Storytelling can engage an audience, but be sure you know what a story is.
“Tell stories,” is a popular mantra in corporations these days, but what many people refer to as a story often is not. A person making observations, giving an opinion, or recounting a series of facts is not a story.
The narration doesn’t need to have a series of complicated plot twists to be a story, but it does need certain elements. A story is a sequence of actions or events, and it has a central character, which might be the company. At the heart of the story is a conflict, a challenge, that the character overcame or needs to. This narrative has a point, and it’s “going somewhere”; that is, it’s moving toward an ending point. In the context of executive storytelling, it also has to have a direct link to the message he or she is trying to get across.
Sometimes, employees will see a video of colleagues talking about how they have enjoyed working at the company, and those examples can be useful. But most of the time, that’s not an example of “employees telling their story,” because there is no story involved. A person relating her experience as an employee at the company would be a story if she told about something that had happened to her and she learned from the experience. Otherwise, it’s an anecdote, and viewers often are skeptical of such “happy talk,” and dismiss them as promotional statements that seem rehearsed.
The elements of a central character, a heart (conflict or challenge), a narrative “point” and a direct link all still make sense to me.
Perhaps in the 21st century collaborative style they are “told” (experienced) from the bottom up and outside-in.
When we connect in the next week you are likely to painfully discover that I am a story teller. The best stories (and hopefully less painful ones) are when I engage the listener and make them part of the story.
They become the central character, their challenge is addressed, they experience the point and ultimately make the connection. My GPS “story” is the best example.
What’s the best story you can recall from your childhood that still applies to your life today?
Do you recall what emotions you were experiencing at that time? Do you still have those emotions from time-to-time?
Does the story still work for you? Why or why not? How would you change the story to make it work for others or to make it an “even better” story for you?