Keeping your audience engaged during a story can be difficult,
but keeping them engaged
during a PowerPoint presentation is a whole other challenge entirely.
That's because PowerPoint presentations are inherently boring.
It might be fun and interesting to watch Frodo and his friends take
a piece of jewelry up to Mount Mordor, but it's much less interesting to watch.
Steve from Finance tell you about next month's financial projections.
so to learn how to make presentations less boring.
I turned to Hollywood.
I set out to watch some of the best movies I could think of to see what they do
to keep audiences engaged.
And what I learned is that there are some great techniques
they use in movies that you can use in your presentation as well.
the first of these techniques is a strong introduction in a story.
The introduction is critically important.
It's meant to grab you, but also to establish the story,
the characters, the theme, and especially the conflict of the story.
In a musical, this might be done with the opening song,
like in La La Land, where the music gives the audience a sense for the highs
and lows of trying to make it in Hollywood.
but you can also see it in more traditional movies
like The Social Network.
In the opening scene, we learn all about the type of person Mark is.
He's really smart, a little socially awkward.
And according to the movie, driven by his desire to be accepted and cool.
spinal clubs and finals clubs.
We also learn about the world he lives in, who his closest friends are,
and what kind of skills he has as a programmer.
in a presentation.
The introduction slide sets the stage for your audience,
telling them what's to come and why they should care.
In practice, there's a lot of different ways
to structure this introduction slide, including the security framework
which we covered in the last PowerPoint storytelling video.
But at the heart of a good introduction is a complication, some problem
or conflict that will be resolved throughout the course of the presentation.
for example, the first slide
in this essential presentation on the future of energy is a slide
about how the industry is experiencing disruption.
with this complication. Introduced.
The audience will naturally be looking for a resolution.
So when they see slides like this, which explain how companies should respond,
they intuitively understand why this slide matters in the context of the story.
But you don't just want to provide this sort of guidance at the beginning.
You want to do it
throughout your presentation so your audience always stays engaged
so that they're primed and ready to receive new information,
Which leads me to the second technique for keeping your audience engaged.
VOICEOVER.
if you've ever given a live presentation?
You've probably done this naturally.
When showing a slide, you tell the audience
what the slide is saying and why it's important
You tailor the contents specific to them.
And this is something you see in movies all the time,
like in this scene from the White Tiger.
Here, the main character,
Balram, explains how he's able to steal money from his employer.
But then not just that, we learn how he feels about it.
When I looked at that cash.
I didn't feel guilt.
I felt sage.
In this scene from Shawshank Redemption, we get to learn how Andy escaped prison,
but the narrator also gives us some nice symbolism to help us understand
the broader meaning of Andy's escape.
If you're going to present
your slides live, it's important that your voiceover does two things.
Number one, that it helps the audience understand the information in your slides,
just like in the clip from The White Tiger,
where he explains the process of getting extra money from his boss.
And number two,
it needs to help the audience understand the importance of that information.
Like when Morgan Freeman's character tells us how geology is the study
of pressure in time, which is a metaphor for Andy's time in prison.
If I were presenting this McKinsey slide, for example, I might explain
how the costs of On-premise infrastructure will continue to rise.
But then I would also try to connect that message to the audience
by explaining how they need to make the extra investment.
Now, if they want to save money in the long run,
it might seem like an obvious takeaway, but emphasizing that takeaway
with voiceover can help your audience stay engaged.
But of course, in the
business world, not all of your slides are going to be presented live.
Which brings me to technique number three.
Structure.
A good structure can help guide your audience through each section
of a story, but also through the overall story itself.
In a book, for example,
each chapter is like a mini story with a beginning, middle and end.
But then the chapters
combine together in the right way, help form the overall story of the book.
In a TV show, this is even more clear.
Like in this scene from Friends, where we learn
that Rachel's trying to get on a plane to London to go break up Ross's wedding.
The tension in the scene continues to build
as we wonder whether or not she'll be able to board the flight
until finally we learn that she doesn't have her passport
and she'll have to go back home.
The scene by itself
is like a mini story with an introduction, conflict and resolution.
But then the broader story is created when this scene is placed
alongside the other scenes.
Rachel is still in love with Ross.
We wonder if she's going to do anything to stop the wedding.
And eventually she makes it to the wedding,
but then decides not to do anything.
When she sees how happy he is.
Then, of course, this episode feeds into the story of the season
and the series where we follow Ross and Rachel's will.
They want their relationship.
and the audience is able to stay engaged because they can track
how the story progresses and how each section fits into that story.
The story of a presentation works in much the same way,
with each individual slide contributing to the section
and multiple sections working together to form a presentation and so on.
The important part is to make sure
your audience always understands where they are in the story
so they can understand why that particular part of the story matters.
in business presentations.
A good way to do this is with the pyramid principle,
which, if you're not familiar, is just a method for communicating information
where you start with the main idea first,
then follow that up with supporting points.
For example, my main point might be that sales are down.
Then my supporting points could be that we have fewer customers
and those customers are spending less per transaction.
In this case I would show this slide first, then these to next.
But of course I can add as many layers to this pyramid as I want.
Then arrange them to form my story.
Laying it out this way makes it easy for the audience
to understand where they are and how they got there, because one slide
flows to the next in a way that's natural and easy to follow.
Audiences are engaged when they know what's going on,
but when they get lost, it's a lot more tempting to tune out.
You might be thinking to yourself, Yeah, but how can I keep my audience engaged
when I give them the main message right up front?
In a movie or a book?
The main reveal doesn't come until the end,
after the story has built some tension and develop the characters
And that might be true, but think about what your audience is really looking for.
It's not some big reveal at the end of the presentation.
It's not even the answer to the question
posed in the beginning of the presentation.
what they're really looking for is the support and reasoning for that answer.
In most cases, your audience is trying to make a decision of some kind
and they want to know that the decision they make is the correct one.
Or sometimes they need to justify that decision to Abbas a client,
or maybe their shareholders Giving them a clear and well-structured story
that they can follow is what they're most interested in.
And it's how they're going to stay engaged.
To the end of the presentation.
By the way, I get asked at least once a week what tools I use to build slides.
And what I always recommend is a tool called Ampler.
It's basically an add in for PowerPoint that helps you build slides quickly, but
also lets you do a bunch of other stuff that you can't usually do in PowerPoint.
For example, they have this cool storyboard feature
that makes building out a full deck really simple.
You can drag and drop your templates into the storyboard, edit
individual titles, and even auto generate an executive summary.
But my absolute favorite tool is their chart builder.
It's way better than using PowerPoint native chart building functionality,
and it's much cheaper than other third party alternatives.
You can build almost any chart you'd ever need and you can do it.
incredibly fast.
But it's not just charts and PowerPoint.
They also have other tools for Word,
Excel and Outlook that all play together really nicely.
And if your whole team has it installed, you can share a library of templates
and make sure your brand is represented consistently across
all your presentations.
We've actually partnered with Ampler, so anyone who enrolls
in one of our courses gets a free six month subscription.
But if you're not enrolled in one of our courses
and you still want to check it out, I've included a link down below
where you can get a free one month subscription.
There's no credit card required
and it's really easy to sign up, so make sure you check it out.
Another practical way to keep your audience engaged is to give them
structural cues to help them know where they are in the story.
In a book, you would do this with chapter titles.
These not only separate the story in a manageable chunks,
but they can help the audience assess where they are in the story.
The titles of the chapters themselves can also be helpful.
They give the audience
an idea of what to expect in that chapter and to some extent what to look for.
Once again, this primes them to receive critical information.
You see this all the time in movies and TV shows as well.
If we go back to the scene from Friends and rewind to the beginning.
Notice how our first shown in establishing shot
something that tells us
where the scene takes place, which in this case is the airport.
You might have even noticed the music, which acts as a subtle cue for the audience.
It tells us one scene is ending and another one is beginning.
It helps us
take stock of where we are in the story so we can get ready for the next scene.
in a presentation.
You already have this naturally with different slides.
But there's other things you can do to help the audience.
The title of your presentation, for example, can set the overall tone, but
then you can also have different sections, each with its own transition slide.
It can also be helpful to add a tracker to tell the audience
where they are in the presentation.
And of course the titles of the slides themselves also play a key role.
these might feel repetitive for you,
but that's because you've seen your presentation multiple times.
For your audience, this is likely the first time they're seeing it.
So any visual cues you can give them to help them understand
where they are is going to help them stay engaged.
Another way to keep the audience engaged is through the content itself.
In a movie, you might think of this as the dialog words written in the script
that are spoken between the characters.
We saw this in the clip from Star Wars, where Obi-Wan explains the force to Luke.
But you can also see it in lots of other movies, like in this scene from Inception.
Leonardo DiCaprio's character Cobb, explains how the world works
and where the characters fit in.
Once again, making sure the audience can follow along.
and they fill it with their subconscious. Yes.
But if you really want to tell a good story, it's
not enough to help the audience understand the information you're giving them.
Don't just show a chart with declining sales.
Explain why declining sales matters for your company.
In consulting, this was encapsulated with the question What's the so what?
In other words, why does this information matter for our client?
And how can we show that to them?
Consider the difference between these two titles.
Both titles explain the information on the slide,
but only the title on the left
connects the slide with the broader message of the presentation, which is that
we as technologies should enter the health care wearables market.
When creating a slide, you always want to ask yourself, How does what
I'm adding right now contribute it to the overall message of the slide,
but then take it further.
How does my slide contribute to the section
and how does the section contribute to the overall presentation?
Being able to understand
that yourself is really important, but helping the audience understand that
through the content of your presentation is what's going to help them stay engaged.
The final technique we're going to talk about is design.
In a movie scene.
It's not just what's said that matters, but what's shown in the cinema world.
This is referred to as mise en scene, which refers to anything
within the frame of the camera that helps tell the story.
in this scene from the Social Network.
Mark is being reprimanded by Harvard's ad Board.
The scene starts by showing Mark's outfit sandals with jeans and a sweatshirt,
which stand in contrast to the stuffy business attire of everyone else.
The camera angles also put Mark as the focal point
and are meant to highlight how much pressure is being put on him.
Even these two people are uncomfortably close.
And yet Mark is undeterred through its intentional but almost hidden design.
This scene tells us what matters and why.
Mark's a smart guy, but he's also a rebel and he's willing to break some rules.
Returning again to the opening scene from La la Land.
Notice how the design informs the story of the ups
and downs of trying to make it in Hollywood.
The music is lighthearted and fun.
It's a nice sunny day,
and yet everyone is stuck in traffic trying to make it to where else?
Hollywood.
It's another day. Saw.
The design of a scene is guided by what the director wants you to focus on. And
likewise, the design of your presentation tells the audience what's important.
Just like presentation cues can draw attention to the structure of a story.
Design can draw attention to the content.
For example, on this McKinsey slide about cloud adoption.
You can see what the author wants you to focus on.
The title contains the main takeaway of this slide,
which is why it's the biggest and boldest font on the screen.
But then notice the colors.
The important blocks are in noticeable hues of black and blue,
while the less important blocks are in these subtle gray colors.
There can be a lot of information on your slide,
but the design of your slide tells the audience where to focus
and what's most important.
This is going to help them
understand the story, which is going to help them stay engaged All right.
That's going to do for today's video. If you're interested in learning more.
Make sure you check out our courses over at the Analyst Academy dot com.
And if you want to check out Ambler, you can get a free six month subscription
when you enroll in one of our advanced courses.
Or you can get a one month subscription using the link below.
Thanks again for watching.