Once Upon A Time
When was the last time you heard someone tell you a good story? Think about your colleagues, friends and family – are there any great storytellers in the group?
In business, stories are critical because they persuade, help us understand how things work or why things matter. Many business leaders are accomplished storytellers. I often coach executives on storytelling techniques and just hosted a webinar for 50+ engineers on how tell a story. Of course the perfect form of storytelling is a … joke.
#WiseWords
“Storytelling is by far the most underrated
skill in business.”
Gary Vaynerchuk
Worth the Share
To build on the point, this article from Harvard Business Review explains what is happening in the brain when it comes to storytelling. Oxytocin releases in the brain which is connected to social bonding. Adding tension to stories is an effective way to improve connection, engagement and recall. To make sure you are on the right path ask the question, “why should they care?”.
Read on…
And Finally...
The storytelling framework made famous by PIXAR is from Kenn Adams, and it is just eight sentences. Try it. Flex your storytelling muscle. Fill in the second half of
each of the sentences below with an existing story or create a new one. Let me know how it goes:
• Once upon a time…
• Every day…
• But, one day…
• Because of that…
• Because of that…
• Because of that…
• Until finally…
• And, ever since then…
To learn more about my 1:1 executive leadership coaching, custom workshops, the Career Transition program or just to connect, you can reach me at info@mjrcac.com