What makes learnings sticky in our memories? Great storytelling techniques leave memorable imprints in our minds when we incorporate holistic sensory experiences.
Do you remember presenters or speakers more when they make you feel a certain way? Make you laugh, inspire you, connect and move your heart, they make you think of fond memories, energize you, or create a thrilling experience for you, etc.
Are you likely to repeat information back or share with others if somebody made you feel happy, sad, angry, or spectrums of emotions? Movie actors, comedians, the cool, funny, or silly friend, the impressionable person you love, admire or respect, etc.
Do you remember the person's name when you remember how they looked, what they were wearing, how they moved, and how much presence or energy they had? Funny blooper, accident or prank, interesting moment, a shared experience you could never forget (heartwarming, frightening, exciting, and meaningful).
What do we gain from great storytelling?
- Positive Outcomes - Ability to share our needs in meaningful ways that impact people.
- Acceptance and belonging - Sharing our strengths with unique perspectives that help build great teams and communities.
We know from personal experience that we have a short attention span. Then why do we insist on the following bad presentation styles?
- Too much information - Too many slides and words and lines in each slide.
- Uninteresting presentation - Visual images or animated effects are lacking or not strategically included.
- Not rehearsing - Many assume that they don't need to rehearse just because they know the topic. Practice, practice, practice! The master speakers and presenters rehearse as if they are presenting live. It matters! One of my favorite Master Class teachers and coaches is Vinh Giang. He eloquently and forever left us a positive impression that it took years of perseverance and courage to experiment and develop his communication style to be the great speaker he is today. He also noted that it required great coaches to help him articulate words that express his intentions and create the experience that his audience benefited from.
What is the result from above?
- Time Wasted - We waste time from our experts who compile and create the content. We waste time from the audience/learners receiving the content, regardless of the delivery mode.
- Money Wasted - Compensation of authors and creators, tools used or not utilized to create the content, and payment through time that the audience could have been doing something else to help create revenue.
- Missed Opportunity to Deliver a Positive Outcome - After everything is done, we don't deliver on the most important reasons we deliver content. (Unable to communicate needs, missed opportunity to build better relationships and improved credibility, missed opportunity to create go-to-market strategies that generate revenue, and many more!)
What is the significance of the numbers on this image, "How much we remember, attention and sentiments?"
- It is very disheartening to find out that our attention span ranges from 1-Hour (50% Recall), 8-Hours (25% Recall), and 48-Hours (10% Recall). NOTE: Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer explains that no matter our background or style of learning, human beings require visual association or anchors of concepts we want to remember long term. Joshua describes his learnings into how he prepared and learned to compete in the memory competition. The author shares that the more vivid an image or sensory stimuli are to the associated word stored in our memory palace, the longer we retain information in our memories.
- Based on much research and personal experiences, we only get less than 5 minutes at the beginning and 5 minutes at the end of the session to keep our audience's attention. NOTE: Mastering Technical Sales by John Care calls out how important it is to deliver presentations with the outcome in mind to start, "Show them the cake!" The book explains why the audience should care or want to listen to you, to begin with. Your presentation or message should answer, "What's in it for the audience?"
- Most people's first impressions or judgments occur in the first 10 seconds of interactions with people. Remember that handshake, the tone, how the person makes the room or space feel, and their presence?
Another important distinction on how we retain memory and how we learn as adults.
- Pedagogy (K12) A teacher or trainer-centered approach to instruction where the teacher assumes responsibility for making decisions about what will be learned, how it will be learned when it will be learned, and why it is of value to the learner.
- Andragogy (Adult Learners) A learner-centered approach to instruction where the teacher acts as a facilitator to help bridge the gap between student and knowledge. The learner is viewed as an independent entity who enters the learning experience with unique experiences and motivators.
Inquiry for All: Why do we not focus more on the shared human experience? Why do we only focus on delivering disconnected information that does not stick in our minds? Why don't we develop and value the importance of mastering storytelling skills?
Call to Action: If we want to improve how we articulate our needs and influence change in our day-to-day lives, then we need to master storytelling. We are emotional sentient beings that require the use of all sensory stimuli to create associations of disparate and connected concepts. We need to do better in answering "What's in it for me?" for our audience. Why should they care?
Examples of Positive Outcomes: Financial independence, improved work cultures, meaningful relationships personally and professionally, more effective and efficient work, improved lifestyles, and most importantly, a better mindset to empathize and work together as a family, community, and organizations.
