Tell me a story!

by Michael Warden

The article below from SlideShare (who often puts out very informative tidbits for those that present often) shares some very interesting information about how the brain reacts to storytelling.  I thought it valuable to share as our faculty, staff and students are particularly responsive to effective storytelling when presenting.  Enjoy! 

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The Secret to Activating Your Audience’s Brain

By Scott Schwertly on March 4, 2015

In the world of presentations, there is one key ingredient that will radically change them – specifically, how you engage your audience and how they perceive you. And, it’s a solution you have been hearing for quite some time now, but I want to take it one step further.

Tell a story.

Why?

It’s the most efficient way to activate and ignite your audience’s brain.

Let’s look at the illustration below.

 When you share facts and stats with your audience:

1. They are going to agree with you

2. They are going to disagree with you

Hence, only two parts of your audiences’ brain will ignite when reacting to data.

But, what if you tell a story instead? Let’s look at this illustration.

A story doesn’t spark agreement or disagreement but rather participation. In fact, stories ignite 7 parts of the brain, which is testament to why as humans we love stories.

If you want to see all of this in more amazing detail, here’s an entire infographic my team created a few days ago.

The Neuroscience Of Storytelling (For Presentations) from Ethos3 | Presentation Design and Training

The bottom line is this: If you want to engage your audience and activate their brains, you need to start telling stories. Plain and simple. It’s powerful. It’s effective. And, it works! It’s the best tool to have in your kit.

To read the full story, please visit: https://blog.slideshare.net/2015/03/04/the-secret-to-activating-your-audiences-brain/