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

Final Thoughts on the Story CONTENT

Focus

The first row of the Visual Story Map culminates here with a reminder to focus. Your content is now structured and the relationships defined to link all the activities to clear motivations. You can now fill in the top row of a Visual Story Map with a few key words and messages for each of the “Why,” “What,” “How,” and “What If,” cells and understand clearly how they fit together. Don't throw away the details; you will need them later, but you now have the core for the story.

As you go through the rest of the CAST process, to structure the story and visual design, you will develop a number of versions of the visual story. These will vary in their level of detail, from the full presentation down to the elevator pitch, and possibly even a single sentence. The foundation you've developed in the last four chapters will allow these versions to be consistent and to build on one another.

What if, after all this filtering and focusing, you realize there's not enough content to really fill a one-hour presentation? Then don't do a one-hour presentation! Rescope your communication to something that better fits the time it takes to deliver the message. This could be a five-minute presentation, a podcast, a well-structured e-mail or a poster on the wall for all to see.

That's been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the ...