I think the book captures the essence of how and why all stories boil down to one of a few plot structures, and how they can act as outlines for effectively presenting all sorts of information. I’ve recently finished reading Christopher Booker’s book: The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories. Don’t go overboard with stories instead, use them sparingly and make sure that they are the right ones to stay with your audience even after the presentation is over. The power of stories also comes from scarcity. It will also make it easier for you to select how you want to tell the story, what details to include and what elements are most likely to strike a chord with the audience. These are naturally embedded with emotion, making you vulnerable and connecting you to your audience. If the type of presentation allows it, opt for a personal story. Otherwise it might seem forced and have a negative impact on your listeners. If you’re not comfortable including a story, don’t do it. Don't try to overdo it or use too many stories. Create an easy-to-visualize story where something happens in a specific time and place, played out by characters that your audience is likely to connect with. When you think of a story to accompany an idea in your presentation, think of it like painting a picture of your idea. You want to use stories to put information into perspective, not replace it. That means keeping them fairly short and removing unnecessary details. Make your stories clear and relevant, to support the information in your presentation. Each story should have a point to it that your listeners can easily grasp and identify with. They have to be relevant to the experience and interests of your audience. Forced stories have the opposite effect, they disconnect the audience and make it harder for them to understand where you’re going with the presentation. Pamela Rutledge, Psychologist and Director of the Los Angeles-based Media Psychology Research Center viaĮvery story has to fit within the context of your presentation, or at least tie in with your surrounding remarks. When you're describing things in a story, you are creating visual imagery that engages you in multiple ways. One way the brain sorts things is by metaphors (.). We perceive and remember something based on how it fits with other things. They can be used to evoke images and turn on memory, along with rich sensory and emotional associations, bringing the listener into the story, cognitively and emotionally, as an active participant. These linguistic devices are key components of the way we think, building blocks of the very structure of knowledge. Specialists say that the most effective and efficient way to do that is through the use of metaphor and analogy. Purposeful stories that reach the listener’s hearts and minds are those that move them to action. Hasson’s research showed that an effective storyteller causes the neurons of an audience to closely sync with the storyteller’s brain, which has significant implications for presenters.Ī key rule of telling stories is giving your audience an emotional experience. He found that the storyteller’s brain activity synched with the listeners, while he was telling the story. Once the story began, the brain activity of the listeners synced up on a deep level, and “neural entrainment” spread across all brains in higher-order areas including the frontal cortex and the parietal cortex. Hasson and his team scanned the brain activity of several participants while they listened to a story. Neuroscientist Uri Hasson of Princeton University researched the effects of storytelling on the brain by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Harnessing the power of storytelling for presentations Moreover, they turn the audience into viral advocates of the proposition, whether in life or in business, by paying the story-not just the information-forward. A powerful form of communication, they translate ideas and move people to action. In presentations, stories are the most effective way of organizing information. This hidden power of storytelling can influence how we make decisions and how we persuade others of our ideas. In many ways, stories are how we think and make sense of the world around us, and this extends to business concepts as well. Our brains have an embedded need for narrative, whether it’s schemas, scripts, cognitive maps, mental models or metaphors.
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