You have a short slot in a conference session, let’s say 10-20 minutes, to introduce an important new process in your organisation. Everyone needs to know about it, and that’s why you’ve been allocated the gig. You suspect, however, that most of your audience will find it less than fascinating. Indeed, even for you the details are kind of dull and distressingly sludge-like. What can you do?

Here’s a radical yet effective move. Scrap your Powerpoint slides that show the process! Or, rather, turn them into a printed handout, one for each member of the audience. If you reckon your audience is technically competent, then save the paper and have them open the document on their screens. And tell a story…

The tale you tell is a brief account of someone just like the people in the audience, who needed to use the new system but knew only of the old. Naturally they encountered a disaster, as their expenses were now not paid, or their sales were no longer logged, or their seating preferences on their next train journey were no longer taken into account. Or whatever.

You compare their fate with that of their smarter colleague who discovered that the new system not only got them the result that they wanted but was even easier to use than they had expected.

Then you see if anyone has any questions, some of which you can answer on the spot, and others you’ll be happy to collect in the next break.

What stories are you telling?  What stories is your organisation telling? And, just as crucially, how skilfully are you telling them? Our two-day Storytelling Workshop takes you step by step through activities that will have you telling stories as never before.