The Ideal Length Of Any Presentation

No matter what your topic is, the ideal length of any presentation ranges from 10 to 20 minutes at most. 

Take TED. Given that their talks are watched about 2 million times per day, I guess we should ask ourselves what makes them so special. One of the reasons is the length of the talks. Regardless of who you are, TED doesn't allow you to speak for more than 18 minutes. Yes, even Bill Gates has to comply to this rule. 

If you think about it, 18 minutes are more than enough to present your topic. They are enough to change your audience from a state in which they don’t know your topic to a state in which they do. 

TED curator Chris Anderson didn’t choose this time constraint by chance, but rather it was a considered choice. According to him, 

“It [18 minutes] is long enough to be serious and short enough to hold people’s attention. It turns out that this length also works incredibly well online. It’s the length of a coffee break. So, you watch a great talk, and forward the link to two or three people. It can go viral, very easily. The 18-minute length also works much like the way Twitter forces people to be disciplined in what they write. By forcing speakers who are used to going on for 45 minutes to bring it down to 18, you get them to really think about what they want to say. What is the key point they want to communicate? It has a clarifying effect. It brings discipline.”   

What is the key point you want to communicate? That’s the question you should always be asking yourself before presenting. You need to make tough decisions about what to include and what to leave out. But if you do this exercise, you can be sure you’ll present only what matters to your audience and leave the rest out. When you feel tempted to include everything, remember that if everything is important, nothing is important. 
  

“If everything is important, 

nothing is important.” 

Just like Twitter “forces people to be disciplined in what they write”, the 18-minute rule forces people to be disciplined in what they say. Creativity thrives under constraints. Therefore, limiting the length of your speech to 18 minutes or less promotes creativity. 

I know what you’re thinking. I’m not convinced — how can I say everything I need to say in just 18 minutes? Okay, then consider the following:

• John F. Kennedy delivered one of the most famous inaugural addresses in U.S. history in 15 minutes
• Steve Jobs delivered one of the most famous commencement addresses ever in 15 minutes 
• Martin Luther King gave the “I Have a Dream” speech in 17 minutes

Here we are talking about speeches that made history. People made history in 15 minutes. 

Still not convinced? Okay. David Christian narrated the complete history of our world in 18 minutes. If you analyze his speech, he actually took his audience on a 13.7 billion year journey—from the Big Bang to us humans—in about 12 minutes. 12 minutes to go through 13.7 billion years of history. 

Hope I've convinced you now.

IMAGE: Martin L. King via NewNowNext 

Two Super Easy Ways To Make Numbers Entertaining

This post is about a problem I see with many presentations and a solution to fix it.

Problem
Presentations include too much data. To be more precise, presenters often include numbers and statistics without making them digestible for their audience. How often have you sat looking at slide after slide…after slide…and the only thing you’ve seen were numbers?

The problem, though, is not the numbers themselves. The problem is that numbers are not presented in a way that an audience can relate. 

“Numbers are not presented in a way that an audience can relate.” [Tweet this]

Solution
In order for your audience to understand your data, you need to give them some context. How do you do that? There are two ways.

• Put your data in perspective 
• Tell a story behind your data

(1) Put your data in perspective

I’ve recently stumbled upon a great Forbes article by Carmine Gallo where he explains this technique in detail. I’m going to recap the main points for you. 

He wrote that statistics are hard to remember for two main reasons:

• They are abstract 
• There is often no context around the numbers 

By putting data in perspective, you’ll “turn abstractions into memorable images.” 

Let me give you two examples:

• This one is a personal experience of Carmine. He was meeting with an executive and talked about how to communicate his company’s environmental record, given that they had planted more than two million trees in the past. Instead of just showing this big number, they decided to say, “Two million trees. To put it in perspective, that’s the equivalent of 90 Central Parks.” Two million trees means nothing to many people. But 90 Central Parks is loads of trees. It means a lot! 

• Apple rarely show a statistic without putting it into perspective. For example, when vice president Phil Schiller introduced the new MacBook Pro, instead of saying it was 0.71 inches thick, he said, “It’s thinner than my finger.” 

The point is that you shouldn't let your audience figure out what your numbers mean. Give them some context. Context will make any number relatable. 

“Don't let your audience figure out what your numbers mean. Give them some context.” [Tweet this]

(2) Tell a story behind your data
Another way to make your audience understand your data is to tell a story behind it. Surprisingly, I haven’t learnt this presentation technique from a communication specialist, but rather, wait for it…a rock star.
In 2013, U2’s Bono delivered a fantastic TED talk: The Good News On Poverty. In this must-watch presentation, Bono always followed statistics with a story that brought the data to life. 

Here’s an example:

“Since the year 2000, since the turn of the millennium, there are eight million more AIDS patients getting life-saving antiretroviral drugs. Malaria: There are eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa that have their death rates cut by 75 percent. For kids under five, child mortality, kids under five, it’s down by 2.65 million a year. That’s a rate of 7,256 children’s lives saved each day. Wow.”

Let’s be honest, how many details do you remember about what you’ve just read? The mistake most presenters make is they stop at the statistics. Unless you are a rock star presenter, in which case you would say something along those lines:

 “Seven thousand kids a day. Here’s two of them. This is Michael and Benedicta, and they’re alive thanks in large part to Dr. Patricia Asamoah — she’s amazing — and the Global Fund, which all of you financially support, whether you know it or not.”       

Bono showed this slide as he told the story. 

That’s how you bring data to life. As Garr Reynolds recently tweeted: 

No one remembers the data but they remember a personal story. Use real examples from the real world about real people to support the data.

— Garr Reynolds (@presentationzen) June 12, 2015

If you want your audience to grasp and enjoy your numbers, either put them in perspective, or follow them with a story, or do both.   

IMAGE: Bono at TED 2013 via Jim Fruchterman - Flickr 

Interview With Rick Altman, Host Of The Presentation Summit

Rick Altman has a 25-year experience in training and consulting on the whole of the presentation process, from preparation to design and delivery. He is host of The Presentation Summit, an annual conference for presentation professionals held annually. And he is also author of the book Why most PowerPoint presentations suck, and how you can make them better. 

Recently I had the pleasure to interview him and here's a recap of what we discussed about. 

Why do most PowerPoint presentations suck?

Many people would tell you it’s self-evident. I see three main reasons:

1. The tool: PowerPoint is probably the easiest program in the Offie suite to start using. Both my daughters started creating slides where they were 10 years old. And while Microsoft would tell you this is one of its virtues, I would tell you that’s a very bad thing. People declare themselves proficient long before they should. 
2. Design: People are asked to design presentations all the time, but very few have a background in graphic design. Most people don’t even know what the word design means. The result is that slides often act as a barrier between speaker and audience. 
3. Speaking: We are asking people to do this thing that they are scared to death to do: speak in public. 

Combine these three points and that’s why Death by PowerPoint is in everybody’s vocabulary today. 

Can you tell us about The Presentation Summit?

This is our 13th season. For four days we will cover all the facets of the presentation experience, from message crafting to presentation design, software techniques, and delivery. The thing I am most proud of is the way we created a community around this conference. We brought together people who didn’t know where to turn for help with the greatest challenges of giving presentations. Thanks to our Summit, not only have they learnt how to overcome these challenges but they have also made lasting relationships. 

This year you have two big names in the communication world. One is Garr Reynolds. 

Yes, we don’t deserve such good fortune. This will be his 5th time speaking at the conference. He will be speaking from his home in Japan. In the last couple of years we had him speaking at our Guru Session, which starts at 9pm and goes until midnight (middle of Garr’s day in Japan). It’s for those who can’t get enough of this experience. Last year his appearance was wonderful because he understood it was late for us, in fact we had a lot of beer and wine on that evening. He came with no agenda at all and started taking questions. He was hanging out with us. In fact at one point he actually got a beer too. 

What do you like about Garr Reynold’s approach to presentations?

If you look at his work, everything just fits in a magical way. You know that you are in the presence of a brilliant designer when you can’t really explain it. It’s like recognizing fine art, can you describe what it is? Maybe not, but you know it when you see it. I feel that way when I see Garr’s work. His ideas are profoundly simple and he shares them with such an elegance that everybody can relate to.

The other big name is Guy Kawasaki. What is he going to talk about?

He is going to tell us the “10 Things All Presenters Should Do”. From there the sky’s the limit. 

I’m sure one of the 10 things will be his famous 10-20-30 rule. What do you think about it?

It’s so simple as to be almost profound. But it also is quite disruptive. I have clients who are shocked when I tell them the font size should be at least 30 points. As a former venture capitalist, Guy Kawasaki had to sit through so many presentations and that has given him a perspective on this world that's unique. The 10-20-30 rule comes straight out of that. 

What are the 3 things all presenters should do? One tip for preparation, one for design, one for delivery.

• Preparation: You must know your material. People have to understand their narrative and have to practise with their visuals. 

• Design: Separate, separate, separate. There are three tenets to a good presentation: what you say, what you show, and what you give. That is, what you say out loud, what you show on the screen, and what you give to your audience afterwards. Those should be three separate things and each of them should be as good as you can possibly make them. What happens all too often is that the deck you prepared is the only thing you have. You say it, you show it, and you print it. If you can separate out these critical pieces of the presentation experience, you are going to become much better. 

• Delivery. Find your most genuine self. What is it about you that others want to hear about? You can’t fake genuineness and there is no substitute for it. Of course you learn some tactics and strategies to become a better communicator, but you can’t try to become somebody else. 

“There are three tenets to a good presentation: 

what you say, what you show, and what you give.”

In the Summit you'll have a “PowerPoint vs Keynote” session. Do you think the presentation tool makes a difference?

No. Of course there are differences between PowerPoint and Keynote. Each of them enjoys advantages over the other. But the software you use is just a mediocre commodity and should not be the biggest determinant of your success. You can perform good work or bad work with either one. 

(Here is my take on this topic)

You'll also have a Pecha Kucha session. Do you think people can get better at presenting by practising Pecha Kucha?

(Pecha Kucha is a presentation format where the presenter shows 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and she talks along to the images)

Without a doubt, and I have first-hand experience in this. There is a lot of skills involved. First of all, you can’t fake it — you really have to know your stuff. Also, you have to have practised your material enough so that you can anticipate slide transition. And all have to be timed out. Of course you don’t have to be a robot, yet it’s tremendously challenging. 

Data visualization. What are your tips for displaying data effectively? 

Simplify as much as you can. Here's where the software works against you. Who decided that every chart must have a background by default, or the lines going across them, or axes with tick marks? What does any of that contribute to somebody’s understanding of your message? All this weaken our ability to tell a good story. Let’s not forget: we are the presentation, not our slides. So it’s up to us to tell the story behind these numbers. The chart should help us, not take over for us. 

(Here are my data visualization tips)

How do you convince people and companies that the way they have always been making presentations is not effective and that there is a better way?

It’s hard, both in corporate America and all over the world. One thing I do is I show people some before-after slides, so that they can see a slide that’s much more evocative then the junk they have created. Another thing I do is I make them practise with a properly crafted slide which is different from the slide they have been using, which they became addicted to. It helps. Remember, Rome was not built in a day and in the last several years I have seen real improvement. So we need to be patient.  

These are just some of the ideas Rick Altman shared with me. If you want to get more insights, here's the full video.



Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it, share it :)

IMAGE: Rick Altman on Vimeo 

The 5 Best Sites And Blogs on Communication and Design

Here’s a collection of the top web resources with the best content on communication, presentations and design. 

(1) Presentation Zen

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
— Garr Reynolds  

Without doubt, Presentation Zen is the presentation blog. Best-selling author and speaker Garr Reynolds delights the reader with tons of gems on presentation preparation, design and delivery: the three key elements that make a great presentation.   

Content-wise, Presentation Zen is the benchmark all other blogs should be measured against. If you find someone who writes about presentations without knowing Garr Reynolds, do yourself a favour by not listening to him.

@presentationzen

(2) Ethos3

“In 25 years looking at stuff like this, I have never encountered something like this. You guys really know your stuff.” 
— Guy Kawasaki on Ethos3 

Ethos3 is one of the world’s best presentation agencies. They do two things: presentation design and presentation training. His founder—Scott Schwertly—is author of the boook “How to be a Presentation God”. Ethos3’s blog is full of practical tips on how to become a better presenter. 

@Ethos3 

(3) Canva 

“The easiest to use design program in the world.”
— The Webbys 

I wrote about Canva already. Canva is an online service that makes design simple for everyone. What they have is not just a blog, it’s much more than that. It’s a Design School. Here you can find valuable tips on typography, colour, images, and design in general. They also provide great tutorials and teaching materials. On a scale from 1 to 10, the value you get from their articles is about 11.

@canva 

(4) TED

“Ideas worth spreading.”
— TED mantra  

Just in case you don’t know it (I doubt it), TED is an organisation whose aim is to spread great ideas. They do it in the form of short talks (18 minutes or less). It began as a Conference on Technology, Entertainment and Design (hence TED), and now covers any topic.  

TED Talks are viewed by millions of people every day. There must be a reason for that! Here are the three TED talks I like the most.

@TEDTalks

(5) Big Fish Presentations 

“Content is King, but design is its Queen.”
— Big Fish Presentations 

These guys are not as famous as Garr Reynolds or Nancy Duarte, but they also know their stuff. Their blog covers topics from presentation theory and design to public speaking. Definitely worth checking out. 

@BigFishPresCo 

Putting all together

• Speaking.Alltop 

Alltop.com was founded by Guy Kawasaki, hence it’s guarantee for greatness. It’s an aggregator of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic. Which topics? Anything you can think of. Like presentations and public speaking? Check out speaking.alltop.com. More interested in design? There you go: design.alltop.com. It’s that easy. 

@alltop 

• Echo Story

Disclaimer: I created Echo Story

Echo Story is a weekly newsletter of what I find in business, communication and design, and human-interest topics and think is worth sharing. With Echo Story I help people find better content. The idea is similar to Alltop, but it only focuses on the three topics above. Talking about communication and design, if you don’t want to be bothered finding great content yourself, you can simply subscribe to receive the best of the best straight to your inbox. Once a week, for free. 

Here's what you missed last week. Sign up free if you like it: http://eepurl.com/bdIUb9 

If you know other sites and blogs that you think should make the list, please let me know. I’d love to add them to my favourites. 

The Ultimate Guide To Speaking So That People Want To Listen

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 30 seconds 

In this article I'll share with you:

• The ultimate guide to speaking so that people want to listen
• My humble opinion on this topic 
• An example from a personal experience that can teach us something about communication  

Julian Treasure’s ultimate guide to speaking so that people want to listen

In this TED talk, Julian Treasure—a sought-after international speaker—offers up seven things effective communicators must not do and as well as four elements every great speaker should master.

Here are the don’ts:

• Gossip: “We know perfectly well the person gossiping five minutes later will be gossiping about us”, says Julian 
• Judging: “It's very hard to listen to somebody if you know that you're being judged.” 
• Negativity: It’s also very hard to listen to negative people, those who always see the glass half empty 
• Complaining: See above
• Excuses: It’s hard to listen to somebody who never takes responsibility for his own actions, but rather blame others. Worst case is when people blame others for failures and praise themselves for achievements
• Lying: Who likes layers? 
• Dogmatism: “The confusion of facts with opinions.”

And here are the do’s:

• Honesty: Be clear and straight 
• Authenticity: Be yourself  
• Integrity: Be your word 
• Love: Wish them well

Julian’s talk is full of great insights. If you’d like to find out more about his ideas, I do suggest that you watch the video above. He truly knows what he’s talking about. 

My humble opinion  

We are flooded by tips and tricks on how to get better at communicating our ideas. And it’s fine because the power of the spoken word is huge. This is not only relevant to TED speakers or international speakers. It’s valid in business, education, family life, etc. I can’t think of any aspect of our lives where the ability to effectively share one’s ideas is not relevant. However, I also think sometimes we dive into too many details. So I thought I’d do many of you a favour if I narrow the Julian’s list of do’s and don’ts to one main concept. 

The one piece of advice that matters the most is authenticity. None of the Julian’s lessons work if you are not authentic—if you are not yourself. You may be good at not judging, at being positive, you may be honest, but ultimately being yourself is preparatory for all the rest. In Carmine Gallo’s latest book Talk Like TED, I’ve found the best communication lesson ever: “Stay in your lane.” Carmine says we shouldn't pretend to be Ken Robinson, or Steve Jobs, or Hans Rosling. We can (and should) learn from them, but we need to follow our path and become “the best representation of ourselves that we can possibly be.” [Tweet this]  

My personal experience 

A couple of weeks ago I shared on Facebook a photo of my girlfriend which has a lot of meaning for both me and her. A little bit of background. I live in England, she lives in Italy, so you can imagine how rarely we see each other. We’ve recently spent together a nice long weekend in the Venice of the North: the lovely Amsterdam. On our last day we went to the airport and had to say goodbye before the security checks because we were assigned two different gates. Our goodbyes always come with some tears—it’s all inclusive. After an hour, though, she unexpectedly appeared again right on the other side of my gate, so we could see each other for one more minute. I couldn't not share that meaningful moment. 

This photo got about 130 likes. For someone who’s not Guy Kawasaki, it was an all-time record. Why do you think many of my friends liked it? I believe the main reason is that we’ve been authentic. We haven’t been afraid to show who we really are. We shared our story with no barriers. People are naturally drawn to things that are transparent and authentic. 

This is not a lesson in social media, it’s something you can apply anywhere. In your next presentation, in a meeting with your boss, in a job interview, in the relationship with your friends, authenticity is key. Stay in your lane and be the best representation of yourself that you can possibly be.   

IMAGE: TEDxYouth@Manchester via Flickr

John Rauser: How to Present Statistics Without the Agonizing Pain

Does drinking beer make you more attractive to mosquitos? This is the question John Rauser—data scientist at Pinterest—wanted to answer in his presentation Statistics Without the Agonizing Pain at the 2014 Strata Conference in New York.
As counterintuitive as this may seem, the answer to this question can save lives. Malaria is transmitted via mosquitos, so “if you can understand which people are at greatest risk for mosquito bites, you can target your interventions much more accurately and you can do a better job at fighting malaria.”

If you ask around whether drinking beer makes you more attractive to mosquitos, there will be people thinking you are crazy and people thinking it might well be the case. This can be seen as a statistical argument. The way you can solve such problems is through a statistical procedure called sampling distribution. I’m not going to explain you how this works, don’t worry. Even because I wouldn't be able to. But there is something remarkable in the way John Rauser presented the problem.

John Rauser's slide: Analytical approach 
to sampling distribution

He showed that there are two methods you can follow: an analytical approach and a computational one. The former is the traditional, painful method most professors would teach you—a method which is purely based on theory; the latter is more tangible. The analytical approach includes formula after formula; the computational one is more understandable because it shows you the statistical process unfold so that you can understand the meaning behind the formulae. It makes the numbers and statistics meaningful. According to Mr. Rauser, the analytical approach is agonizing because “the idea of a sampling distribution is really hard to understand […] and when it’s presented in pure mathematical formalism […] it’s just hopeless.”
Thanks to his effort to make the complicated simple, the audience could understand his topic at a deep level.

Mr. Rauser’s goal was to convince the non-statisticians in the room that the road to statistical fluency is shorter than they think. To do that, he put a great deal of effort into making a complicated topic easy to understand. He put himself into his audience’s shoes. By no coincidence he used simple visuals that amplified his message. He even showed a few pictures. Have you ever seen a statistician showing pictures during a presentation?

Examples of slides used by John Rauser 

As a bonus, he also closed his talk in a powerful way: “The message that I want to leave you with is this...” Whatever follows gets remembered, because the audience understands you are about to conclude, so they will inevitably pay attention.

Does drinking beer make you more attractive to mosquitos? Now you know how difficult it can be to answer such a question. Yet, the good news is no matter how difficult or technical your topic is, there is always a way to make it easier for your audience to understand. [Tweet this] Whether you are a professor teaching a tough subject, an employee presenting a project to some colleagues, an entrepreneur pitching a world-changing idea to investors or potential clients, present your topic without the agonizing pain. If it's possible to explain the sampling distribution of the test statistics under the null hypothesis in a simple way, anything is.

I'd love to know your thoughts on this article. Let me know in the comments below or meet me over on Google+ or Twitter to join the conversation right now!

IMAGE: John Rauser via Pinterest

3 Presentation Lessons from Singer-Songwriter Caparezza

Last week Italian songster Caparezza performed in London. I was lucky enough to be there to enjoy his show. For those of you who don’t know him, Caparezza is a talented artist from Southern Italy. Everybody knows him for his hair style, but trust me, there is much more than that. I’ve got curly hair as well, but that doesn’t allow me to consider myself an artist.

He is not only a great singer—he is a fantastic performer as well. He knows what to do to create memorable shows. Thanks to his concert, I’ve come to understand there is something in common between a singer and a speaker, even a business speaker. Here are three super serious presentation tips from one of my home country’s craziest singers.     

(1) Focus on how you say it

Caparezza always tries to come up with new ways to communicate his songs’ meaning. It’s not only what you say, but also how you say it. His new album Museica includes a song called Cover. It’s a story that he tells going through some of the most memorable album covers in the history of music—from The Queen’s Innuendo to Bob Marley’s Legend to Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. Instead of just singing, last week he had all of these covers hanging from a whiteboard and showed them one at a time as he was singing. His words were in perfect tune with the “visuals” and that amplified both the song and its meaning.

Lesson for presenters: Content is king, but communication is its queen. [Tweet this] It doesn’t matter what you say unless you communicate it effectively. 
Just as Caparezza used album covers to bring his song to life, you should find ways to amplify your content. Here are three tips:

• Use simple and highly visual slides
• If the presentation is short (10 minutes or less) don’t use slides at all. A nice alternative is to sketch your thoughts on a whiteboard
• Tell stories, not just facts. Use stories to bring your facts and numbers to life. In this Forbes article, Communication Coach Carmine Gallo explains how to present data like a pro using a TED talk by U2’s Bono as an example. 

(2) Have fun

Caparezza is 41, yet he is still a child on stage. He enjoys the gig as much as his fans do. He is artist and audience at the same time. You can see it by simply looking at his smile. It’s authentic. He is not pretending he is having fun—he is really super excited about his show. 

Lesson for presenters: Don’t take yourself (or your topic) too seriously. Even if your topic is businesslike, a bit of humour may help. If you look at the world’s best speakers, they often use humour in their talks. In How Schools Kill Creativity—the most popular TED talk of all time—Educator Sir Ken Robinson made large use of humour to lighten up his speech. According to Carmine Gallo, “humor lowers defences, making your audience more receptive to your message. It also makes you seem more likable, and people are more willing to do business with or support someone they like.”  

(3) Connect with your audience

Caparezza is great at connecting with his fans at a personal level. He even knows some of them—the ever-present ones—by name. Last week he invited Fabio to jump on stage to help him with his performance. He surprised all of us with something that none of us would have expected. 

Lesson for presenters: Your presentation is not a monologue, but rather it’s an opportunity to engage your audience with a conversation. You can ask them questions and encourage them do to the same with you. Who said Q&A must come at the end? Remember, a presentation is a conversation, not a sermon. [Tweet this]     

Lessons are everywhere, as long as you keep your mind open to learning. If you want to master your public speaking skills but you don’t have £500 for a training course, go to a concert, have fun and the skills will come.  

Like what you've just read? Spread the word by sharing this article. 

IMAGES
Album Covers from YouTube
Caparezza at BassFestival via Flickr
Caparezza at Koko London via Facebook 

3 Can't-Miss TED Talks That Will Make You Think, Laugh and Cry

Last week Rio de Janerio hosted TEDGlobal 2014. As always, it was an amazing opportunity to talk about ideas worth spreading. TED Talks have been a great source of inspiration for me over the last years. They made me think, laugh and cry. Following the thrill of this year’s event, I’ve collected for you three of the best presentations in the history of the conference. Seriously, if you haven’t watched them yet, do it now!

Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice (2012)

Human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson reveals the injustice behind America’s justice system. “The US justice system treats you better if you are rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent.” His talk is about humanity, compassion and justice. 

Stevenson received the longest standing ovation in the history of TED. If you ask him what he does to be so persuasive, he would simply tell you “I just tell stories.” Indeed, he spent the first 5 minutes telling a personal story of his grandmother to introduce a key concept: the power of identity. And throughout his talk he told other anecdotes that helped him make a personal connection with the audience.  

When Carmine Gallo asked him about his secret, he said: “If you start with something too esoteric and disconnected from the lives of everyday people, it’s harder for people to engage. I often talk about family members because most of us have family members that we have a relationship to. I talk about kids and people who are vulnerable or struggling. All of those narratives are designed to help understand the issues.” 

Stevenson’s talk is considered to be one of the most persuasive TED talks ever. Trust me, you can’t not watch it.

Why I chose it: it’s the best example of the power of a great story. After his presentation, the audience donated $1 million to his-non profit organisation. That’s the equivalent of $55,000 for every minute he spoke. Who said public speaking doesn't matter?

Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation (2009)

Daniel H. Pink—one of the top business thinkers in the world—makes “an evidence-based case for rethinking how we run our businesses.” In his funny, thought-provoking talk, he reveals the mismatch between what science knows and what business does. Traditional rewards (bonuses, commissions, etc.) are not always as effective as we think. In fact, when it comes to 21st-century tasks—the right-brain, creative, conceptual kind of works—rewards narrow our focus and lead to poorer performance. 

The solution is a new approach built around intrinsic motivation and based on three pillars:

• Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives 
• Mastery: the desire to get better and better at something that matters
• Purpose: the drive to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves 

In a presentation being viewed more than 11 million times, Pink introduces revolutionary business practices that will shape the organisations of the future.

Why I chose it: it challenges conventional wisdom. “Science confirms what we know in our hearts,” Pink said. 

Simon Sinek: Why good leaders make you feel safe (2014)     

Leadership expert Simon Sinek explains what makes a great leader, starting from the innate human necessity to feel safe. According to Sinek, the business world is dangerous—the economy may go through a recession, your competitors will try to steal business from you—and the key to survive is in the environment created by the leader. “If you get the environment right, everyone of us has the capacity to do great things.”

When we feel safe inside our organisation—when we don’t fear our leaders—we are naturally driven by the desire to do remarkable things. 

“When a leader makes the choice to put the safety and lives of the people inside the organisation first, to sacrifice their comforts and sacrifice the tangible results, so that the people remain and feel safe and feel like they belong, remarkable things happen,” Sinek said.

Why I chose it: Sinek shares ideas that inspire. In perfect TED style, his ideas are worth sharing. Head counts vs. heart counts; authority vs leadership. Plus, I love when he goes back to the beginning at the end of his talk. This is to me one of the most powerful ways to close a presentation.

These talks have one element in common: they are all built around a story. Each speaker presented his ideas in a way that was meaningful to the audience. They all thought about how best they could share their message in a way that was worth spreading. They didn’t just inform their audience, they changed them from a state in which they didn’t know or didn’t care about their topics to a state in which they did—from a state in which they didn't believe in their ideas to a state in which they did. And they achieved that through the power of storytelling.

Tell me, what’s your favorite TED talk? 

IMAGE: American Justice via Flickr