Story time

I have delivered too many presentations almost no one was listening to. 

What’s the point of spending hours on a powerpoint deck if people don’t listen to it…

Over the last weeks, I have challenged myself to change the way I was delivering a presentation. I followed one simple idea : telling a story. 

Why does the story matter? Jennifer Aaker, General Atlantic Professor of Marketing at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business found stories are remembered up to 22 times more than facts alone. 

On how to tell stories? I took advice from 2 experts (Peter Guber, “Tell to win”) and from my talented wife. Story should follow a three-part structure : challenge, struggle and resolution. It should be authentic and go “from me to we” i.e. finding common ground between the personal situation and the audience. Last, of course, it should relate to the topic covered. 

At the end of my last presentations, I heard people clapping, a first ever in this organization for me. People spontaneously wrote to me to congratulate me on the delivery, which is, I believe, the ultimate proof that it went well. 

Telling a story is one of those things we all know we could do more…but we don’t. Another case of “Why are we brilliant at not doing the things we know we should?”  My favorite coaching topic. 

Why not start today and walk the talk.