Stories that Move Mountains: Storytelling and Visual Design for Persuasive Presentations

Visual Stories

Over the years we have shared the content of this book with hundreds of people. Al Noel, a principal consultant at Microsoft, had this to say about changing how you approach presentations.

You must free your mind! No more boring lists of bullet points! That stuff does not work. You have to take a much different approach. People absorb stories visually all the time with all our modern communications technology.

Many years ago when I was in the Army, I was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. At that time, the idea of an Air Assault division that used helicopters extensively was a new idea some people did not always get. One picture in the presentation regarding the division's capability summed it all up. It was a picture of a helicopter flying over difficult terrain.

Any infantry man can just look at that picture and get the message. It is about taking a completely different approach over the obstacle and moving on. No more figuring out better ways to cross the obstacle quicker, faster, and safer; you must take a completely different approach to the problem. You only have to cross something like this once in your life as an infantryman to get the idea and appreciate it. It's the same with the visual approach to creating and telling stories.

—Al Noel

In their book Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath talk about an annual class they run at Stanford University. The ...