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

Learn how to use stories and visuals to make top–notch presentations  It′s called CAST (Content, Audience, Story, & Tell) and it′s been a quiet success, until now. Developed over a twelve year period as a presentation method to help Enterprise Architects, it was adopted by Microsoft Enterprise Architecture teams and filtered from IT managers to Sales, and beyond to major organizations around the world. Now, thanks to this unique book from an expert author team that includes two Microsoft presentation experts, you can learn how to use this amazing process to create and make high–impact presentations in your own organization. The book helps you build complete visual stories, step by step, by using the CAST method to first create a Story Map and from there, a compelling presentation. It includes sample Story Maps, templates, practical success stories, and more. You′ll discover how to go beyond PowerPoint slides to create presentations that influence your peers and effect change. Explains the secrets of making presentations and effecting change using CAST to create Story Maps and from there, high–impact and visual presentations that tell a story Covers how to apply a range of techniques and what the results look like, using screenshots of presentations, one page hand outs, and basic delivery with whiteboards Coauthored by Microsoft experts and a visual design guru who have years of experience training professionals in these methods Includes sample Story Maps, templates, practical success stories, and more  Learn how to sell your ideas and trigger change in your company with Stories That Move Mountains: Storytelling and Visual Design for Persuasive Presentations.

Table of Contents:
1 The Power of Stories 2 Visual Stories 5 Should We Blame the Tools? 6 Finding the Right Tool for the Job 6 To Be Effective, You Have to Affect People 7 Convincing Evidence 10 2 Cast and the Visual Story Map 12 The Visual Story Map 12 3 Using Cast to Tell Stories 22 Use the Visual Story Map 23 Learn From Our Experience 24 Examples of Using CAST 25 Build Your Own Example 25 Example 1: Personal Trainer. 26 Example 2: City University Hospital 27 Tell the Right Story 29 Tell the Story Right 29 4 Why 34 The Three Big Whys 35 Focusing First on “Why” 36 All Motivation is Personal 37 Techniques for Discovering Whys 37 Five Whys 38 Pain Chain 40 Outcome Mapping 41 5 What 48 Elements of Change. 50 Brainstorming the Changes 52 Filter and Focus 53 6 How 62 Traceability and Milestones 64 Finding the “How” 65 Understanding the Dependencies 68 Cum hoc ergo propter hoc 70 7 What if 76 Walking Backward Through the Story 78 Alternative Scenarios 80 Final Thoughts on the Story Content 89 8 Who 92 Finding the Common Ground 96 Creating a Power Map 98 9 Learning and Decision Styles 108 Categorizing Your Audience. 109 Preferences, Not Prescriptions 109 Learning Styles 110 Decision Styles 112 10 Structure 122 Plot Structure 123 Nesting and Embedding (or How to Tell Many Stories at the Same Time) 139 Using Reality and Fiction 139 Hope’s Story 141 Putting All the Parts Together 141 In a Hurry? 143 11 Character 148 The Hero and the Villain 150 Character Associations 152 Believability 153 The Cast of Characters 154 Personification 154 12 Sense of Urgency 164 The Enemies of Change: Complacency and Distraction 165 Common Factors Creating a Sense of Urgency 166 Success Is a Decision 168 Success Is a Commitment 168 13 Delivery Plan 174 Decisions Take Time 176 Planning for Scale 178 Hook, Line, and Sinker 179 City University Hospital 180 Delivery Tips 186 14 Design 192 Intentional Design 193 Many Formats, One Root 196 The Infographic 197 Ideation 198 Composition 200 Content Coding 209 Writing 214 15 Test 222 Testing and Rehearsals 223 Opening, Closing, and Timing 224 Repetition 225 Retention 225 The Six Key Tests 226 16 Cast Example: What a Difference A Day Can Make 232 17 Afterword: Improving Your Visual Storytelling 242 Practice Makes Perfect 242 Use Your Tools 243 References 246 Index 252