1. Turning Presentations into Stories

Turning Presentations into Stories

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How telling a good story will help you deliver an engaging and memorable presentation.

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Death by PowerPoint

Have you ever been bored to death by a presentation? Watch this for a laugh!

Try to avoid creating a presentation with too many slides, too much text and too many ideas.  The best way to engage an audience and get them to pay attention to what you are saying is to tell them a good story.  

Hook your audience with a good story

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Most famous Hollywood movies, like Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Aquaman, Titanic, etc., tell the story of a heroic character who takes action and overcomes insurmountable odds to achieve victory.  We love these kinds of stories that follow a three-act structure. You can use this same structure to develop a compelling presentation.

Using the Three-Act Structure in your Presentation

Let’s look at the three-act story and how it relates to presentations.

Act 1: The World Out of Balance – in the first act we see a world that is out of balance, there is a problem in the world that we, as the audience, can relate to.  

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The Problem and the Solution: So, for you, as a presenter, tell the audience of the problem that they care about.  This problem could be causing unwanted impacts on society, a community, a school or hospital, etc.  This problem needs fixing! Tell the audience what you decided to do about it.
 Act 2: The Hero Ventures Forth – in the second act, the hero is compelled to take action to deal with the problem.  We watch and empathise with the struggles of the hero as he/she contends with powerful forces—both internal and external— on their quest to solve the problem. 

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The Findings: Now tell the audience what happened when you or your team took action. Present the data, facts or evidence that relate to the problem. Keep this interesting. What setbacks, surprises, disappointments or victories did you experience? Did these struggles help you to move towards or away from a resolution of the problem?
 

Act 3: The Hero Returns – in the final act, we reach the climax of the story.  The hero returns to the village, bringing back the knowledge or treasure that puts the world back into balance. 

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Next Steps: Now it’s time to wrap up your story. Have you solved the problem? Maybe the ‘adventure’
continues. Tell the audience what you are going to do next.

Tips for Finding the Story

  • Start brainstorming your presentation with pen and paper.  Try to work out what you want to say to the audience before you open up PowerPoint

  • Jot down all your ideas that come to you while you work out the story, write down colours, images, ideas and words that your story suggests. 

  • Be creative and think outside the box!

For more on Storytelling read the section Presentation outline: Telling a (great) story