Tell to win by Peter Guber
Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the hidden power of story.
Historically stories have always been ignites of action, moving
people to do things.
- Move your listener’s hearts and their feet and wallet
will follow
- Data dumps are not stories - dump them, don’t tell them
- Story isn’t the icing on the cake, it is the cake
- Don’t leave home without it... your story, that is.
Former dean of UCLA’s school of theater, who co-taught the course
of navigating a Narrative World with the author, commented. “Stories put all
the key facts into an emotional context. The information in a story doesn’t
just sit there as it would in a logical proposition. Instead it is built to
create response”. And the building block of all compelling stories, whether
there are told in person, in the pages of a book, or via actors on a screen or
monitor, are challenge, struggle and resolution.
Here is how you should build a story:
- First, get your listener’s
attention with an unexpected challenge or question
- Next...give your listeners an
emotional experience by narrating the struggle to overcome that challenge
or to find the answer to the opening question.
- Finally... galvanize your listeners’
response with an eye-opening resolution that calls them to action.
Siegel who co directs UCLA’s Mindsight Institute and author of
books like ‘The developing Mind and the mindful brain’ broke down the essential
sequence of surprise as ‘expectation+violation of expectation’. Narratives
emerge from violations to expectations.
Challenge, struggle and resolution only give a story its shape.
What is the fuel that propels the vehicle? The fuel - the emotional transportation
- depends on four critical elements.
- True heroes are sympathetic and recognizable characters
- Drama gets your story moving
- You had me at ahhha
- The me-to-we factor
Why people are so enthralled by drama. Siegel pointed out that
emotions don’t occur spontaneously and it has to be aroused. You have to have
tension between expectation and uncertainty. Emotional tension drives you to
think it might go this way, but it might go that way and that makes you wonder,
what will happen next. The more you wonder what will happen next, the more you
pay attention. And the more attention you pay, the more you hear, notice and
retain.
- A purposeful story is a call to action—be sure to make
your call.
- A story without structure leaves your goal
unfulfilled.…
- Craft the beginning to shine
the light on your challenge or problem.
- Shape the middle around the
struggle to meet that challenge.
- End with a resolution that
ignites in the listener your call to action.
- Get your audience to step into your hero’s shoes.
- Lead from the heart, not the head.
- Employ the element of surprise.
- Successful stories turn “me” to “we”—align your
interests!
- Be sure your story tells what’s in it for them.
- You’re not done till they say, “Ahha! I got it!”
As per Chris Anderson, the editor in chief of Wired magazine,
commented. “Narrative is an imperfect tool, but incredibly powerful”.
The impact of a story is intensified during oral telling because
these cells are also turned on by the physical sounds, expressions, smells, and
movements of the people in the room. Both teller and listener feel this mirror
neuron effect. This two-way attunement of mirror neurons creates the optimal
state for telling a story. The value added by attunement suggests a major
advantage that business people lose when they communicate through documents and
media presentations instead communicate through documents and media
presentations instead of oral narrative.
Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropologist at Kansas State University,
described the significance of story in a verbal equation: meaning + memory =
knowledge-ability. Meaning, he said, emerges when we make connections between
bits of information.
The people who read the stories in booklets or newsletters or
watched them on video hardly mentioned them to their colleagues. This is not
same as storytelling. The more the audience trusted the speaker, the more they
trusted the authenticity of the telling and the greater its power to influence
them. “It wasn’t the story that was having the impact,” Steve realized, “but
oral storytelling.”
- You’re pre wired for story, but you must turn it on!
- The marketplace wants stories, so give them what they
want.
- Stories make facts and figures memorable, resonant, and
actionable.
- Ignite empathy in the room and face-to-face, and your
audience won’t just hear you, they’ll feel you!
- Purposeful storytelling isn’t show business, it’s good
business.
“If the lion doesn’t tell his story, the hunter will” is an
African saying.
- Own your back-story so it doesn’t sabotage you when you
tell your front story.
- Be active in your own rescue; confront the stories that
others are telling about you.
- Leverage the back-story that rules your listener; it
can be a powerful ally.
Whether you’re a CEO, salesperson, volunteer organizer, or small
business owner, your listeners will never fully connect to you, buy into your
proposition, or join your parade unless they can trust you. And only if they
respect your motives and empathize with you as a fellow human being will they
feel that trust. To tell a compelling story, then, you need to be authentic in
your passion for your goal, and that passion needs to be congruent with your
experience and commitment.
Authenticity is a powerful persuader. Whatever story you tell, if
you are perceived to be authentic, your audience will hear you empathetically
and be more likely to embrace your passion. When someone shows a genuine drive
to overcome all obstacles, that’s compelling, because to succeed you have to
have true conviction.
- To tell a great story, make
preparation your partner.
- Demonstrate authenticity and
congruence; they’re the rails on which your story rides.
- Show you’ve got skin in the
game.
- Aim for the heart of your
goal—emotionalize your offering. Be interested in what interests your listeners
and they’ll find your story interesting and your goal compelling.
- Remember, the context in which
you tell your story colors the story you tell.
- Be dialed in; your listener’s
prejudices can hijack even your best story.
The hero of a story is the character who makes the hard decisions
and actually feels meaningful change happen within himself.
In my courses at UCLA over the years, my graduate students often
ask where they can find source material for purposeful stories, given that
they’ve barely begun their careers. Based on my experience, I tell them that
narrative is always lurking, ready to give emotion to information, shape to
experience, and propulsion to purpose. But as organizational story guru Steve
Denning said at one of our narrative conclaves, the key is not to expect to find
a story fully born, perfectly framed and ready for use, but to constantly
stockpile fragments that have the potential to become constantly stockpile
fragments that have the potential to become stories. “Once you have enough
material to tell a story, then you have to perfect it.”
Thinking back over the stories I’ve told in my own career, I’ve
found that the most effective story material usually comes from
firsthand experience. When you narrate an event that has actually happened to
you, it’s natural to infuse your telling with the emotional highs, lows, and inflections you felt at the time, whether you were the hero or a
secondary participant in that drama. Your personal feeling will ignite your
listener's’ empathy and carry them along on your emotional journey. Plus,
personal experiences are easy to remember and tell with authenticity because
you lived them.
Finally, one of the richest sources of story material is history,
with its vast wealth of legends, myths, and true adventures.
- Heroes come in all shapes and sizes—teller, listener,
customer, product, location, and tribe; choose the hero that fits your
goal.
- Your first hand or witnessed experience is the best raw
material for your story.
- Use metaphors and analogies to fire up imagination and
illumination.
- Engage the powerful narratives in books, movies, and
history to emotionalize your call to action.
- Get yourself into state; it’s
about attitude, not aptitude.
- Bring high energy—the catalyst
for great storytelling.
- Your listeners may be one or
many, but they’re always an audience, and audiences expect experiences.
- Demonstrate vulnerability; it
isn’t a liability, it’s an asset.
- Persist, persist, persist to
turn “no” into “on.”
- Be aware that your body is
talking before your tongue moves.
- Capture your audience’s
attention first, fast, and foremost.
- Be interactive—engage your
audience’s senses early and often.
- Arouse your listener’s
curiosity.
- Choose carefully the props,
tools, and resources that support your tell.
- Listen actively; it’s a
dialogue, not a monologue.
- Be ready and willing to drop
your script when the situation calls for it—and it always calls for it.
- Surrender control and
proprietorship of your story; your audience has to own it to tell it
forward.
- Empower your audience to tell
your story forward.
- Create a multiplier effect.
Find the core audience who can be apostles for your message and encourage
them to tell your story through the power of their own words.
- In the face of adversity, be
willing to recast your story through the lens of your listeners’ new needs
while remaining authentic to your story’s core elements.
- Legacy stories are powerful and
enduring. Abandon them at your peril.
- Don’t rely solely on
state-of-the-art technologies to connect. It’s the state-of-the-heart
technology that’s the game changer when you tell your story in the room,
face-to-face.
- Be ambidextrous—emotionally
transport your listeners to your goal online and offline through the art
of the tell.
- Tell to Win! Use it well. Use
it purposefully. Use it to your greatest advantage.
To continue your journey and find
out more about how you can tell purposeful stories to connect, persuade, and
triumph through the hidden power of story, please visit www.telltowin.com.
Book referred in this book
The developing Mind and the mindful brain by Dan Siegel
The secret language of leadership and the leader's guide to
storytelling
Free and The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
http://www.psychalive.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Webinar-Mindsight-Dan-Siegel.pdf