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Storytelling that works to explain storytelling A human experience is a flawed experience. Make yourself relatable to the audience by describing a time when you didn’t have your business plan figured out, or perhaps a time that you’ve struggled with in the past.
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In your own presentations, show vulnerability. It makes her a more human narrator, and also adds humor to the story in a way that helps the audience feel like she is a close friend, not merely an lecturer. By opening with her own admission in the tale about Fide and his family’s poverty, she opens herself to the criticism of this talk. We’ve analyzed her talk for some of its strongest aspects, and have compiled the top three features of “The Danger of a Single Story” which make it so memorable.Īfter you watch the video for yourself, scroll down for a few takeaways that you can apply in your own presentations, or perhaps in your own eventual TED talk.Ĭhimamanda’s purpose is not to scold her audience for a lack of knowledge, but rather to explain that these misunderstandings and limited perspective are universal. There are so many lessons from this TED talk for presenters who aspire to capture some of her magic.
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One of the most popular “must watch” TED talks that appears on nearly every list out there is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story.” Combing humor and a fresh cultural perspective that many of us have not had the privilege to hear, she broadens our world in under 20 minutes and delivers a beautiful talk that still motivates viewers today. They make one story become the only story.” -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie “ The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.
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