Nancy Duarte

@toddmckinnon @okta We love your vision! Great work to you and the team.

At @Okta Showcase, we announced the blueprint for the secure agentic enterprise and showed how Okta for AI Agents helps every organization answer the questions: Where are my agents? What can they connect to? What can they do? Learn more here: okta.ai

If you look at the story structure most movies use, you'll notice that roughly 10% of the time is for the beginning, 10% is for the ending, and 80% is the “messy middle”... which is the part leaders prefer to edit out. Why? Because most of us prefer telling a polished version of our stories: - Here was the challenge. - Here was the solution. - Here was the success. But when we do that, we miss the opportunity to give our audience something to deeply connect with. The messy middle is where the roadblocks show up, where we fall to our knees and question whether we're on the right path after all. It's usually the part that is the least fun for us to talk about... But the most meaningful for the audience to hear. When you share the messy middle, you become relatable. You become human. There’s neuroscience behind this. When someone tells a story, the listener’s brain fires in the same sequence as the speaker’s. You’re not just transferring information, you’re creating a shared experience. And shared experience builds empathy. That doesn’t mean oversharing. It just means acknowledging that the path wasn’t linear and that the struggle was real. Hat tip to Syd Field’s work, who writes about this in his book Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting.

I attended something on March 3rd that I struggled to put into words. Hosted by my friend @aaker at Stanford, it was NOT a typical “AI event.” It was something far more human. She set up tables where crazy-impressive experts sat alongside a handful of students. The experts weren’t there to lecture, but to listen. Each student shared how the past eight weeks had changed them. And you could feel it. You’d expect a Stanford course about AI to teach students how we can produce more. This was about using AI to live better. It was not about productivity gains. She was talking about a beautiful life. A life of discovery, pursuit, health, impact, and savoring. Students each built and published simple tools to support who they were becoming. At the end, Jennifer gave a beautiful talk. She shared student reflections and then brought us to the edge of life itself. Because when people reflect on their lives, they don’t ask: Did I optimize enough? No. They ask themselves: -Did I live authentically? -Did I live boldly? -Did I stay connected to the people I love? That’s the frame for this entire course. It’s not “How can AI make us faster?” but “How can AI help us live lives we won’t regret?” While sitting at the table, listening to these students… I realized that if we teach this generation to use AI only to optimize work, we’ve failed them. But if we teach them to use it to expand their imagination and pursue a meaningful life… We might change everything. Jennifer, what you’ve built is rare. These students will never be the same. And honestly… neither will I.

@levie Agree @levie but enterprises need services too. AI-ready templates rebuilt, workflows and strong agent ecosystems. it's all just starting.

We dramatically underestimate how much change management it is going to take to automate most knowledge worker tasks. Between data being in legacy environments or systems or without good APIs, context missing for doing the task, teams that are less technical, and other factors, there’s still a lot of work to drive real AI transformation in an enterprise. This is actually great news if you’re building right now because the opportunity is to build the software bridges to make this easier, or to build new services firms to help with this change management. Opportunity is all around for those looking.

@Copilot We're building some crazy productive agentic flows in Copilot and i'm excited for Task and Cowork. Bring it on!!!

@nancyduarte What's the first thing you'll use Tasks for? 👀

We love to hear it! We built Copilot Tasks for everyone and early feedback from people like you helps shape where Tasks goes next.

After decades of working with executives in board discussions, strategy offsites, and other high stakes moments where real decisions are on the line, I’ve noticed a consistent pattern. The leaders in these rooms are often some of the strongest communicators in their organizations, yet pressure has a way of revealing how each person processes complexity and the unintended signals they send when the stakes are high. My latest @mitsmr article offers a way to self diagnose those patterns, understand why you may be losing the room, and learn how to adjust before alignment starts to slip. sloanreview.mit.edu/article/why-le…

@sriramk @stevesi Thanks for the hard work @sriramk

On a personal note : I’m very proud of what we have done today in establishing what are going to be some very key issues and rules of the road for AI in America. This was a long process with many people involved that deserve credit ( including many who don’t always agree on everything ) and vigorous discussions but one I’m very glad we had.

@pmarca Loved this piece @pmarca

Alpha!

Huge thanks to @OliverAust_ for having me on the Speak Like a CEO podcast! I had so much fun talking about communicating as a leader and more. I hope you enjoy the episode. Watch the full episode here: youtu.be/C5lB1rrO5-A?si…

Can’t wait! Everything @AdamMGrant writes changes me!

Celebrating a big moment! Two people on my team stepped onto the @TEDTalks Conferences stage. This course changed my life! Maegan Stephens and Nicole Lowenbraun spent three years researching what separates great listeners at work from everyone else. They discovered that most leaders aren’t actually “poor” listeners…they simply don’t know how to listen in a way that meets what the other person needs. That discovery led to the creation of the Adaptive Listening® framework and course, which uncovers four listening modes to help you change how you show up in almost every conversation at work. So, if you’ve ever walked out of a meeting wondering why nothing got resolved, or why the same conflict keeps resurfacing on your team, this talk is worth 15 minutes of your time. go.ted.com/maeganandnicole

All leaders are navigating uncertainty. I used to see a direction clearly about 18 months out… but now the path disappears and the horizon line blurs in hours. Communicating through the fog is like carrying a torch. The days of having a master plan etched in stone are gone. What’s required is to shed just enough light for the next few steps so others feel safe following you. Leading in the era of AI is disorienting. Even the most grizzled and seasoned executives feel like they’re groping in the dark. It took me a while before I could clearly see the path my company needed to take. Yup, there were moments when I wasn’t sure there was a path. But that’s the work. Leaders can’t eliminate the fog. We enter it first. We lift the torch. We help people see just enough to move. Writing Illuminate with Patti Sanchez 10 years ago today changed me. It was an honor of a lifetime. It deepened my conviction that leadership is about courage in ambiguity (not certainty!). Grateful for the journey. And still carrying the torch.

Some of the most disappointing  presentations I’ve seen were delivered by people everyone thought were “natural speakers.” People who are “naturals” often skip the work because they can (well, they think they can). They’ve gotten away with it before. They’re charming. They’re charismatic. They’re engaging. But that only works up to a point, because audiences are remarkably perceptive. They can tell when you’ve thought about them. They can tell when you’ve rehearsed the hard parts. And they can also tell when you’re thinking up what to say in real time. Lack of preparation is perceived as indifference. On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve seen introverts (people who would never describe themselves as “natural speakers”) deliver extraordinary talks. Ones that the world needed to hear. They rehearsed every word. They practiced every pause. But most importantly: They cared deeply about what the audience needed at that moment. And it showed. The best presenters don’t rely on talent; they carefully consider their audience and craft messages that map to them If you’re a “natural,” take the time to prepare and don’t “wing it." If you’re an introvert, get comfortable speaking because you have information inside you that, when unlocked, changes a lot of lives!

@mattshumer_ Great piece Matt!

The most powerful persuasion “engine” isn’t information. It’s not just a story, either. Instead, it’s something most people never even think of. In a sales presentation, your job is to move your prospects between two points: 1. What is (the current reality) 2. What could be (the future state they want) In our work at Duarte, we call it the Sparkline. This is where persuasion happens. Watch a world-class communicator give a speech or make a presentation, and I bet that you’ll notice a similarity between all of them: They constantly toggle between the current reality and their vision for a better future. They don’t just describe a problem. They contrast it with a vision of what’s possible. Then they return to the current reality, and then lift the audience again into a better one. That back-and-forth movement creates emotional momentum. Describing “what is” makes an audience feel the weight of their current challenges. And showing “what could be” helps them imagine a future where those challenges are resolved. The contrast creates a natural pull toward change because the present starts to feel too limiting and the future too compelling to ignore. That’s when the real persuasion happens.

Want your next presentation to be the best you’ve ever given? Remember these 3 things (they’re just 59 words): 1. Your audience is the hero. They’re the central figure. Your role is to guide them toward success 2. Infuse your talk with story. Data informs. Story moves. It gives structure, emotion, and meaning to your message. 3. Ask yourself: “Can they see what I’m saying?” Each idea should have a clear visual moment; something your audience can grasp instantly. Giving great presentations takes work, you’ve got this!

Most companies think they’re great at storytelling. That is, until they look at this… We recently created a framework called the Storytelling Maturity Scale. It rates your organization from 1 to 5 based on how well your teams can tell stories that grab attention and move people to action (from marketing and sales to internal communications). Some leaders are shocked to find out they’re a 2 out of 5… They think their teams are great at storytelling because they’ve gone through training, have an overarching brand narrative they reference, and know how important this skill is to develop. But since “storytelling” can be so hard to measure, leadership doesn’t really know how good their teams are or in what specific areas they need to improve. The Storytelling Maturity Scale changes that. In about 5 minutes, it scores your organization on one of five levels and shows you exactly what to fix: Level 1 - Non-existent: Storytelling isn’t on anyone’s radar. You’re marketing features instead of outcomes, your sales calls focus on closing rather than helping, and customers feel like numbers in a quota instead of humans with problems you can solve. Level 2 - Emerging: You know storytelling matters, but it’s inconsistent. You might have a brand narrative document somewhere, but marketing tells one version, sales tells another, and customers still can’t articulate how you actually help them. Level 3 - Integrated: Storytelling is becoming part of how your teams work. Marketing, sales, and leadership are telling a more consistent story. Product development evaluates features based on customer outcomes, and sales conversations focus on solving problems rather than pushing specs. Level 4 - Systemic: Storytelling is built into your processes and culture. You have a centralized story library, people across your organization actively hunt for customer stories they can use, and you’re tracking which narratives actually drive results. Level 5 - Transformative: Your narrative has become a competitive advantage. You’re shaping how your industry thinks, and competitors have to position against your story, not just your features. Most organizations land somewhere between a 2 and a 3. Which means there’s a lot of room to grow, and a lot of revenue is being left on the table. Take the free assessment to figure out where your organization stands when it comes to storytelling maturity (and get specific steps you can take to improve). Link to assessment: drte.co/4qNKhnY

@lennysan @dickiebush Manus is amazing! We love it.

@dickiebush I'm long Manus

Manus Agent Mode

Duarte has spent decades helping leaders present their most important ideas in high-stakes environments. The most convincing leaders all share one thing in common: They have deep empathy for their audience. People often talk about empathy like it’s an emotion, but in leadership, it’s more than that. Empathy is a sixth sense that lets you sense what others need, process it, and respond in a way that builds trust. You might think empathy is a personality trait, that you either “have it” or you don't. I disagree. Empathy has a genetic component, but it is not purely genetic. In my experience, empathy is a learnable skill that grows stronger with practice. If you’re preparing a presentation and want to practice empathy for your audience, start with these 3 questions: 1. What pressures or priorities are driving this audience right now? (Think about what they’re being measured on or worried about this quarter.) 2. What outcome would make them feel successful? (What result would make them feel this presentation was worth their time?) 3. What concerns or risks might keep them from saying yes? (What hidden fears could block their decision?) Those questions are the input. Clarity is the output. Empathy is how you anticipate objections before they’re voiced and craft stories that meet people where they are. Empathy is a repeatable process that makes people feel seen, and when people feel seen, they listen.