THE
BUSINESS OF STORYTELLING A woman from the audience followed me into the hallway. "I think we're married to the same man," she said. Successfully fighting the urge to fire off the snappy reply, "Could be. I travel a lot," I simply smiled back. I'd heard this before. I'm introduced as a change-management expert who's married to a man who refuses to change anything. So, during my speech, I tell humorous stories about the resistance my husband puts up -- and how I've learned to handle his protests. After every speech, audience members come up to me to comment on my husband. Many recognize their co-workers or loved ones (or themselves!) in him, and some (like the woman whose own spouse's behavior so resembled mine) jokingly commiserate with me. The thing I find most intriguing about this phenomenon is that in my 20 years of professional speaking, no one has ever approached me after a program to say they most appreciated my second bullet point, or maybe my fifth bullet point. That's because they apparently don't remember them. But they do remember how to deal with change through the stories I tell. Why
is that? That's not to reject the value of facts, of course, but simply to recognize their limits in influencing people. Facts are neutral. Stories supplement analysis. People make decisions based on what facts mean to them, not on the facts themselves. Facts aren't influential until they mean something to someone. Good stories supply the context that gives facts meaning. Trying to influence people through scientific analysis, in communication terms, is a "push" strategy. It requires the speaker to convince listeners through cold, factual evidence. Storytelling is a "pull" strategy, in which listeners are invited to participate in the experience and to imagine themselves acting in the mental movie that the storyteller is presenting. Stories resonate with adults in ways that can bring them back to a childlike open-mindedness -- in which they are less resistant to new and different ideas. Compared to facts, stories are better for building community, capturing the imagination, and exerting influence. In the world of business, stories help employees understand the rich heritage of an organization. Stories can offer successful examples of dealing with change. Personal stories are powerful leadership tools for building trust. Humorous stories can ease tension. And, if you interview key staff, stories can capture their wisdom. Stories
can address universal human themes "Bob is Mr. Everything," Jane said. "He's intelligent, clever and has a very successful career. In fact, when I was with Bob, I felt like he was the most wonderful person in the world." "Then why did you marry Bill?" her friend asked. "Because, "Jane replied, "when I'm with Bill, I feel like I'm the most wonderful person in the world." Stories
can demonstrate how to approach your work "Most
people would think that cleaning houses for a living was a pretty
boring job. But I believe that if you had the right attitude, cleaning
houses could be intellectually stimulating. Let's say it takes you
four hours to clean a house, and you're doing three houses a day,
six days a week. That's 72 hours of really boring work and a pretty
sure recipe for burnout somewhere down the line. "And if you added to that goal the goal of being the best house-cleaner ever, then you really would be stretching your mind, the job wouldn't feel boring anymore and you probably wouldn't burn out because your own innovative thinking would keep you interested. "But then suppose you shifted gears again and said, 'Okay, now I'm going to clean each house in ten minutes!' That's where the real fun would begin for someone like me because I'd know I couldn't hit that target by merely tinkering with spatial tasking. I'd have to start thinking about new kinds of house-cleaning equipment -- or maybe even new kinds of houses that cleaned themselves. "That's the kind of thinking we're encouraging in our employees all of the time." Stories
can make values come alive The customer had purchased the suit that morning to wear at a meeting in another city the next day -- and then discovered the garment needed alterations. The Nordstrom saleswoman had promised to have the suite altered and delivered to him before he left town. She kept her promise. Stories
can grow into legends In the old Dallas Sportatorium, before the media and a crowd of employees, Kelleher and Herwald arm-wrestled to decide the user rights to a particular slogan. The Freibergs set the scene: "Down one aisle strode Herwald, a burly 37-year-old weight lifter, dressed in slacks and a dark-colored muscle shirt, wearing a menacing sneer and a 'Born to Raise Capital' tattoo on his massive right arm. Down the other, to the hair-raising trumpet blasts of the theme from 'Rocky,' strutted the skinny, white-haired, 61-year-old Kelleher, decked out in a white T-shirt, gray sweat pants under shiny red boxing shorts, a sling on his right arm and a cigarette dangling from his infectious grin, accompanied by a handler with a tray of airline-size bottles of Wild Turkey." Kelleher lost the battle, blaming a fractured wrist (injured, he claimed, while saving a little girl from being hit by a bus) combined with a week-long cold, a stubborn case of athlete's foot, and having accidentally over-trained by walking up a flight of steps. But he won the war. Herwald announced shortly after his victory that he had decided to let Southwest keep using the slogan "Just Plane Smart." Stories
can even be fables The heroine of the fable, Dot, is the leader of a team that's been put together to solve a mystery concerning a ghost and a little man. In the excerpt that follows, Dot and her "mentor," a talking bonsai tree, are meeting with Mr. Stonewall, a magpie who is the head of company archives. "Well, sir," Dot began, "since you are the company's chief archivist, what can you tell me about the ghost's history?" "Nothing," the magpie replied, instantly. Dot hesitated. "Nothing, sir?" "That is correct," the magpie said. "I don't understand," Dot said. "I'm sorry to hear that," the bird said, and chuckled wheezily. "But you just told me you know all about the ghost," Dot protested. "Indeed, I did." "So you must know about its history." "Indeed, I do." "Why won't you tell me, then?" Dot demanded. "Because, young woman, knowing and telling are two different things," the magpie said, importantly. "Oh," Dot said. Trying her best to sound like a leader, she added: "I'm afraid that isn't very helpful, Mr. Stonewall. My job, you see, is to discover how the ghost and the Little Man are damaging this company. And then to make them stop before next Monday morning. Which won't be possible without a great deal of help from you and the rest of the team!" "Bravo!" the bird croaked. "First-rate speech!" and applauded by clicking its talons together like castanets. After which it leaned even further back in its chair and gazed upwards into the dust for nearly a minute, thinking deeply or pretending to, anyway. Then: "Dorothy," it croaked, "you strike me as quite an acceptable person. Over-emotional, totally ignorant, but good-hearted and clearly not threatening. So I am going to break a lifelong rule and share a small piece of my wisdom with you. Specifically, a piece of wisdom I picked up from the old president when he was still alive and in charge here." The magpie paused and cleared his throat elaborately: "Stonewall," the old president used to say to me, "knowledge is like gold. Spend it and it becomes worthless. Keep it hoarded away and it will only increase in value." "In other words," Dot frowned, "you aren't going to tell me anything you know about the ghost." "Correct," Mr. Stonewall said, and smiled at her benignly. "Or about the Little Man." "Also correct." "You're going to keep it all to yourself, even though you know I'm here to help, because you think it's worth more that way."
And those are the very stories I'm collecting now. I've started research for a new book will take the lessons that Dot learned in GHOST STORY and test them in the real world. Although the new book will be written in a narrative format (no company names used), I'm looking for actual examples of successful collaboration. I'm especially interested in your experience with collaboration and knowledge sharing that achieved a goal that otherwise could not have been met: the obstacles that were overcome, how trust was built, and (most especially) what you personally gained from the experience.
Carol
Kinsey Goman Speaker,
Consultant, and Author of:
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