Once upon a time...
“Let him who would move the world first move himself.” - Socrates
I must have seen this video clip over 20 times (at least)! I love it! I will further confess that this was about the time when I had hit a very low patch in my life – personally and professionally. I stumbled upon this video clipping and for about 10 days straight, I heard his speech over and over again and in some magical way, his stories inspired me into action.
Job’s message in the video is powerful, but more than the content it’s the articulation that makes the content stick. This video (as I write the article) has over 21 million views on YouTube. Considering our current global population of an estimated 7 billion, that’s about 3% of the world’s population; mighty impressive!
My post here is about the underlying tool that Jobs used to deliver this powerful piece of communication – storytelling!
We all love a good story, don’t we?
Through stories we understand one another, we preserve the past, make meaning and bring new realities to life. Stories change the way we listen, perceive, retain, process and act on information. They capture our imagination and inspire us to act in ways that hard data cannot.
Persuasion, influence and change lie at the heart of business activity and storytelling is fast turning out to be a tool that leaders worldwide have begun to use widely as a part of their communications strategy.
So what are some of the rules for a crafting a good story that sticks? Here, I list a few.
A good story engages emotions. People argue with you in their heads when you present an idea, concept or a statistics. But they appeal to your emotions. Be authentic and do not phone it in.
KISS - Keep it Short and Simple! When it comes to higher-level cognitive tasks, our brains cannot process more than a single piece of incoming information at a time. In the video above, Jobs says that is he will tell 3 stories – no big deal! Tailor the length of your story to the needs and the structure of your audience or listener.
Use visual aids. Ever heard of death by PowerPoint? You get the point J To illustrate further, one of my Professors from Columbia Business School who taught a very popular course on Creativity & Innovation never had any text on the slides he presented. They only had pictures. And we remained focused on what he spoke as we were curious as to what was coming up next.
Don’t weave a story in for the sake of it. Tailor the content to the context and ensure that there is a compelling message to be derived from the same. And back up the story with facts and logic to be convincing.
When we listen, we listen through our “filters”. Simply put, we hear through our experiences, desires, and a ‘reward and threat’ system that our brain naturally reacts to. We keep what we think is relevant for us and ignore the rest. One of the best ways to get your audience’s filters down is to open a conversation with a story. It piques interest, arouses curiosity and keeps them listening for the gold.
As John Kotter, Harvard Business School professor, and author of ‘Leading Change’ said, – “Over the years I have become convinced that we learn best—and change—from hearing stories that strike a chord within us…Those in leadership positions who fail to grasp or use the power of stories risk failure for their companies and for themselves.”
