CHAPTER FOUR:
When to use storytelling in your business
“If you ask a group of nine-year-old children about gravity, one or two will perk up,” says author and journalist, Lucy Hawking. But tell them if they were on Mars they could jump 2.5x higher, and then ask them to imagine playing football on Mars—and it’s a very different… well, story.
The principle holds true for 20-year old students, or 40-year old CIOs, or whoever else you want your content to engage; to create more engaging content, tell stories.
Crucially, tell stories that:
Take place in a world your audience understands
Revolve around your audience’s interests
Allow your audience (not science or your branding) to be the central character
Learning which stems from a well-told story is remembered more accurately, for far longer, than learning derived from facts or figures.
In chapter one, we saw how profoundly listening to a good story can affect our brain chemistry and our subsequent behavior. You’ve a huge opportunity to put this knowledge to work in the content you create, and help your audience to receive and act on your messages.
You don’t have to read Joseph Campbell from cover to cover, you should familiarize yourself with basics of “the hero’s journey”, and understand three- and five- act structures.
These common narrative models can play a powerful role in everything from your video content to your case studies, and you might be surprised by just how much more persuasive they make your messages.
Take the story of a man and his wife, trying to buy their first home. Outbid by the competition, the man wrote the owners a letter using the skills he’d learnt at a workshop with story practitioner, Cate Friesen. He explained what the house would mean to him and his wife—and the owners rejected the higher bid, and offered them their new home.
We all understand that a strong “brand narrative” can help us to define our organization’s purpose and values, and communicate these to our employees and customers. But did you know that simply telling stories could positively affect people’s perceptions of your organization?
Researchers studying the Agta community in The Philippines have found that good storytellers were more likely to be chosen as social partners and to receive support from the community when they needed it.
The same study found that villages with a higher number of good storytellers tended to be more generous. So, if you’re looking to drive greater team cooperation and cohesion, you might also consider embedding storytelling skills across your organization.
Culture transformation expert Karen Eber tells the story of a college advisor trying to convince a university that it’s failing students with autism.
Rather than simply present the data - which the institution’s leaders already had - she related the struggles of a single student, Michelle, as she attempted to navigate the university’s processes.
When she eventually presented the figures that only 20% of students with autism were graduating, her audience could understand what it actually meant, and why they needed to take corrective action.
Data is an increasingly plentiful, valuable resource for modern organizations. But whether you’re looking to motivate teams or convince customers, it should always be translated into a story.
Could telling better stories about your products and services actually increase their market value? It’s a bold idea, but there’s reason to think it might.
The organizers of the Significant Objects Project bought objects from thrift stores and garage sales, then asked writers to create new narratives around them.
The items were sold on eBay with the stories in the place of the factual description. Whether elevated by the power of their story, or by their new status as muse for a recognized author, the tchotchkes which had cost a total of $128.74 to buy, sold for a total of $3,612.51.
Storytelling to engage
Storytelling to persuade
Storytelling to build a brand
Storytelling to enhance data
Storytelling to create value
