The Mindset Shift I Teach at Harvard to Create Captivating Presentations

There’s a big difference between a person delivering a PowerPoint and someone who’s telling a story. Storytellers captivate and engage audiences. Presenters put people to sleep with boring, confusing, and convoluted slide decks. 

Be a storyteller, not a presenter. 

That’s the advice I give to entrepreneurs and business leaders in my Harvard classes on 

communication skills. The first question they always ask is: “Does that mean we avoid using PowerPoint?” Absolutely not. You can and should use PowerPoint and other graphic design tools to complement your story, but you’ll be far more effective if you build the story first. 

It might sound like a subtle shift, but once you adopt the mindset of a storyteller, the presentation your audience sees will change for the better. 

Storytellers storyboard. Presenters build slides. 

Most people have access to new and cool presentation tools such as AI-generated animations, sleek graphics, and even new PowerPoint features like “designer” that make it easier than ever to generate design ideas. Although the tools are great and will help build better looking slides, they won’t necessarily make your presentations memorable. 

While it’s tempting to open PowerPoint and start dropping in slides and inserting graphics, the most effective speakers do something different: They storyboard first. Storyboarding simply means laying out the flow of your message before you touch the software. Think of yourself as a movie director who sketches out the scenes before picking up a camera.   

One of my favorite photos that I show in class is a picture of me and SanDisk founder and CEO Eli Harari standing in front of a whiteboard. We were sketching out ideas and creating the flow of the presentation that senior executives would deliver at the company’s annual analyst meeting. Once we could see the big picture and identify key messages, we began to invite designers and creators into the meetings to help us visualize the ideas. While most people rush to open PowerPoint. Great communicators reach for a pen. 

Storytellers follow structure. Presenters wing it. 

The reason most audiences find PowerPoints boring is because they lack structure. Presenters build PowerPoint decks while storytellers build arcs. An arc is a journey taken by a character in a book or movie. Think about the arc you want your presentation to take. 

For example, a simple storytelling structure used in nearly every Hollywood movie is the three-act play. Act 1 is the set-up where the audience gets to know the characters, their world, and what they hope to achieve. Act 2 is the challenge the characters and heroes face. Lastly, Act 3 is the resolution where everything gets wrapped up in a bow. 

A good business presentation follows a similar arc: 

• They use Act 1 to describe the world as it exists today for potential customers and prospects. 
• Then, in Act 2, they define the problems people face in navigating the world as it exists. 
• Act 3 offers a solution to the problems and a clear call to action. 

Presenters deliver information. Storytellers guide their audience on a journey. 

Storytellers rehearse. Presenters read. 

One of the biggest differences between an average presentation and a truly memorable one happens before anyone steps on stage. Presenters spend their final tweaking slides, adjusting fonts, inserting charts, adding more text and data. Storytellers, on the other hand, spend more time rehearsing for the performance, their opportunity to share their ideas on stage. 

If you don’t internalize the message you want to convey, you’ll be forced to read from slides or the notes you’ve written on your smartphone. You’ll have missed the chance to move people, to connect with your audience face-to-face and eye-to-eye. Presenters read to the audience. Storytellers speak to the audience, and they can feel the difference. 

PowerPoint isn’t the enemy. The problem is starting with slides instead of a story. Don’t be the person who delivers a presentation. Be the person who tells a story people will remember.