The Four Truths of the Storyteller by Peter Guber

 The Four Truths of the Storyteller by Peter Guber

For the leader, storytelling is action-oriented—a force for turning dreams into goals and then into results.

Reflecting on the lessons and ideas from our conclave, I’ve distilled four kinds of truth found in an effective story.

• Truth to the Teller

Authenticity, as noted above, is a crucial quality of the storyteller. He must be congruent with his story—his tongue, feet, and wallet must move in the same direction. The consummate modern shaman knows his own deepest values and reveals them in his story with honesty and candor.

• Truth to the Audience

There’s always an implicit contract between the storyteller and his audience. It includes a promise that the listeners’ expectations, once aroused, will be fulfilled. Fulfilling this promise is what I mean by “truth to the audience.”

Truth to the audience has a number of practical implications for the craft of storytelling.

1. First, you’ll want to try your story out on people who aren’t already converted, to get a realistic sense of how your real audience might respond. 
2. Second, you’ll need to identify your audience’s emotional needs and meet them with integrity. 
3. Third, you’ll want to tell your story in an interactive fashion, so people will feel they’ve participated in shaping the story experience. “Everyone wants to be a star, or at least to feel that the story is talking to or about him personally,”Encourage your people to join your journey, your quest, and reach the goal that lies at its end.
4. The ending of a great narrative is the first thing the audience remembers. The litmus test for a good story is not whether listeners walk away happy or sad. Rather, it’s whether the ending is emotionally fulfilling, an experience worth owning, a great “aha!”

• Truth to the Moment

A great storyteller never tells a story the same way twice. Instead, she sees what is unique in each storytelling experience and responds fully to what is demanded. 

• Truth to the Mission

A great storyteller is devoted to a cause beyond self. That mission is embodied in his stories, which capture and express values that he believes in and wants others to adopt as their own. Thus, the story itself must offer a value proposition that is worthy of its audience.