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

Creating a Power Map

Power follows the golden rule: The person with the gold makes the rules.

At the start of this chapter, we talked about focusing on the right people in the audience. This focus starts with the people who have the power to make the decision or the change happen. Although not always true, the person with the funds to make the change happen often has the final decision. But money isn't the only source of power. In families, interest groups, corporations and government, very few changes are really made by a democratic process where everyone has an equal say.

The real power is often invisible, with little relation to the title on the office door, the position on the organizational chart, or the elder on the family tree. The real power also changes regularly, and may differ depending on the decision to be made. You need to understand who has power, and what kind of power it is. This understanding will help you structure the story to fit the influence styles required for different types of power, and it will also be very important when planning the delivery of the story (which you find out about in Chapter 13).

As you gather information, you can build a power map to identify who has power to make a decision, to influence the decision, to enable the change to happen, to lead others, or to block the decision. You should also identify any potential members of the audience who you do not want to support your position, because if they are supporters, others will automatically ...