-


The Story Formula

Communication experts all agree that the best way to transfer information is in story form.  There's something about the classic formula of Good vs. Evil that makes stories effective.  

You can use the example below to develop the story line for your 
next presentation.

In Steve Jobs's iPhone presentation, he uses the Nokia, Palm and Blackberry as the villians.  The problems are the difficult to use keyboards, the overall difficulty of use, and the not-so-good software.

The victim, of course, is the user:  you and me.

The good guy then comes riding to the rescue:  
iPhone solves all these problems and so much more.

It's a simple but very compelling story arc.
 The Story Structure

Set up   Conflict   Resolution

The Bad Guy
Who’s the villain?

The Problem
What problem(s) does it represent?

The Victim
Who is affected?
How are they affected?
What are the tragic results?

The Good Guy
Who is the hero?
What will the hero do?
What are the concrete results and happy ending?


So, what's your story?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The PowerPoint Slide from Hell

-
Image
The PowerPoint Slide from Hell Wanna Kill Your Audience?  Make Your Slides Complex Almost every time I do a presentation workshop or one-to-one coaching, I am amazed how stressed-out presenting complex and/or very detailed PowerPoint slides make my clients. Actually, I'm not really amazed, because complex and/or very detailed slides would make just about any presenter stressed-out.  What amazes me is how often presenters use PowerPoint in a way that makes it basically impossible to use in an easy, comfortable way--for themselves and the audience. The more stuff you have on your slides, the more difficult and stressful it is to present.   The less stuff on your slide, the easier and less stressful. It's that simple. So, the take-away is:  if you want to lower your presentation stress, make sure your slides are as simple as possible.  Use visually oriented slides and minimal text.   A headline is often enough. Your job as the presenter is to then tell the sto
Read more

Make That Boss Happy

-
Image
Make That Boss Happy Managing Your Boss's Expectations: 5 Things To Think About. "The more we manage expectations, the better we can manage the future." Stanley L. Boswell, Jr. It's almost always useful to understand and manage our counterparts' expectations, especially our Boss's. It minimizes the chance for disappointment and maximizes the chance for satisfying the Boss. Here are five tactics to consider, practice and get good at (and, where possible, get in writing): 1. Confirm boss’s expectations. Duh! But far too often we think we understand (when we don't) or we're afraid to look dumb is we ask for confirmation/clarification. 2. Get commitment on priorities. Here we want to make sure that the new task is important and valuable enough to replace one of your current Top 3 tasks. If so, then one current task has to be re-assigned, delayed or killed. Don’t commit to new tasks until priorities are re-evaluated.   3. Reach common agreement on what = su
Read more
-
Image
Rejection Can SUCK…If You Let It. Every time we get rejected it hurts a bit. That’s human. Actually, rejection is nothing more than redirection. The key is to stop, take a breath, and ask: What is that rejection offering me? A chance to improve a chance to let go of something that was holding me back, a chance to better understand what my counterpart really wants, a chance to move on? All of the above? Rejection is actually a valuable lesson to bring us forward, if we choose to see it sa such. A lot of people choose to dwell on the hurt, the „bad guys who just don’t get it“, or any number of negative feelings. Don’t be that person.  Be better than that, and see it for what it really is: An invitation to redirect and keep going… Be Your Absolute Best. Turn Rejection Into Redirection.
Read more