Status Updates From Stories Sell: Storyworthy S...

Slides are not designed to help remember the talk track or story. If someone needs slides to remember what to say, they should not be speaking. Find someone who can perform without using a deck as an ad hoc teleprompter. People should prepare properly for their performance or move aside for someone who can.

As the cinematographer of the story, we must control what our audience sees at all times. We must make active, strategic decisions about what we say, what we hide, when we say things, and how much we reveal.

People may want to be funny all the time, but people who attempt to do this are obnoxious and exhausting. Instead, funny people place humor where it can serve them best.

A great storyteller creates a movie in the mind of the audience.

A story, at its heart, is defined by one of two things: transformation and/or realization. Put in the simplest terms, a story describes or embodies change over time.

Change also requires a shift in culture, and cultural change requires new traditions, ceremonies, celebrations, and the consistent reinforcement of new values. It also requires a leader who will relentlessly insist upon the sustainability and growth of the new culture. If this does not happen, culture will also revert back to the mean.