Storytelling for influence part ii
Photo by Pickled Stardust on Unsplash
I regularly work with people who would like to include stories in their communication, but don’t know how to do so, especially when it comes to formal presentations. So in this article I will outline how to use stories of personal experience to make your message land.
I described in Storytelling for influence part i why stories are so powerful and defined the basic structure as:
Situation: I was faced with this challenge…
Action: I did this…
Result: This is what happened…
So the moral of the story is that when you’re faced with something similar, you should either do what I did or don’t do what I did.
The important starting point for storytelling is to be absolutely clear on the message you want to communicate. Then you find, and shape, a story to illustrate this.
For example, let’s say your team is being asked to change a process, perhaps using a new piece of software, and you want to offer guidance on how to approach using it. You might use a story from your own life about when you have faced something similar.
The basic story looks like this:
Situation: I got a new piece of software
Action: I used it
Result: It made my life easier/harder/no change
This format can be used to convey various different messages. For example:
You will be pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy it is to use
This software is painful and time-consuming to learn, but brilliant once you master it. So if you find it difficult, persevere
The basics are valuable, but it’s not worth investing time to understand all the advanced features
You then emphasise the elements of the story that reinforce your desired message.
So if you want to reassure the team that, although it may look daunting, it’s straightforward to use:
The default electronic diary on my phone is pretty basic and I wanted something more sophisticated. So I downloaded a calendar app which marketed itself as having lots of great functionality. To me, this is code for “a nightmare to use”. So I set aside a morning and braced myself for frustration. To my amazement, within 10 minutes of installing it, I was on my way. It's so intuitive to use, I just figured out how to do things as I went along.
Our new software is like that. Looks scary but it’s really well-designed. Just give it a try and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to use.
Or perhaps you want the team to understand that it’s worth persevering to learn the software, even though it’s difficult. The story might look something like this:
…So I downloaded a calendar app. Like lots of software with fancy functionality, it’s really un-intuitive. I couldn’t figure out how to do even the most basic things and got so exasperated that several times I abandoned it and looked for alternatives.
But I just couldn’t find anything I liked, so reluctantly I kept returning to the one I’d already downloaded. Eventually I realised I had to dedicate some time to fully learning it, rather than trying to do it on the fly. It took several hours but, once I understood how the settings worked and related to each other, I discovered more and more brilliant features and I now depend on it completely.
Our new software is like that: painful to master, but ultimately really worthwhile.
Or perhaps you want the team to get to grips with the basics but not bother with the bells and whistles. This story would do the job:
…So I downloaded a calendar app. It was quick to learn the basics and really easy to use. Like lots of software, it does all sorts of other fancy things if you want to dive into it but, to be honest, I haven’t bothered and I’m happy with what it does.
Our new software is like that. Lots of sophisticated functionality if you want it, but all you really need is the basics.
By telling a story, you invite the audience to put themselves in your shoes and relate it to their own experiences. They get the message – it’s easy/persevere/basics only – and you trigger associative memory which is much more likely to stick.
If you’re feeling ambitious, there are lots of ways you can expand stories to make them richer, introducing more complications and obstacles (see Storytelling for Influence part iv). I might add that the calendar app was recommended by my cousin, who uses it to keep track of her children’s extracurricular activities. This gives another example of how it can be used.
But it’s important not to include details that seem to be about something else or point to a different message. For example, if I tell you that my cousin runs a construction firm and what a difficult time she’s had because people are suddenly demanding really good insulation, this will confuse you and set up the expectation that somehow my story relates to the climate crisis or the cost of energy.
And assuming you’re not aiming for Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, and just want to use a simple story to make your point land, the basic structure of situation-action-result will do the job, as long as you are completely clear about the underlying message.
Of course, the moral need not be confined to the specifics of the situation. The same core story can be used to illustrate more general points - something I’ll address in Storytelling for influence part iii