Tell Stories. Deliver Content.

To All Communi-Creators:

When you deliver a presentation, create an ad or convey a message - I want you to tell me a story.

Virtually every religious text on the planet uses allegory as a teaching tool. Nearly every teacher in every classroom will use an anecdote to educate at some point. Since the days of Aesop and his timeless fables fiction has been a conduit for teaching fact.

Consider - which would be more compelling, a reporting of basic product features, combined with statements of fact supported by screenshots of the system? Or, a story about a fictitious user of that system, where the audience shares the product experience and  sees "first hand" how it solved a problem for the user? At the end of each the details, the specifications, the benefits are all delivered - but the second method was more interesting, more compelling and more likely to be recalled by the audience.

In a recent review of Nancy Duarte's new book "Resonate," Forbes editor Bruce Upbin provides this summary of her key points regarding presentations, "Don’t be too cerebral. Tell stories. Figure out what the audience cares about. Create common ground with them. Move back and forth between opposing ideas to create energy. Deliver facts but put them in context and make them shocking if possible."

Good advice.

However, simply telling a story is not enough. You need to tell an interesting story. Scott Simon, the Peabody Award Winning host of National Public Radio's Weekend Edition goes one step farther and says, "you can tell a story with vivid analysis and breathtaking detail, but if not one is listening, why are you talking?"

Good point. So, to assist in your efforts you can learn a few storytelling tips from Scott here.

When it comes to business communication use the same fundamentals found in storytelling to deliver your message to your audience. Set the scene, create interesting characters, give the audience someone or something to care about - and use the traditional story arc to deliver your content in an engaging way. In the end any experience you create for the audience will be far more effective than any dry report you could ever deliver.

I am your audience - tell me an entertaining story and not only will I listen to you, I'll remember what you said.

THE POINT: As stated by Alan Kay, vice president at Walt Disney, "in a typical boardroom . . . we're all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories."