[MUSIC] Welcome back. Now that you've chosen the type of deck that you'll use, in this video we'll discuss how to write your deck like a story. Based on the process so far, you’ve already mind mapped and outlined your deck, but does it truly tell a story? A good way to communicate your point of view is through the use of a business story. You can increase the likelihood that your interaction is memorable by telling a story, rather than simply following a series of bullet points. Illustrate how you encountered the client or team problem and how you propose to resolve it. Engage your audience in conversation about your point of view. This will add credibility to your capacity to help your client solve their issue. If you write your story the right way you won't have to overwhelm your audience with too many slides or too much content. Your deck should have a structure that conveys a storyline. The storyline is developed from what might be called the governing thought, or as we have called it so far in this course, your key message. Regardless of the term, it's the single idea that you want to get across, it's what you want your audience to think or believe. The governing thought should be target to your audience, overarching and synthesizing. A complete idea that is powerful, supportable, and action oriented. Then your storyline is the logical flow of content that reflects the overall theme of your deck. Each area of the content must connect with others, and an overarching, governing thought. Your presentation should have a single governing thought, several supporting messages, and a sufficient amount of evidence. The support you use in your storyline is determined by the type of logic you choose. There are three types of logic you can use to build your storyline. Deductive, Inductive, and Abductive. Choosing the type of logic for your story line that most effectively support your governing thought, and best fits the need of your audience. Deductive logic is based on reasoning. It can be used in a variety of situations, and it's particularly effective with a resistant audience. You begin with a non-controversial statement like, success requires X. You then comment about the client situation like, currently you're not equipped to do X. You finish by sharing the implications of the situation based on your comment. In the case of this example, success requires X, and your audience is not equipped to do X, so the implication is they need to develop the capacity to do X. Here's another example. Your non-controversial statement is, you don't have a marketing plan specifically tailored to Asian countries. Your comment on that situation is, Asia represents 80% of global growth opportunities. You're telling your audience, hey, your focus isn't currently in the right place. So your logical conclusion is, therefore, in order to capitalize on these opportunities, you need a marketing plan tailored to these countries. A deductive argument is effective with audiences that do not understand the content or are resistant. It demonstrates that no other avenue will work, and presents all conclusions and recommendations at the same time. It is generally easier to construct a sound deductive argument than an inductive or abductive argument which we'll discuss in a moment. Deductive reasoning does have some cons however. If the audience disagrees with the situation or the comment the argument will fail to persuade. Deductive reasoning also requires the audience to remember a great deal of information before getting to the conclusion particularly with complex arguments. Now that you've heard about the deductive process, let's discuss the inductive process. Inductive logic is for people who already know the situation. Inductive logic is based on grouping things that are similar in some way and then using them to point to a general conclusion. In this type of logic, each of the supporting arguments are directly connected. It can be an action, it can be a reason, or it can be an example. Depending on your client's situation, list the action, reason, and/or example and then tie it back to the governing thought. Using our earlier example on the need for a marketing plan for Asia, let's say you have five supporting arguments. One, potential value creation in Japan is $500 million. Two, potential value creation in China is $200 million. Three, potential value creation in the rest of Asia is $100 million. Four, potential value creation in the rest of the world is $75 million. And five, you don't have a specific Asian marketing plan. With these supporting arguments, the governing thought is clearly that the company should refocus on Asia as a whole to continue performance improvement. As a reminder, in the deductive logic example, people didn't know where the opportunities were. We needed to lead them to focus on Asia. In this example however, the audience already knows that Asia is an opportunity. We have to provide detail to them on how to optimize it. An inductive argument is often preferred to structure a non-controversial story. It's effective for action-oriented audiences, and it provides details about major points that are easy to remember. If one point is rejected, the remaining points may still persuade the audience. An inductive argument also has its cons. It can be too forceful for some audiences. It can also be more difficult to construct solid arguments than if using a deductive or abductive structure, since missing information may not be apparent. The third type of logic that we'll discuss is the abductive process. Abductive logic is a subcategory of inductive logic and is used for particularly critical and detailed oriented audiences. Inductive logic requires a solid understanding of your audiences interests and possible pushback, all of which you need to address in your supporting arguments. Abductive logic is a matter of shape. Formulating your arguments as critical questions, instead of positive statements. This kind of logic is based on providing breakthrough thinking through a series of tests. Instead of simply presenting the facts, the approach takes the standpoint that the facts are complete. So, you have all the facts to support your governing thought. You are now testing those facts. And with this style of logic you're always questioning. You begin by thinking how do I poke holes in the governing thought? In the example earlier, we were talking about opportunities in Asia. What are some things our audience might push back on? One, there aren't great opportunities. Two, there are better opportunities somewhere else. Or three, we don't even have the capabilities to realize the opportunity. This logic style requires more work and information from the project team. You will have to anticipate the audience's potential objections. And in effect, you're building the slide deck by showing proof or how potential concerns have been considered, and how they lead to your conclusions. Abductive logic is useful for skeptical audiences, or where the topic is controversial. In these situations, the inductive and deductive methods would not be effective. Your primary message is, we have tested our governing thought to measure its completeness. There is nothing better. An abductive argument can be a powerful way to convince the skeptics. Particularly if tasks are used to disprove an accepted position. The logic can easily be tested and proved. Of course, this process always has cons. Some tests may be difficult to prove. For example, the idea that nothing else will work. A gap in logic can surface and cause the whole argument to fail. This type of logic can also be too forceful for some audiences. We've covered a lot today. In summary, your storyline should be built based on the type of logic that best fits the context of your presentation. Deductive logic or starting your story with a true premise in order to prove what else must be true, based on this information, or guarantee conclusion. Inductive logic or starting with known data or information, and using it to explain a theory or generalize conclusion that explains the data, and it's not certain. And Abductive logic, or starting with incomplete data or information and using it to lead to the likeliest possible explanation. Carefully planning your storyline helps to eliminate or minimize gaps and overlaps and to include relevant supporting facts. Thoughtfully identifying the type of logic that best fits your context will help shape your governing thought, support ideas, and evidence you use in your presentation. And ultimately shape a story that is both effective and memorable. In the next video, we'll discuss using the structure and logic to begin drafting your story board in power point. [MUSIC]
