Best Meal Story: A Public Speaking and Storytelling Exercise

Description lists details; story creates a relationship

A description tells us what was on the table. A story tells us who was there, what changed and why the moment remained important. The same distinction matters in professional communication.

A project update can list milestones and risks. A short story can show the moment a customer, colleague or team encountered the problem those milestones are intended to solve.

The story does not replace the evidence. It creates a frame that helps the audience understand which evidence matters and what is at stake.

Data gives a claim weight. Story gives the audience a reason to carry it.

The Best Meal exercise reveals where meaning lives

Bob Kulhan presents a simple storytelling assignment on print pages 72 and 73 of Getting to Yes And: tell the story of the best meal you ever ate.

The instruction is not to describe the most impressive food. The memorable material often comes from the people, place, anticipation, surprise or feeling around the meal. A simple sandwich connected to somebody important may carry more meaning than an elaborate menu.

Kulhan uses the exercise in a discussion of personal presence and influence. The listener responds not only to the facts, but to the speaker's commitment, pacing, gestures, language and emotion.

Presence is not theatrical decoration

A speaker does not need to perform excitement or turn every update into a dramatic monologue. Audiences notice when emotion is added only to make material sound important.

Useful presence comes from knowing why the story matters to you and to the people listening. Specific detail supports that connection: one decision, one reaction, one obstacle or one moment where the expected path changed.

The goal is congruence. The words, pace and emphasis should support the same meaning rather than compete for attention.

A workplace story still needs a purpose

Before telling a story in a meeting or presentation, ask what work it performs. Does it clarify the problem, make an impact visible, help people remember a decision or invite action?

Then keep only the details that serve that purpose. A useful structure is situation, change and meaning: where were we, what happened and what should the audience understand now?

Confidentiality also matters. Use fictionalised or approved examples when a real story contains customer, employee, commercial or project information that should not be shared.

Practise the same story at two lengths

The two minute version gives the speaker room to discover what they care about. The sixty second version forces a choice about what the audience truly needs.

A listener can help by naming the exact moment where attention increased. It may be an image, a relationship, a change of pace or a sentence that revealed why the event mattered.

The speaker then transfers that learning to a professional topic. The aim is not to copy the meal story. It is to recognise the structure that turned a list of details into something another person could follow and remember.