4 Keys to Compelling Storytelling
It was during my second job when I realized I didn’t communicate as well as my dad. Unlike my dad and his dad, who were both successful in sales, I was a software developer. I could sit for hours in front of a computer wearing headphones, intently creating something with my mind and fingers on the keys.
But then I started getting invited to meetings.
I’d hear myself interject or present something and know that I was accurate but not compelling. Impatient personalities (like our senior executives) would usually tune out after 20 seconds of me talking, thinking about what they wanted to say next.
I knew I had to get better at it.
Presenting an Idea Through Storytelling
And I did begin to get better at it when a Dale Carnegie trainer coached me on how to present an idea. His advice: Make it a story. Make it relatable and moving, personal and detailed.
“Tell people how you were feeling,” he coached me. “Give them a few real details so they can see it.”
His advice continues to resonate, maybe even more so today, as success at work seems to depend more and more on my ability to move people — to understand, commit, change, grow, engage…I keep having to figure out how to make my ideas not just accurate but compelling.
The Characteristics of Great Stories
What makes the executives, preachers, colleagues, politicians, teachers, lawyers, and doctors I’ve listened to over the years such compelling communicators? What makes my dad and his dad so good at it?
Yes, they have depth of knowledge and mastery of language. They’re enthusiastic. And there’s something else. They have this ability to bring people into a mental and emotional journey from one place to another. And they do it through storytelling.
That’s probably not news to you. Storytelling has become one of the biggest trends in marketing, branding, and leadership development. What has been news to me, though, is learning what makes a story great — beyond the narrative structure I learned in school (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, dénouement), what makes a story so compelling.
Tricia Rose Burt, a frequent guest storyteller with the acclaimed international storytelling organization The Moth, teaches the power of storytelling in workshops and coaching with top organizations. On a recent episode of Donald Miller’s excellent Building a Storybrand podcast, she outlined the elements that make stories great:
- Stories are about change. The best stories, according to Rose Burt, show how someone changed. They were overwhelmed and now they are capable. They were afraid and now they are courageous. They were lonely and now they are connected. People relate to the feelings associated with change, and the unfolding change elicits support from the listener/reader of the story. The change becomes the “narrative arc” of the story.
- Specificity makes it universal. This is counterintuitive to me. Wouldn’t adding too much detail to the story make it unrelatable to people in different circumstances? No, says Rose Burt, detail actually helps people make connections to their own experience. I love the How I Built This podcast where successful entrepreneurs tell their story, and while I haven’t experienced the same circumstances, I can relate to the details that contributed to their experience of rejection, frustration, fatigue, and excitement about business possibilities.
- Connect every detail to the theme. The theme is the central idea. What are you getting at? What point are you making? Describing parts of the story that don’t drive the theme only dilute the impact of the story. When you’re telling a story think, “What is the central theme of this story?” Is it about redemption, efficiency, quality, progress, trust, or what? Leave out everything non-essential to the theme.
- Keep people engaged through wins, losses, and feelings. When there are wins and losses, there are stakes. Rose Burton explains that great stories reveal steps forward and backward with regard to what’s at stake. And great stories reveal how the person or people changing feel about it. It’s “They tried this and it failed, which led to disappointment,” or “She began feeling confident when she delivered the project.” Clarify what’s at stake and the emotion around it.
In summary, if you want to be a compelling communicator, tell good stories. And the way you do that is to talk about transformation, specifics, theme, progress, and feelings.
While I still love designing a spreadsheet, I’m starting to communicate more like my dad and his dad by learning the code behind powerful communication.
How could you improve your storytelling?
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