{"id":889,"date":"2010-10-06T21:02:06","date_gmt":"2010-10-07T04:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/?p=889"},"modified":"2010-10-09T14:58:34","modified_gmt":"2010-10-09T21:58:34","slug":"the-power-of-storytelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/the-power-of-storytelling\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power Of Storytelling"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BoyStorytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today<\/em>.
\n\u2014Robert McKee<\/p>\n

Stories have power. They delight, enchant, touch, teach, recall, inspire, motivate, challenge. They help us understand. They imprint a picture on our minds. Want to make a point or raise an issue? Tell a story. \u2014<\/em> Janet Litherland<\/p>\n

Stories are all around us.\u00a0 They are what move us, make us feel alive, and inspire us. Our appetite for stories is a reflection of the basic human need to understand patterns of life \u2014 not merely as an intellectual exercise but as a personal, emotional experience. Stories are the way to reach out to people and emotionally connect.<\/p>\n

Yet most of us are used to the business-as-usual approach to communicating ideas, looking at the umpteenth Powerpoint bullet list or Word document. We may even build presentations that we ourselves<\/em> wouldn\u2019t want to sit through.\u00a0 Why do we do that? How is it that we such expert story consumers that we can confidently walk out of a movie after only a few minutes, but we often fail to recognize both the importance of a good story and the weakness of our own approaches to communication when it’s our turn on the stage? What happens if we move beyond business-as-usual, and start building content that is engaging and powerful, by harnessing the energy of the well-told story?<\/p>\n

The research we did to write\u00a0The Dragonfly Effect<\/em> showed us that the power of a story is a profound one: it can help you connect with and move your audience, and make your material more memorable. (And over here at Camp Dragonfly, we are always reminding ourselves of this and work to make more meaningful connections with our intended audience.)\u00a0 Maya Angelou once said, \u201cPeople will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” And what\u2019s the best way to make people feel?\u00a0 By telling a compelling story.<\/p>\n

So, how do you go about constructing a story?\u00a0 There are some easy steps to follow to get started.\u00a0 First, establish your starting point by asking yourself these basic questions: Who is the audience? What is your goal in telling your story? Are you persuading someone to invest in your company?\u00a0 Are you trying to gain buy-in for an idea among your co-workers?\u00a0 Are you trying to inspire people to support a cause, an individual, or save someone\u2019s life?<\/p>\n

If you’re trying to do any of these, consider the below guideposts for good storytelling.<\/p>\n

Seven Tips for Storytelling<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Stories are about people.<\/strong> People connect with other people, so make sure you focus your story on the real-life characters of your story.\u00a0 Even if your organization (a) is devoted to saving flora and\/or fauna, (b) toils in the dense thicket of policy change, or (c) helps other organizations work more effectively, human beings are still driving the action.\u00a0 So focus on the people involved.\u00a0 People are what serve as the audience\u2019s guide through the story, and what an audience will connect with.<\/li>\n
  2. Let your characters speak for themselves<\/strong>.\u00a0 An important part of storytelling is making the story personable and relatable.\u00a0 When characters speak to each other in a story, it lends immediacy urgency and authenticity to the piece. So use direct quotes and let characters speak in idiosyncratic voices, lending credibility to the dialogue.<\/li>\n
  3. Audiences bore easily<\/strong>.\u00a0 Let\u2019s face it: these days, our attention spans are strained and unless you’re keeping people interested, you are wasting your breath. So when telling a story, get them engaged: make them wonder \u201cwhat happens next?\u201d or \u201chow is this going to turn out?\u201d\u00a0 As the people in your story pursue their goal, they must run into obstacles, surprises, or something that makes the audience sit up and take notice.<\/li>\n
  4. Stories stir up emotions<\/strong>.\u00a0 Human beings are not inclined to think about things they don’t care about.\u00a0 Stories stir emotions not to be manipulative, not simply for melodramatic effect, but to break through the white noise of information that continuously inundates us and to deliver the message:\u00a0this is worth your attention<\/em>.<\/li>\n
  5. Stories don\u2019t tell<\/strong>: they show.<\/strong> Show don\u2019t tell is the most fundamental maxim of storytelling, and for good reason.\u00a0 Your audience should see a picture, feel the conflict, and become more involved with the story \u2013 not just be receptacles for a long list of facts.<\/li>\n
  6. Stories have at least one \u201cmoment of truth.\u201d<\/strong> The best stories show us something about how we should treat ourselves, others, or the world around us.\u00a0 Call it an \u201cAha\u201d moment \u2013 that point when your story conveys a message that really makes your audience say, \u201cYes! That\u2019s a powerful idea.\u201d<\/li>\n
  7. Stories have a clear meaning.<\/strong> When the final line is spoken, your audience should know exactly why they took this journey with you.\u00a0 In the end, this may be the most important rule of all.\u00a0 If your audience can\u2019t answer the question, \u201cWhat was the story all about?\u201d it won\u2019t matter if you followed rules one through six.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This last point is the most important. \u00a0Nancy Duarte refers to it the \u201cSTAR moment\u201d (Something To Always Remember): What do you want the audience to feel?\u00a0 What do you want the audience to remember? What was the critical moment in the story? \u00a0Make sure you know what message you want your audience to come away with, so that the story you\u2019ve told is one your audience can retell, too. \u00a0For more insight, see Slideology <\/a>and Resonate<\/a>, two remarkable books about visual storytelling.<\/p>\n

    What\u2019s the secret to telling a great story?\u00a0 Step out from the background, get ahead of the numbers, and put a name, face, and some personality behind your effort and you will see increased engagement. Harness the power of the personal. People forget facts, but they never forget a great story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today. \u2014Robert McKee Stories have power. They delight, enchant, touch, teach, recall, inspire, motivate, challenge. They help us understand. They imprint a picture on our minds. Want to make a point or raise an issue? Tell a story. \u2014 Janet Litherland Stories are … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “The Power Of Storytelling”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[12,11],"class_list":["post-889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-storytelling","tag-how-to","tag-storytelling-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BBCq-el","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1031,"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889\/revisions\/1031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dragonflyeffect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}