The Hero's journey

We all love stories, since the days of cave drawings and camp fires to today's strategy presentations, the emotional charge of the tale is what we want to experience. Decisions are taken by the emotional limbic system in the brain, decisions require emotion. This is how you present a story like a Hollywood screen-writer:
Photo by swanksalot Flickr CC

The four acts of adventure

Nancy Duarte has recently published a new book called Resonate, one of her concepts is the idea of the hero's journey. She builds on an analysis by Christopher Vogler in the The Writer's Journey, the big idea is that a presentation should be like a screen-play divided into parts and following the heroes progress through four phases:

1. Presentation of the hero in the "ordinary world", a call to adventure - We first meet the hero in everyday settings, but something inspires change, there is a call to action. The unwilling hero is reluctantly overcoming the resistance to change and starts the journey into a new world.


2. The hero enters the "special world" and encounters tests, allies and enemies - After the transition into the special world, the hero finds a new strength, a new curiosity and motivation. Time and time again, the hero must overcome difficult situations and with the help of new friends overcome the bad guys.


3. The hero finds the treasure and fights the final battle - In the most remote cave, the hero finds the treasure, the elixir with the power to heal and transform. One last battle must be fought before the voyage back to the ordinary world can begin.


4. Returning to the "ordinary world" - The hero is transformed by the experience and the world becomes a better place when the elixir is applied

Good for e-Learning and public speaking?

I find it interesting that Dr. Michael W. Allen specified the four phases of Context, Challenge, Activity and Feedback as ideal for e-Learning, to me they are very similar to Duarte's four phases.

Yet another way of classifying the different stages is that it all begins with a presentation of a situation followed by a complication, a resolution and ends with an example. This is the S.Co.R.E system developed in Advanced Presentations by Design: Creating Communication that Drives Action, by Dr. Andrew Abela.

Returning to the ordinary world

To use the structure of an adventure film can help bring action to your proposals. To see your listeners as the heroes, to help them along their journey, to supply them with a magic potion that will solve their problems is great help in overcoming the resistance to change.

To guide a company through the highest rate of change possible can be seen as the hallmark of the great leader, maybe storytelling is the elixir necessary? What do you think?