Findings and Discussion

Findings
Nancy Duarte, a communication expert, who gave a TED Talk on “The secret structure of a great
talk” has helped us to uncover some common structure of a great communicators. By analyzing
her presentation, we are able to list three major factors that are identified as an essential
ingredient of an impactful presentation.
First of all, being a presenter, it is very important for you to know who your audiences are.
Speaker believes that we people have a power to change the world when we communicate
effectively through them. And changing the world is not an easy task. For this, ideas need to be
spread among the people. The success or failure of the presentation largely depends on who your
audiences are. Making people adopt your idea means that they may have to abandon a belief they
hold as true and that’s a very challenging task. So, as a presenter, it is necessary for you to take
time and think through who the audiences are and should develop all your materials from the
place of empathy towards them. It has been found that most of the presenters are involved in
presenting their own narrow perspective. But if the presenter shifts this idea to an audience
centric approach, they will be able to resonate and the audience can feel a deeper connection
with them and their materials.
Secondly, wrapping your content in a story is considered a crucial task for making a presentation
an impactful one. Basically, presentation is a form of communication where you present your
ideas among a group of people. According to Nancy Duarte, every single person has the most
powerful device known to man. And that’s an idea. A single idea from a human mind could be a
flash point for a movement and it can actually rewrite our future. A story serves like the
sugarcoating on the outside of a pill in some way. If we look at pre-literate generations for
thousands of years, the stories would pass down for generation after generation and stays almost
completely intact. Yet a lot of people can’t remember the last presentation they sat through. So,
using the principle of story, the tension and release that happens in a story is what helps a
presenter to persuade the audience towards your idea.
And the third thing is to be able to identify your role in the presentation. As a presenter, it is very
easy to feel that you are the central figure because you are the one talking the most. But in
reality, presenter’s role is that of mentor. Being a presenter, you need to think of it as, “The
speaker needs the audience more than the audience needs the speaker.” Because, if, I have an
idea, I put it out there, but if the audiences don’t grab or hold the idea, then the idea goes
nowhere and eventually it will die. So, presenter needs to think themselves as a mentor and the
audiences as a hero of their idea. And as a mentor, you should be able to give a special tool or
help the audience to get unstuck in some way. That will help you to create the kind of movement
needed to get your idea to spread.