Should you use storytelling in public speaking? Or is it better to play it safe and stick to facts and figures?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In public speaking, storytelling is an extremely powerful tool. Stories are much more likely to engage your audience<\/a> than other types of information because this is how our minds make sense of the world around us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some tips on how to use storytelling in public speaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Editor\u2019s note: This article is part of\u00a0Shortform\u2019s guide to storytelling<\/a>. If you like what you read here, there\u2019s plenty more to check out in the guide!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Storytelling in public speaking works on many levels. Stories are more easily comprehended than other types of sharing information. Stories are also more personable and engaging. There are three main ways to use storytelling in public speaking:<\/p>\n\n\n\n #1: Tell a story of your own life. <\/strong>For example, in a speech about your career, you could tell a story about the biggest challenge you\u2019ve overcome so far. In a presentation about an amazing sale you recently made, you could tell the story of how you secured the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n #2: Tell someone else’s story. <\/strong>This \u201csomeone else\u201d could be someone you know personally, a famous person, or a historical figure: anyone who\u2019s had an experience that relates to the topic you\u2019re discussing. For example, when giving a presentation to your colleagues about a new management style you\u2019ve read about, you could tell the story of the person who created the management style and how it worked for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n #3: Tell a story about a product or brand. <\/strong>In some situations, this may involve telling a story about a product or brand that you\u2019ve created. For example, if you\u2019re making a speech to launch your new product, you could tell your audience the story of how you came up with the product\u2019s design. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other scenarios may require you to tell a story about someone else\u2019s product or brand. For instance, if you\u2019re giving a presentation about why your marketing team should adopt a new brand strategy, you could tell them a story about how a competing brand successfully implemented the strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using storytelling in public speaking is important for four reasons. First, stories are much more likely to engage your audience than other methods of sharing information. <\/strong>For example, imagine you\u2019re giving a speech to potential customers about the effectiveness of your new product. Telling a gripping story about how your product has already helped an important client will be much more exciting than listing statistics about the product\u2019s efficacy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Second,<\/strong> people are more likely to understand a concept if you tell them a story about how it works in the \u201creal world.\u201d<\/strong> For example, imagine you\u2019re giving a presentation about a complicated new sales process that you\u2019ve been testing out for a while, but that your team has yet to adopt. Your team members will probably understand the new process much quicker if, rather than bombarding them with the dry theory of how it works, you tell them a story about a sale you\u2019ve made while using it. You can use your story to guide them through each step of the new process, thus illustrating how it works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Third, stories can serve as \u201cproof\u201d that the claims you\u2019re making are legitimate. <\/strong>For instance, if you\u2019re making a sales pitch that details how great your new product or service is, potential customers will want to see evidence that backs up your claims before they become willing to part with their money. Real-life stories about how your product or service has already benefited customers will provide this evidence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, stories can influence your audience\u2019s thoughts and emotions<\/a>. <\/strong>Studies have shown that when people listen to a story, they experience identical brain function to the person telling the tale. For instance, if the storyteller experiences increased function in the area of the brain<\/a> dedicated to emotion, so does the listener. This neurological connection allows speakers to \u201cplant\u201d certain ideas and emotions in their listeners\u2019 minds. For example, if you want your audience to feel excited about a new product, tell a story that makes you <\/em>feel excited about it. The audience\u2019s brains will automatically mimic your emotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Make your story exciting enough to keep your audience listening by incorporating these five attributes into the narrative: <\/p>\n\n\n\n 1) Detail: <\/strong>Make the story so detail-rich that your listeners feel like they\u2019re experiencing it themselves. They\u2019ll become so immersed in the narrative that they can\u2019t help but stick around to find out how it ends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 2) Unexpectedness: <\/strong>Make the story take a turn that the audience didn\u2019t anticipate. For instance, you could tell what seems to be a story about how you designed an incredibly successful and innovative product, then suddenly reveal that the product failed. Unexpected twists like this shock people into paying attention<\/a> to what you\u2019re saying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 3) Mystery: <\/strong>Keep your story\u2019s outcome unknown for a large portion of the narrative. People crave the closure of knowing how a story will end and will keep listening until you make the \u201cbig reveal.\u201d Therefore, it\u2019s in your interest to keep the story\u2019s conclusion mysterious for as long as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 4) Heroes and villains: <\/strong>Give your audience some characters to root for and others to dislike. They\u2019ll become engrossed in your story as they wait for the satisfaction of the hero triumphing and the villain getting their comeuppance. Your heroes and villains don\u2019t necessarily have to be people: For example, the hero of your story could be your product, and the villain could be the issue that it tries to solve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5) Adversity: <\/strong>Make sure that the main character of your story overcomes adversity at some point in the narrative. For example, they could start off in a difficult situation and then slowly improve their life. Alternatively, they could start off in a good place, lose everything, and then gain it back. Either way, your audience will be inspired by this battle against misfortune. They\u2019ll keep listening to your story to find out whether the main character ultimately prevails. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Note that if you\u2019ve included heroes and villains in your story, your example of triumph over adversity is ready-made: the hero finally defeating the villain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2009, professor and author Dan Ariely gave a memorable TED talk<\/a> on why people predictably and consistently make irrational decisions<\/a>. He began his talk with a gripping personal story about his experience in a hospital burn unit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As a teenager, Ariely suffered severe burns to 70% of his body. When the time came for the nurses to remove his bandages, they decided to rip them off quickly, theorizing that this would minimize his discomfort. Ariely begged the nurses to go slower, as he felt it would make the pain less intense. However, the nurses argued that since they were medically trained and Ariely wasn\u2019t, they knew better than him. Years later, Ariely discovered that taking the bandages off slowly would <\/em>have reduced the intensity of his pain. The nurses\u2019 decision had been totally illogical\u2014yet they\u2019d persisted with it anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ariely\u2019s story was effective at gripping his audience for two reasons. First, it was detailed\u2014sometimes graphically so, especially when he described the different methods of removing bandages from burns. This immersed Ariely\u2019s audience in his story, keeping them hooked until the very end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, the big reveal of Ariely\u2019s story\u2014the fact that he was right and the nurses wrong\u2014was unexpected. Most people would expect medical professionals to know more about the correct way to remove bandages than their patients. The fact they didn\u2019t in this case shocked Ariely\u2019s audience into paying attention to the rest of his talk. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Should you use storytelling in public speaking? Or is it better to play it safe and stick to facts and figures? In public speaking, storytelling is an extremely powerful tool. Stories are much more likely to engage your audience than other types of information because this is how our minds make sense of the world around us. Here are some tips on how to use storytelling in public speaking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":27013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,9],"tags":[211],"class_list":["post-26969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-psychology","tag-talk-like-ted","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Incorporate Storytelling in Public Speaking<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Importance of Storytelling <\/strong>in Public Speaking<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Make Your Story Gripping<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
TED Talk Example:<\/strong> Dan Ariely<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n