Comments on: Are our brains wired to enjoy stories?

By: What to do when you’re losing your audience

What to do when you’re losing your audience — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 01:09:53 +0000

[...] hardwired to listen to stories. They instantly engage us and require very little effort to stay focused. Even the sleepiest [...]

By: laziyh

laziyh — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 12:23:57 +0000

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By: Kevin Kane

Kevin Kane — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 22:16:40 +0000

Hi Olivia,

On December 8 you convinced me to read Made to Stick. And on January 10 I made a speech about it.

I shared 3 tips for making your ideas sticky: http://www.kevinkane.com/2011/01/3-tips-to-make-your-ideas-sticky/

When I rehearsed the talk in front of a friend, she told me that she didn’t understand what I said about the Curse of Knowledge. I thought that was ironic: My own Curse of Knowledge — from having read the entire book — made me think that I was explaining it clearly in two sentences.

But we decided that I didn’t have time in this speech to clearly explain it, so I had to omit it.

If you get a chance, could you let me know what you think of my talk? The main feedback I got was that people wanted me to use more personal examples.

Oh, and one Toastmaster said that she’s curious to see me use a more “free-flowing” speech structure. But since I’ve adopted your 3-point structure for making presentations, more people than ever are saying that it’s very easy and engaging to follow my speeches.

And weeks later, people actually remember my core message.

Thanks Olivia.

By: Kevin Kane

Kevin Kane — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 03:05:25 +0000

Olivia, you nailed it!

By: Olivia Mitchell

Olivia Mitchell — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 02:24:44 +0000

Hi Kevin

The trick to crafting a succinct key message is to experiment with taking words/phrases away and seeing if it still makes sense. I came up with this:

“The more you know about a topic, the harder it is for you to explain it to someone else.”

Olivia

By: Kevin Kane

Kevin Kane — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 02:53:57 +0000

Olivia, I read Made to Stick.

I’m presenting 3 tips from the book on Jan. 10.

For my key message, I’m trying to explain the Curse of Knowledge in one succinct sentence. What do you think of this:

“The Curse of Knowledge: The more you know about a topic, the harder it is for you to explain it in a simple way to someone who doesn’t have your knowledge.”

Then I’ll say:

“But these 3 tips can help us craft our messages in ways that people without our knowledge can understand them.”

I’m trying to find a more compact way to express the core meaning of the Curse without losing any of its essence.

Olivia, do you have any ideas or feedback? Thank you!

By: Five less-talked about gems from Nancy Duarte’s latest book “Resonate”

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 00:33:42 +0000

[...] are many ideas in Resonate which will be familiar to students of the art of presenting: tell stories, have a big idea, create a logical persuasive structure. In this post, I explore the less-talked [...]

By: Olivia Mitchell

Olivia Mitchell — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 20:20:08 +0000

Made to Stick is a must-read for anyone interested in communication. I’m reading Switch at the moment, and enjoying that too.

Olivia

By: Kevin Kane

Kevin Kane — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 05:15:07 +0000

Yes, Gladwell’s TED talk kept my attention rapt about… spaghetti sauce!

I’ve heard so many good things about the Heath brothers that I’m going to have to do more than just read reviews of their books on Amazon.

By: Olivia Mitchell

Olivia Mitchell — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 23:00:31 +0000

Well, it doesn’t have to be tabloids. Reading any contemporary business/communication book will also show you how to use stories to illustrate a point. For example, Malcolm Gladwell and brothers Chip and Dan Heath are master storytellers.