Most of us use dialogue quite naturally when we are telling our friends and families interesting stores about what happened in our day. Many great humorous stories are told in a dialogue format. But the first thing most business presenters do is to strip the dialogue out of presentations because they think it is somehow not "professional" or "businesslike." Nothing could be further from the truth. Of course it is possible to say things that are unprofessional during a presentation, but that is a function of what you are saying, not because you said it in an interesting manner.
When you tell a story using dialogue, several positive things occur all at once:
By introducing another character, you make your story more interesting.
Speaking in dialogue takes you away from the position of a God-like narrator from above and puts you down on the ground in a non-abstract position for your audience.
When you say the words that someone else said to you, you change the tone of your voice. This makes you less monotonous to listen to.
When you insert dialog, you naturally pause in-between characters. This pausing makes you sound more conversational and more interesting.
With dialog, you might even slightly mimic the other person's tone of voice, thus providing more sound variety for your audience.
By using dialog, you are by definition, making your presentation more conversational, less abstract, and therefore easier to follow for your audience.
By using dialog, you are necessarily slowing down the delivery of new facts to your audience, thus giving them a chance to catch up and absorb your most important points.
Of course it is possible to give a good presentation without using stores with dialog, but you are making it much harder on yourself if you try. All great speakers sprinkle dialogue throughout their presentations, no matter how complex, difficult or technical the subject matter. All lousy, boring speakers studiously avoid the use of dialogue.
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Watch Joel Osteen speak effectively using the third person. This is a complex technique, but when done well can be effective.
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