A couple of hours ago, Diana Oreck from Ritz Carlton and I finished our program on using storytelling to make your Talent Management process more compelling and effective. It was a fun group (way to go gang!) and way fun working with Diana (thanks Diana!).
She shared some of those amazing Ritz Carlton stories that provide a great example of how stories provide both “inspiration and simulation”–to borrow from Made to Stick’s authors Chip and Dan Heath.
Here are two examples of the stories we shared.
More to come…
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Hopefully you’ve noticed that when I share a story on this blog, I share it both because the content of the story is useful or inspiring and…how it demonstrates the use of storytelling as a powerful communication vehicle.
This post comes to you courtesy of Susan Mayginnes of Commit to Greatness who I recently met at the Wisdom 2.0 conference in San Francisco. I was hosting a round table on storytelling and really enjoyed what Susan was sharing with the group and asked her if she would share a story with my audience. This short video describes her experience with taking a presentation she was preparing and switch it from “traditional Powerpoint bulleted list centric” to “story centric.”
Besides noticing the difference it made, what I really would like you to notice is how the simple act of wrapping her take away message–“telling stories is far more effective”–in a story makes the message more interesting.
Susan could simply state this message without a story and you would probably think “I know. I know…storytelling is a good thing…tell me something I don’t know.”
However, by presenting that message through a story, the message feels more fresh, interesting, and important.
Also, because Susan shares her own growth process in learning to use stories, she makes herself easier to bond to than if she came across as an all-knowing expert.
Rather than her coming across as an expert who knows the right way and is showing you the way, she shares her story as a fellow learner who wants the same thing as you…to make your presentations more interesting and for your audience to respond positively.
By sharing her “before and after pictures”, she also gives you a sneak preview of what you can have if you use storytelling.
This type of story is what I call a Promise Story. It communicates the benefit, the good things that the listener will get, by listening to and applying what you have to say.
Promise Stories are especially useful in the beginning of a presentation. They draw the audience in because the story speaks to what the audience desires and communicates that if they listen to you, they will learn how to get what they desire.
OK…before you watch the video, be ye forewarned that we shot it outside and you’ll hear some wind noise. Hopefully you will notice it for a moment and then focus on what Susan has to say…
So…how to apply this?
Think of key points you want to get across in your presentations and “wrap” them in a story.
Increases your audience’s interest, because people are hard-wired to care about and enjoy stories.
Helps them bond with you–even if it’s not a personal story–because it signals to them that you won’t bore them with a traditional bullet-point centric talk.
Tune them into that all important radio station—WII-FM–“What’s in it for me?”–if…you choose the right story.
Even though I’ve been using stories for years in my presentations, I still obsess over which story to start off a talk, because the old adage about first impressions being so important is backed up by research. In studies where the presenter started out weak and ended up strong, they were rated worse than when they started out strong and ended off weak.
Thus, starting out strong is really important.
At a recent “Storytelling for Leaders” program I gave, I orginally was going to start off with a story I told on a webinar for training professionals about someone “dying on stage” and then switching to a story and how the audience came to life. Because bombing in a presentation is a major fear for most people, especially people who speak for a living, that was a good match for my training audience.
However, my contact at the organization I spoke at said that she didn’t want participants to think this was a “presentation skills” program, but a “How to use stories to be a more powerful communicator as a leader” program, so I didn’t want to confuse the issue by starting off with that story.
So…I started with a story that related more to a frustration any leader can relate to:
You have an important message to deliver, but people don’t seem to “get it”. In fact, you’re getting the opposite of the response that you want.
Here’s the recording of the story I opened with. Notice the scenario it depicted and how it dialed people into WII-FM–i.e. how this material could help them.
Also, notice any techniques that stand out for you in terms of how the story was told.
A couple of hours ago, Diana Oreck from Ritz Carlton and I finished our program on using storytelling to make your Talent Management process more compelling and effective. It was a fun group (way to go gang!) and way fun working with Diana (thanks Diana!).
