Good stories change the world.
That’s what they’re designed to do. At their most elemental, stories show how transformation is possible, probable and (when well written) inevitable. Stories provide the courage people need to change.
In business, stories are often dismissed as irrelevant distractions. Facts, logic and reason are touted as being more important. Some folk in business are under the illusion that people are rational beings.
You want a fun fact about facts? No one remembers facts. Such fragmentary pieces of memory are slated to be churned to make way for new memories.
If you want a fact to be remembered, wrap it in a good story. Research by psychologist Jerome Bruner found facts are 22 times more likely to be remembered if they’re part of a story. The better the story, the stronger the memory and recall.
Making the fact louder, bigger or more repetitive won’t make it stick, won’t make it memorable. You need a story to strike a chord. Good stories and good storytelling help you communicate ideas, connect with an audience and inspire them to act.
Communication, comprehension, sequencing and memory all benefit from stories and storytelling. Good storytelling encourages creative thinking and problem solving.
But do you know how to effectively use stories? You need tools to tell better stories and effectively use them to connect with your audience and get your ideas heard.
- Improve engagement with your audience
- Create an emotional connection to speed up decision-making
- Humanise your ideas by making them relatable
- Expand influence within your company and with customers
- Change the ways people think, feel and act
- Grow your brand
Effective storytellers don’t just amuse or entertain. They persuade.
Story has the power to make ideas stick in peoples’ minds, engage more of their brains, alter how they feel and think about a subject, product or idea, and ultimately influence and persuade them to action.
But poorly structured stories that don’t include the right elements communicated in the right way fall short. They may capture people for a moment but lack the power to hold their attention, help them see themselves in the story, impact their emotions, and ultimately direct them toward the right next steps.
Telling stories is important. Telling stories in the right way is powerful. Good storytelling assures you can move people with emotionally impactful stories.
You need storytelling skills to tell the right story in the right way to produce the right results. You need to grow in your storytelling confidence and become one of your organisation’s storytelling experts, consistently bringing story to every conversation, meeting and presentation.
You need to uncover and learn the universal story structure that produces the world’s most powerful and impactful stories.
- Basic three-act story structure
- Story sequence for maximum impact
- Identify key story elements including hero, hero’s goal, inciting incident, obstacles, mentor, tools and outcome
- Satisfying beginning, middle and end
Stories and storytelling move audiences more effectively than facts and information alone. That’s why it’s important for every communicator to grow in the skills necessary to craft powerful stories that influence audiences and motivate them to action.
- Leaders who want to inspire, motivate and move their teams
- Colleagues who want to communicate with greater power and influence
- Executives who want to better engage customers and increase sales
Telling stories is the most powerful and profound way to influence, teach and inspire.
Storytelling forges connections among people, and between people and ideas. Stories convey the culture, history and values that unite people.
Stories bind people together to a common goal.
References
Boris V 2017 ‘What makes storytelling so effective for learning?’ Harvard Business Review
Popova M 2016 ‘The psychology of what makes a great story’ Brain Pickings