Secret
Structure
An idea, to be considered effective, needs to be spread,
and the most effective way to share an idea is through story (Duarte, 2011). For
an idea to impact and spark change, needs to resonate, to create a human
connection (Duarte, 2013), to confirm some truths that deepens the
understanding of who you we are as human being (Stanton, 2012).
Duarte describes few different structures, which in my opinion
is an evolution of each other, or a zooming perspective of looking into them.
First, Duarte talks about Aristotle views with the three-act (beginning,
middle, end) structure of storytelling. Duarte subsequently presents Freytag’s
pyramid (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement) as
another possibility of structure, which in fact does not contradict Aristotle
but complement with deeper details.
Then, Duarte (2011) presents her own view of an effective
structure in storytelling founded on her views of Aristotle and Freytag, which
consists initially in presenting the idea to the audience and making the status
quo unappealing. Crafting the beginning involves describing
life as the audience knows it. People should be nodding their heads in
recognition because you’re articulating what they already understand opens them
up to hear your ideas for change (Duarte, 2012,
October 31), which illustrates some physical reactions created by effective
storytelling (Duarte, 2013).
Then a presenter should move to the middle part, talking about
the possibility of the future in case the idea is adopted, introducing the vision of what could be. The gap between the two
will throw the audience a bit off balance, and that’s a good thing, because it
jars them out of complacency (Duarte, 2012,
October 31). In this middle part a presenter goes back to reality, moving to the future again, over and over to
fight resistance, with repetition, metaphors and appropriate rhythm (Duarte,
2011) until reaching a point of a new norm, new bliss as described by the author,
a poetic and dramatic way to call for action (Duarte, 2011), a way to show how
better the world would be if the idea was adopted, in a bigger picture.
For my presentation I intend to use all Duarte’s techniques,
however I do not plan to go over and over between reality and future several
times, as my presentation does not have a business narrative, and shares more a
vision, therefore less resistance, supposedly. One of Duarte’s technique I plan
to use for the slide presentation, is based on her Harvard Business Review
Video (2012, December 11), as follow:
1.
Use slides selectively
2.
Write the slides after the speech is
prepared
3.
Design slide people can understand in 3
seconds
4.
Storyboard one concept per slide
5.
Use slide as visual complementation
All
the studies are off extreme value and will assist me to communicate my idea,
but as for Stanton (2012), the amusement of storytelling is that it has
guidelines, not rules, therefore, the structures will be taken in consideration
but not confine my creativity; an idea defended by all authors in storytelling
that I had the opportunity to read or watch through my course.
References
Duarte, N. (2011). The secret
structure of great talks. Retrieved form https://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_duarte_the_secret_structure_of_great_talks/transcript
Duarte, N. (2012, October 31).
Structure your presentation like a story. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2012/10/structure-your-presentation-li
Duarte, N. (2012, December 11). Create
slides people will remember. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeV2fHEM4RI
Duarte,
N. (2013, March 21). How to tell a story. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JrRQ1oQWQk
Stanton,
A. (2012). The clues to a great story. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_stanton_the_clues_to_a_great_story
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