Using Storytelling to Take Your Presentations to the Next Level

“Storytelling.” There’s something in that word that seems a little counter to information shared in business. “Data”? “Hard skills,”…cold facts. “Storytelling”? “Soft skills” “impressions,”: expendable. In business, we’re accustomed to elevating words like “data” “empiricism” and “analysis” as concepts to be revered, sometimes at the expense of other useful communication devices. It's easier to rationalize putting “hard skills” concepts on a pedestal. certainly above something called “storytelling.”

These comments are meant to point out the reasons for storytelling, and some of the ways it can be used to your advantage in presentation of information.

One of my most frustrating memories of being an elementary schooler was being told by more than one of my teachers that my biggest obstacle to being a better student was the need to “apply myself.” I never knew what they meant. I’m still not sure I know what it means for someone to “apply” themselves. With some of my presentation skills clients I can see the same blank look when I start to introduce the concept of storytelling.

Storytelling is not easy to define. What is it? How can serious business discourse use it to refine and clarify a message? First, we’ll take a shot at defining it. We’ll look at the ways some others have used it to make their message clearer and more interesting, and we’ll make easy-to-implement suggestions on how you can use it in your own audience relationships.

Let’s think of “storytelling” as a way to take what is true and associate it with the creative, experiential, and ultimately, the personally meaningful.

Think of it as personal, easy to understand and memorable, what Malcolm Gladwell, in his first book The Tipping Point, called “sticky.”

A story answers the question, “so what?” If a presenter offers dry, data-laden information and stops there (even if, to the presenter, the conclusions of the data seen self-evident) he or she is missing an invaluable opportunity to help the audience understand the message.

People have been telling stories to improve the impact of otherwise forgettable information for millennia. The Chauvet cave paintings in France are evidence of graphic storytelling dating to 31,000 BC. We’ve depended on it for a long time.

A story has a beginning, a middle and an end. (Remember the “rule of threes? It’s a powerful cultural influence.) Here’s an example:

In talking to a child, a person who must remember certain information to remain safe, especially as vulnerable as they are, we tell stories at the drop of a hat as a way to augment and emphasize the message. Instead of offing a mere fact: “Billy, you know that tall grass across the street? that lot is a full acre, and I happen to know that in our area, an unimproved acre of land has up to 600 snakes and of that number 12% have been shown to be poisonous (figure in a plus or minus margin of 4%)…” We jump to what we know will be even more effective. “Billy, if you play in the tall grass, you could get bitten. Who knows how many snakes live there? It would be terrible.” ?The story, though short, has a beginning a middle and an end: The set up: “If you play in the tall grass…” The middle, “…you could get bitten” and the end, “…it would be terrible.” And the personal quality makes it much more memorable.

Other stories we’re familiar with, fairy tales, seem as though they could have started out as object lessons meant to persuade children to be careful of the threats posed by the world. How about one of the most famous ones: “Little Red Riding Hood”? Dry data: “There are dangers posed by a child’s being alone in the forest. Statistics show that being in the forest figured in 41% of missing children cases last year.” The story: “There was a sweet little girl. She wore a red coat just like yours. She went into the forest and there waiting for her was a powerful, hungry wolf. He waited for her and attacked! He ate her up, and her parents never heard from her again!”

No question about it, the story has all the elements, it’s personal, easy to understand, and sticky.

How does our understanding of what makes up a “story” relate to something that can be useful in making business topics easier to absorb?

Some years ago I had the opportunity to offer consulting to the Zig Ziglar organization in Dallas. Zig was a well-known motivational speaker and prolific author in the genre of selling-skills. He understood the value of storytelling.

Every salesperson who has had sales training has been introduced to the concept of selling the benefit of the product or service rather than its features. In talking about a car, the feature would be its ability to go from zero to sixty in 2.6 seconds. The benefit would be “You’ve never felt anything as exciting as to drive a car that’s this responsive.” When his book, Ziglar on Selling was published in 1991, I somehow found my way into getting quoted in the book. The point to be made was: “Always sell to the benefit, not to the feature.” Here’s how Ziglar made it a story. As you read it remember, “Personal, easy to understand and memorable.”

"Communication consultant, Nick Dalley has done some contract work for our organization. It had been several months since any of us had seen him, and several people noticed that there was something different about Nick when he returned to help us with a particular project. We eventually realized he was wearing braces on his teeth. Finally someone’s curiosity led him to ask Nick why he wanted braces.

Nick’s answer contains a valuable lesson about WII-FM [“What’s in it for me?”] and leading with need. He responded, 'I don’t want braces. I want straight teeth.'

Please don’t waste your time and the prospect’s time telling them what the product IS. Tell them what it can DO and why it will do it for them. Ziglar on Selling pg. 128."

Beginning? An introduction to the characters in the story. Middle? The narrative…talking through what happened. End? The “so what?” of the story starting with 'Please don’t waste your and the prospect’s time...

Personal? Check. Easy to understand? Check. Memorable? Check.

What else can a focus in storytelling do for your presentation?

It can define you as “truly wanting to be understood” on more than an empirical level but also on a visceral level. Logical intelligence and emotional intelligence are at least equal in importance.

It can identify you as standing apart from others who are less willing to take the effort to use the device.

It suggests a degree of sophistication and maturity as a presenter.?

It illustrates that you intend to be “caretaker” for your audience.

It will clearly demonstrate the benefit to them of being in the room (or on your TEAMS call) listening to you.

It will build your potential of being considered a “thought leader.”

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