Presenting using stories

14th May 2007 @ 2.23pm

We are all natural born storytellers, so what does telling stories in business settings really feel like?

Business is often very formal, very structured, which is why presentations and events are often built around rigid agendas, charts, and of course the ubiquitous PowerPoint. These tools accentuate that rigidity. It all makes great sense to the presenter, as it is his or her thinking translated into a structure. However, what may work for the presenter very often fails for the audience. They don’t REALLY listen, and are very rarely engaged on an emotional level even if they might be on a rational one.

But you can’t take the structure and logic out of business. Telling stories therefore needs a framework, a context, and a reason. Then when you do use stories they have emotional as well as rational power. Now people really do listen - and that can feel strange if you are used to presenting to a disengaged audience. There’s a different vibe, and the focus is much more strongly on the presenter.

So what clues are there to being a successful storyteller in business? First, make sure it’s a good story - and relevant to the point you want to make. Second, know your story. This may sound obvious, but you really need to know the content so that you can relate it in a natural way. Third, feel your story - if it doesn’t have meaning for you it won’t come across with meaning to your audience. Fourth, imagine that you are telling it to a friend or a small group, not a big audience. Be animated, have passion, use your voice - you are not reciting bullet points now! And rehearse - try it out on some colleagues or friends first.

We have seen many examples of leaders transforming they way they present when we help them to use relevant stories to support their messages. Once they have experienced the attention they get from their audiences, they never want to go back to the “old way”. What’s amusing about this is that storytelling is the old way, it’s just that business lost the art and is only now discovering it again.

posted by Paul Honeywell
filed under Misc, Stories