Stories That Move Mountains: Storytelling and Visual Design for Persuasive Presentations

Learn how to use stories and visuals to make top–notch presentations 

It′s called CAST (Content, Audience, Story, & Tell) and it′s been a quiet success, until now. Developed over a twelve year period as a presentation method to help Enterprise Architects, it was adopted by Microsoft Enterprise Architecture teams and filtered from IT managers to Sales, and beyond to major organizations around the world. Now, thanks to this unique book from an expert author team that includes two Microsoft presentation experts, you can learn how to use this amazing process to create and make high–impact presentations in your own organization.

The book helps you build complete visual stories, step by step, by using the CAST method to first create a Story Map and from there, a compelling presentation. It includes sample Story Maps, templates, practical success stories, and more. You′ll discover how to go beyond PowerPoint slides to create presentations that influence your peers and effect change.

• Explains the secrets of making presentations and effecting change using CAST to create Story Maps and from there, high–impact and visual presentations that tell a story
• Covers how to apply a range of techniques and what the results look like, using screenshots of presentations, one page hand outs, and basic delivery with whiteboards
• Coauthored by Microsoft experts and a visual design guru who have years of experience training professionals in these methods
• Includes sample Story Maps, templates, practical success stories, and more 

Learn how to sell your ideas and trigger change in your company with Stories That Move Mountains: Storytelling and Visual Design for Persuasive Presentations.

Martin Sykes is a leader in the Enterprise Strategy business at Microsoft Services. The CAST process and Visual Story Map has evolved over 12 years from a personal quest to improve his own communications, to a technique delivered at international conferences, used in workshops with customers in the public and private sectors around the world, and training for people in the Microsoft organization.

A. Nicklas Malik is an enterprise strategy architect for Microsoft in the United States and a well-respected leader, speaker, and writer in the field of Enterprise Architecture. Key to his success has been the use of visual stories, a technique he learned from Martin's early training sessions. Nick has used the CAST process in settings ranging from founding a small business to influencing corporate executives.

Mark D. West is a graphic designer and educator, with experience developing successful training and graphic design solutions for retail and IT-based clients in the US Pacific Northwest (including Boeing and Microsoft) over the last 15 years. Numerous design colleges and IT-based clients have benefited from his expertise in design to support organizational effectiveness, learning, and results that stick.