We’ve watched and analyzed hundreds of TED talks in order to find helpful tidbits and tricks of the trade for speakers who want to improve their skills. The most common element that the very best talks share is simple: they effectively use storytelling as a powerful way to make their point.
We know that there are readers out there who want more detail than that. How many stories do the most effective presentations have? When and why should they be used while you explain the main points of your talk? Is there a magic number?
The answer is “it depends.” Your presentation’s purpose along with your supporting information should dictate how many stories will be effective within a deck. Here’s what we mean.
The argument for 1:
Sometimes you don’t have a purpose-driven presentation, but rather, a presentation that is built around an existing story. An example of this would be a personal journey as you fought through a disease and triumphed, or a company origin story that encourages others to follow that same path. If the purpose of the presentation is to share one specific anecdote, then you have your answer. One “big” story should be enough.
The argument for 2-3:
Let’s say you want to describe a healthy living philosophy that impacted the lives of people around you for the better. In this case, stories are used to support a singular point with multiple examples, which builds credibility. You might describe how different kinds of people from different walks of life benefited, thus broadening your solution. You might also think of anecdotes that are funny yet relevant to your talk, which can be sprinkled throughout. The bulk of most presentations could probably benefit from a few short, relevant stories.
The argument for 3+:
Now let’s say you have a message that brings together many different layers, such as a scientific breakthrough in China that impacts farmers in the United States. The more widespread the blanket of your content, the more supporting stories you’ll need to color the message and give better context to your main point. Any presentation that doesn’t have a singular focus or narrative already deserves to have as many stories possible peppered through the content. These stories don’t have to be long or complicated. For example, if you want to describe the scientist in China who worked on this breakthrough, you might give her little bit of context by saying something like “because she grew up in one of the most modern cities in the world, she became fascinated by the things outside of it; the natural beauty of farmland and field.”
If your presentation springs from a single story, stick with that narrative throughout. If not, consider using multiple stories to back up your main points and give emotional context to people, places, and things. The most important thing to note here is that we don’t provide an option for “zero” stories. All presentations, absolutely all of them, require the humanization that storytelling offers. If Pixar can make a film about inanimate objects (i.e., Toy Story), then your presentation about the yearly budget can include a story about how you came to those numbers and what the journey looked like along the way.
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