MINDING OUR STORIES

With stories now becoming the center of what we do, everyone has an opinion about best ways, best techniques, best values.

Visual storytellers insist on incorporating principles like authenticity, relevancy, sensory and archetype.

Community organizers, long-time astute power users of tales, propose three interlocking circles:  the story of self, the story of now, and the story of us.

And (not to be forgotten) corporate types espouse messaging and expression as part of a strategy that considers goal and audience front and center.

To be honest, everyone’s right.  And wrong.

A brain researcher (Princeton neuroscientist Uri Hasson, to be precise) is showing us new ways to think about creating compelling narratives. 

Which is:  It’s all about how our brains react and respond to stories. 

In a series of incredibly complicated analyses and tests, he and his team reveal that different people respond in remarkably similar ways to great stories, no matter what the media.  Using MRIs and other medical technologies, the scientists prove that the best of storytellers have gotten into our minds and altered them in some predictable ways.  Even better:  That the storyteller somehow makes the listener’s/viewer’s brain match his/her own.

You heard it here first:  We predict soon we’ll be taking our ads, messaging, and digital promos to the docs for brain imagery … not just copy-testing.

BUY THE BOOK ...

The casual era of business may soon be gone.

[Except, of course, for Silicon Valley.]

Suit jackets are the new ‘hoodie.’  Remote workers are being asked to spend at least one or two days in the office.  Face to face conversations are gradually replacing texting … and smartphone emails.

One thing that isn’t changing (and one we believe should change):  Overly formal, non-conversational, stiff writing.

How to recognize it?  It won’t sound like a real person.  It quietly screams ‘I’m self-conscious about what I say.”  And it relies on our favorite consultant-ese to communicate.  [Let’s vote out phrases and words like ‘best practices,’ ‘leverage,’ even ‘iconic.’  See our previous writings on those subjects.]

Understand, please:  We’re not advocating the loose lips kind of communication, where texting reigns and periods are invisible.  Or the type that insists on using abbreviations and emoji for delicate topics.  Buttoning up way-too-informal dialogue is okay by us.

What we are promoting is communication that is clear and reflects how people talk, write, and interact.  A narrative that tells a story, in language accessible to everyone.  A document that sells, yet sticks to the facts.  Video that is simple, compelling, and causes us to do or believe something. 

Seriously.  Is that harder than we think?

MAKING STORIES MATTER

Every person has a story.

So, too, every corporation.

What will make the difference, as marketers and communicators insist, is how we articulate and tell the story.

Of late, we’ve been mesmerized by Marshall Ganz, a lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School and a not-necessarily-well-known labor organizer, who worked for the likes of Cesar Chavez, SNCC (a Boomer alert!), behind the scenes at President Obama’s first election campaign, and other transformational initiatives.  His story point of view relies on three - and only three - elements:  the story of self (why we’re called on to do what we do), the story of us (what the organization has been called to do, a/k/a vision, mission and values), and the story of now – our challenges, our choices, and our hopes.

It’s a powerful angle, these three elements, one that many message platforms and business narratives don’t capture simply enough.  Which begs the question, or many of them:

              How often do we edit our stories – explaining how we are finding a better path?

              Are our message platforms as powerful as the real story we can tell?

Do we, can we thoroughly explain what it means to be our organization, looking to the future through our past and present lenses?

If a story is intended to help people cope with change, eliminate the FUDs (fear, uncertainties, and doubts), uncomplicate the complex, and persuade, then there’s a real mandate to objectively review our stories often.  After all, change happens both inside and outside our worlds; we need to make sense of those events and teach each other what they mean through our stories.

No question, it takes real courage to edit a decades-old narrative, refreshing it to reflect the here and now, with authenticity and candor.  The questions then lie with you, our readers:  Are you ready for that challenge?  And how difficult has that path been?

ONCE UPON A TIME

Much has been written of late about stories and storytelling.

Mel and Pat Ziegler, founders of Banana Republic and serial entrepreneurs, narrate their concept’s early days (BGB, before The Gap buy-out) in Wild Company.

Kentuckian (and former Pittsburgh Pirates player) J.Peterman, no newbie to the art of romance, re-started his eponymous catalog in the early 2000s and is, fingers crossed, succeeding this second time around.  In fact, his newest wrinkle is an online travel adventure bulletin board, building a community for sharing off-beat customer experiences.

Forward-thinking marketers are declaring that do-good promotions are passé, trumped by experiential marketing … and, you got it, stories.

But who’s telling stories?  More, who’s telling them well … and authentically?

Other than actors, of course – and anyone who’s been schooled in presentations (sometimes) and improvisation (occasionally). 

Those of us whose professions rely on tugging hearts and plying emotion – with the whole truth and nothing but  – are, quite frankly, not always so adept at spinning tales.  We forget about protagonists and antagonists.  Rush through the narrative because time is limited.  Ignore the intake of breaths around the plot and the climax and denouement.   And don’t rehearse the actual delivery.

It’s as important inside a business as it is in talking products or services with real-life buyers.  Entertainment for a reason (not for frivolity’s sake) tells our rapt audiences as much as possible, gets them to experience the event through different lenses, underscores a point without preaching, and, in short, screams “genuineness” with a purpose, memorably.  Storytelling’s an art … and an important element of persuasion. 

Which MBA or higher-ed institution will be the first to pioneer that idea in its curricula?