Shared storytelling has a number of applications that warrant consideration by organisational members, managers, and practitioners.

These are:
(a) expressing the organisational experience of members or clients;
(b) confirming the shared experiences and shared meaning of organisational members and groups within the organisation;
(c) orienting and socialising new organisational members;
(d) amending and altering the organisational reality;
(e) developing, sharpening, and renewing the sense of purpose held by organisational members;
(f) preparing a group (or groups) for planning, implementing plans, and decision making in line with shared purposes; and
(g) co-creating vision and strategy.'

Narrative
The key to understanding stories can be found in the narrative structure - character, setting, problem and resolution. Just about all stories, true or fictional, can be interpreted in this way.

The human brain is wired to work with patterns of information and variations in patterns. Humans make good use of the narrative pattern in stories. We engage with them, relate them to previous stories we've heard, remember them easily and retell them when appropriate.

Engaging narratives have:

- characters who come alive through interesting description and quotes;
- settings that the reader can remember long after they have read the story because they have been described in just enough detail;
- a problem or issue that needed to be overcome and that the audience can understand on an emotional level;
- a solution or a resolution to the problem that makes a significant difference.

Collecting stories & building relationships
How individual storytellers construct and tell their stories by including and excluding different characters, describing a setting, having characters interact, creating a problem and then resolving that problem can often tell us as much about the storyteller/s as it does about the components of the narrative.

Collecting project stories is an effective way of evaluating projects especially with regard to the human elements such as motivation and commitment of project teams. This process can bring submerged issues to the surface allowing new corporate learning. Retelling the stories of shared experiences whether pleasant or painful is also an effective way to build and maintain relationships.

Touchstone stories
Often these stories are written down and published or turned into jokes or anecdotes or even encapsulated in logos, symbols and icons. The Bell Telephone image of the linesman rejoining the phone line in the snow storm is a good example of a story that has so captured the imagination and motivation of a company that it has endured and achieved mythological status. It not only continues to motivate Bell employees but probably everyone who views it subconsciously creates their own version of the story imagining what it would be like to be the character in that storm setting. Touchstone stories like this one can inform an organisation's vision, motivation, commitment and processes.

Just as important however, are the informal stories that are being told about an organisation by customers and staff. The emotion being expressed in these stories can tell so much.

Organisational Storytellers
One of the skills of the professional storyteller is to model how to tell a story well. A good storyteller will:

- describe and bring characters alive
- provide enough detail of a setting so listeners/readers can imagine themselves there
- include emotions, problems, challenges and dreams
- tie up loose ends so that the stories feel resolved for the listener or reader.

Sometimes however modelling is not enough to overcome culturalisation about not being creative or expressive that is so common in society today. So a storyteller comes equipped with a range of tools for establishing safety and for helping contributors to access their stories. The most important of these is being a good active, acknowledging listener. Telling stories under these conditions becomes an enjoyable and empowering experience for the participant. Enabling these stories to become published, distributed and celebrated provides valuable lessons and organisational resources for communities and corporations.

Storytelling is also an effective way to present complex reports for planning and decision making. Stories are like road maps. They provide a way of codifying information at the level of complexity necessary for the specific journey or scenario. They are infinitely flexible and adaptable to the need at hand. Findings can be encapsulated into the narrative form and presented in entertaining and thought provocative ways to planners and decision makers.

Present a problem or a set of results in an appropriate story form and it allows the listener or reader to leave the logical left hand brain in neutral for a while and go off on a creative right hand brain exploration of the possibilities. What the storyteller understands is what is an appropriate story for a particular audience and how to tell it so they can relax, suspend judgement and creatively enjoy the ride.

Stories reveal. Stories motivate. Stories bind individuals into teams.
Stories create solutions.

Daryll Bellingham © 2001

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The Power of Stories in the Corporate Environment

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The Power of Stories in the Corporate Environment Stories and the way we tell them have provided insights into our individual and cultural values since we began telling them. In stories we find our history, our future dreams and our visions. Stories can present to the world our ideals and our motivations.

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Premise -- Foundation of Storytelling, An Essay by Bill Johnson

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Premise -- Foundation of Storytelling, An Essay by Bill Johnson

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Premise -- Foundation of Storytelling, An Essay by Bill Johnson

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Essay by Bill Johnson that explores how to use a premise to create a foundation for a story.

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People remember the stories! You can give a presentation that's a dazzling display of your vast intellectual knowledge, but when all is said and done, people remember the stories.

Studies about how adults learn show that memory is formed when a person's attention is engaged over a sustained period of time, and it is enhanced when auditory, visual and kinesthetic senses are stimulated.

In his book, The Owners Manual for the Brain, Pierce J. Howard, Ph.D. addresses the three stages of memory formation. The immediate memory is like a buffer area that can hold thousands of pieces of data for two seconds or less. The short-term memory is a like a broker that selects chunks of data to remember, but it takes about eight seconds of attention to add one new chunk of short-term memory. A new chunk of short-term memory becomes long-term memory when your attention is engaged over a sustained period of time.

When you listen to a good storyteller, you hear the story with your head, heart and soul. You're not a passive listener - you're an active participant. As the storyteller is relating his or her experience, you're experiencing it as if it were your story. You feel what the storyteller feels, and see what the storyteller sees. You memorize and retain the chunks of information contained in the story because you see the images, hear the sounds, and feel the emotions. The story engages your attention on many levels, for a sustained period of time, so when the storyteller makes the point, the learning sticks. Storytelling transcends an intellectual experience.

When you cram a ton of information into a training session or presentation, you're doing a data dump on your audience! The problem is, they can't process your data as fast as you can dump it. Their brain gets stuck in immediate and short-term memory mode. You dump the data on them and they dump the data into their mental trash bin. Nothing sticks. Yet, have you ever sat in an all-day training and had a hard time remembering anything the speaker said, but still you were able to go back to the office and re-tell their stories? This is because stories stick.

In my Story Theater Retreats and Workshops, I perform stories as tutorials. In one story, I act out my experience when I went streaking in the summer of 1974 in Westwood, California and got arrested, naked, by the LAPD cops. When I'm finished performing the story, I ask my students to describe what they experienced. Some say they watched me streak past them as if they were standing in the movie theater line on the sidewalk. Some describe my 1962 Volkswagen bus with a psychedelic paint job or the sound of the cop's sirens and the flashing lights. Some describe anxiety or embarrassment, and some even say they felt the hot and humid summer night air as they ran right along with me.

For a story to come alive and captivate an audience, the content, structure and performance must be crafted strategically. The story itself is only a beginning. Storytelling is an art and the storyteller, the artist. And, all artists need tools. The actor needs a stage, props and costumes. The musician needs her instrument. The artist needs his brushes and paint. And the storyteller needs form, content and presentation skills and techniques. The great storytellers distinguish themselves not just by their talent, but also by their dedication to their craft. They think about their stories constantly. They structure the sequence and flow of the story, and experiment to find the right words that are genuinely theirs. They work on a gesture or movement until it is just right. Then they rehearse it over and over until it becomes second nature - the line and the gesture effortlessly married together. They incorporate acting skills and turn their stories into little theatrical events.

In order to have an end result that is amazing, you will have to spend many hours working on your story. Your story must be worked and re-worked, formed and re-formed. You'll want to find the drama and comedy of your stories and let them shine. You'll create a combination of "show and tell" to fully engage the audience - narrating some parts of the story, and "stepping into" the present moment of other parts to act them out. You'll want to make your content come alive with Story Theater!

As a speaker, trainer or teacher, if you want your points to stick, then stories are your super glue. Use stories to make a point, teach a lesson and move people to action. Make your stories truly memorable by making them come alive with Story Theater. People remember the stories.

Doug Stevenson
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For more information on how to design your presentations using stories to make your content come alive, sign up for the free Story Theater newsletter at www.storytheater.net. For information on retreats, workshops, train-the-trainer programs and private coaching contact Doug Stevenson at 800-773-0265 or doug@dougstevenson.com.

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People remember the stories! You can give a presentation that's a dazzling display of your vast intellectual knowledge, but when all is said and done, people remember the stories. Studies about how adults learn show that memory is formed when a person's attention is engaged over a sustained period of time, and it is enhanced when auditory, visual and kinesthetic senses are stimulated.

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Amazon.com: slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations (8601300354712): Nancy Duarte: Books

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Amazon.com: slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations (8601300354712): Nancy Duarte: Books

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slide:ology: the art and science of creating great presentations

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business & economics / business communication / general

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computers / enterprise applications / general

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desktop applications - desktop publishing

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desktop applications - presentation software

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business & economics / decision-making & problem solving

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business & economics / e-commerce / general

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business & economics / industries / media & communications

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business & economics / management science

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business & economics / office management

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computers / desktop applications / desktop publishing

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computers / desktop applications / presentation software

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computers / enterprise applications / general

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desktop applications - desktop publishing

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desktop applications - presentation software

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slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations

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No matter where you are on the organizational ladder, the odds are high that you've delivered a high-stakes presentation to your peers, your boss, your customers, or the general public. Presentation software is one of the few tools that requires professionals to think visually on an almost daily ...

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Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die - Kindle edition by Chip Heath, Dan Heath. Reference Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

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Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die - Kindle edition by Chip Heath, Dan Heath. Reference Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

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made to stick: why some ideas survive and others die

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business & economics / business communication / general

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language arts & disciplines / communication studies

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self-help / motivational & inspirational

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Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

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BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Chip Heath and Dan Heath's Switch. Mark Twain once observed, "A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on." His observation rings true: Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus public-health scares...

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Storytelling as Best Practice: Andy Goodman: Amazon.com: Books

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Storytelling as Best Practice: Andy Goodman: Amazon.com: Books

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Storytelling as Best Practice [Andy Goodman] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers.

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Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences: 8601419323678: Business Communication Books @ Amazon.com

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Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences: 8601419323678: Business Communication Books @ Amazon.com

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resonate: present visual stories that transform audiences

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business communication - meetings & presentations

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business & economics / business communication / meetings & presentations

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business & economics / business communication / meetings & presentations

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business & economics / marketing / general

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Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

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Presentations are meant to inform, inspire, and persuade audiences. So why then do so many audiences leave feeling like they've wasted their time? All too often, presentations don't resonate with the audience and move them to transformative action. Just as the author's first book helped presenter...