Storytelling and Presentation Skills

Module 1: Storytelling as a Professional Communication Skill

Turning Information into Meaning

Objective

To understand how storytelling improves professional communication and how it helps audiences understand, remember, and act on ideas.

Practitioner Focus

Professionals often have good information but struggle to make it memorable or persuasive. This module helps participants move from simply presenting facts to shaping a clear message that connects with the audience.

Key Topics

• Why stories work in professional settings.
• How storytelling improves attention, trust, memory, and decision-making.
• The difference between information, explanation, and narrative.
• Core story elements: context, character, challenge, choice, consequence, and resolution.
• Storytelling in business: leadership messages, pitches, client presentations, reports, and change communication.
• Simple storytelling frameworks for professional use:
  • Situation, Challenge, Action, Result.
  • Problem, Insight, Solution, Impact.
  • Before, Turning Point, After.
  • Freytag’s Pyramid and the Hero’s Journey adapted for business.

Practical Activities

• Participants share a short professional story and receive feedback on clarity, relevance, and impact.
• Group analysis of a strong business presentation or TED-style talk to identify story structure, audience connection, and persuasion techniques.
• Participants identify one real communication challenge they will work on during the course.

Participant Output

Professional Story Opportunity Map
A short list of real workplace situations where storytelling could improve communication, influence, or engagement.

Module 2: Crafting a Narrative for Maximum Impact

Designing the Message Around the Audience

Objective

To help participants structure a professional story that is relevant, persuasive, and aligned with the audience’s needs.

Practitioner Focus

A strong story is not just interesting; it must serve a professional purpose. Participants learn how to clarify what they want the audience to think, feel, understand, or do.

Key Topics

• Defining the purpose of a professional story.
• Identifying the audience: needs, concerns, expectations, resistance, and decision criteria.
• Crafting the core message: what should the audience remember?
• Structuring a narrative for influence:
  • Opening hook.
  • Problem or opportunity.
  • Evidence and insight.
  • Recommendation or solution.
  • Action or next step.
• Adapting stories for different audiences, roles, seniority levels, and cultural contexts.
• Using emotion appropriately in professional communication.
• Integrating data, evidence, and examples without losing the story.
• Avoiding common mistakes: too much detail, weak opening, unclear point, no call to action.

Practical Activities

• Participants outline a story connected to a real work challenge, such as a proposal, pitch, project update, change message, or leadership communication.
• Peer review of story outlines using a structured feedback checklist.
• Participants refine their story to improve clarity, relevance, and audience impact.

Participant Output

Professional Narrative Blueprint
A structured outline of the participant’s own professional story, including audience, core message, evidence, emotional hook, and desired action.

Module 3: Designing and Delivering Strong Presentations

Visual, Verbal, and Physical Impact

Objective

To develop practical presentation skills that help participants communicate their story clearly, confidently, and professionally.

Practitioner Focus

Even a strong story can fail if the delivery is unclear or the slides are overloaded. This module helps participants design simple, persuasive visuals and deliver their message with presence.

Key Topics

• Slide design principles: simplicity, clarity, contrast, and visual hierarchy.
• Turning data into insight: charts, headlines, and key messages.
• Avoiding slide overload and text-heavy presentations.
• Using metaphors, analogies, visuals, and examples to explain complex ideas.
• Opening and closing a presentation strongly.
• Voice techniques: pace, pause, emphasis, tone, and clarity.
• Body language: posture, eye contact, movement, and gestures.
• Managing nerves and maintaining confidence.
• Timing and rehearsal techniques.

Practical Activities

• Participants redesign one slide or communication visual to make the message clearer and more audience-focused.
• Participants deliver a short section of their presentation, focusing on voice, body language, and clarity.
• Peer and instructor feedback on delivery strengths and improvement areas.

Participant Output

Presentation Delivery Improvement Plan
A practical plan identifying what the participant needs to improve in slide design, voice, body language, timing, and confidence.

Module 4: Interactive Storytelling and Audience Engagement

Managing Attention, Questions, and Real-Time Reactions

Objective

To help participants engage audiences actively and adapt their communication when facing questions, skepticism, interruptions, or unexpected reactions.

Practitioner Focus

Professional communication is rarely one-way. Managers and professionals need to read the room, handle questions, address resistance, and keep the audience engaged without losing control of the message.

Key Topics

• Techniques for audience engagement: questions, short exercises, reflection prompts, polls, examples, and humor.
• Reading the room: attention, confusion, resistance, agreement, and energy levels.
• Adapting the story in real time without losing structure.
• Handling difficult questions professionally.
• Responding to skepticism and objections.
• Managing interruptions and dominant audience members.
• Turning Q&A into a continuation of the story.
• Maintaining credibility under pressure.

Practical Activities

• Role-play scenarios where participants handle interruptions, skeptical questions, unclear audience reactions, or challenging stakeholders.
• Live Q&A simulation based on participants’ own presentation topics.
• Participants practice bridging techniques to answer questions while returning to the core message.

Participant Output

Audience Engagement and Q&A Plan
A practical guide for engaging the audience, anticipating difficult questions, and responding confidently.

Module 5: Final Professional Story Presentation

Bringing the Message, Story, Visuals, and Delivery Together

Objective

To integrate all course skills into a polished professional presentation and receive structured feedback.

Practitioner Focus

Participants apply storytelling, audience analysis, slide design, delivery, and interaction techniques to a real professional communication scenario.

Key Topics

• Rehearsal techniques for professional presentations.
• Final checks for message clarity, story flow, visual quality, and audience relevance.
• Managing nerves before and during delivery.
• Using feedback to improve performance.
• Applying storytelling across formats:
  • Business pitches.
  • Client presentations.
  • Project updates.
  • Reports.
  • Leadership messages.
  • Change communication.
  • Speeches and panels.

Practical Activities

• Participants deliver a final presentation using their professional story.
• Peers and instructors provide structured feedback on message, story, visuals, delivery, and audience engagement.
• Participants reflect on their strengths, improvement areas, and next steps.

Participant Output

Polished Professional Story Presentation
A refined presentation, pitch, or communication message that participants can apply in their own work.

Final Course Deliverables

By the end of the course, each participant will have developed a practical Storytelling and Presentation Toolkit, including:

1. Professional Story Opportunity Map
2. Professional Narrative Blueprint
3. Improved Presentation Slide or Visual
4. Presentation Delivery Improvement Plan
5. Audience Engagement and Q&A Plan
6. Polished Final Professional Story Presentation

Why Prof. Dr. Bert Wolfs Is the Ideal Trainer for the Storytelling and Presentation Skills Workshop

Prof. Dr. Bert Wolfs brings a rare combination of academic rigor and applied facilitation experience to critical thinking work in the age of AI. As the Academic Dean of SBS Swiss Business School and as a corporate workshop instructor — including "Diplomatic-Corporate Communication" and "Advanced Storytelling for Strategic Influence" — he has a proven track record of translating dense theoretical frameworks into practical, high-stakes communication skills for professional audiences.

This same capacity — grounding abstract cognitive and behavioral models in tools people can actually use under pressure — is exactly what a "Critical Thinking With and Without AI" workshop demands. Participants need to leave not with a lecture on AI risk, but with a working mental model for when to trust their own reasoning, when to lean on AI, and how to distinguish between them. Dr. Wolfs's facilitation style, built on rigorously sourced material and tested corporate delivery, is suited to exactly that kind of applied, decision-relevant teaching. These are hands-on classes with immediate ROI!

Learn more about Prof. Dr. Bert Wolfs

Registration Fee: CHF 150 (part of the overall course fee). This fee is non-refundable if the participant cannot attend.

Refund Policy:

• The course fee is invoiced 3 months prior to the course start.
• 100% refund if canceled 4 weeks or more before the course start.
• 30% refund if canceled 2 weeks before the course start.
• No refund if canceled less than 2 weeks before the course start.