Last week I was in California all set (or so I thought) to give a presentation to a group of high-level, highly-skeptical high tech execs. They had been sitting in all-day meetings for three days and my session was wrapping up their strategy meeting. “Let’s get this moving,” says the general manager. But even the CIO couldn’t get the projector to work. Oh, not to be able to use my wonderful presentation with all those pictures and videos and cool charts…
So instead I started by telling two stories.
The first was a nod to technical presentation problems. Back in the 1990s when I was president of one of the first interactive marketing agencies Microsoft asked me to come in and give a presentation to 100 of their regional marketing directors. An amazing business opportunity for our agency. I walked in the conference room, whipped out my computer and…ugh…realized I had a Mac that was incompatible with Microsoft’s PC-based projector.
“Some day I’ll get these technical issues worked out,” I told the Silicon Valley group. The story made me seem human, not another one of those consultants who know it all.
The second story I shared was about a company in a completely different industry but with a similar business dilemma. I explained how a little engineering company didn’t follow the prospect’s request for proposal rules, but rather framed the business situation in such a radically different — but compelling and logical — way that they won the biggest contract ever awarded in their industry.
Magic. The story pulled the group into why the afternoon mattered and everyone got deeply engaged in the collaborative workshop that followed.
Stories set up new ways of seeing a situation, put facts into new contexts and connect to people emotionally. (And help you out in tough situations.)
One of the best books — maybe the best — about how to find and use stories is Annette Simmons’ The Story Factor. She offers these seven helpful techniques for finding stories. I’d also recommend creating a file to save and categorize your stories; I also carry around note cards and jot down stories as they happen so I don’t forget them.
Annette suggests looking for:
- Patterns: recurring themes that established “who” you are as a person or executive; repeated instances of frustration that forged ‘why” you are here
- Consequences: recall the particularly good or bad results of your past efforts and see how they contributed to the methods you now choose to get things done.
- Lessons: remember a crisis of pain in your life or a turning point in your career and articulate the lessons you learned
- Utility: ask others for a story that influenced them and ask permission to use it.
- Vulnerability: tell about your soft spot, an embarrassing moment, a time when you wanted to crawl under the table and hide
- Future Experience: develop your dreams of how it could be’ into a full story with real life characters (people love it when you put them int the story)
- Recollections: find a story that stuck with you and mine it for meaning
(On a side note, in my travels over the past year I’ve found that Texan women are some of the best storytellers. Period. I’m curious why this is. If anyone has any ideas why this is, please share them!)
The story on the Engineering company was very motivating along your "David & Goliath" theme, when I heard you tell it while you were in Cleveland at the IABC luncheon. I keep it in mind when I am making a proposal to a client from my ‘David’ company and know the other ‘Goliaths’ are doing the same. Goes to prove what you can accomplish with a little creativity, and guts to use that creativity.
Anthony Russo
Great America Networks Conferencing
arusso@ganconference.com
http://www.ganconference.com
312-432-5377
Anthony,
So glad you got some ideas that you’ve been able to use right away. So many people are so fed up with the goliathWebEx, that you have lots of opportunities to tell a David story.
If you’re one of those frustrated WebEx users, call Anthony. His company — though unknown right now, provides the same type of services — without the hassles and hard sells from telesales reps.
Lois
Hi Lois,
Annette’s new book, "Whoever Tells The Best Story Wins," recently came out and is a winner, as well.
Definitely worth checking out!
Tom
P.S. I just started reading "The Elements of Persuasion" and is it simply one of the best and most practical books on storytelling I’ve read.
First, you’re right about Texan women: I’ve noticed it too. I have a whole pack of relatives there, and one aunt in particular who routinely makes sense of all sorts of madness with many a wise and well-timed story.
As for why this is, I’ve no idea. Something in the water, maybe? I’ll ask Aunt Joey. I’m fairly sure she’ll answer with a story.
Another great book to reference is Made To Stick.
Relationship Marketing Coach Michael Katz of http://www.bluepenguindevelopment.com is another everyday genius at using many of the elements of story you mention, and there’s lots of free resources on his site/blog if anyone’s interested in exploring further. His new book, It Sure Beats Working, is a good example of what you’re talking about.
Professionally (and personally), two other things really rang for me in this post:
As I attempt to enter the rapidly moving (aka white water) stream of social media (can you say intimidated), this helped me remember that essentially this is really all about connection and conversation. We’ve been telling stories around campfires for millenia, learning from and leaning on each other for a long time: the campfire’s virtual these days, but the connection can still be the same.
As a life coach, your comments were a little uncanny since they are equally true when it comes to helping people understand WHY the’re here in life – what their purpose is. By taking a close look a the running story of their life, their life will tell them all they really need to know – provided the context and meaning being used to view it allows them to hear the true tale.
Great post with lots of applications – right up my alley.
Thanks. And I won’t forget to get back to you with word from Aunt Joey, if she doesn’t get back to you herself!
Lissa,
Thanks for the suggestions. I agree that social media is doing what we as humans love to do — connect with other people and share our stories. what’s so cool now is how we can now "meet" people from all over the world and share can’t wait to hear your Aunt Joey’s stories!
Lois
Top Five Reasons Why Texas Women Are Good Storytellers:
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1. We drink lots of Mint Juleps on the porch and good stories go hand in hand with that (espescially once you\’ve had two Mint Juleps.)
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2. We\’ve always had to have something to fill the time between the tedious longhorn roundups .
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3. Our southern accents imbibe us to tell tragic, humorous and comedic stories.
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4. Texas women have to tell stories that are as large as the cowboy hats the men wear to do the Cotton-eyed Joe.
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5. Our stories anchor the lives of our children and their children to remember how special it is to be Southern, humorous and dramatic all at the same time.
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And finally, one of my favorite quotes from Eudora Welty, “The excursion is the same when you go looking for your sorrow as when you go looking for your joy.â??
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I think we tell good stories because we understand joy and sorrow and we like to share the experience with others of how we get to both.
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Nettie,
You sound just like my wise and much loved Aunt. I’ll point her in your direction: sounds like you two would love each other.
And many thanks for lovely quote. I’ll pass it’s richness on.
Lissa