Anecdote-based Communication (ABC)

Anecdote-based communication is a concept for now – the time-poor teenies. Click through the slides for a quick tutorial and then give it a whirl!

See Wolves, Rabbits, Greyhounds and Mick McCarthy, To ABC or not to ABC, Phil Brown takes it to the bridge , Norwegian Sam Taylor-Wood and Santa Cause for further examples.

For more general advice on improving your presentations, try Global Specifics.

Easy as ABC!

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Flexible communications

• You can use anecdotes in a variety of formal and informal situations
• They can further your objectives to persuade or inform
• Whatever your situation, link the point of your story to your message

Highly memorable ways to get your point over

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The five elements

1. Story – shaft of the arrow – logical, easy to recall
2. People – the flight – what gives it wings
3. Point – what you want people to understand
4. Emotion – the feelings they get from your story
5. Twist – unexpected turn of events – a punchline

Outer, Inner and Bulls-eye

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Spaghetti Western

• An expert (2) was explaining how he selected stocks to invest in. He described how he identified the good stocks.
• He told how he avoided the bad ones, and finally he talked about how he sold the good ones before they turned ugly (1)
• This, he concluded, was the “Spaghetti Western” approach to investing, involving as it did the Good, the Bad and the Ugly (3)

Memorable story, but no emotion or twist

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Elvis on the moon

You probably know that the odds of winning the jackpot in the National Lottery are 14 million to one.

But did you know that William Hill (2) the bookmakers gave odds of 11 million to one that Elvis Presley (2) was alive and well and living on the moon? (4)

Next time you buy a lottery ticket, imagine the King, in his rhinestone suit, sitting in a crater singing “Are you lonesome tonight” (1)

And realise you’re unlikely to win millions (3)

Memorable story with a twist, but no emotion

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Key question

A man sits down to dine with his young daughter. (2) & (4) If I eat all my dinner, she says, can I have an ice-cream?  Maybe, her father replies.

Daddy, she asks, how can I turn “maybe” to “yes”? (1)

Darling, he says, you just did. (5)

Sometimes in life we are closer to success than we think (3)

Memorable story with emotion and a twist

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Feeling lucky?

Don’t leave your anecdotes to chance – include as many of the five elements as you can

A long, sharp, feathered arrow pierces your blood-red beating heart.

Whoosh!

Oh, its just your tattoo…

All bullseyes, no bullshit!

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