How can you use storytelling to make your presentations more engaging?

Whether you call it a "Story Gap" or an "Inciting Incident," it disrupts the norm and hooks your audience with an unanswered question. The SCQA framework is perfect for this: - **Situation**: Establish the norm. - **Complication**: Introduce a problem. - **Question**: What happens next? - **Answer**: Provide the solution. This naturally leads into the Minto Pyramid, placing the resolution at the top for clarity and impact. For example, in the film "Barbie," everything is perfect until Barbie faces a crisis that grabs our attention. What's your hook? What pivotal question can you introduce early to engage your audience deeply from the start?

Starting your presentation with a provocative statement or surprising claim is a great way to capture the attention of your audience. However, you have to be able to back it up with the content that follows or it will seem like a cheap ploy. Humour is also a good way to set the tone and make people want to keep listening.

One thing I have found helpful is starting with a provoking question to draw attention of the audience. The question now should be the baseline of your narrative which convey of what you have to put across.

Including a human interest hook is great, but if your subject is too abstract this isn't always possible. A similar hook can be achieved by using an engaging analogy. Then, come back to that analogy throughout the presentation to tie your story together.

One thing that's been helpful for me is a selection of characters that resonate with the theme of the topic. Making these characters go through scenarios and situations that are peculiar and unthinkable makes the story even more engaging for the audience.

The more contradictory your characters, the more intriguing they become. My acting teacher once said, "If you want to be interesting as an actor, play a gangster like a priest and a priest like a gangster." Contradictions prevent characters from being one-dimensional and make them compelling. By incorporating unexpected traits, you add depth and complexity, capturing your audience's attention. Embrace these contradictions to create characters that are multifaceted and memorable, keeping your audience engaged and invested in their stories.

Relatable Characters: Introduce characters in your story that your audience can relate to. This helps to create an emotional connection, making the information more memorable.

Know your audience. Know your qualitative data; know real people. Keep it simple, but not too generic. Bring this persona(s) up as relevant, not all at once as to maintain engagement and impact. Ideally, the best stories are not created after the fact; you already have them in mind - the patients you learned from whilst conducting interviews, for example, that left a mark and represent key themes. Draw upon your own memories that have made an impact on you as a researcher and human, and adapt how you convey this to the audience (jargon, language, etc).

Conflict and Resolution: Present a challenge or conflict that the characters must overcome. This creates suspense and keeps the audience engaged as they await the resolution.

Emotional connection is all about understanding what your audience is thinking and feeling and meeting them where they're at in their language and experience. Many experts do the opposite and try to make their audience understand their expert languages and perspectives, which causes people to disengage. When you use your ideal client's language in your stories and teaching you'll inspire the trust and emotional energy needed to make a decision.

Pathos, or the appeal to emotion, is what has the sole power to control whether your content has made an impact, or not. While making a point, considering how the audience thinks and feels is essential to adding a relatability factor, helping them resonate to your point. I have often found that quoting real-life examples is an effective way to do this, as by asking them relevant questions that relate to their quotidian lives, you are allowing the audience to truly reflect on their experiences and emotions, and thereby enabling them to connect with your content on a personal level.

Emotions gets the audience to think. It helps them internalize what is happening throughout the presentation. A story throughout the presentation helps navigate emotions better and, with proper planning, can have a big impact to achieve your goal.

Show a Transformation: Your story should demonstrate a clear change — a journey from problem to solution. Illustrate how your service, product, or idea can transform situations.

When telling a story, speak in the present tense as if you're experiencing it right now happening to you right now. Include visuals and as many other details to create an experience we can picture ourselves in as you're telling your story. The crunch of broken glass under my feet The smell of lilacs when I opened the door The beep beep of the hospital machine You don't need to write a poem or go into endless detail, just a few touches like this can make a story much more compelling.

I am inspired by my scrapbooking hobby when putting together a visual story. The most important images should be largest. The captions should lead your audience through your figures. And the color scheme you select should complement the images if possible.

When we glance at a sign on the motorway, we aren’t reading the town name out - our brain recognises it, we encode, and move on. No distractions. Images are a supplement. You are the speaker. If you want particular attention to a message, speak it with a blank screen behind you. Explaining methodology? Show me what the research lab room looked like on a ppt slide behind you. Use as few words as possible. And of course, use meaningful graphics and colours to demonstrate themes and relationships as necessary. Refrain from using too many fonts, colours and sizes. Keep it simple. It should be quick to understand. Your words are the focus and visuals are an aid. Of course this changes with complexity of content! Draw; make a map. Tell a story.

I film myself doing the presentation so I can spot points where I stumble over words, or any distracting actions I make. However, don't rehearse so much that your presentation sounds like it's memorized. Make sure you know the content backwards and forwards so you can present it naturally and with enthusiasm, but not sound like a robot.

Use Vivid Imagery: Engage your audience’s senses with descriptive language, creating mental images. This kind of vivid storytelling can make your presentation more immersive. Incorporate Real Examples: Share real-life cases or testimonials that represent the story you’re telling. It adds authenticity and can strengthen the credibility of your message. Keep It Simple: Stick to a simple story structure without overcomplicating it with too many subplots. This aids in keeping your audience focused. Link Back to the Main Message: Ensure that your story ties back to the primary point of your presentation. Each element of the story should support your main message.

Once you get to the point where you're practicing in front of audiences, record the audience as well as yourself. Review and critique your stories based on the feedback you get from watching your audience respond to your talk.

When I practice a talk, I focus on the transitions between slides or ideas. This is the most common place where I see people stumble. If your transitions are smooth, the rest of the content will flow nicely.

So few people truly engage with their audience and foster a meaningful connection. Often, presenters remain closed off, resulting in a lack of energy exchange. To create impact, ensure your words resonate with the human beings in front of you. Aim to move them emotionally. Ask yourself: What do I want these people to feel? How can I inspire that feeling? Focus on creating an authentic connection and delivering your message in a way that genuinely touches and motivates your audience. This approach not only enhances engagement but also makes your presentation memorable and impactful.

Don't underestimate the impact of a physical model. Passing around a 3D print of an important protein, a prototype of a new device, or an example of an environmental sample gives your audience a tangible connection to draw them in.

Engage with Pauses: Pause after key points for emphasis and to let your story’s message sink in with the audience. Encourage Interaction: Prompt audience participation by posing questions or inviting them to imagine scenarios. This can create a more interactive experience.

It's great to engage the audience, but make sure you ask the right questions and be clear in how you want the audience to engage. Avoid asking people to raise their hands to reveal a problem and instead If you do ask a question or engage the audience, be clear on how you want them to engage back. For example: If you ask "who in the audience has more than 10 people on their team?" You ask, but how to respond? Raise their hand? Speak up? This lack of clarity usually means they won't engage. One small shift in guiding the audience to how you want them to respond can open more people up to you. "Raise your hand if you have more than 10 people on your team"

Pay attention to incidents that happen to you. Not a quote from a book, not a story from someone else, but pay attention to what is your experience. Then before you use it in a presentation test it. Tell it conversationally to 8-10 people...just fit it in to your normal day-to-day conversations. Notice their response. You can even tell the story 10 different ways and see which one hits! Write these stories down because it is very normal to forget them. And make sure that you not only tell a good story, but that it relates closely, intimately to the topic at hand. Even funny stories (never tell jokes) need to have some relevance to the topic. And did I mention never tell jokes?! Leave those to the pros. You are the 'pro' of your own stories.

Encourage Interaction: Prompt audience participation by posing questions or inviting them to imagine scenarios. This can create a more interactive experience.

Try to Relate with the customer The Moment your story line relates with your customer They will start feeling your story And once they feel it Which means your job is done

When making slides for a presentation, we all know that we should minimize text. But, I also like to change up the layout of the content with figures on the left, right, centered, etc. This helps keep the flow visually interesting. Also, some content looks awkward in the default layout. Creativity can make your images stand out!