About the book

Why should you read about storytelling?

“First, it extends the usefulness of storytelling to a much wider range of leadership challenges”

“Second, it offers more thorough and practical advice for how to craft your own stories for any leadership challenge. That starts with a simple structure for a good business story. But it also includes advice on six other key elements you’ll need to turn that good story into a great one:

–      Metaphors,

–      emotion,

–      realism,

–      surprise,

–      style,

–      and how to put your audience into your story.

What are the key learnings?

Many great companies have a high-level “corporate storyteller”. For example:

–      “At Nike, all the senior executives are designated “corporate storytellers.”

–      “3M banned bullet points years ago and replaced them with a process of writing “strategic narratives.”

Why tell stories?

1.   “Storytelling is simple.

a.   Anyone can do it. You don’t need a degree in English, or even an MBA. 

2.   Storytelling is timeless.

a.   Unlike fads in other areas of management such as total quality management, reengineering, Six Sigma, or 5S, storytelling has always worked for leadership, and it always will. 

3.   Stories are demographic-proof.

a.   Everybody—regardless of age, race, or gender—likes to listen to stories. 

4.   Stories are contagious.

a.   They can spread like wildfire without any additional effort on the part of the storyteller. 

5.   Stories are easier to remember.

a.   According to psychologist Jerome Bruner, facts are 20 times more likely to be remembered if they are part of a story. 5 Organizational psychologist Peg Neuhauser found similar results in her work with corporations. She found that learning derived from a well-told story is remembered more accurately, and for far longer than the learning derived from facts or figures. 

6.   Stories inspire.

a.   Slides don’t. Have you ever heard someone say, “Wow! You’ll never believe the PowerPoint presentation I just saw!” Probably not. But you have heard people say that about stories. 

7.   Stories appeal to all types of learners.

a.   In any group, roughly 40 percent will be predominantly visual learners who learn best from videos, diagrams, or illustrations. Another 40 percent will be auditory, learning best through lectures and discussions. The remaining 20 percent are kinesthetic learners, who learn best by doing, experiencing, or feeling. Storytelling has aspects that work for all three types. Visual learners appreciate the mental pictures storytelling evokes. Auditory learners focus on the words and the storyteller’s voice. Kinesthetic learners remember the emotional connections and feelings from the story.

8.   Stories fit better where most of the learning happens in the workplace.

a.   According to communications expert Evelyn Clark, “Up to 70 percent of the new skills, information and competence in the workplace is acquired through informal learning” such as what happens in team settings, mentoring, and peer-to-peer communication. And the bedrock of informal learning is storytelling. 

9.   Stories put the listener in a mental learning mode.

a.   Listeners who are in a critical or evaluative mode are more likely to reject what’s being said. According to training coach and bestselling author Margaret Parkin, storytelling “re-creates in us that emotional state of curiosity which is ever present in children, but which as adults we tend to lose. Once in this childlike state, we tend to be more receptive and interested in the information we are given.” Or as author and organizational narrative expert David Hutchens points out, storytelling puts listeners in a different orientation. They put their pens and pencils down, open up their posture, and just listen. 

10. Telling stories shows respect for the audience.”

 Story structure is how: 

–      “You should see your story in your mind’s eye before you create it (Envision).

–      Realism and appropriate writing style should be pervasive throughout your entire story (Environment). 

–      Emotion and surprise punctuate your stories with excitement and interest (Energize). 

–      Metaphors are the most efficient literary device to teach lessons in stories (Educate). 

–      And recasting your audience into your stories, instead of just telling them stories, takes the power of storytelling to a completely new level (Empower).”

Power of metaphor at its finest—to make your recommendations as compelling as possible. For example about a taxi ride:

–      “Waiting for that moment is a bit like trying to hail a cab in New York. You might have to wait a while. So when a yellow cab does pull over to pick you up, you’d better get in. You might not get another chance for a long time.

–      Challenge a fundamental assumption your audience has. Most recommendations start with a shared set of preconceived notions and build from there to a conclusion. But there’s little you can do to make a bigger impact on your audience than to show them those assumptions are false.”

How to structure of a story?

“IF YOU ASK A 10-YEAR-OLD, “What’s the structure of a good story?” the child might say something like, “Oh, that’s easy! There’s a beginning, a middle, and an end.” True, perhaps. But not very helpful.” 

“If you ask a Hollywood script writer the same question, she might tell you there are six parts: the setup, catalyst, first turning point, climax, final confrontation, and resolution. True again. And if you plan to write a screenplay or a murder mystery, that structure will serve you well.” 

“If you ask a cognitive psychologist, he will likely give you an even more complicated answer. For example: setting, main characters, conflict and resolution, initiating event, internal response, attempt, consequence, reaction, and conclusion.” 

CAR = Context, Action, Result.

“Context

1. Where and when?

2. Who is the main character?

3. What does the character want?

4. Who or what is getting in the way?”

“Action”

This is where you tell what happened to your main character.

Result 

“The result is the final stage of the story where you accomplish three main things. In addition to telling how the story ends, this is where you explain the right lesson the audience should have learned, and link back to why you told the story in the first place.”

AN example of a great story

“IT’S WELL ESTABLISHED in the marketing world that if you design your product or service for everyone, what you end up doing is designing for no one. You create a mass of compromises that fails to please anyone. Therefore, the theory holds, you should pick a subset of your customer base to design your offerings around.

If you choose well, you’ll have a group small enough that its needs are easy to identify and understand, but that represents the lion’s share of your growth potential. Called segmentation in industry speak, that’s the position P& G has taken with its own brands, and the advice it gives its retail partners about how to delight their shoppers as well.

Research shows that 20 to 30 percent of shoppers in any given store are responsible for 70 to 80 percent of all the purchases.

Consumer research manager Monika Jambrovic removed the vague and amorphous title “high potential shopper” and replaced it with the name and photograph of one woman—Lisa. She took something abstract and made it concrete.

It was a huge success! The retailer’s management immediately took to the idea and began using Lisa as their primary design target.”

Describing your idea in specific, concrete terms is almost always more effective, for two reasons.

–      First, it helps people understand your idea more easily.

–      Second, concreteness helps people apply your idea to their situation.

“My country didn’t send me 5,000 miles to start this race. They sent me 5,000 miles to finish it.”

Great beginnings:

–      “The first is the element of surprise.

–      The second method is to create a mystery.

–      The third method is the most powerful one of all, and also the simplest. You’ve seen many examples of it in this book already. The best way to get the attention of a business audience is to quickly introduce a main character they can relate to, and put the character in a challenging situation or predicament.”

“Good spoken language” -tactics:

1.   “Shorter sentences.

2.   Smaller words. For some reason we are less tempted to throw in impressive-sounding words when speaking than we are when writing.

3.   Active voice.

4.   Getting to the verb quickly.”

A HINT:

–      “Microsoft Word can calculate your Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level automatically. (In Spelling and Grammar check options, select “Check grammar with spelling” and “Show readability statistics.” After you run the Spelling and Grammar check, a window will pop up with the readability report.”

–      Effective Writing for Army Leaders, it defines a writing “clarity index” as follows. Calculate the average number of words per sentence. The target should be around 15. Then calculate the percentage of words that are three or more syllables. The target should be 15 percent. Add those two numbers together for the clarity index. Ideal is around 30. Below 20, and the army considers the writing too abrupt. Over 40 it considers difficult to understand.

–      French writer and poet Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once observed, “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

–      Storytelling shouldn’t take a long time. Most of the stories in this book can be told verbally in two to four minutes. Some take less than one minute. As a rule of thumb, a comfortable speaking pace is about 150 to 180 words per minute. So a 500-word story will take about three minutes to tell.

–      The last literary device worth mentioning is repetition, which can greatly enhance the effectiveness of a story.

 “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” —MARGARET THATCHER, former Prime Minister of England

“Five key lessons the company learned from the experience. In hindsight, the first three shouldn’t be too surprising: 

(1) know what your consumer wants, 

(2) develop a product and marketing messages to meet those expectations, and 

(3) organize a strong team to deliver results. 

(4) The fourth lesson was a little more interesting: Set realistic goals. They adopted a five-year plan, not a one-year plan. They realized the magnitude of the changes they needed to make were too ambitious to accomplish in a matter of months. Despite that, they succeeded two years ahead of schedule.

(5) The final lesson Mike explained, however, is the most telling of all, and the key point I want to make. He summarized it in two simple words: “Don’t stop.” Don’t give up too soon.”

“Empathy is so potent because almost every business decision affects other people and how they think and feel.”

“Many of life’s failures are people who didn’t realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” (Thomas Edison)

“A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.” —CHARLES DE GAULLE, former French president.

“Learning is not compulsory. But neither is survival.” —J. EDWARDS

“Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” —KENNETH BLANCHARD

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” —ALBERT EINSTEIN

“If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a metaphor is worth a thousand pictures.” —GEORGE LAKOFF AND MARK JOHNSON, Metaphors We Live By

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” —GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON JR.

“If people aren’t laughing at your ideas, you aren’t being creative enough.” —DAVID ARMSTRONG

Sales is everyone’s job 

“The real selling doesn’t start until the buyer says no.” —UNKNOWN

About sales presentations:

1.   “If your sales presentation is in the trash can, you’d better have a good story. And sales presentations have a way of ending up in the trash can. A story will stick with the buyer far longer.

2.   You should be able to explain every aspect of your business model in terms of the benefit it provides the customer. Even if it’s why you have to charge the price that you do, explain why that price benefits the customer, not why you need to charge that much. (“ Paying in this industry is a rip off.”)

3.   Training budget a little tight? Tap into the best source of advice on successful sales techniques in your company—the purchasing department. Share Bob Smith’s story of the new steel salesman with the heads of your sales and purchasing departments. Make arrangements for sellers and buyers to spend more time together. They both have much to learn from each other.

4.   At some point, just about everyone gets involved in a sales call, even if you’re not a salesperson. Before you send people out to the field for the first time, tell them the story of the unwelcome business card. They’ll be much less likely to make a similar mistake. And your sales team will thank you for it.”

“People are going to tell stories about you whether you want them to or not. Choose which ones they tell.” —BOB MCDONALD, CEO, Procter & Gamble

Getting started and barriers

Barrier 1: I don’t know where to find good stories

Stories from your past.

Stories you see happen around you.

Stories that other people tell you.

Ask them.

Hold a contest.

Hold storytelling sessions.

Conduct formal interviews.

Barrier 2: I have trouble remembering the stories when I need them. It’s time we start databasing our stories!

Barrier 3: I’m not sure where to tell my stories

Barrier 4: I don’t think stories belong in a formal memo or e-mail This is one of the most common misperceptions I hear.

 “I taught my dog to whistle!” “I can’t hear him whistling.” “I said I taught him. I didn’t say he learned it.” —1991 CARTOON

How should we change according to the book?

Two things we should do:

–      We should build a story collection.

–      Every story should be relevant, be in a right context and be entertaining

What should I personally do?

Read “Management by Storying Around” by David Armstrong, and “Corporate Legends & Lore” by Peg C. Neuhauser.

Summary

The book in six words – ““Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” (Benjamin Franklin)