Is it time to put Corporate Storytelling to bed?

Jargon alert – I’m going to use some corporate buzzwords. Here comes the first one – Have we reached ‘peak’ storytelling? 

I ask for two reasons. First, I have long held the view that talk about storytelling in the business world has got out of hand and become increasingly meaningless. I am the first to say - and did so recently in a blog – that nobody’s job is too boring to make an engaging presentation, but attempting it ‘once upon a time’-style is rarely the answer.

My second reason for believing we may be nearing the end is inspired by what I have been watching on TV. HAPPYish on Sky Atlantic features Steve Coogan and my favourite West Wing actor Bradley Whitford running an ad agency and feeling their age as a pair crazy young Swedes begin to dominate. Only one of the Swedes ever actually speaks, but his response to a campaign idea for Coke was: “We are living in a post-storytelling society; we collect moments”. Then he showed his own YouTube-style campaign idea featuring puppies, and everyone burst into rapturous applause.

I can’t recommend HAPPYish wholeheartedly. While it is quite thought provoking, it had a shaky start, received some poor reviews and has already been cancelled by Showtime. But it still holds reasonably true that what happens in America hits us soon after and that little Swedish outburst about collecting moments – filmed almost exactly a year ago – does contain some essential truths.

I urge the people I coach in Presentation Skills to tell stories – but as a variety of moments rather than in one big storytelling arc. Overall they generally need to approach their presentation Army-style – tell them what you are going to tell them; tell them; then tell them what you have told them ie full of spoilers. Along the way, though, they need a series of stories, because that brings the triple benefits of illustrating what they are saying, making it feel real and engaging the audience.

There is a further advantage to inserting story snippets into a presentation. In order to engage your audience and hold their attention you need to vary your vocal tone. This happens almost automatically when you move from the ‘general narrative’ of a presentation to a ‘story snippet’. Your voice changes to a different, slightly warmer tone, before moving back - again automatically - to a more assertive mode for the general narrative.

So storytelling does have a role to play in corporate communication – just not quite the role that continues to be so regularly trumpeted. I am going to end on another piece of jargon; in fact, I’m going to invent a new piece of jargon: Storygelling. Do you see what I did there? It’s a technique I used in my PR days called ‘Familiarity with a Twist’. I believe this word can help to sum up my approach to using stories in presentations. Deploying a series of small stories can bring two main benefits 1) make the overall presentation gel together 2) make the presentation gel with the audience. And the person telling those stories can carry on presenting happily ever after – not just HAPPYish.

HAPPYish is currently being broadcast on Wednesdays on Sky Atlantic with double episodes at 10 pm and 10.35 pm. You can also binge the entire series via the Sky’s Box Sets facility. The episode referred to is no.8 – due for broadcast on April 20.

Hi-tech presentation facilities make traditional presentation skills all the more important.

When I arrive for training sessions at big international companies I can’t help feeling from the delegates a slight sense that little of what they are about to learn is going to help in their cross-border, multi-time-zone environment. Casting their minds back to what they have learned in the past about principles such as body language, eye contact and voice projection you can just see them thinking: ‘none of this really applies now that we are communicating via Webex, Skype, and other conferencing technology’.

Recently I have even heard mention of The Curse of Google Hangouts, with dark mutterings about inattentive and even partially absent audiences, canine interruptions and doubts about visibility and audibility generally.

My response to people facing these challenges is threefold:

First, you still need traditional presentation skills, because you have got to be capable of ‘owning the room’ before you can expect to engage anyone beyond it.

Second, make the machinery work to your advantage. One client came to the realisation: “We should move the cameras so that they get us in the best position – probably alongside the screen”. I responded that absolutely he should – the machines are all simply tools; they are not meant to drive you!

Third, another reason you still need traditional presentation skills is that many of them become even more important when you are presenting down the line. For instance:

• Strong eye contact
• Firsts & lasts as the most important elements of any presentation
• Absolute clarity of the proposition up front
• Not starting until everyone is ready and free from distractions
• Clear chunking of content
• Variation of vocal tone
• Uncluttered slides
• Storytelling approach to graphs
• Q&A management

…just for starters, have always been fundamental to successful presentation. When your audience is not actually in the room, then getting off to a great, high clarity start as you look straight down that camera lens becomes absolutely crucial. As for retaining your distant audience’s attention, you need to nurture both the skills mentioned and a variety of pacing techniques so that you can accentuate them when communicating via technology.

Increasingly I find myself advising clients to ‘be a bit bossy’ when stepping up to present. For those few minutes, I say, the floor is yours and your audience will usually respect that – as long as you assert yourself. With technology, the airwaves - rather than the floor - are yours, but you need to be extra ‘bossy’ when you are not face–to-face with your audience. So:

• Greet them in a big way
• Don’t start until you have acknowledgement from everyone that they are present, able to hear you and ready to start
• Keep seeking reassurance they are with you and understand what you are saying
• Build in controlled inter-activity to ensure their engagement
• Accentuate the announcement of fresh headings and agreements reached
• Choose visual images that will be both engaging and memorable enough for them to want a copy
• Stick to the time limit you have pre-announced and be strict with invitations and agendas

When PowerPoint was first introduced nearly 30 years ago it became ubiquitous very quickly, largely because it was immediately acquired by Microsoft and embedded in Office. Sadly it acquired the ‘Death by’ tag because, with so much focus on technology, traditional Presentation Skills – that were still needed – took a back seat.

Now the technology has moved on again and we continue to need traditional Presentation Skills, but in a supercharged way. And you can’t achieve that until you have mastered the basics.