The very first table of contents ever created is attributed to an ancient Latin poet named Quintus Valerius Soranus, who wanted to give readers an easy way to navigate the contents of his lengthy book1. By the time Johannes Gutenberg invented his movable-type printing press in 1440 and began mass-producing books, it became standard practice to organize books around a table of contents.
It was a communication strategy that made it easier for readers to understand and easily access the information contained within. Instead of simply thrusting an enormous volume at someone and expecting them to make sense of it, the publisher could provide a clear and orderly structure of the contents to help readers wrap their heads around the story the author wanted to tell.
You are about to discover another revolutionary ommunication strategy. It’s called Structured Storytelling, and it gives you a more powerful way to create and share presentations. In fact, the table of contents in this very book is organized as a presentation using Structured Storytelling so you can quickly grasp the information shared in the upcoming chapters in a way that is visually interesting and compelling.
It’s a perfect example of what you’re going to do with your presentations, transforming them into a structured story that is far more impactful than your old boring slideshows.
Let’s be frank: presentations can be hell. Most of the time, they’re a pain to put together, a nerve-racking experience to share, and incredibly boring to sit through. The good news is, they don’t have to be that way.
James and Alex have come up with an approach that transforms presentations into compelling brand stories, an approach that gives you a way to organize all of your slide content so your entire global operation is telling the same story consistently across the board.
It’s a revolutionary strategy that is going to change the way you present to clients, customers, and your own teams. And the story of Structured Storytelling begins as soon as you turn the page.
1 Henderson, John. 2002. “Knowing Someone through Their Books: Pliny on Uncle Pliny (‘Epistles’ 3.5).” Classical Philology 97 (3): 275. https://doi.org/10.1086/449587
