Storytelling for public contributors - key points

There are many places you may be asked to speak about your own experience or the research project overall. Here are some thoughts on using storytelling techniques to help with those occasions.  

The goal is always to get them to catch the ball otherwise there is no point. Talks that are too heavy on the academics of things my disconnect with listeners. 

Storytelling provides “ways in” for an audience: helping them find familiar connections or ways of thinking about un familiar things. 

Imagery – Help people ‘see’ and understand new things

It’s about painting pictures in people’s heads. Most of us can’t help but picture what is described.  You can also:

• Use metaphors to explain unfamiliar ideas, the more visual the better!

• Use familiar examples of abstract stuff that’s otherwise hard to imagine

• Show real images (e.g. photographs) to make it feel real

• Describe or show places 

Empathy – get people to care

Put people at the centre of the story to make it feel more relatable - and show us their point of view. Make the story about things that seem relevant to and connected to your audience’s experience. 

Be careful when using potentially triggering stories such as those around health care. 

Have a point 

Use stories or show or illustrate points you want the audience to get. 

A useful structure is:

• Problem – introduce the issue and get the audience to care about solving it 

• Strategy – take them through the plan of what you are going to do 

• Outcome – Where do we end up after doing the work? Have we solved the problem? Or learnt more about the issue etc. 

Confidence

Build you confidence by knowing 

• Your purpose, what are you trying to achieve by giving the talk or telling the story

• Your content, practice is key to reducing nerves and making sure you make the points you want. 

• Your audience – what is important, useful or interesting to them