Stories: Can mixing diet soda and pop rocks kill you?
- Due Jul 28, 2014 at 9:59pm
- Points 1
- Questions 1
- Time Limit None
Instructions
Our future depends on our ability to sell sustainable energy at least as well as those who sell SUVs and leaf-blowers. Yet, far more resources are devoted to communicating what is best for business than to communicating what is best for society. We have to share facts and scientific information, and we have to do so in a way that is both compelling and relevant to our audience. In this module, students will practice using stories to get people to listen to them.
One man’s death is a tragedy, but a million deaths is a statistic. - Joseph Stalin
If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at one, I will. - Mother Teresa
The cards ain't worth damn if you don't lay 'em down - Grateful Dead
Stories
Reading and Videos
Read the following quotes (from The Naked Presenter by Garr Reynolds)
- Whether it’s making a presentation or playing music, sincerity and connection are more important than tools.
- While there are some things you can learn from performers—such as dealing with nerves and projecting your voice and so on—it is much better to view the art of presentation like a conversation.
- Remove anything that is there only for the benefit of the presenter, and not for the benefit of the audience.
- You are not presenting because you are important, but because the audience is important.
- Presenting your work and your great ideas is no time to be timid. Life is too short.
- Whatever your specific goals may be, your aim is always to influence a change in people, in whatever short time you have with them. In this sense, you are selling.
- Audiences pay attention best when you call on them to use their brains—and even bodies—to do something that taps their natural curiosity and expand their minds.
Read this short article on "Making Presentations that Stick."
Watch this video:
Nancy Duarte on presenting
Watch Steven Colbert on alternative energy. Whether or not you agree with him - it is worth studying how he gets his point across. Also, he points out some of the problems in messaging for energy efficiency.