Of all the tips I give my presentation training clients, the most important is to tell stories that flesh out your key message points. The concept of “telling stories” confuses many people. I often have clients tell me “I’m not a natural story teller.”
Or, “I agree with the idea of telling stories in principle, but it just doesn’t seem appropriate in our business situations, and besides, there is not enough time.”
Sadly, this shows a misunderstanding of what story telling is all about. Let’s clarify what stories are not:
- Stories don’t have to be funny
- They don’t have to be long (30 seconds is often enough)
- They don’t have to be about famous people or based in well-known locales
- They don’t have to be worthy of winning a Pulitzer Prize
It is important that your stories have a message, a resolution, a setting, one person, dialogue, another person, a problem, emotion, and passion.
Stories are not the most efficient way of communicating data, which is why most business communicators strip out all stories from their speeches. However, stories are the most efficient way of getting audience members to remember what you said.
If your goal is to get people to remember your key points, stories are essential. If you don’t care if people remember anything you say, then just present facts and bullet points in a straight forward manner.
But if you don’t care if people remember your points, why bother giving a presentation in the first place?
If you watched Obama’s speech last night, think of what you remember. I bet it was the stories he told…
