Tag Archives: Storytelling

06-Building a case, 07c-Telling stories

FILM CRITIC HULK: Screenwriting 101 (The Art of Story-Telling)

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FILM CRITIC HULK is a unique writer who uses all caps and “Hulk speak” to analyze movies, filmmaking and the way we consume movies. He allegedly works in the film industry with his real name, and he uses the comic book influenced pseudonym for all of his critical writing. He put together a book length treatise on the art of screenwriting that offers keen insight on story telling in general. Beware, getting past the CAPS LOCK WALL takes some practice.

Instead of giving a book report, recapping all of Hulk’s points, I’d like to highlight a few points that are clearly applicable to story-telling outside of the screenplay medium.  The full post has seven parts:

  1. What is a Story?
  2. Where to Find Inspiration?
  3. 6 General Stuffs You Need to Know Beforehand
  4. How to Tell a Story – Conceptually
  5. How to Tell a Story – Structurally
  6. How to Tell a Story – Screenplay-Specific Instruction
  7. Now Here Comes the Hard Part

Hulk points out that, ” A GOOD NARRATIVE IS COMPELLING TO THE AUDIENCE, ECONOMICALLY TOLD, FEELS REAL EITHER IN TERMS OF EMOTION, DETAIL, OR TEXTURE, AND SPEAKS TO SOME THEMATIC TRUTH THAT YOU RECOGNIZE IN YOURSELF OR THE WORLD AT LARGE.” In the business world, this translates to making sure your audience is engaged in your subject and explaining it in a way with which the audience can identify. We all need to make persuasive arguments in the office, often to diverse audiences. The narrative that wins over a colleague to your point of view may not speak to your boss in the same way.

Hulk also points out that the most important force in telling a story is empathy. This is especially true when making a persuasive argument to a coworker over who you have no direct authority. Framing an argument as a story that the other party can relate to goes a long way toward getting your point across.

Hulk repeatedly derides constrictive structural rules when telling a story. Professors Noonan and Smith have mentioned the same point in regards to presentations. We covered the basic structure that would make a successful slide deck, but it’s important to bend the guidelines if it adds to the story or presentation.

I highly recommend all of Hulk’s writing, although it can get pretty long winded. Now I’ll just leave this right here:

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07b-Using good information design, 07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation, charts & graphs, creativity methods, PowerPoint resources, slide-craft, story-boarding, storyline structure, tables

Alternatives to PowerPoint

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PowerPoint Alternatives: Will PowerPoint Ever be Obsolete?

Will PowerPoint ever be replaced?  It has become commonly accepted in the business world that ‘PowerPoint’ is synonymous with ‘Presentation’. However, when is the last time that you (or me, or anyone for that matter) questioned the validity of that accepted standard, or even gave fleeting consideration to using a different presentation platform or software program?

So, that leads to the question of whether or not PowerPoint will ever become obsolete, outdated, or replaced by something newer and shinier. In researching thoughts on this topic by folks smarter than myself (such as Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, in this article), I discovered a few things.

First of all, there are already many of alternatives to PowerPoint, and while they might not be household names, they can arguably match the functionality of PowerPoint, and perhaps even be more targeted towards your audience depending on the nature of the presentation. Some of the more popular alternatives to PowerPoint include Apple’s Keynote (which Steve Jobs popularized by using when rolling out new products), Google docs (free, ‘quick and dirty”), SlideRocket (great for folks in a sales environment), and perhaps most notably, Prezi (Intuitive, sophisticated, puts ‘slides in motion’, great for storytelling).

I am personally considering giving Prezi a try based on the positive reviews and feedback that I have read and would love to hear from anyone in our class who has tried the software first-hand. It does seem that one day PowerPoint might be replaced as the gold standard for delivering presentations, but that day is likely not going to come anytime soon, and we are likely better off improving our delivery method rather than changing the platform all-together.

So, what are your thoughts??

 

Articles for Reference:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2012/09/07/jeff-bezos-and-the-end-of-powerpoint-as-we-know-it/

http://lifehacker.com/5888189/five-best-powerpoint-alternatives

http://www.customshow.com/best-powerpoint-alternatives-presentation-programs/

http://www.powtoon.com/blog/10-best-powerpoint-alternatives/

 

 

PowerPoint tricks, problem statement, storyline structure, Uncategorized

The story behind your presentation

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Just a quick one…

The beginning of this HBR article, How to give a killer presentation, is intriguing to the relationship of what many of us just experienced in our final presentations of MP.  Even though this article is shortened to non-subscribers, the intriguing part to me is the basis of the article – a story about a boy who had a story to tell.  The 90+ of us just finished our presentations, and it was amazing to see what some of my peers had to say.  Learning from each other is one of the biggest facets of this program, yet at the same time this isn’t just to learn about each others’ business knowledge, but to learn about the more personal part of each others’ lives.

Many of us gave great presentations, and as this article began, you have to begin with a good background to your story.  I think the key to this article is not just another subset of bulletpoints of how to do a process (although that’s probably where the article heads), but to make you think about what the baseline of any presentation needs to be – a good story.  A lot of times we can get caught up in the details – get caught up in the data.  Presenting the data is so critical, that we forget what the baseline is, and how to bring the story completely together, full circle.  Without a clearly stated statement at the beginning of your presentation, there’s a good chance you’ve already lost a large part of the story you’re trying to tell.

http://hbr.org/2013/06/how-to-give-a-killer-presentation/ar/1

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation

How to pitch to VCs, and why accounting does not matter

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While most of our class was enjoying accounting, I had a pleasure of taking Charlie Goetz’s Entrepreneurship class.  Charlie is a fascinating person – full of energy and entrepreneurial spirit , he could survive anywhere. He is also extremely successful, building multiple business from the ground up and selling them to wealthy investors for large sums of money (including a business that exclusively sold french fries).  While working  on a project in  his class, I finally realized that it is not just about ideas and execution – Charlie’s pitch and presentation were keys to his success. One might have the best idea and great execution – but if you can’t sell it to real people, especially people with money and connections, all those ideas will be worthless.

One presentation that each entrepreneur hopes to have is a pitch to a venture capitalist – that means your idea made it past the idea stage, and you have an opportunity to make it big. If you can sell your idea to a venture capitalist, you can sell your presentation to anyone, whether it is your boss,  Professor Noonan,  or even Dean Lewis. So how does one prepare for this presentation – “the Money Game” section at WSJ has few tips:

– Present Yourself:

Modesty does not pay. Each presentation, whether to a venture capitalist or to your classmates, is a lot like a date. People want to know something about you,   they want to know why they should listen to you.  Going to straight to your presentation is a lot like like going on a date and saying “Let’s get it on”.

–  Tell it to mom:

Keep is simple.  Steve Jobs once said:

“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

When making a presentation, keep it simple and understandable. It is always easier to send more information to ones who need more details,  but once you loose your audience, it is impossible to get them back. One caveat – the assumption needs to be clearly explained, and your pitch needs to be grounded in reality.

– Don’t Play with numbers:

Integrity is paramount. Whether pitching to a VC or your Boss, you cannot undermine their trust. A lot of presenters try to focus on the positive, but what one needs to show is they have though of the negatives and have a plan to address it.  It absolutely necessary that your audience can trust you.

– Stay on the radar:

In class, the presentation may end on the day of the class. Yet in the real world,  this is just a start – persistence pays off.  Even if you receive a no at the first pitch, you should keep in touch with the investor.

Your can read the rest of the article at WSJ.

PS. Accounting is crucial to business, and multiple accounting scandals of the 2000s certainly proved that.  However, the is always a CPA when you need an accounting advice, but you are the one who needs to make the pitch.

 

 

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07c-Telling stories, story-boarding, storyline structure

Telling A Great Story

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This past Thursday I, along with the rest of my classmates, had the opportunity to hear our professor, Professor Noonan, tell his story. I thought bout how would I tell a story, in a way that is purposeful and powerful.

I stumbled upon this article describing how to tell a great story. One who can tell a great story holds the power of influence. The good thing is the article tells us that the art of story telling is not something innate, but it is something that can be learned. I know that story telling is something that I would love to improve on. I am pretty loquacious myself so I would prefer to give an interesting story while talking. So what does it take to tell a great story. Well the article explains that you want to ensure that you:

Start With A Message

Know who your audience is and begin with a message that speaks to them or the problem you want to acknowledge

Mine Your Own Experiences

Use personal and life experience to express your message so that the audience can relate to what you’re saying

Don’t Make Yourself The Hero

Let the details of the story be the essence of the story and not yourself.

Highlight A Struggle

The author of the blog describes it best that “A story without a challenge simply isn’t very interesting”

Keep It Simple

Don’t let unnecessary details overshadow the true message

Practice Makes Perfect

Storytelling is an art and like any art it requires practice

Check out the full article below.

http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/07/how-to-tell-a-great-story/

 

07c-Telling stories

Importance of storytelling in business and effect of interactive media in this process

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This article discusses the importance of storytelling in communications and its effect on creating strong bonds between people, consumers, and businesses. The article also talks about the effect of technology and interactive media on business and consumer interactions. http://adage.com/article/guest-columnists/storytelling-apple-google-chevy-led-success/229814/

Throughout ages storytelling has been used as a tool to convey our thoughts, educate ourselves and help others to shape their opinion about us. The article uses “journalists”, “teachers”, “athletic coaches” and even “moms and dads” and “little kids playing with dolls and fire engines” as examples of storytellers that each have their own tale to talk to others about.

Storytelling is also essential to the success of many businesses: how effective they interact with consumers and how well they build value with them. The article points out a creative method used by successful companies to build upon their stories; “creation myths: Jobs and Wozniak toiling away in a garage; Page and Brin penning plans for Google at Stanford; Coca-Cola’s secret formula locked in a vault”; these tales convey company cultures to consumers and help businesses to shape consumers view about the company and build value with them.

The importance of storytelling can specially be appreciated in the advertising industry as it plays a key role in creating bonds between consumers and the brands. The article uses Chevrolet and Pepsi as examples: “Chevrolet has been associated with “baseball,” “hot dogs,” “apple pie” and the American ethic for almost 100 years. Pepsi has been “the choice of a new generation” in one way, shape or form for more than half a century.”; I think diligent communication and well-crafted storytelling techniques helped these to companies to build special bonds with their consumers.

Thanks to today’s advanced technology, consumers and business are able to communicate more effectively via interactive media. Just like this very blog that we are using, consumers can leave their comments about a particular product and the feedback can then be expanded by other people’s comments. I think this type of storytelling benefits both sides as producers can improve their products based on the collective feedback ‘story’ received from consumers.

While interactive media provides a communication channel between businesses and consumers, it may have some shortcomings as well. Focusing only on boosting their efficiency, some advertising and distribution companies have missed on building ‘deep relationships’ with their consumers and instead focused on how many ‘likes’ or ‘clicks’ they are receiving; I believe that by using such techniques, not only the companies do not receive in-depth product feedbacks, but also they weaken their relationship with the users! This is a limiting factor for interactive media and needs to get improved over time.

07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation

Making Stories Soar

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One area that I want to improve is my ability to tell good stories. I tend to rely heavily on my ability to connect with the audience by using numbers/figures but do not spend enough time preparing simple stories that effectively relate my points. Here are a couple pointers to improve your story-telling. Here are 2 simple rules that I found from the executive coaching sit: Essential Communications. Please see below for the link to the website. Stories soar when you follow two rules:

  1. Tell us details of what people did, said and felt. Don’t hover over the forest telling us about the landscape; bring us down onto the forest floor so we can enter the landscape. Give us the leaves and roots and dirt. Details of what people did, said and felt pull us into the story.
  2. Connect the details to other details. The details of what people did, said and felt must connect to and influence other details of what people did, said, and felt. The details you tell us need to feel important. In order words, the details you include must affect the outcome of the story.

Other Tips:

  • If the details don’t connect to other details, cut’em out.
  • Does everything in the story have to be true? The answer is no. But everything in the story has to feel true. The details what people did, said and felt have to create a truth that feels authentic.

http://www.essentialcomm.com/tips/execcoachtips/making-stories-soar-030311.html

05-Creating & constructing good solutions, 07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation, creativity methods

making the ordinary extraordinary

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http://www.fastcocreate.com/3016916/creation-stories/ricky-gervais-tells-a-story-about-how-he-learned-to-write

“It is so much easier to make the ordinary extraordinary than to try and start off with the extraordinary”  – Ricky Gervais

One of my favorite comedians and writers, Ricky Gervais, has a very curious observation about his own creative process (link above). In the interview he emphasizes how and why he writes the way he does. No matter what the topic is- always start with a story line that is relatable and focus on honesty above all else.

I was thinking about this as you all may struggle with what to present on; start with what you know or is important to you and then use your development plan to help foster a great presentation. Effective communication means convincing the audience or client that you believe in the subject too.

 

 

 

07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation, questions

Presentation Tips from Stand-Up Comedians

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Stand-up comedians are some of the best public speakers around. They ooze confidence and make it look easy, and if you follow these tips for success, you can succeed in the business world, too.

  1. Know your audience. Would you give an X-rated stand-up routine to a church group? In business, would you give an overly technical presentation to a group of executives who don’t understand (or care) about all the details? I didn’t think so. It is very important to understand the context of your presentation.
    • The culture: What communication style do they prefer? From what starting point or base of knowledge do the people in the room have? In the business world – is it an internal presentation to superiors, to your direct reports, or is it external to members from a certain industry? Knowing the culture will help you relate better to the audience.
    • Their level of knowledge: Is English the native language of your audience? If not, keep the phrasing simple and speak clearly, but don’t insult them either by talking very loud and very slow. Are you giving a training to a room full of beginners? Avoid overly technical phrasing and start from the beginning so the whole audience can understand where you are coming from.
  1. Practice, practice, practice. So much of stand-up comedy is in the timing and the delivery. If you are telling a story in the wrong order or blurt out the ending out of sequence, the joke will fall flat.
  2. Don’t force it – be yourself. Dave Chappelle doesn’t pretend to be anyone other than himself, so why should you try to act like someone you’re not? The audience can gauge authenticity quite well, so it’s best not to pretend to be someone different than you really are.
  3. Be likeable. The audience is rooting for you to succeed. Who wants to go to a comedy show where all of the comics crash and burn? In the same way, you should understand the audience, come across as genuine and confident, and don’t be afraid to stumble. If you slip up, chances are that the audience hasn’t even noticed.
  4. Watch out for hecklers. Know your facts and figures well enough to be heckled. Whoever will be asking you questions at the end or in the middle of your presentation may be analogous to a heckler at a comedy club. Be confident and knowledgeable enough to respond succinctly but firmly to keep the presentation on track. Not all questions in a business presentation are from would-be-hecklers, so it is important to distinguish the two.  Stay on your toes. You never know who might be about to throw a (metaphorical) shoe at you like this guy did to George W. Bush.

Inspiration:

http://www.trainingmag.com/content/supercompetent-speaking-tailoring-your-presentation-your-audience

http://www.mrmediatraining.com/2012/04/25/want-to-learn-public-speaking-try-stand-up-comedy/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1g35RNrsoU

http://thecomedybook.wordpress.com/tag/presentation-skills-2/

 

06-Building a case, 07c-Telling stories, evaluating evidence

Intuition + Data = Good Decisions and Compelling Storytelling

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One of my reasons for attending business school is to improve my decision making skills. I typically apply the mantra “follow your gut,” when making decisions, but have quickly found that this doesn’t fly in the business world.  Colleagues want evidence based recommendations, which in my mind means I have to work with numbers (not my favorite).  Fortunately, incorporating both data and intuition can result in good decisions and compelling storytelling.

In this article by Andrew McAfee, we learn from specific examples that human judgment alone does not trump algorithms. So is the sum of our experiences and beliefs worthless? No! It’s all about using judgment or opinions as inputs to data models. Unfortunately, many people get this process turned around and disregard data that doesn’t align with their opinions.

From there, you can use data to tell compelling stories and build persuasive business cases. In this HBR blog, Walter Frick interviews Jim Takersly on how data and stories enhance each other. At one point, data is referred to as “medicine” and the story as something that helps you consume that medicine. I’d have to agree with that metaphor, but I also understand how data can give a story shock value or credibility. There are many different kinds of stories to tell with data. Here are ten.