Communication is a fundamental skill, but a difficult art. Storytelling is a marvelous tool to help getting yout point accross to others. Psychology explains why. A meta story.

1. A meta story
HOW TO GET YOUR POINT
ACROSS TO OTHERS

2. To get your point across to others is about
communication.

3. Communication issues start the first day of our life.

4. For most of us,
communication
issues are part
of our entire
life.

5. Communication is difficult.

6. The actors don’t speak the same language.

7. Even if the symbols
are the same,

8. their interpretations
are always different.

9. Psychology studies how knowledge is organized
in human brain.

10. It tells us that for
each of our
perceptions and
thoughts corresponds
a network of
activated neurons.

11. Our whole world can be summarized by a
succession of activated neurons networks.

12. The position of
our neurons
depends on our
genetic
patrimony.

13. And the strength of the links between neurons depends
on different learning we have experienced during our life.

14. Both are unique.

15. So our world is also unique.

16. That explains different
interpretations.

17. And why
communication
is so difficult.

18. There are three key
components in the
communication process.

19. 1. You

20. 2. The Idea you
want to Share.

21. 3. The Audience

22. At the
beginning,
there are only
you and your
idea.

23. A marvelous idea! You’re
so excited about it.

24. You can’t stop
thinking about it.

25. You fine tune each detail of your idea.

26. You cherish it so much…

27. You want to share
this idea with your
audience.

28. But the enthusiasm
is only luke-warm.

29. If we compared, what
is going on in your
brain and that of your
audience’s.

30. All the time you
spent with your
idea,…

31. has made your idea fully
integrated in your world.

32. The network of activated neurons
corresponding to your idea

33. … has strong connections with the rest of
the network corresponding to your world
representation.

34. What is exactly a strong
connection between neurons?

35. The connection between two neurons is
like a wire transporting electricity.

36. When the connection is rarely activated,
this wire has a very low conductivity.
It means that a lot of energy is requested to
activate the neighbor neurons.

37. By repeating the usage of this wire, the
conductivity increases.
And less and less effort is requested to
activate the neuron.

38. So you don’t need any energy to think
about your idea. It is natural as it is fully
integrated in your world.

39. All the time you
spent with your
idea,

40. your audience has used it for other
things but not your idea.

41. It has no energy to spend for building
roads between neurons to integrate
your idea in his world.

42. Resources are precious. Your audience
has a lot of things to do.

43. It is not interested to waste its energy
for something he doesn’t understand .

44. That explains why communication is so a
difficult art.

45. It is really a pity.

46. Communication
is the basis of all
personal and
professional
success.

47. Like…
Etc…
Teamwork
Family Harmony
Social presence
Influence
Negotiation

48. Man is a social animal, so communication is
a critical piece to achieve ourselves.

49. There is no
magic solution.

50. It will take time to convince the audience.

51. But you can find some accelerators.

52. Storytelling is considered as one of the best
accelerators for communication.

53. Thanks to several enablers, storytelling will
get your point across to others.

54. Intrinsically, stories relax
your audience.
First enabler

55. Listening to a story has automatically a relaxing
effect on the audience.

56. We have all been conditioned at an early age by
matching hearing a story with a pleasurable time.

57. And thus, the concept of story is linked
in our world with such interesting topics
for the speaker such as …
Listening mode
Ready to Learn
Good time

58. Good stories start with your
audience’s world.
Second enabler

59. To make a connection between your idea and
the audience‘s world, …

60. you need to start with something known by your
audience, something that they have already experienced.

61. So that the story can start with a set of activated neurons
regularly used by the audience.

62. Otherwise your idea will be
lost and won’t survive for
long.

63. Before moving to the third
enabler, you must understand
that to get your point across
to others…

64. The whole job is done by the audience.

65. Nancy Duarte[R] , bestseller book writer on
storytelling says: ”The audience is the hero.”

66. “You [the speaker]
are the mentor”.

67. So, it is important that you
manage its energy well thanks
to the following enablers.

68. Implement the desire to your
audience to change its world.
Third enabler

69. Changing its world requires efforts.

70. You have to tease your audience with your story.

71. You have to tell them
the benefits they will
receive by taking your
point…

72. to convince the audience to spend its energy

73. to build new pathways ( connections)
in their brain.

74. You have to manage their
resources during your entire
journey.
Fourth enabler

75. You need to alternate efforts

76. and pause to let your audience rest
and assimilate ideas.

77. Don’t hesitate to repeat the same message differently.

78. So that the same neurons are activated again and again.

79. The main point is to improve connection
conductivity between the neurons of your idea and
neurons of your audience’s world.
So that less and less effort is requested for your
audience to activate the neurons of your idea.

80. And reinforce connection with your idea.

81. Elude your audience’s
obstacles.
Fifth enabler

82. Anticipate the audience’s obstacles to accept
your idea and destroy them.

83. This will allow them to go on with the job of
building (connections) at lower efforts.

84. The job of the mentor (speaker) is to give advice about how to
bypass different obstacles to reach the Promised land.

85. Rewards.
Sixth enabler

86. After all the
efforts,

87. It is time to reward the audience.

88. And make them
feel how good it
is to share your
point.

89. This reward will add positive feelings to your idea
integrated in the audience’s world.

90. Conclusion

91. There is no magical formula in getting
your point across to others.

92. Hopefully.

93. To get your point across to
others, you can only sew the
seed in their brains.

94. And use enablers to make it growth.

95. Storytelling gives you the time and the space to use
enablers to make your idea grow.

97. This is a Meta story.
This story uses the same enablers that
one’s describes in the story.

98. If I succeeded to
keep your
attention until
page n°98, these
enablers may
have some power.

99. Reference
Nancy Duarte
CEO and author. Passionate about persuasion and visual
stories used in business.
Really the queen of storytelling. Her bestselling book
“Resonate” is absolutely a must to read if you want to go
deeper in storytelling.
Follow her on Twitter : @nancyduarte
Or more information on : www.duarte.com

100. Thank you !!!
Follow me on twitter : @BrainSlideStory
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