Here’s a way to test the ability of stories to teach — at least compared to PowerPoint presentations.
Writing in Newsday, Patricia Kitchen told of the technique of Manhattan-based organizational consultant Ben Dattner that “vividly illustrate[s] how stories are memorable and PowerPoint is forgettable.”
Writes Kitchen:
Dattner asks his master’s-level classes at New York University to put away their notes following team presentations and call out details they remember from the slides. The students are often shocked at how few bullet points they can summarize after listening for 20 minutes – usually around 5 percent of the PowerPoint content,” he says. “However, students generally remember about half of the stories or anecdotes in the presentation.”
Try it yourself or with students/audience members the next time you’re in a situation in which you can compare PowerPoint-heavy presentations with talks that are anecdote-rich.