Incorporating storytelling into your presentations

While leading a technology organization may seem to involve things like DevOps and Digital Transformation , these activities are likely to underperform if you can't communicate them effectively . Many leaders in (and outside of) technology underestimate the importance of effectively communicating their strategies, plans and goals.

This is more than a communication problem, as sharing ideas clearly and convincingly is what provides funding, leadership support, and buy-in from your teams. The same strategy can have very different results if the vision is well understood, supported and adequately funded; All benefits accrue to effectively sharing your strategy .

Improving your ability to present information and gain support from your audience doesn't have to be complex. One of the best ways to improve your ability to communicate with teams, colleagues, and leadership is to incorporate basic storytelling techniques. Humans have been sharing stories since the beginning of time , and most of us were raised on simple stories that taught profound moral and ethical lessons or just conveyed an amusing anecdote that stuck with us. Here are some basic techniques you can apply to even the most complex technical topics to improve your presentations.

Start with the audience

When developing a presentation, many people start with the topic they are sharing. They can mentally outline the critical elements of this topic, including key definitions and background information, and perhaps even the technical details that explain why this topic is important.

A better approach is to start with your audience . What is important to them and what problems are they trying to solve? What is their basic knowledge level and how do you provide information they can understand and apply?

Let us consider children's stories for a moment. Suppose you are trying to teach someone ethics. If so, you could introduce them to various philosophers or world religions, explain the importance of ethics and how it applies to the development of organized societies, and provide examples of where ethical failures have led to disaster. This may work for an adult with an interest or background in ethics, but it will fail miserably for most young children. However, a fairy tale with relatable children facing off against a big, bad wolf or a wicked witch resonates immediately while also imparting an important ethical lesson.

Before thinking about the technical aspects of your presentation, think about your audience . What are they worried about? What are your hopes and aspirations? Do they enjoy receiving information and prefer data and numbers or an overview?

Ask yourself how you want your audience to change after receiving your email, presentation or workshop. How will they think or act differently after interacting with you?

Use a story structure

Good stories have a defined beginning, middle, and end and connect each part of the story with a logical flow. Your presentations should do the same and take the audience on a logical journey that gradually takes them to the destination you identified when thinking about your audience.

Good stories spend time considering what details to include and what details to leave out . As technology leaders, we often want to provide all the details or highlight aspects of an issue that are important to us. Avoid this temptation by understanding your audience and providing just enough detail to keep the story moving toward its logical conclusion.

Even if you're just sharing information, a simple story structure that describes why you're sharing this specific content, what it means to your audience, and what they should do now that they have this information can help structure your presentation.

Identify the “villain”

Good stories usually have a villain or “bad guy” that the audience understands and wants to see defeated. The villain focuses the story and allows the audience to become invested in seeing the villain defeated by some type of hero. While there may not be fire-breathing dragons or evil wizards roaming the halls of your organization, there are still villains you can use to engage your audience.

If you're presenting a status update for a complex project, time may be the villain hiding in a dark corner and preparing to attack your heroic project team. A strong competitor can be the Goliath to your David, and you can tell a story about how your technological strategy is the slingshot that can help defeat this superior foe.

We all love a “good versus evil” story, and thinking about your presentations in this light can add some interest and ultimately create investment from your audience.

Be a storyteller

It's fascinating that dynamic, funny, and engaging human beings often walk into work, stand next to a set of PowerPoint slides, and become monotone robots reciting bullet points. Consider presentations that you have enjoyed in the past. Was the content purely facts and figures or was there a story underlying the content? Was the presenter little more than a slide reader or did he bring dynamism and interest to the content, acting more like an adult reading to a young child or recounting a funny incident with friends?

Using humor, varying tone and pace, demonstrating legitimate enthusiasm, and all the other techniques that come naturally when interacting with family and friends are perfectly acceptable at work. Abandoning your humanity when logging onto Zoom or walking through your office door makes you a much less effective communicator .

While these techniques may seem a little strange in a professional setting at first, feel free to try one or two and see if your message is better received. As you become more comfortable using storytelling techniques, you can add and modify them as you see fit. After all, the goal of presentation and communication at work is to cause actions to occur and behaviors to change, and tools like storytelling are simple ways to help with this process.