Telling your story: improving your presentation in 10 easy steps

Editor's Notes

• #2: A beautiful princess once was imprisioned, high in a dark tower. She was there because it was prophesied that her son would destroy her father. And because of this, she must never marry, never even see a mortal man. But her father did not reckon with Zeus, king of the gods, who came to her in a shower of gold. Nine months later the great hero Perseus was born.
• #3: A terrible shame! And, not good news for the king, who still had this prophecy out there. When he learned the baby was the child of none other than the king of gods, he realized that he couldn’t lt harm the child. Perseus and his mother were placed in a box and pushed out to sea. So if anything bad happened, Zeus could blame his brother Poseidon, God of the Sea. Of course, they didn’t get eaten by sharks or and they weren’t pulled under by waves. Instead they were pushed to a quiet island where Perseus could grow into a man.
• #4: Perseus grew up unaware of the circumstances of his birth. When the evil king Polydectes decided to marry his still beautiful mother, Perseus had to bring some sort of wedding gift. But he had nothing to offer except his services.
• #5: “Bring me the head of of the fearsome Medusa!” The king demanded. “A creature so hideous to behold that any man who gazed at her would immediately turn to stone!”
• #6: An impossible task! But not when the gods are smiling down on you. For Perseus had also caught the eye of Athena, the goddess of wisdom.
• #7: Perseus set forth. Crossing the grey, silent River Styx, the river which brings the Dead to the Underworld on their final journey. He had to journey far, to the other side of the world to acquire three vital tools.
• #8: 1) The winged sandals of Hermes which would give him the power of flight2) The sword of Zeus which could cut through metal as though it were butter3) A gleaming metal shield which reflected like a mirror
• #9: Next step was to stop and ask for directions. He tricked the three, blind witches of the North into giving him the Medusa’s location. Perseus flew through the night with his gifts, alone, to meet his fate.
• #10: As he drew closer to the desolate island in the middle of a forgotten part of the sea, he started seeing the strangest rocks. Man-sized, human-shaped. All with expressions of terror etched in their faces. But these were no mere statues. They were all that remained of the heroes who had tried to slay the Medusa before him; who had failed.
• #11: And then Perseus heard the sound of hissing and rattling, breathing and raised his shield. He caught sight of her gruesome figure in its reflection. Wrapped his hands tightly around the sword of Zeus, issued a prayer to Athena and stuck her head from her shoulders.
• #12: Perseus was victorious. The Medusa spewed poisonous blood and died. As she died, the great winged horse, the Pegasus, sprang from her neck, fully formed. Pegasus offered himself to Perseus and together they flew home to the wicked king with the head of the Medusa packed in a bag.
• #13: The wedding feast was already underway. Perseus’ mother looked pale in her wedding robes. And here comes Perseus riding on a winged horse, the mirrored shield flashing, the son of Zeus in all his glory.“Mother, shield your eyes!” he whispers.
• #14: “My King, here is the head you wanted!” shouts Perseus. And he reaches into the bag and pulls out the head of the Medusa. In an instant the noisy hall fall silent and the strange, surprised statues of the king and his court are all that is left of the wedding party. Perseus and his mother return home on the back of their winged steed.
• #16: I am a Visual Storytelling Specialist. I make complex, insider stories clear and easy for normal people to understand. So they can understand these complicated, financial instruments and take control of their own financial futures.I do this using visuals and animation.
• #17: What I just described was also the process of Continuous Delivery. An Agile-based software development methodology our Tech and Ops department had to implement in 2016. If I had told that story the “real” way, none of the steering committee members whose support we needed to make this process a reality would have stayed awake till the end.
• #18: We desperately need the big, the mythic, the heroic in our lives now. Think mythology; of heroes and dragons, unconquerable enemies. Love that never dies. Nearly every instance of knowledge transfer can have an element of myth woven into it. Even when you are giving an annual report.
• #19: We desperately need the big, the mythic, the heroic in our lives now. Think mythology; of heroes and dragons, unconquerable enemies. Love that never dies. Nearly every instance of knowledge transfer can have an element of myth woven into it. Even when you are giving an annual report.
• #20: The story of the hero follows a predicable pattern: A seemingly common man or woman - that security analyst on 3 - is faced with an problem; one which seems impossible to solve: how to shorten the build-to-market loop while at the same time decrease development costs?? They are given special, magical tools – a touch-screen whiteboard - and undertake a journey away from their places of origin – the 2nd cubicle on F wing - into a magical, dangerous, fantastical country. Such as the Scrum Master training facility on the 7th floor. On the way they face obstacles. They meet their destinies and conquer the monster, the giant. And return empowered, with some prize or knowledge. They implement some change at home.
• #21: Weave these themes into your story:- any actor can be a hero.- any impediment can be a monster to overcome.- any tool we need to adopt, learn or use can be a magical weapon.
• #22: We desperately need the big, the mythic, the heroic in our lives now. Think mythology; of heroes and dragons, unconquerable enemies. Love that never dies. Nearly every instance of knowledge transfer can have an element of myth woven into it. Even when you are giving an annual report.
• #23: Tell a small, human story.
• #24: Microfinance? Don’t give me spreadsheets or charts. Tell me about Mustafa who needs a fifty euro loan to buy a sewing machine so he can start his business.
• #25: Derivatives? Don’t tell me that the global market for derivatives is over 80 billion dollars. Tell me about Helena who notices a pattern, reads the paper and has a hunch about the future price of oil and shorts it.
• #26: We desperately need the big, the mythic, the heroic in our lives now. Think mythology; of heroes and dragons, unconquerable enemies. Love that never dies. Nearly every instance of knowledge transfer can have an element of myth woven into it. Even when you are giving an annual report.
• #27: If people are reading text behind you, they are not listening to what you are saying. I know everyone in this room is an expert multi-tasker but I am here to tell you that multitasking is an illusion. We are either listening or reading. We cannot do both. You are the text. Use the slides to support what you are saying.
• #28: This is an actual slide from an actual asset manager, trying to delight us with his upcoming training approach.
• #33: We desperately need the big, the mythic, the heroic in our lives now. Think mythology; of heroes and dragons, unconquerable enemies. Love that never dies. Nearly every instance of knowledge transfer can have an element of myth woven into it. Even when you are giving an annual report.
• #34: Reduce your text by half;then reduce it by half again.
• #35: Avoid acronyms, jargon or inside jokes. Never assume that everyone knows what you’re talking about.
• #36: Tell it to your kids. If you can keep their attention, you can keep your audience’s attention, too. Don’t have kids? Borrow your neighbor’s kids for an hour. Believe me, she will be grateful.
• #37: We desperately need the big, the mythic, the heroic in our lives now. Think mythology; of heroes and dragons, unconquerable enemies. Love that never dies. Nearly every instance of knowledge transfer can have an element of myth woven into it. Even when you are giving an annual report.
• #38: Use pictures instead of text. We will remember it better.
• #39: Grab an icon from the internet, crop it to size. One picture can explain a concept faster and more thoroughly.
• #42: Can’t find an icon that works for you? Draw one yourself! I can’t draw! Yes you can. If you can draw a triangle, a circle and a rectangle, you can create nearly any image you need.
• #43: Like this.
• #44: We desperately need the big, the mythic, the heroic in our lives now. Think mythology; of heroes and dragons, unconquerable enemies. Love that never dies. Nearly every instance of knowledge transfer can have an element of myth woven into it. Even when you are giving an annual report.
• #45: Metaphors are what humans use to understand stuff that’s complicated.
• #46: Forget about logical, text-based dictionary definitions.
• #47: “ah, so cloud-based computing is kind of like pulling from a spool of cotton candy…”
• #48: We desperately need the big, the mythic, the heroic in our lives now. Think mythology; of heroes and dragons, unconquerable enemies. Love that never dies. Nearly every instance of knowledge transfer can have an element of myth woven into it. Even when you are giving an annual report.
• #49: Use 60 slides if you have to, but do not have more than one nugget of information per slide.
• #50: What are we measuring here? An internal animated story about Gender Diversity.
• #51: One chart = one idea. “Why aren’t we diverse in our workplaces?”
• #52: We desperately need the big, the mythic, the heroic in our lives now. Think mythology; of heroes and dragons, unconquerable enemies. Love that never dies. Nearly every instance of knowledge transfer can have an element of myth woven into it. Even when you are giving an annual report.
• #53: Go on, share a detail or two about your own story, some little anecdote about your life. Why this is important to you. If it’s not important to you, it certainly won’t be to me.
• #55: We desperately need the big, the mythic, the heroic in our lives now. Think mythology; of heroes and dragons, unconquerable enemies. Love that never dies. Nearly every instance of knowledge transfer can have an element of myth woven into it. Even when you are giving an annual report.
• #56: The best presentations teach us something.Improve our lives.Make us think differently about something. Don’t sell us something. Teach us what you know.
• #57: We desperately need the big, the mythic, the heroic in our lives now. Think mythology; of heroes and dragons, unconquerable enemies. Love that never dies. Nearly every instance of knowledge transfer can have an element of myth woven into it. Even when you are giving an annual report.
• #58: Remember what that was like? You wanted to shout it from the rooftops, you wanted the world to know that you loved someone. Some of you might be in love right now. With what you do. There is a reason why you are a dentist, a homemaker, a baker, a tax advisor, a yoga instructor. And not a hairdresser, a primary school teacher, a taxi driver.