Stories naturally generate metaphors and visual imagery. People have emotional responses to stories as their “resistance” falls which makes it a more memorable and influential experience. We can literally picture the world being described as we are invited into the story teller’s world. More parts of our brain are activated when we hear a story and we experience the world the story teller is trying to convey in a more vivid way. Just because it’s a cliché, doesn’t make it less true! Stories help us to ‘see’ the world from the perspective of other people. Rather the look for flaws in arguments we are more likely to respond to the emotions and the experiences we hear. With stories, however, different parts of our brains process the information. ![]() We tend to look for the flaws in the point of view presented to us. Presentations, lists, bullet points and logical argumentation are great but provoke the natural critic in all of us. ![]() Stories are one of the most important approaches we have for communicating with each other in order to understand each other’s perspectives. We started by people simply sharing the story of why they had joined Oxfam Through sharing their own stories and what mattered to them, they realised how important personal stories were and how the act of sharing these helped them relate to each other. But, despite the narrative containing powerful imagery and compelling anecdotes, people struggled to translate this into something that helped people connect with Oxfam in a more meaningful way.īy changing the emphasis to ‘sharing’ rather than ‘telling’ stories, we were able to generate a narrative that was capable of motivating people and resonating with stakeholders. Oxfam GB found this after they developed a narrative that they thought would help their people to tell others what Oxfam really stands for. Most of us at some stage of our working lives will have received corporate communications that have left them cold. Many organisations have a corporate or brand narrative, that has been thoughtfully worked up, but are then disappointed to find that it fails to resonate with people. If the story is honest, has meaning for the storyteller and is relevant to others’ experience, it will resonate with them. ![]() People naturally tell stories, they do not need to be great raconteurs to do this. Preoccupation with developing storytelling ‘skills’ risks losing the authenticity that comes from people simply talking from the heart. After all, storytelling is one of the most ancient artforms, something all societies have been doing for centuries. There is a danger of creating too much mystique around storytelling by over-complicating it and worrying too much about developing story structure and metaphor. Stories give us a common language and, through their symbolic dimension, can help people talk about meaning and purpose, in a way that is often hard to do in a corporate setting. The sharing of stories has a powerful ability to bring people from all levels and disciplines together, help them understand each other’s perspectives and find common ground. But this misses one of the most powerful dimensions of stories – they are things that people, as social animals, have always shared and used to communicate deeper meaning. ![]() Storytelling is often seen as a communication tool to be used by leaders to influence an audience.
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