When you want to tell a compelling story: 9 tactics to keep in mind
A topic (and skill) that keeps coming up in my work life is the ability to tell a story in a compelling way. I love a quote from Margaret Atwood, who wrote The Handmaid’s Tale along with many other books: "You’re never going to kill storytelling because it’s built in the human plan. We come with it.”
Storytelling is something we don’t even know we’re doing. It is just so ingrained into how we communicate and relate to one another — far before social media where I can share my entire life story for free or, say, in a blog post. Stories support our assertions, can make any topic more personal and can build a strong bridge to an audience. We tell stories for many reasons.
To educate
To relate / build relationships
To help others
To allow others to feel they are not alone - establish community
To influence or persuade a decision
To convince there is an issue or opportunity
To make an appeal for something - emotion, commitment, acknowledgment, money
Stories go a long way to answer questions to any of the above: Why should you care; what was the impact; how does this affect someone or something; what does it look like when we don’t take action; what does it look like when we do take action (if you piloted a concept).
When I was finding my footing as a professional, I didn’t just focus on my job. I volunteered at many organizations to give back to my community. One of my first, professional volunteer opportunities led me to join a group of high-powered women to share the mission of the organization I was volunteering for. While I was not there to raise funds, that certainly was a hopeful result down the road.
I joined the group at a woman’s pretty expensive home and very succinctly and clearly talked about the organization. I shared the mission. I shared statistics. I shared what we did and how we did it. I talked about the importance of our supporters. They asked logistical questions, which I could answer. They asked about how money was used, which I could also answer. Then, one woman asked a question I did not have an answer for. The question was: “Can you tell us a story about how this organization helped one person?”
My jaw dropped a little (I hope not visibly). I thought…oh my gosh. I don’t have any real life stories to share. While statistics are compelling and what we do is wonderful, I never thought to share the impact in the form of a personal story. It was a huge lesson for me to know that personal stories are powerful and evoke emotions.
I ended up recalling one story I learned when I joined the organization and shared that. From that point forward, any volunteer work I did involved capturing and knowing stories. Data is important. We hear about this every day. Stories are equally as important for making a case no matter how small.
In a professional setting, we can’t forget that telling our story can be complex with many facets. Depending on your purpose for telling stories, you might adjust your approach. However, there are nine items that I think are important to storytelling.
Be authentic
Whether you making a pitch to a board or in a living room of potential donors, you need to be real. Being authentic means to not be fake or copied. I think the hardest thing about being authentic in a work situation is you want to tailor your story and you may even take input from your boss on how to tell your story. I personally believe these are great inputs to craft your story to your audience but the style should be you. Everyone has a unique way of delivering their story. Stay true to that. Don’t try to be someone else. You will come off an inauthentic and possibly even untrustworthy as a result.
Show vulnerability
A close cousin to authenticity is vulnerability. Brene Brown has made a life’s work about this topic and I highly recommend any book written by her. Vulnerability is a tough topic to discuss within a work concept. Vulnerable can sometimes mean weak or unsure. Vulnerability simply means to share and be open, in my opinion. To be authentic, you need to be a little bit vulnerable. We should not feel this is a weakness. To be vulnerable means we are open to conflict or being challenged. We can be empathetic and see through others’ eyes. When telling a story, this quality is key to be compelling and engaging. If you come off as closed, you won’t win any hearts nor minds.
Being overly positive doesn’t always ring true
When telling a story, being too rosy doesn’t feel authentic to people. I am naturally a realist; some would call me a pessimist. I don’t think I am that negative but I don’t believe we need to be 100% positive about everything either. In the workplace, we are concerned about not appearing negative or being a downer. But, I think to sweep things under the rug and not address what isn’t working, is a missed opportunity. If our stories are just too positive, then there is no conflict or catalyst for change or decision. It doesn’t mean we can’t point out the positive or what is going right but we need to balance our concern with being not perceived as negative as someone who needs to paint a picture that motivates action.
Offer some resolve
Now, in a true story, you need to offer some resolution to the conflict. You can’t leave people hanging in suspense or in gloom and doom. If you are painting a rather worrisome picture, you need to then help people come to conclusion of how we can change it. Your story needs to inspire questions, such as: How can we work together to turn something around? How can their support make a difference? As humans, living in conflict is very uncomfortable. You need to offer people relief through our stories.
Ask questions and engage
Not to be ignored, is the fact that even if you are telling a story, engage your audience. Back in that boardroom, you can at least engage them with a call-to-action question at the end. I like to ask if the data or story I am sharing is resonating with them. Ask if someone else has a similar experience? Or, do they have an alternate viewpoint? We, oftentimes, show up with multi-slide PowerPoint presentations and talk at people. I am guilty of this myself. To truly tell a story, it can’t be one-sided. This should be a group experience. Next time you deliver a presentation, think about how to sneak in engaging questions to generate dialogue around the story.
Show relation
The number one goal of any story is to relate to other people. The more you can relate, the more you can discuss and possibly agree. Stories need to be personal. We are not always comfortable with this in workplace but showing how something is impacting people - employees or clients - can be a very compelling way to influence a group on your idea. I harken back to my living room experience with the high-powered women. They wanted a story to help them decide if they should give money. They understood the statistics but wanted the personal story to help them see that they can impact someone’s life. I think it is no different in the workplace. Leaders want to know how to help their teams and customers. We are all people. Numbers are important but so is personal impact.
Include data
In addition to personal stories, showing supporting data only strengthens a case. Data is powerful because it can be hard to argue with data. Of course, you can be challenged on how you got your numbers so be prepared for that. The key with data is to know exactly what to share. I see often that we share tons of data, which is overwhelming. We need to think about our story, the purpose for telling the story and then pick the numbers that will support our story. We may collect a lot of data but that does not mean we have to share it all. For example, if 75% of customers say they can’t navigate your website, well, then you have an undeniable problem. If you can tell a personal story about how this impacted a key customer anecdotally, that will only further support your story that we need to re-invent our website.
Use visuals as support
I left my pet peeve for last. I mentioned PowerPoint slides before. I am not anti-PowerPoint, although there are some leaders and organizations who are. I know of two companies where PowerPoint is actually banned. I wonder what that is like? I do think that slides or visuals should not duplicate your story but only serve in a supporting role. If you share data, then put the important numbers on a slide but leave the detail out of it. If you share a personal story, put up a photo that depicts this; don’t list bullet points that state exactly what you are gong to say. Oftentimes, we get asked to put every piece of information into a PowerPoint presentation. It almost cancels out the role of the presenter/storyteller. This should not be the case. I wish all organizations would band together and require slides to be what they were intended to be years ago — visual aids.
Telling stories is an art and a science as there are many formats to do this. My blog is a format, which you know if you read me weekly. I introduce a topic, share one or two stories, and list tactics to consider or act on to help relieve the problem. We need to approach our professional stories in an organized, intentional manner. We need to be ourselves, understand our audience and relate to people. The story isn’t about the slides; it is about relating to other humans. We can secure budgets through stories, we can start up a new project through stories, and we can influence large decisions through stories. The best stories I have heard have very few slides but have a real, engaging storyteller.