The Hook Task

How to engage people in the opening of your presentation

The Hook is an attention-grabbing story or involvement activity you do in the opening of your message to engage people emotionally to the problem you are addressing in your message.

1. Choose a message and a target audience (5 minutes)

2. Study “How to present the Hook” (1 minute)

3. Study the Hook Examples to become inspired(15 minutes)

4. Prepare a Hook to your Message 40 minutes)

5. Craft a powerful Point to Your Hook.

   Bonus Material: (15 minutes)

   1. More examples of Hooks from Ted Talks (6 minutes)

   2. How to Write a Strong Headline (6 minutes)

1. Choosing Your Message

Think of an upcoming presentation for a large audience (5-100 people) where it is vital to engage them. (For example: town hall meetings, team leaders, employees, colleagues, stakeholders, conferences, keynote speeches. NB! For Boards or Executive Management, the Hook might be too impropriate)

1. What's the problem you want to solve?

2. What’s the consequence of not solving this problem?

3. While you watch the inpsirational videos, think about: How could you illustrate your problem with a metaphor? A story? An demonstration with objects? A drawing? A horror example?

2. How to present the Hook:

The Hook is presented after your title:

3. Prepare Your Hook

Be creative. Chose one of the following ways to create a Hook:

• Storytelling: “Before I start, how many of you can recognize the following - now, tell a story about the problem could you tell?, or:

• Dream Scenario: “Imagine 6 months from.. now tell a story of an attractive future”, or

• Horror Scenario: “Let’s pretend we don’t do anything - then imagine 12 months from now… Tell a story about a horrible situation in the future”

• Metaphorical story: “Have you ever tried to … now tell a metaphorical story of relevance to your message”?

• Shocking Numbers: Which shocking numbers could you share? For example: 7,6 mio DKK - what do you think this number is? Well, that’s the money we waste every month/year on xxxx”

• Demonstrate with objects. For example: [collect 10 pens and markers from the meeting room] “This is our ressources, but [take 9 away] and say: “And these ressources are allocated to development projects that don’t progress, leaving only 10 percent (show 1 pen) for operational work..”

• Demonstrate with metaphorical images… . For example: [Picture of firefighters] vs [picture of pilots] - which leadership style would you rather?

• Draw…

• Your own way….

5. Craft a strong Point

Your Hook must end with a clear and relevant point. Formulate it as brief as possible. Preferably like a rhythmical one-liner. Strive for alliteration, like: Let’s gear the growth with global standards.

Bonus Material

I’ve collected more HOOK examples to inspire you:

craft a strong title: