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Section 3 Story

[Stories] are the currency of human contact.

—Robert McKee, author of Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

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This document is authorized for educator review use only by Lisa Victoravich, University of Denver until October 2017. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860

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Apply Storytelling Principles

Stories have the power to win customers, align col-

leagues, and motivate employees. They’re the most com-

pelling platform we have for managing imaginations.

Those who master this art form can gain great infl uence

and an enduring legacy.

If you use stories in your presentation, the audience

can recall what they’ve learned from you and even spread

the word. Just as the plot of a compelling play, movie, or

novel makes a writer’s themes more vivid and memora-

ble, well-crafted stories can give your message real stay-

ing power, for two key reasons:

• Stories feature transformation: When people hear a story, they root for the protagonist as she over-

comes obstacles and emerges changed in some

important way (perhaps a new outlook helps her

complete a diffi cult physical journey). It’s doubly

powerful to incorporate stories that demonstrate

how others have adopted the same beliefs and

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behaviors you’re proposing—that is, show others

going through a similar transformation that your

audience will go through. This will help you get

people to cross over from their everyday world into

the world of your ideas—and come back to their

world transformed, with new insights and tools

from your presentation.

• Stories have a clear structure: All effective stories adhere to the same basic three-part structure that

Aristotle pointed out ages ago: They have a begin-

ning, a middle, and an end. It makes them easy

to digest and retell—and it’s how audiences have

been conditioned for centuries to receive informa-

tion. Make sure your presentation—and any story

you tell within it—has all three parts, with clear

transitions between them.

In this section of the guide, you’ll learn how to use

storytelling principles to structure your presentation and

incorporate anecdotes that add emotional appeal.

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Create a Solid Structure

All good presentations—like all good stories—convey

and resolve some kind of confl ict or imbalance. The sense

of discord is what makes audiences care enough to get on

board.

After gleaning story insights from fi lms and books,

studying hundreds of speeches, and spending 22 years

creating customized presentations for companies and

thought leaders, I’ve found that the most persuasive

communicators create confl ict by juxtaposing what is

with what could be. That is, they alternately build tension

and provide release by toggling back and forth between

the status quo and a better way—fi nally arriving at the

“new bliss” people will discover by adopting the proposed

beliefs and behaviors. That confl ict resolution plays

out within the basic beginning-middle-end storytelling

structure we all know and love (fi gure 3-1).

The tips in this section will help you weave confl ict

and resolution throughout the beginning, middle, and

end of your presentation.

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What could be

What could be New bliss

Call to action

What is What is What is What is

BEGINNING MIDDLE END

FIGURE 3-1

Persuasive story pattern

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Craft the Beginning

Begin by describing life as the audience knows it. People

should be nodding their heads in recognition because

you’re articulating what they already understand. This

creates a bond between you and them and opens them

up to hear your ideas for change.

After you set that baseline of what is, introduce your

ideas of what could be. The gap between the two will

throw the audience a bit off balance, and that’s a good

thing—because it creates tension that needs to be re-

solved (fi gure 3-2).

The gap

What is

What could be

Contrast the commonplace with the lofty.

FIGURE 3-2

Create dramatic tension

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If you proposed what could be without fi rst establish-

ing what is, you’d fail to connect with the audience before

swooping in with your ideas, and your message would

lose momentum.

The gap shouldn’t feel contrived—you wouldn’t say

“Okay, I’ve described what is. Now let’s move to what

could be.” Present it naturally so people will feel moved,

not manipulated. For instance:

What is: We’re fell short of our Q3 fi nancial goals

partly because we’re understaffed and everyone’s

spread too thin.

What could be: But what if we could solve the worst

of our problems by bringing in a couple of power-

house clients? Well, we can.

Here’s another example:

What is: Analysts have been placing our products at

the top of three out of fi ve categories. One competi-

tor just shook up the industry with the launch of its

T3xR—heralded as the most innovative product in

our space. Analysts predict that fi rms like ours will

have no future unless we license this technology from

our rival.

What could be: But we will not concede! In fact, we

will retain our lead. I’m pleased to tell you that fi ve

years ago we had the same product idea, but after

rapid prototyping we discovered a way to leapfrog

that generation of technology. So today, we’re launch-

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Craft the Beginning

ing a product so revolutionary that we’ll gain a ten-

year lead in our industry.

Once you establish the gap between what is and

what could be, use the remainder of the presentation to

bridge it.

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Develop the Middle

The middle is, in many ways, the most compelling part of

your presentation, because that’s where most of the “ac-

tion” takes place.

People in your audience now realize their world is

off-kilter—you’ve brought that to their attention and at

least hinted at a solution at the beginning of your presen-

tation. Now continue to emphasize the contrast between

what is and what could be, moving back and forth be-

tween them, and the audience will start to fi nd the for-

mer unappealing and the latter alluring.

Let’s go back to that Q3 fi nancial update example

from “Craft the Beginning.” Revenues are down, but you

want to motivate employees to make up for it. Table 3-1

shows one way you could approach the middle of your

presentation.

Earlier, you brainstormed around pairs of contrasting

themes (see “Amplify Your Message Through Contrast”

in the Message section). Try using one of those pairs—for

instance, sacrifi ce versus reward—to drum up material to

fl esh out this structure.

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TABLE 3-1

Creating “action” in the middle of your story

What is What could be We missed our Q3 forecast by 15%. Q4 numbers must be strong for us

to pay out bonuses.

We have six new clients on our roster. Two of them have the potential to bring in more revenue than our best clients do now.

The new clients will require extensive retooling in manufacturing.

We’ll be bringing in experts from Germany to help.

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Make the Ending Powerful

Your ending should leave people with a heightened sense

of what could be—and willingness to believe or do some-

thing new. Here’s where you describe how blissful their

world will be when they adopt your ideas.

Let’s return to our Q3 example from “Craft the Begin-

ning” and “Develop the Middle” in this section. You might

wrap up your presentation along the lines of fi gure 3-3.

New bliss

It will take extra work from all departments to make Q4 numbers, but we can deliver products to our important new clients on time and with no errors.

I know everyone’s running on fumes—but hang in there. This is our chance to pull together like a championship team, and things will get easier if we make this work. The reward if we meet our Q4 targets? Bonuses, plus days off at the end of the year.

Call to action

FIGURE 3-3

Making the ending powerful

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Many presentations simply end with a list of action

items, but that isn’t exactly inspiring. You want the last

thing you say to move your audience to tackle those

items. You want people to feel ready to right the wrong,

to conquer the problem.

By skillfully defi ning future rewards, you compel peo-

ple to get on board with your ideas. Show them that tak-

ing action will be worth their effort. Highlight:

• Benefi ts to them: What needs of theirs will your ideas meet? What freedoms will the audience

gain? How will your ideas give the audience

greater infl uence or status?

• Benefi ts to their “sphere”: How will your ideas help the audience’s peers, direct reports, custom-

ers, students, or friends?

• Benefi ts to the world: How will your ideas help the masses? How will they improve public health, for

instance, or help the environment?

In the example above, we’ve called out a key benefi t

to the organization (making up for Q3 revenue short-

fall), plus three benefi ts to employees (bonuses, time off,

and—probably most important—the promise of a saner

workload).

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Add Emotional Texture

Now step back and review all your content so far. Do you

have the right mix of analysis and emotion? (See “Bal-

ance Analytical and Emotional Appeal” in the Message

section.) If you need more emotional impact, you can add

it with storytelling.

A message matters to people when it hits them in the

gut. Visceral response, not pure analysis, is what will

push your audience away from the status quo and toward

your perspective. Stories elicit that kind of response.

When we hear stories, our eyes dilate, our hearts race, we

feel chills. We laugh, clap, lean forward or back. These re-

actions are mostly involuntary, because they’re grounded

in emotion.

While you’re describing what is, tell a story that makes

people shudder, or guffaw at the ridiculousness of their

situation, or feel disappointment. While you’re describ-

ing what could be, tell a story that strikes a little awe or

fear into their hearts—something that inspires them to

change.

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Table 3-2 shows a template (with an example plugged

in) that can help you transform supporting information

into a story with emotional impact.

You may be thinking that people don’t go to work to

feel; they go to get stuff done. But by making them feel,

you move them to action—and help them get stuff done.

It’s not about issuing a gushing, weepy plea. It’s about

TABLE 3-2

Making an emotional impact with data

Point you want to make Every cross-divisional function could benefi t from a steering committee.

Story about organizational change

Beginning When, who, where

A few years ago, the sales team tackled a cross- divisional problem with the help of a steering committee.

Middle Context At the time, all sales groups were independent.

Confl ict This means we were confusing customers with many diff erent rules, processes, and formats.

Proposed resolution

So we decided to create a sales steering committee.

Complication You can imagine how hard it was to reach agreement on anything.

End Actual resolution

But we agreed to meet every two weeks to fi nd common ground. Over the next year, we standardized all our processes and learned a lot from each other. The customers became much happier with our service.

Source: Glenn Hughes, SMART as Hell.

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Add Emotional Texture

adding emotional texture to the logical case you’ve built

with data, case studies, and other supporting evidence.

Personal stories told with conviction are the most ef-

fective ones in your arsenal. You can repeat stories you’ve

heard, but audiences feel more affection for presenters

who reveal their own challenges and vulnerability.

Use relevant stories that are appropriately dramatic,

or you may come across as manipulative or out of touch

with reality. When giving an update at a small staff meet-

ing on a project you’re leading, you wouldn’t tell a melo-

dramatic story about the “just-in-time delivery” of mul-

tiple vendors you managed at your daughter’s wedding.

It would waste everyone’s time.

But one U.S. government offi cial did effectively tell a

story about his daughter’s wedding—to get new remote-

communication technology adopted in his organization.

Many of his relatives couldn’t travel to the wedding, so he

used a commercial version of the technology to push the

wedding pictures quickly to the remote family members,

helping all feel more included in the event. He argued

that adopting the enterprise version of this technology

would similarly include distant employees in the devel-

opment of important agency initiatives. The senior ex-

ecutives not only understood this with their minds but

felt it in their hearts. They could relate this story about

a father doing his best to serve his family to their agency

doing its best to serve the citizenry.

Take out a notepad and start cataloging personal

stories and the emotions they summon. This exercise

takes time, but it will yield material you can draw on

again and again. Do your fi rst pass when you have an

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Inventory of Personal Stories

□ Important times in your life: Childhood, adoles- cence, young adulthood, later years

□ Relatives: Parents, grandparents, siblings, chil- dren, in-laws

□ Authority fi gures: Teachers, bosses, coaches, men- tors, leaders, political fi gures, other infl uencers

□ Peers: Colleagues, social networks, club members, friends, neighbors, teammates

□ Subordinates: Employees, mentees, trainees, interns, volunteers, students

□ Enemies: Competitors, bullies, people with chal- lenging personalities, people you’ve been hurt by,

people you’ve hurt

□ Important places: Offi ces, homes, schools, places of worship, local hangouts, camps, vacation spots,

foreign lands

□ Things you cherish: Gifts, photos, certifi cates/ awards, keepsakes

□ Things that have injured you: Sharp objects, ani- mal bites, spoiled food, allergens

uninterrupted hour or so to refl ect. You can use the

checklist that follows to trigger your memory. As you

recall past events, jot down how you felt when you ex-

perienced them.

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Add Emotional Texture

Spending time with each item on this list, you’ll un-

earth many stories you’ve forgotten. Even after you’ve se-

lected stories for whatever presentation you’re currently

working on, save your notes and continue adding to them

here and there, as you fi nd time. They’ll come in handy

when you’re creating future presentations.

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Use Metaphors as Your Glue

Metaphors are a powerful literary device. In Dr. Martin

Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, about 20%

of what he said was metaphorical. For example, he lik-

ened his lack of freedom to a bad check that “America has

given the Negro people . . . a check which has come back

marked ‘insuffi cient funds.’” King introduced this meta-

phor three minutes into his 16-minute talk, and it was

the fi rst time the audience roared and clapped.

Presenters tend to overrely on tired visual metaphors

instead of using powerful words to stir hearts. King’s

speech would not have been nearly as beautiful if he’d

used slides with pictures of bad checks and piles of gold

symbolizing “freedom and the security of justice.”

For each point you make in your presentation, try

to come up with a metaphor to connect people’s minds

to the concept. You might even weave it like a thread

throughout the presentation.

When developing metaphors, reject overused themes

like racecars and sporting events—and avoid stock pho-

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tos along those lines. If you want to tell a story of tri-

umph, dig into one of your own stories for the right meta-

phor: Describe, for instance, how it felt to struggle to the

top of Yosemite’s Half Dome, run your fi rst marathon, or

win the citywide Boy Scout trophy. Identify metaphors

that will be meaningful to the audience.

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Create Something They’ll Always Remember

Place Something They’ll Always Remember—a climac-

tic S.T.A.R. moment—in your presentation to drive your

big idea home. That moment is what the audience will

chat (or tweet) about after your talk. It can also help your

message go viral through social media and news cover-

age. Use it to make people uncomfortable with what is or

to draw them toward what could be. Here are four ways

to create a S.T.A.R. moment that captivates your audi-

ence and generates buzz.

Shocking statistics

If statistics are shocking, don’t glide over them—amplify

them. For example, in his 2010 Consumer Electronics

Show presentation, Intel CEO Paul Otellini used star-

tling numbers to convey the speed and impact of the

company’s newest technology. “Today we have the indus-

try’s fi rst-shipping 32-nanometer process technology. A

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32-nanometer microprocessor is 5,000 times faster; its

transistors are 100,000 times cheaper than the 4004

processor that we began with. With all respect to our

friends in the auto industry, if their products had pro-

duced the same kind of innovation, cars today would go

470,000 miles per hour. They’d get 100,000 miles per

gallon, and they’d cost three cents.”

Evocative visuals

Audiences connect with emotionally potent visuals.

When asking donors to help raise $1.7 million, Conserva-

tion International contrasted dreamy, glistening, surreal

under-ocean images (captioned with phrases like “90%

of our oxygen” describing how dependent we are on the

ocean) with photos of grimy rubbish that washes up on

the beach (where “14 billion pounds of trash” roll in on

the waves). That approach tapped the power of evoca-

tive visuals and shocking stats—and people responded by

getting out their wallets.

Memorable dramatization

Bring your message to life by dramatizing it. As Bill Gates

spoke about the importance of malaria eradication at a

TED conference in 2009, he released a jar of mosquitoes

into the auditorium and said, “There is no reason only

poor people should be infected.” It got the audience’s

attention—and effectively made the point that we don’t

spend nearly enough money on fi ghting the disease. The

mosquitoes were malaria-free, but he let people squirm a

minute or two before he let them know that.

Consider another example. When Mirran Raphaely,

CEO of Dr. Hauschka Skin Care, presented to the cos-

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Create Something They’ll Always Remember

metics industry, she wanted to draw a sharp contrast

between industrial agriculture and biodynamic farming

practices. She showed two photos side by side—a con-

tainer of chemicals and an herb called horsetail—and

compared the toxicity of the two substances. In indus-

trial agriculture, farmers rely on glyphosate, a synthetic

chemical linked to cancer in animals and humans. In bio-

dynamic agriculture, farmers treat crops with an extract

made from horsetail. Holding up two glasses—one fi lled

with the chemical weed killer, the other with the horse-

tail extract—she asked the audience, “Which one of these

would you want on the crops you consume?” After the

audience fi nished laughing, she took a sip of the biody-

namic solution.

Emotive anecdote

Sometimes S.T.A.R. moments are gripping personal sto-

ries (see “Add Emotional Texture” earlier in this section).

Here’s one such story, told by Symantec.cloud group

president Row an Trollope in May 2012, to encourage his

organization to innovate:

I went mountain climbing at Mount Laurel, in the

eastern Sierras, with two of my friends. I’m not very ex-

perienced, but both of them were even less experienced.

We’d been climbing for about 19 hours. We were up at

11,000 feet, and it was getting dark. Fast.

We needed to get down the side of this mountain . . .

and we needed to do it fast. Descending fi rst, I got to a

ledge and started to get our line ready.

Climbers carry two emergency pitons with them for

just this purpose. I’d never used them before, but I knew

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how they worked. I took out my hammer and started

hammering one into the rock. The books tell you that

you’ll hear the tone of the hammer strike change when

it’s “in.” I heard a loud ping with each strike of the

hammer and decided it was in “good enough.”

The books also tell you, though, to always use two, so

I used two. As I hammered in the second one, I heard a

sharp, high-pitched ping at the end, so I tied the knots

and got our line ready. By this time, my buddies had

reached the ledge, and I started to hook us in.

Something was bugging me. I looked at the knot

between the two pitons and it looked like this [prop:

climbing rope with two pitons]. The problem with a

knot like that is that if one piton fails, you’ll fall. You

need to tie it instead like this [prop: retie knot].

My buddies were all clipped in and wanted to get

going. It was getting darker. The way I tied the knot

seemed good enough, but something in the back of my

head told me to stop. So I did.

We all unclipped, and I retied the knot, and then we

clipped in again and started the climb down.

The moment I put weight on my line, the fi rst piton

popped out and hit me smack in the middle of the hel-

met. Had I not unclipped and retied the knot, I would

have died on that ledge. My life rushed through my

mind. And I suddenly and irrevocably got the danger

of “good enough.”

When I pounded in that fi rst piton, I decided it was

good enough.

When I tied the knot that fi rst time, I decided that it

wasn’t, so I did it again.

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Create Something They’ll Always Remember

I still have that piton that popped out. I brought it

with me today because I thought you might like to see

it [prop: piton]. The other one? The one that saved my

life? It’s still in a crack on the Laurel Cliffs. Still doing

its job.

I came back to work, and everything had new mean-

ing for me. Retying my knots became a sort of meta-

phor. I realized that in every job I did, every project I

touched, I was making piton decisions every time. I

was deciding, with every one of those moves, whether

good enough was good enough for me.

I picked that story for today because I think we’re

facing a similar climb as a company. And we’re mak-

ing piton decisions every day. For my buddies and me,

there was nothing but sky beneath us. When you and I

look down, we see the PC business changing dramati-

cally. We can see physical things being driven into the

cloud, and we can agree that the Internet is not yet a

secure place.

Unfortunately, it will take more than one piton to

address these dangers. But I think it starts by reawak-

ening in our company some of the qualities that made

us great in the fi rst place. And to do that, I think we

need to change how we approach our work.

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Cover
What You'll Learn
Contents
Introduction
Section 1: Audience
Understand the Audience's Power
Segment the Audience
Present Clearly and Concisely to Senior Executives
Get to Know Your Audience
Define How You'll Change the Audience
Find Common Ground
Section 2: Message
Define Your Big Idea
Generate Content to Support the Big Idea
Anticipate Resistance
Amplify Your Message Through Contrast
Build an Effective Call to Action
Choose Your Best Ideas
Organize Your Thoughts
Balance Analytical and Emotional Appeal
Lose the Jargon
Craft Sound Bites
Section 3: Story
Apply Storytelling Principles
Create a Solid Structure
Craft the Beginning
Develop the Middle
Make the Ending Powerful
Add Emotional Texture
Use Metaphors as Your Glue
Create Something They'll Always Remember
Section 4: Media
Choose the Right Vehicle for Your Message
Make the Most of Slide Software
Determine the Right Length for Your Presentation
Persuade Beyond the Stage
Share the Stage
Section 5: Slides
Think Like a Designer
Create Slides People Can "Get" in Three Seconds
Choose the Right Type of Slide
Storyboard One Idea per Slide
Avoid Visual Cliches
Arrange Slide Elements with Care
Clarify the Data
Turn Words into Diagrams
Use the Right Number of Slides
Know When to Animate
Section 6: Delivery
Rehearse Your Material Well
Know the Venue and Schedule
Anticipate Technology Glitches
Manage Your Stage Fright
Set the Right Tone for Your Talk
Be Yourself
Communicate with Your Body
Communicate with Your Voice
Make Your Stories Come to Life
Work Effectively with Your Interpreter
Get the Most out of Your Q&A
Build Trust with a Remote Audience
Keep Remote Listeners Interested
Keep Your Remote Presentation Running Smoothly
Section 7: Impact
Build Relationships Through Social Media
Spread Your Ideas with Social Media
Gauge Whether You've Connected with People
Follow Up After Your Talk
Index
About the Author
Notes