11.4: Enhancing Your Presentation with Support and Style

Learning Outcomes

• Choose the best way to support your ideas
• Make your points memorable

Why Add Support?

Adding support to your presentation enhances credibility, engages your audience, and makes your message more memorable. A well-supported presentation demonstrates thorough preparation and builds trust with your audience. Research-backed statements, compelling stories, and engaging visuals help your audience connect with and understand your message.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Copy and Paste Caption here. (Copyright; author via source)

Gather Research

Researching information for your presentation is important because it helps you gain a deeper understanding of your topic, present credible data, and build credibility. Your audience will trust that your evidence and arguments are well-substantiated.

Where to Find Resources

• Library Databases: Access scholarly articles, books, and research reports via university databases such as JSTOR, ProQuest, and EBSCOhost
• Government and Industry Reports: Use official sources like the U.S. Census Bureau, Pew Research Center, and industry white papers
• Interviews and Surveys: Conduct expert interviews or audience surveys for primary data
• Books and Academic Journals: Reference reliable texts and peer-reviewed journals
• Reputable News Sources: Use sources such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and BBC

Types of Support

The table below outlines different types of support, the best time and place to use them, and specific examples.

Type of Support	Best Time/Place to Use	Example
References	When citing expert opinions or data	"According to the Harvard Business Review, companies using AI for customer service saw a 35% efficiency increase."
Stories	When making abstract ideas relatable	A speaker discussing perseverance shares how J.K. Rowling overcame multiple rejections before publishing Harry Potter.
Examples	When clarifying a concept	Describing how a restaurant sourcing local produce became a community favorite.
Statistics	When providing compelling data	"80% of people remember visuals better than text alone."
Testimony	When leveraging expert or personal insight	A cybersecurity expert explaining the importance of password security.
Analogies	When making complex ideas easier to grasp	"Explaining AI as the brain behind smart assistants, like a digital personal assistant."
Visuals	When simplifying data or emphasizing key points	Using a pie chart to show the breakdown of global energy consumption.
Humor	When making the audience feel comfortable or reinforcing a point	A speaker on workplace communication jokes, "Meetings are where minutes are kept and hours are lost."

What's Pizazz?

Pizazz, an informal word meaning vitality and glamour, can help make your presentation memorable. Audiences enjoy visually appealing additions such as vivid images, relevant videos, creative graphics and well-designed layouts, as well as a dynamic delivery. Avoid relying on cookie-cutter templates and overused visuals. Find free visuals online (https://onlinenetworkofeducators.org/course-cards/diverse-image-resources/) or consider using AI to develop your own. Remember to make your presentation more inclusive; use graphics depicting diverse cultures whenever appropriate and relevant.

The Most Popular Visuals

Using visuals strategically can make complex ideas easier to understand and remember. Popular visuals include

• Slides and Infographics: Summarize key points in a visually engaging way
• Charts and Graphs: Display trends and compare data
• Timelines and Schematics: Show historical progression or system structures
• Videos and Models: Provide dynamic explanations or demonstrate processes
• Whiteboards and Handouts: Enhance interactive discussions
• Figure 4: Native folk art

The Power of Storytelling

In his book about story structure, Robert McKee states, "Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas in the world today."¹ It is one of the most powerful tools in a speaker’s arsenal. It simplifies complex ideas, taps into the audience's emotions, and has lasting impact.

Types of Stories to Add in Business Presentations

Choices abound for the types of stories you might add in your presentation. The list below is not exhaustive. Start with a story or use a story to support a key idea (e.g., a customer who chose your service); end with a cautionary tale (a customer who did not choose your service). You can be creative and use a "split story," starting it in the intro and circling back at the end. The "split story" effectively creates suspense. The audience can't wait for you to close the loop and finish the story.

• Overcoming challenges
• Origin stories
• "Aha" moments
• Personal anecdotes
• Industry case studies
• Team collaborations
• Failures (with lessons learned)
• Historical or factual stories
• Inspirational stories
  • Fictional or hypothetical stories Figure 2.

Stories don't have to be complicated. Short, vivid stories are "sticky"; they stay with your audience. The Story Spine, pictured here, shows a simple organization for many types of stories.

Use Storytelling Structure for a Persuasive Presentation

Innovative business leaders, including Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, and Oprah Winfrey, are famous for creating captivating narratives and sharing personal stories that resonate with audiences. You can use the same storytelling techniques to persuade your listeners.

Insights from Nancy Duarte and Garr Reynolds

• Nancy Duarte (duarte.com): In her book Resonate, Duarte emphasizes structuring presentations like a narrative, with a clear beginning, middle, and end. She advocates for contrasting what is with what could be, creating tension and resolution.
• Garr Reynolds (Presentation Zen): In his book and TEDTalk, Reynolds encourages simplicity, authenticity, and visual storytelling. He recommends reducing text-heavy slides and focusing on images that enhance the story.

The Beginning: Setting the Stage

Start with “What Is”—the current situation. Describe it in a way that resonates with your audience to establish common ground. Once aligned, introduce “What Could Be”—the ideal future state. The contrast between these two creates tension and urgency and makes your presentation compelling.

Example:
Imagine you’re an analyst for a retailer known for exclusive, trend-forward products. Your company’s innovation success is declining, revenue is below expectations, and stock prices have dropped by 30%. The current R&D model relies solely on in-house innovation, but data suggests that incorporating external ideas could drive success.

• What Is: We missed earnings targets due to poor innovation performance.
• What Could Be: External innovation could help us get back on track.

Figure 3

The Middle: Building the Case

Use evidence to highlight the gap between What Is and What Could Be while leading toward your proposed solution.

• What Is: We bear all R&D costs and risks, and our success rate is 25% below target
  • What Could Be: External innovation could cut costs and improve success rates
• What Is: Our slow R&D process makes us miss market trends
  • What Could Be: Licensing external ideas allows faster product launches and market leadership
• What Is: Weak performance puts us at risk of budget cuts and layoffs
  • What Could Be: Open innovation strengthens our position and drives revenue

The End: Inspiring Action

Rather than listing tasks, focus on a compelling Call to Action and a vision of success, or “New Bliss.”

Call to Action:
To regain our market leadership, we must build a culture of open innovation and create partnerships that accelerate product development.

New Bliss:
By embracing external innovation, we strengthen our company’s reputation, increase revenue, and enhance employee stock value and profit-sharing opportunities.

This approach ensures a persuasive, structured, and engaging presentation that motivates your audience to act.

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Resources to Learn More

Heath, Chip, and Dan Heath. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. Random House, 2007.

• Atkinson, Cliff. Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire. Microsoft Press, 2018.
• Duarte, Nancy. Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences. Wiley, 2010.
• McKee, Robert. Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting. Regan Books, 1997.
• Reynolds, Garr. Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery. New Riders, 2008.

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Contributions and Attributions

CC licensed content, Original

• Making a Presentation for a Meeting. Authored by: Nina Burokas. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution
• Persuasive storytelling graphic. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution
• Supporting Your Presentation. Authored by: Rae Ann Ianniello. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution
• Atkinson, Cliff. Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, 2018.
• Duarte, Nancy. Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2010.
• Heath, Chip, and Dan Heath. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. New York: Random House, 2007.
• Reynolds, Garr. Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery. Berkeley, CA: New Riders, 2008.

• Figure 1: Ianniello, R. The 5 Step Process
• Figure 2: Adams, K. The Story Spine. https://sketchplanations.com/the-story-spine
• Figure 3: Persuasive storytelling graphic. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution