136 Resonate
Audiences enjoy it when presentations convey emotional contrast and appeal; however, most pre-
sentations lack this because it requires an additional step and can be an elusive element to include.
Involving the audience emotionally helps them form a relationship with you and your message.
According to Peter Guber, “Business leaders must recognize that how the audience physically
responds to the storyteller is an integral part of the story and its telling. Communal emotional
response—hoots of laughter, shrieks of fear, gasps of dismay, cries of anger—is a binding force that
the storyteller must learn how to orchestrate through appeals to the senses and the emotions.”
7
Moving between analytical and emotional content is another form of contrast. Remember, contrast
is very important for keeping the audience interested. Switching between the two creates contrast.
Create Emotional Contrast
ANALYTICAL CONTENT EMOTIONAL CONTENT
Look at any of the analytical topics from the list on the left. They typically have no emotional
charge to them—neither pain nor pleasure. Yet all could be presented in a way that transforms
traditionally analytical material into emotional material. For example, a simple diagram of a small
circle within a larger circle could convey that an acquisition occurred. The diagram is neutral until
you tell the story of the struggle it took to acquire the company, or the heroics displayed by both
parties to expedite the acquisition. Data is purely analytical until you explain why the ups and
downs exist.
Presentation Content Types
Below are two columns listing typical presentation content. Hard drives around the world are
packed with slides from the left-hand section, but only a tiny percentage have slides from the
right-hand section.
Specimen, exhibit
System
Process
Facts
Supporting
documentation
Diagram
Feature
Data
Evidence
Example
Case study
Biographical or
fictitious stories
Benefits
Analogies, metaphors,
anecdotes, parables
Props or dramatization
Suspenseful reveals
Shocking or scary
statements
Evocative images
Invitations to marvel
or wonder
Humor
Surprises
Offers, deals
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Structure Reveals Insights 137
Contrast Analytical and Emotional Content
Let’s review the Q3 update presentation from the previous pages once again. A typical quarterly update presentation
is full of data and reportlike material that isn’t likely to connect employees to the message.
DATA DATA DATA DATA DATA DATA
METAPHOR
The little engine
that couldn’t.
SLOW
REVEAL
Suspenseful
progression and
long pause.
INVITATION TO
MARVEL
Wonderment:
“Aren’t they
beautiful?”
Inventory your slides and identify any content that can
be transformed from analytical to emotional. Change it
wherever appropriate.
In the movies, alternating emotion is called beats. Beats
are the smallest structural element in a movie; there
can be several in one scene. Scenes are analyzed to
Here’s how the analytical information was modified in the earlier example:
make sure there is a shift of emotion in each scene.
Screenwriters carefully ensure that the emotions are
moving between pain and pleasure so that the audience
remains engaged.
8
Moving back and forth between analytical and emotional
content engages presentation audiences in the same way.
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