Putting Stories to Work

Story discovery is the foundation of business storytelling. By developing a keen eye that can discern stories from story imposters, and the ability to notice the many stories that constantly swirl around you, you will put yourself in the best possible position to find and tell stories that engage, influence and inspire.

’ve obviously also learned that it’s good to try and avoid death, so we notice stories about death or near-death experiences. It explains why there are so many TV programs that feature murder. When we hear about a death, we want to know how it happened so we can archive that story and then do our best to avoid a similar fate. Our species survives because of children, so we are also hardwired to notice stories about children in danger. Think about how quickly a story about a child in harm’s way goes to the top of the news cycle.

Then there are some story topics we are particularly drawn to: namely power, death, children’s safety and sex. These four topics strike a chord with our lizard brains—paying close attention to these issues has ensured our species’ survival, and as a result these topics make for sticky stories

spots stories when he has new experiences and he frames what he is going to say using stories. As a result, stories occur to him that can be retold for a business purpose. They might stem from something that happened that morning or from a lifetime of experience.

it is very difficult, if not impossible, to beat a story with just facts. What you need is a better story.

neuroscientists Greg Stephens, Lauren Silbert and Uri Hasson conducted a series of experiments which revealed that when someone hears a story, their brain lights up in the same way as the speaker’s brain when they are telling the story. In the researchers’ words: ‘Speaker and listener brain activity exhibit widespread coupling during communication’.20

Experiences continually wash over us every day, but only the ones that evoke an emotion get noticed. And of the experiences that get noticed, only a few are thought about and translated into a story that explains what happened. Over time, these accumulate into a repertoire of experience-based stories. It is this catalogue of significant, emotionally evocative experiences, framed by stories, that guides and reinforces our decision-making practices.

most successful people are givers—though not to the extent of being a doormat whom others walk all over.

One of your jobs as a leader should be to find and share these stories of progress, to make apparent what largely remains invisible to most of your people. Just talking to employees about this will give them the strong sense that you care about what they do. It will also help you keep a finger on the pulse of what’s happening in your area.

Strategy stories are powerful because people can picture the events, remember them and retell them. A well-developed strategy story not only answers the ‘Why?’ questions but also conveys emotion in a way that inspires people to take action in accordance with the new strategy.