Orbit Activity 6

Storytelling has been recognized as one of the most, if not the most effective way to convey a message to an audience. The best storytellers put a great deal of work into structuring their story before they deliver it.

Activity 6 – Tell a story with a strong message or moral

Duration: 5-6 mins
Pre-requisites: Completion of Launchpad Program

Aim

To practice the art of designing and delivering a story.

Objectives

  1. To craft a story, which has a beginning, middle and end
  2. To deliver a strong moral or message, as a result of the story
  3. To deliver in an engaging manner using all aspects of presentation, including voice and body

The Why…

Storytelling has been recognized as one of the most, if not the most effective way to convey a message to an audience. Storytelling is not, however, an easy and simple process. The best storytellers put a great deal of work into structuring their story before they deliver it.

This activity is to give you practice at structuring and delivering a story.

The How

Specific guidelines on how to tackle this activity.

The ‘how’ for most people is the biggest hurdle. And that’s to find a story that works. A good way to start is to take a look at a series of books like the “Chicken Soup for the Soul”. You’ll find these in any bookshop including second hand bookshops and of course, libraries.

It’s a good idea to start with a story that’s already written. The aim overall is for you to tell your own story. It doesn’t matter if you initially tell a story that you’ve borrowed from another place. It’s a good way to get you thinking of your own.

With the story, the rule of 3 applies:

  • The setup or the context: Set the context so the audience knows what the story is, and where it’s set.
  • The story itself: Include the elements, introduce the characters, the ‘what happened’
  • The message or the moral: The ‘so what’

Use stories, if you possibly can, that are true and real and involve you or your family or someone you know, without embarrassing or humiliating them.

Tips and traps

Tip: It’s strongly suggested you develop the story on cards with bullet points.

Trap: Don’t write the speech out. By now you will probably have learnt in your Rostrum career that writing a speech out in full is not the way to prepare a good presentation. Preparing in thought bubbles or bullet points gets you to an end result much more quickly and gives you a much more engaging presentation.

Tip: Stories are often more engaging if they have a ‘hero’ and a ‘villain’ (a good guy, and a bad guy) and at the end there’s some sort of resolution.

Trap: Don’t tell stories that everyone knows. The famous starfish story has been done to death.

Tip: Look around for things that happen and become a people watcher. Sit in the chairs in the middle of shopping centers and watch people go by. You’ll find stories fall at your feet if you’re observant. Airports are also a fantastic place to people watch. Become a human sponge for observing
what people do. Don’t be afraid to put two or three incidents together and make them into one story.

Trap: Including too much irrelevant detail. How much do they really need to know to get the AHA at the end of the story?

Tip: There’s an old saying, “never let the truth get in the way of a good story”. Providing no one is harmed or hurt, this is a sensible way to approach the activity, particularly if you’ve been given a longer timeframe. You may need to put one or two stories, or perhaps even three together to make up a whole, but it needs to be a congruent, coherent story at the end.

Guidelines for Program Director:

This can be a very challenging exercise. It’s strongly suggested you give this activity to an experienced member one week, and to a newer member the following week. This way the experienced member models how the activity should be done. Make sure both the newer and the more experienced member knows why you’ve deliberately done this.

For newer members you may ask them to do a story that’s only 3 or 4 minutes in duration. More experienced members can be rostered for 5 or 6 minutes.

Give them some ideas about where they may go looking for ideas. Perhaps if you have a really good storyteller in your club suggest that member talks to them about the activity.