REFLECTION ASSIGNMENT: Storytelling & Visualisation

Challenge

In the past, I did an NLP training course. To complete the training, all trainees were to do an exam  consisting of various tasks. One of these tasks was to interview a person and to analyse one of  her/his competences in depth by using the skills we learned in the course. The results were to be  presented to the trainer and the group of trainees. After I did the interview and the analysis as  requested, the presentation was still ahead of me. The competence I analysed was courage, involving  complex mental and emotional processes like overcoming fear. So, the results were difficult to  explain anyway, let alone pack into a short presentation. First, I was stuck and couldn’t think of any  solution to present the results in a concise way. The day of the audit was getting close and just one  day before the audit a sudden thought struck me: A comic would be the perfect solution! It would  simplify the content and the presentation format at the same time. A story is easier to follow then a  complex entanglement of psychological processes. And animating them with cartoony figures would  help even more to increase comprehensibility.

Selection & Application

As a first step, I had to prioritize the results as I knew I couldn’t incorporate all details in the story. I  had to ask myself, who is “your audience, where do they come from, and what do they need?” (as  Juan Lopez mentions in the video). This leading question brought me to the realization, that I had  to create the presentation assuming the audience has no previous knowledge, e.g. they haven’t  heard the whole interview as I did. Thus, I had to break the content down into most important facts  and to arrange them consecutively, so that everyone could easily follow.

As a second step, I had to come up with a compelling and intriguing storyline with “a clear sequence  of events" in order to “connect the emotions, characters and the values of the people who live the  product everyday” (ibid). To do this I knew I had to create a hero that was likable and who’s goal was  relatable to the audience. This is mind, it made perfectly sense to turn my interviewee into the hero  of the story and to describe her struggles as a sequence on her way to build that competence –  which would not only create excitement and suspense but also teach at the same time, how one can  build this cometence – which was the goal of the presentation after all.

As a third step, I had to think about how to visualise the story. I decided to personify everything in  the story using typical symbols: a dark monster for the fear that the main character had to face,  every struggle was a fight that was rewarded with a gift symbolizing a gain of courage and self- confidence. This way, it composed into a compelling story getting my results across.

In a fourth step, I browsed the internet for cartoony characters that would fit the story and the  symbols. I ended up drawing them by hand on cardboard and cut them out in order to animate all  characters live during the presentation.

On the day of the presentation, all went as planned. The story helped the audience to understand  the results, left space to reflect and thus, increased the emotional involvement and not at least  added some entertainment to the event.

Insight

Thinking back now, I am amazed that I intuitively chose the right way to make my content relatable  and understandable. Creating the story helped me to come up with ideas how to visualise it, and  visualising helped me to drive the story. It was mutual inspiration.

I found that storytelling really helps to concentrate on a central theme – whereas in data driven  presentations one is always prone to show all data there is – which is often tiresome and confusing  for the audience. A story forces you to create a connection between the facts. This ‘connecting the  facts’ is what the audience needs to get to true understanding of a presentation or any other form of  content.

Visualisation does the very same thing. When you start to sketch you are forced to simplify, structure  and prioritize – helping you and the audience to understand the content better.

Furthermore, the visualisation helped the audience to get a livelier and more emotional picture of  the topic, making the content accessible and relevant for the audience. The pictures and the  personifications were much more instant and clearer than any explanation I could have offered.

Having this example and its effect in mind, I now use the tool storytelling and visualisation much  more consciously. I even use it for my personal learning and try to create a story with figures in my  head if I don't understand a complex process, for example. I found that it improves greatly my  understanding and memory.

