The 4 Big Advantages of Storytelling in Professional Presentations

Time is a limited resource during presentations, but when done right, weaving in some strategic storytelling will help your presentation stand out to your audience—whether that’s your team, nonsecurity personnel, or the C-suite.

Ultimately, executive skills like storytelling are necessary for helping security leaders “shift from focusing on operational methods to strategic tactics,” says J. Ruben Fajardo Correa, CPP, PCI, PSP, director of SIPROSI, a security training and consulting company. (Fajardo Correa’s quotes have been translated from Spanish by the author.) “…Many times, security professionals focus on technical or administrative skills while forgetting that their communication skills need improvement.”

Religious leaders, politicians, and many more persuasive people rely on storytelling to capture an audience’s attention and sway their support with emotional appeal, he adds. “Storytelling has the advantage of allowing you to achieve a strong impact on an emotional level in a short amount of time,” Fajardo Correa says.

Compared to dry data standing alone, incorporating storytelling has the following four advantages.

Creating an emotional connection with the audience. Research in the field of neuroscience has found that when someone watches or listens to a story, the brains of the speaker and the listener engage in what they call neural coupling—their brain activity becomes synchronized.

For the storyteller, the “synchrony is about sharing [their] internal state in a way that makes it [also the listener’s] internal state. The better you are at replicating that same pattern of brain activity in their head, the better the communication,” Psychology Today reported. “…Research using neuroimaging tools, such as fMRI, finds that the degree of neural synchrony between conversation partners predicts how well they comprehend one another’s messages.”

Supporting and conveying another way of understanding the larger message. While the summer vacations of your childhood might be a fond memory you enjoy recounting to friends and family, unless it supports the larger goal of your presentation, save it for another time.

A cohesive presentation is persuasive and powerful, and the stories you use during that presentation can cement that cohesion. For example, the story about how your on-site emergency medical services team saved the life of a coworker when an external emergency response service might not have been as successful offers the presenter elements of a powerful tableau. The scene can help sway support and budgets for your larger security project, helping listeners understand and feel its value.

Storytelling has the advantage of allowing you to achieve a strong impact on an emotional level in a short amount of time.

Helping distinguish between key elements. Stories can support multiple messages for the audience, breaking down complex ideas in understandable ways, according to an article from Harvard Business Insights. A presentation about performance and financial results for the latest quarter complemented by information about the projects or individual efforts that resulted in wins and successes for that quarter means that listeners will not only know that the company achieved financial goals, but also how continued efforts or new projects from different departments contributed.

Humanizing the work, processes, and data tied to the larger message. While your audience may understand why the work is valuable to the organization’s larger goals and what the KPIs indicate, storytelling is how you can put a memorable face to data or methods.

According to research from Standford University’s Women’s Leadership Lab, stories are 22 times more memorable than reliance on facts or data alone.

“Stories are not facts, figures, or lists,” said Jennifer Aaker, a marketing professor at Stanford. “And yet, when facts and figures are interwoven into a story, it can pull at the audience, both intellectually as well as emotionally.”

While there are ways to improve your storytelling skills and therefore your presentations, mastery in certain areas universally indicate a greater likelihood of success, according to Fajardo Correa.

He stresses the importance of understanding the language of business because when you’re seeking support from corporate leaders, speaking their language helps both parties understand the other’s motivations and goals.

“If you talk to them and use security or technical jargon, they’re not going to understand you. You have to speak the language of business, and you need to communicate that you’re focused not on spending, but on adding value and helping avoid problems that can prevent positive results,” Fajardo Correa says.

Communicating in ways that are familiar to the audience helps them see you as more than just an employee, advisor, or contractor. Instead, they will see you as part of the organization’s future and as a successful senior security executive.

Sara Mosqueda is an associate editor for Security Management. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at [email protected].