Lately, I’ve been talking to lots of folks about improving their internal presentations by turning them into powerful stories. All of us have sat through boring PowerPoint presentations. So, how do you make your information have more impact?
In order for any organization to really change, inspiration from the street must find its way into the core of the company. As in any other organism, change happens at the fringes of a species. The center of the species is always the last to change and the part of the community that resists change the most. It is essential to take the intelligence found on the streets and start a revolution internally.
That means making that intelligence as impactful as possible. Impact can come from ease of use, accessibility, insight, relevance and beauty. But the real power resides in the actual presentation of the story. It is also essential to remember that you are simply the storyteller, the illustrator of the information, and that the story itself should be the star. Your job is to be the conduit between the intelligence from the streets and the rest of the company.
Here are some things to think about when you’re sharing your stories, to make them as impactful as they can be:
- Engage the Audience – While a great story can engage the audience, most of the time the magic that makes the story engaging comes from the way it is told. Think about reading stories with your parents when you were a kid. The best stories were those that your parents were passionate about and told with excitement. As a speaker, if you’re excited by what you’re talking about, chances are your audience will be excited as well. Conversely, if you dread the story you are telling, then your audience will as well. Think about the story and how you can change it to get yourself excited about it. Be passionate.
- Ownership – To motivate people through storytelling you must master the performance of the story. By mastering the story you can free yourself to have the flexibility to deal with even the most difficult situations. I was speaking at a “Voice of the Customer” conference, and went to the podium to turn on my computer and set up for the telling of my story as the audience was having lunch. For some reason my computer crashed and would not turn on. A couple of days before, I had made a CD of my presentation, but in the 48 hours before the speech I had changed the material radically. Fortunately, someone loaned me a computer. I was able to use the CD to rebuild the story in a half hour. The only way I was able to pull it off was because I knew the material so well that I could retype several slides from memory. I owned the story.
- Testing – You know the saying: Practice makes perfect. There is no substitution for it. Focus your energies on the core of the story, making it interesting and meaningful in the story’s presentation. Practice in front of people and get feedback. Don’t be afraid to modify the story up till the very end. I always find the more times I practice a story, the more small changes I make to it. The story becomes my story. Only then can the magic of ownership really come out.
- Informal Settings – I always find that if you’re relaxed as a storyteller, then your audience will also be relaxed. One of the ways to make the setting more informal is to start the story off with a series of questions. Solicit participation in the story’s co-creation. Every once in a while slow down, take a breath and ask more questions. It keeps the audience engaged and the setting more informal. It becomes a dialogue between peers instead of a classroom setting where a teacher instructs the students.
