How can you turn your idea into a compelling story and inspire your audience? How can you influence decision-making through an effective presentation?

Human beings are born with an inherent nature to tell stories. If we look deeply, the ultimate goal of any form of communication humankind has developed is to tell a story. Books, paintings, films, news, apps, websites and even everyday conversations are just stories packaged in various media forms.

But why do we tell them? Why don’t we just show some information and leave it at that?

Why make the effort to tell a story? We think it is because stories are the only form of communication with the power to connect to another individual at an emotional level.

Stories are carriers of emotion, they can make you happy, make you cry, inspire you or even bore you. They directly connect with your emotions and emotions are motivators of change without actually creating change.

Stories are the keystone for human evolution and if we look closely, every leap of progress has a great story behind it. We are not sure if mankind would have evolved into what it is right now without stories.

One of the most impressive testaments we have read about stories is from Neil Gaiman. He explains the power of stories through the life of his cousin Helen, a 97 year old Holocaust survivor. Here it is:

And each night, she’d stay up; and each day, she’d tell them the story. And Gaiman asked, “Why? Why would you risk death — for a story?”

And she said, “Because for an hour every day, those girls weren’t in the ghetto — they were in the American South; they were having adventures; they got away.

Four out of those twenty girls survived the war. And Helen told Gaiman how, when she met one of them when they were old and how they called each other by names from Gone with the Wind…” Source : Brain pickings

Businesses run on decisions, and on any given day, hundreds of decisions are made at different hierarchy levels. By definition, a ‘decision’ is a series of steps, starting with information, leading to analysis and culminating in resolution. [1]

There are different ways in which one arrives at a decision.

Let’s take the example of an emergency response ward at a hospital. As soon as the ambulance arrives at the hospital premises, everyone should be ready to execute their tasks and take decisions. And since the cost of bad decisions here can be very high, the whole self-decision making process is eliminated. What you would observe is a checklist, if the situation is “X” do “Y” and so on. This is similar for any situation that involves high stakes, where preset checklists or a manual help in the decision-making process. They call this the standard operating procedure where the optimal solution has been researched and accepted. Yes, researched and experimented over long periods of time, before arriving at the best method.

But what about situations where there hasn't been enough research done, about the variables of a decision that are constantly changing. Where there is endless discussion about what could work? How do you arrive at a decision in this case?

If this situation sounds unfamiliar, my guess is that you have probably not been part of a meeting involving a product decision or a business decision. Usually these meetings always go on and on until the Highest Paid Person Opinions (HIPPOs) end the meeting. But how do you overcome the HIPPOs, or how do you convince the HIPPOs to change their decision? How do you convince people to make a particular decision that you believe in when there is ambiguity?

This is where storytelling plays an effective role, for, great stories don’t just provide information, they present a pattern that reduces noise and leads to a resolution. To me, there is no better weapon in your arsenal, as an inexperienced though passionate designer, than “stories and storytelling”.

Another advantage of storytelling is that it doesn't just help your team or your stakeholder network make better decisions, it also gives you the opportunity to present yourself as a thought leader who can influence decisions. With decisions taken every day at businesses, be it strategic or operational, there is always an opportunity to tell a story.

We believe everyone needs storytelling skills. This article presents a detailed framework on how anyone can create stories to influence decision- making in a business context using one of the most basic but any powerful visual mediums at your disposal.

Before getting into the details of storytelling, there is one important thing that we should remember. People remember stories for not what it conveyed but for how it made them feel. Following these principles ensure a story creates its impact irrespective of the content or the deliverer.

There is nothing more important in this framework than step 2. It is the anchor of the whole process. Even with the best of attempts in visuals and delivery, if you don't have a properly built story you are setting yourself up for a failure during your presentation. This is also the step where the maximum amount of time has to be spent. If you have 10 hrs before your presentation, allocate 70% of your time to build the story.

A story can be built in two steps

The beginning of creating good stories is finding the end. This end should be the theme of your presentation. Beginning with your theme not only guides you throughout your presentation but also builds clarity with the audience with what to expect.

Storytelling is not chucking ideas/thoughts one after another; it is carefully placing information in a sequence to create maximum impact. Organising the content will determine what should the audience know and more importantly when. While non linear storytelling has its charm, its mostly safer to take the linear route.

After these steps you will have your story ready, the remaining steps aren't necessarily compulsory but it will definitely improve the overall experience.

Now that we have created a strong plot for our story, the next step is to create the visuals to the story - the presentation deck.

Visuals are very important in the story to create a wonderful listening experience, but they can never substitute well curated content. Thus, it is prudent that we keep creating visuals throughout the storytelling process.

Although visuals depend on an individual’s aesthetic, here are a few pointers that needs to be taken care of.

After creating the story, it's time to prepare for the delivery. With the story and visuals in place it is often easier to prepare for your delivery. Since this article is more about creation, we will not go deep into the delivery. Also, there are tons of resources online on body language and communication that could help in delivery, for which we will leave a link below. But, we wish to explain to you two things to follow while preparing for the delivery:

Try to rehearse the story in your mind and in front of a third person as much as possible, because what makes sense to you could be complete gibberish for the other person.

A good story isn't of much value if the person narrating it isn’t passionate about it. So, no matter how challenging the audience is: