Brilliant presentations: the art of storytelling
What is a presentation? Sounds like such a daft question, doesn’t it. Let me tell you what it is not. It is not a PowerPoint slide set. Yet this is where most people start when confronted with the need to get a new set of messages across to an audience, as if ploughing through a dozen or so PPt slides will get the creative juices flowing. For me, this is the very essence of death by PowerPoint, not for the audience but for the presenter. PowerPoint is not and should never be your storyboard; it should only be the medium through which you share elements of your story with the audience.
Storyboard? Yes, that’s what I said. A presentation, at least in my eyes, is a story. A carefully crafted experience where I take an idea or a theme and bring it to life and where the most important medium is me, the storyteller. Everything else, from what I wear through to how I stand, is my theatre, my presentation. The challenge is in getting the story right, and you can’t do that through PowerPoint alone. My storyboard consists of post-it notes and a flat surface and is informed by the brief I have for the presentation – my own brief or from the conference/session organiser.
In fifteen minutes of presenting time I know I can deliver one key message with three to five supporting messages. This is a rule of thumb and thumbs are, of course, made to be broken (cue PPt slide with picture of broken thumb). Usually I get 45 minutes to an hour to fill which means three or four big ideas with twelve to fifteen supporting messages. That’s a lot of planning and it can take me hours.
I start with the key messages – pink post-it notes (the point of my story). Add to these the supporting messages or themes I will use to develop the key messages – yellow post-it notes: limited to a maximum of five per key message (my characters and sub-plots). Then I add any number of creative thoughts – blue post-it notes: unlimited, the pictures, you tube clips, images, words, music, quotes, etc I could use to bring the presentation to life (my storytelling props). If I am trying out anything new or potentially challenging I will test out the relationship between my props and the point of my story with trusted colleagues who I know will be honest with me.
I have my storyboard. It is not on PowerPoint (it’s probably on the lounge floor or dining table). I now need to craft it into a performance and this means using PowerPoint (or any of the squillions of other tools) to enable the audience to share my world, to see the images, words and relationships between these and my key messages. I also need to rehearse but I find working in this way helps me to do this. In my mind I have already created the story and I know the relationships between blue, yellow and pink post-it notes. On the day I simply need to tell the story.
I like the analogy with storytelling, though for me it is more than analogous. I like it because the most important element in storytelling is the storyteller and it is the same when it comes to presentations. It’s all about me. I can have the best ideas, the neatest storyboard and a well crafted set of PowerPoint slides, but it needs me to bring the story to life – great storywriters are not necessarily great storytellers and the best storytellers often tell other people’s stories.
It’s all about me or, to quote the comedian Frank Carson, ‘it’s the way I tell ‘em’, it’s the way I:
- Use facial expressions to show that I really am ‘delighted to be here’ and, through smiling, am enjoying myself as much as I hope my audience are.
- Maintain eye contact and acknowledge those who are doing the same with me. A little nod and a smile towards the person who is laughing, a little raise of a figure and mouthing ‘in a minute’ to the person looking to ask a question, I need to be connected to my audience if I want my audience to connect with me.
- Act confidently and share something about me with the audience. I always start by giving something of me away and use personal examples to reinforce my key messages. I have no reason not to be confident, I have been invited to speak because I am considered expert enough to do so.
- Am visible to my audience and use movement to bring life to my presentation. I cannot abide standing behind a lectern or a desk and I make this clear when agreeing to speak at any event. If you want me to stand behind a lectern you’ve not thought enough about why you are inviting me to speak.
- Control the technology from wherever I am (which could be in the audience). I always carry my own wifi remote for controlling the laptop or desktop because I do not want the audience to be distracted by my fumbling with a keypad. It has the added advantage of keeping at least one of my hands under control.
- Use my hands and arms to bring emphasis to what I am saying – always with open hands and to draw attention to elements of my presentation. I don’t like those laser pointing pens and other such gadgets that say ‘look, the technology is an extension of me’. It isn’t, this presentation is about me and my body language is a big part on me.
- Use my voice to convey authority. I will use a microphone if provided but I always let the audio-visual people know that I have a speaker’s voice and that I use it to effect, so the sound system needs to accommodate this. In all but the largest venues my voice alone is usually good enough.
- Above all remember that I am the storyteller and my audience want to hear my story.