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

Outcome Mapping

The third technique provides a way to look at how individuals or the organization might respond to events beyond their control. In film and literature, heroes usually find themselves responding to some event that they have no control over. The event may lead them on a journey and to a personal transformation that results in some change in themselves or the world.

Start at the top of the diagram with the stimulus, the event or situation that is driving the change. The stimulus is something out of the immediate control or influence of anyone in the audience for the story. It could be something in the past that has changed attitudes (and therefore is not changeable) or an impending event ranging from a new competitor entering your markets to a potential natural disaster. The important factor is a clear relationship between the stimulus and the ability to achieve a future goal. In other words, the existence of pain is not enough by itself. There has to be a relationship between the pain suffered and the failure to reach a valuable goal. In the figure on the right everyone has a goal that they will fail to achieve.

One or more goals can be associated with each stimulus, with some linking or dependency among them. Each goal describes a specific part of the future you want as a result of the change. The outcomes are then a way of measuring or demonstrating that you've reached the goal. Again, there can be multiple outcomes for each goal, and some outcomes relating to ...