Brain Science Plus Story Structure Equals Presentation Success
How to integrate what neuroscience knows into your presentations to make them successful.
Do you remember your favorite childhood stories? Star Wars, Cinderella, family stories, The Little Engine that Could, Where the Red Fern Grows…these are all classics. We can often remember which character we connected most with in those stories and even when and where we were introduced to the stories. Most of the stories that we remember follow the classic story arc model. An innocent character is treated unfairly; a protector seeks to right the wrong - but can only do so by finding the courage within him or herself to create the change. In the late 1800’s, Gustav Freytag named this the “ Universal Story Structure.” It consists of: Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and Resolution.
There are neurological reasons why we respond to stories. Recent studies out of Princeton and Claremont Graduate School are showing us how our brain responds to the Story. These findings on the neurology of storytelling are relevant to business settings.
Brain to Brain Connection
Dr. Uri Hasson, Professor of Psychology at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, wanted to know if people’s brains connected on a neurological level during natural verbal communication. He studied this by using MRI’s to record the brain activity of a speaker telling an unrehearsed real-life story and the brain activity of a listener listening to a recording of the story” (1)
What he found was astounding. He found that when the Wernicke's area, Broca's area, the insula, and the Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were activated in the storyteller’s brain, the same areas of the brain were activated in the listener. This is called brain coupling.
1. Wernicke's area – Is responsible for the comprehension of speech.
2. Broca's area- Is responsible for speech production.
3. Insula – This facilitates our concept of self-awareness. This includes the awareness of emotions and how they interact to create our perception of the present moment. A.D. Craig hypothesizes that the insula is the cornerstone to of our overall awareness. (2)
4. Dorsolateral Prefrontal cortex – This area is known to be involved in the processing of semantic and social aspects of the story. (1)
The Princeton researchers found that the speaker’s and listeners’ brains “exhibited joint, temporally coupled response patterns,” and “the listener’s brain’s response mirrored the speaker’s brain’s response.” (1) Stories trigger brain coupling.
What Are The Implications of This?
When brains couple, more empathy is formed. The Princeton study does not prove this, but another study by Paul Zak, PhD. director of the Center for Neuroeconomic Studies at Claremont Graduate School does. Zac has spent several years researching the brain’s response to stories that follow a typical story arc model. He has measured people’s blood, heart rate, skin conduction and respiratory response to stories. He has found that during a story, the brain releases two hormones, cortisol for distress and oxytocin for empathy. The presence of these hormones makes the person listening to the story more likely to respond to it. His studies have shown that when high levels of cortisol and oxytocin are released, people are more likely to donate to a cause.(3)
Brian Stevenson’s March 2012 TED Talk is an excellent example of this at work. Stevenson is a civil rights attorney and the executive director of Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit that provides legal defense to the poor who have not had fair treatment in the legal system. He won a landmark Supreme Court Case that barred states from imposing mandatory life sentences on juveniles convicted of a felony. In 2011, he was awarded the Freedom Medal from the Roosevelt Institute for his work in social justice. His Ted Talk was about the people he serves as a lawyer who are vulnerable and struggling and who are not making it in the court system. He gave an 18-minute talk that was 65% story – more than half.! (4) The audience was so moved by his TED Talk that they donated $1 million to his non-profit. (4) Carmine Gallo, a communication coach and author of several books on speaking interviewed Stevenson about this speech. Stevenson said, “You have to get people to trust you.” Gallo then writes, “Stevenson talks to many people who have made up their minds to disagree with him well before he says a word. Narrative- storytelling –can help break down the wall between him and the people he needs to persuade.” (4)
Weaving Story into a Presentation
How can we use these findings to improve our business presentations? Many people tell us that using a story in a presentation is a powerful tool. That is true. Your audience will connect with you better if you do this. You may even experience “brain coupling.” But I know that we can take this a step further.
Nancy Duarte of Duarte Design has developed a methodology to create persuasive presentations with a structure based on the story arc model.
Nancy Duarte spent two years researching great literature, mythology, poetry, classic stories and world-class presentations. What she found is that underlying all of these great pieces of communication was the same structure. She calls it the Presentation Story Form. It is based on the classic story arc model, used by Freytag and Aristotle.
It consists of addressing the current reality, and then calling the audience to a new and better world. The rest of the speech fills in the gap between what is and what could be through contrast. The conclusion is a call to action, and a review of the new and better world to which you are calling your audience. (5)
Recent brain studies reinforce why this presentation model works. When brains are monitored when they hear contrast, they are active. They resonate to contrast. In a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, neuro-economist Dr. Paul Zac writes, “We have been able to deepen our understanding of why stories motivate voluntary cooperation. We discovered that to motivate a desire to help others, a story must first sustain attention - a scarce resource in the brain – by developing tension during a narrative.” He goes on to say, “My studies show that character-driven stories with emotional content result in better understanding of the key points a speaker wished to make and enabled better recall of these points weeks later.” (6) In the story arc model, and in the Persuasive Story Form Model, the structure is full of contrast, which activates the audience’s brains. They are not falling asleep.
I have been honored to use this Presentation Story Method with several corporate clients and TED speakers. In my experience, when presenters use this model, the audience connects to and resonates with the speaker and the message one hundred percent of the time. Dart Studio used this methodology for a TED Talk presenter, Dr. Florence Dunkle. She is an entomologist who has studied malaria in Africa for thirty years. She has a fantastic idea on how to eradicate malaria in Africa. The story arc model changed a usually dry, scientific presentation with facts and data into an alive story – and she got a standing ovation. She is on her way to changing the world.
In his book The Tipping Point, Malcom Gladwell writes that “The line between an idea or call that sticks and one that doesn’t is narrower than we think. The law of stickiness is a simple way to package information; under the right circumstances, it can make it irresistible. All you have to do is find it.” (7) I wonder if weaving story structure into your presentations IS that stickiness factor in presenting. Ancient History and brain research sure support it!
If you would like to talk with us about your presentation needs, please contact us. Our passion is helping people to spread their big ideas. Reach out!
All the best,
Heather Dart Heefner
References
1. Greg Stephens, Uri Hasson, Lauren Silbert. Speaker-Listener Neural coupling underlies successful communication. (PNAS vol 107, no 32, 2010)
2. Craig, AD. How Do You Feel- Now? The anterior insula and human awareness. (Nature Reviews, Neuroscience, 10 (1) 59-70 PMID, 2009)
3. Paul Zak. How Stories Change the Brain, Greater Good Magazine, December 17, 2013
4. Carmine Gallo. Talk like Ted. New York, St. Martin’s Griffin. 2015
5. Duarte, Nancy. Resonate. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc. 2010, page 36
6. Paul Zak. Why Your Brain Loves God Storytelling, Harvard Business review, October 28, 2014
7. Gladwell, Malcom. The Tipping Point (New York: Back Bay Books, 2002) page 132
