Whilst travelling on coaches around the south island of New Zealand, we were given some brilliant lessons on “good communication practice” by our drivers, Dave, Pete and Richard.
For the record, the scenery there is stunning and vast – but after a few hours can become monotonous. And if your driver likes the sound of his own voice, you can be drowned by a sea of words – some of interest but most not. So as a passenger you learn to tune in and out to the events around you but if you’re not careful you risk missing the best bits. It struck us this is exactly what can happen to an audience when faced with a lengthy, fact-filled presentation.
So back to Dave, Pete and Richard – what made them special communicators?
Firstly, they recognised we had a lot of ground to cover. Secondly, as experts they knew when to alert us to important sights so we could take photos to refer to later. Thirdly, they understood we couldn’t remember much of what they said unless they engaged with us. How did they do this? By telling us some of their personal stories – of sheep farming and shearing, of a new wood burner, of being taught to hunt and fish by a father, of a wife’s family argument over land ownership and much more. Because they were personal, we can remember them. But the key difference was that each of their stories made a point to help us better understand their country of New Zealand.
The power of storytelling in business presentations works exactly the same way. The presenter needs to tell a story to help make the key point of the presentation and in so doing leave the detail in the document for later examination – rather like those photos we’d taken on our trip.
What about the possum? On our coach journey we had been told a lot about the problems they were having with possums – an unwanted import from Australia. We had mentioned we had not seen any live ones – only dead ones on the road. We were told that they loved coming out at night to warm up on the hot roads and as a result were killed by passing cars.
So, why did the possum cross the road? To visit his flat mate of course!
