The Storytelling Task (75 minutes)
How to engage people in the opening and during your presentation
Storytelling makes your messages relevant and memorable.
Choose a message and a target audience (5 minutes)
Watch the Introduction Video to Storytelling (6 minutes)
Study the Storytelling Examples to become inspired (20 minutes)
Prepare an Opening Story with a Strong Point. (20 minutes)
Come up with a middle Example Story that proves the value of your solution. (20 minutes)
Bonus Material: (15 minutes)
More video examples of Storytelling from Ted Talks and Leadership Presentations (15 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, storytelling might be too impropriate)
What's the problem you want to solve?
What’s the future you want to create?
While you watch the inspirational videos, think about: How could you tell a story about the problem you face? How could you tell a story about the future you want to create?
2. How to present a story:
Watch the video to learn the techniques of how to tell a powerful story.
Use storytelling to prove that your solution brings value:
3. Watch the Storytelling Examples to Become Inspired
Opening Story Example 1: Howard Schultz
Howard Schulz Storytelling Technique: A Small Moment with a Big Epiphany
The place: “I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. For those of you on the West Coast, it’s federally subsidized housing.”
Here Howard Schultz establishes the place in the first sentence
The Moment: I came home from school. I walked in, and my father was spread on a couch with a cast from his waist to his angle.
The Epiphany: I wanted to build the company that my dad never got to work for. (a company with a health insurance for it’s workers)
Opening Story Example 2: Barack Obama: Fired Up. Ready to Go.
Barack Obamas Storytelling Technique: The Direct Speech.
In “Fired Up, Ready to Go” Barack Obama refers 14 times to what someone else said verbatim. It is this exact re-telling of what the woman said that makes the story so engaging. The story almost becomes a screenplay.
Direct Speech used in this story:
And she said: “I’ll endorse you if you come to Greenwood”
They said: Tomorrow, we've got to go to Greenwood”.
From the back of the room, I heard a voice saying: “Fired up”.
And they said: “Fired up”.
And she said: “Ready to go”.
And after a couple of minutes, I was feeling kind of: “Fired up” (Note that thoughts can also be told with direct speech”
The Point of the story:
The question is whether we can get this country “Fired up”. And if we get this country “Ready to go”.
Middle Example Story 1: Why Steve Jobs Designed the First Computer with Beautiful Typography
Steve Jobs Storytelling Technique: An Idea from the Past Brings Value into the Future
4. Come up with an opening story of what needs to be done. Craft a strong point.
5. Come up with a strong example that can be used in the middle. This example should prove that your solution is valuable.
Imagine what a future situation would look like, when your solution has been deployed. Or:
Tell about how others have benefitted from a similar solution. Or:
Craft a Montage of small future moments where different people are being helped from your solution.
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:
