Carol's Corner

What do you think of when you hear the word storytelling?

Our thoughts may drift to bedtime stories, told to children or scary stories whispered around a campfire late at night. We may even think of our favourite book, movie or storyteller in our lives. After all a good book, a well plotted storyline in a movie can take us to far off places, helping us lose all track of time. Storytelling is the art of passing information from one generation to another and keeping the cultures traditions and legends alive.

Yes storytelling is all of these things and yet I challenge you to think beyond the traditional storytelling to how you can liven up any presentation with the placement of a well told, relevant short story. Yes even in technical presentations.

You may see the logic of personal story in inspirational and motivational speeches but be questioning its relevance in technical or professional presentation.

Author Todd Stocker said this, “Stories give colour to black and white presentations.”

Psychology today says, “Telling stories is the best way to teach, persuade and even understand ourselves.”

Stories are a powerful method of getting our point across to an audience. It will help them remember the point we are making because stories touch the heart where data only satisfies the analytical part of our brain.

Therefore, if storytelling is the best way to teach, persuade and understand ourselves and powerful in getting ideas out, maybe a better question would be, “Why not use storytelling?”

I had the opportunity to put on a workshop on the Power of Stories in all types of presentations, even the technical ones. The audience varied in age, speaking abilities and in their backgrounds. One audience member, in a technical field found this concept of adding stories to her technical presentations rather eye opening. Here is what she had to say,

I have known Carol Harrison for over eight years through Toastmasters and have admired her ability to give warm presentations on a variety of subjects. On inquiring about Carol’s method to successful presentations, Carol informed me that it is due to her storytelling skills. However, I am in the technical field and asked if this would be still relevant to me. Carol’s response was a most definite, ‘YES’ and then presented a workshop on the importance of storytelling in technical presentations. This presentation required some research by the participants and was a revelation to me. I used the lesson in my last presentation that I presented to my company and received numerous compliments on the presentation. Thank-you Carol.

This is one testimonial to the success of moving out of your comfort zone and putting story into any presentation, even technical. In my next few posts, I am going to share some tips on effectively using story in all types of presentations.

Do you do presentations for work, school or because you are paid to speak? How do you incorporate the power of story into your presentation?