+44 (0) 1727 843820 paul@impro.org.uk

You are an experienced story-teller. I know this to be true, because you are human. You didn’t get this far in life – owning a computer, reading sophisticated blogs – without having told a few stories. Hell, you may even be a professional. Was it you I heard exchanging stories in the networking session?

I too am human, and I’ve noticed how stories have been central to each phase of my professional life.

In my first job I was a journalist and was taught how to structure a news story. Get the main point across in the first paragraph. Oh, and you have a maximum of 25 words. That’s your Intro, and the rest of the piece is in descending order of importance.

You learn to organise material quickly this way, partly through practice and partly through that other salient feature of journalistic writing – the deadline. It may be news now, but within an hour or a day it won’t be so fresh, particularly if someone else gets there first.

When you have something new to announce or you’re facing an audience unaware of something that you know, try telling summarising that news for them in your first couple of sentences. This applies whether you are writing or speaking. You’ll be sure to grab their attention and we can welcome you to the honourable league of reporters, hacks and broadcasters.

What stories are you telling?  What stories is your organisation telling? Read more about our two-day workshop, which takes you step by step through activities that will have you telling stories as never before. Drawing on lessons from journalism, PR, improvisation, film-making, psychology and your own rich experiences.