Present Beyond Measure

5Tell an Actual Story

“No guts, no story.”

—Chris Brady

What's the difference between an average campaign readout and Game of Thrones? Give up?

Answer: One is data. The other is a story.

During my training workshops and conference sessions, I ask my audience to stop and think about the most memorable stories of our time: the stories that moved them, changed them, and transformed them. I'll ask you to do the same now: what movies, books, myths, and fables come to mind?

Perhaps you think of The Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet, The Wizard of Oz, The Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump, or Breaking Bad. Next, I ask the audience to call out the common elements they can think of in those stories. I usually end up with a list that looks like this:

• Relatable and endearing characters
• Charismatic and despicable villains
• An intriguing plot
• Surprising twists and turns
• A dramatic climax
• A satisfying conclusion

Finally, I ask the audience to think about how they relate those elements to the real presentation slides you see in Figure 5.1.

FIGURE 5.1 Examples of typical business data presentation slides

At this point, the crowd predictably goes silent, with some nervous twittering. I continue with, “So there's some data. And lots of other stuff. But do you see any of the actual story elements we just talked about? No? Well, that's because this is not a story. There's a story in there somewhere, ...