resonate!

I recently read Nancy Duarte's latest book, "resonate."

res·o·nate can be defined as:

v. res·o·nat·ed, res·o·nat·ing, res·o·nates

v.intr.

1. To exhibit or produce resonance or resonant effects.

2. To evoke a feeling of shared emotion or belief: "It is a demonology [that] seems to resonate among secular and religious voters alike" (Tamar Jacoby).

3. To correspond closely or harmoniously: "Symbolism matters, especially if the symbols resonate with the larger message" (William Greider).

Just as its actual definition, the book "resonate" aims to evoke a feeling of shared emotion and belief. In its context, resonating can make your presentation's main ideas stick with the audience you're catering to. You want your audience to walk away from your presentation remembering the themes and ideals you had taught them during your presentation. The book "resonate" helps in accomplishing this by providing you with the tools to make more attractive and better planned and created presentations.

The main two take-aways (among many) I had in reading this book include: to 1. Tell Stories, and 2. Use sticky notes (seriously!).

Tell Stories! Use story telling to convey your information to your audience in a creative way. Culturally, most of us remember things through stories, so why not take dry information and turn it into an engaging story that will resonate with your audience. Nancy discusses the utilization of a hero's journey in writing a presentation - in writing a story. The rise and fall and rise of a hero is a universal concept that is accepted by most audiences and would work well for mainly any presentation (Read chapter 2 of "resonate" to learn more about this).

Sticky Notes!
In her book, Nancy discusses the magic of using sticky notes. Think about it. You can pretty much do anything with a sticky note. I've always had loads of them around (and yes, admittedly, have been a sticky note fiend). You can write individual ideas on a sticky note. With several sticky notes of ideas, all you have to do is move them around and arrange them as you best see fit. Now you're building a story with your ideas. Brilliant!

How cool is all of this stuff for presentations? Now think about how cool it can be for elearning! Incorporating stories and better storyboarding into your elearning courses and development processes can only make your elearning better. Just as with lectures and presentations, taking these values to the elearning platform will also cause the resonate affect with you audience.

So, get to it. Use those sticky notes and go tell some stories!

You can buy "resonate" at amazon.com and follow Nancy's Blog here.