Cascading bullet points on pages of PowerPoint presentations don’t work very well.
They’re hard to read, hard to understand, and most importantly, they’re hard to remember.
Sure, we all do it and it seems to work okay in thousands of companies around the world. But it’s not the best way to deliver and process information.
If you really want to grab attention and gain engagement, you need to communicate in longer-form narratives – stories.
Instead of using PowerPoints for important discussions, try basing them around 1-page narratives. Yes, sit down and write paragraphs of complete sentences, nouns and verbs.
Why one page? The 1-page constraint forces economy and prevents circular, repetitive thinking.
Why stories?
- Our brains are wired for narrative. We process our world in narrative, we talk in narrative and people recall and retain information more effectively when it’s presented in the form of a story, not bullet points.
- Stories persuade. Emotion is the most direct path to the brain. And stories bring out emotions in all of us by taking us on a journey, putting us in a moment, and fostering empathy.
- Bullets are boring. Reading lines of text diminishes information retention. Scenes, concepts and mental pictures light up our brains and create memories we retain.
Ban the bullets if you want to promote deeper understanding and richer conversations. Use stories to create context, meaning and memories that stick.
Have a great week.
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