Why storytelling works

Visual learners appreciate the mental pictures storytelling evokes. Kinesthetic learners remember the emotional connections and feelings from the story.

Stories stick Storytelling also helps with learning because stories are easy to remember. Organizational psychologist Peg Neuhauser found that learning which stems from a well-told story is remembered more accurately, and for far longer, than learning derived from facts and figures. Kendall Haven, author of Story Proof and Story Smart, considers storytelling serious business for business.

He has written:. Your goal in every communication is to influence your target audience change their current attitudes, belief, knowledge, and behavior. Information alone rarely changes any of these. Research confirms that well-designed stories are the most effective vehicle for exerting influence. Stories about professional mistakes and what leaders learned from them are another great avenue for learning.

From the earliest recorded history, storytelling was a method used by cavemen to communicate, educate, share, and connect. Storytelling is a powerful method for learning. As marketers, we should always be seeking to learn more about the world we live in, the brands that we represent, and the consumers that we serve. One of the things that is unique about stories is that they transmit knowledge and meaning.

We learn from observations, first-hand experiences, and by sharing those experiences through stories. Storytelling can be a powerful tool that enables marketers to understand what is going on in the marketplace and what that means for the customer, consumer, society, brand, and company. In addition to being an important strategic tool, storytelling can be an important tactical tool that lets marketers engage consumers in a fragmented media world.

Because there is such media fragmentation, consumers are not just looking for different experiences but different delivery. Why should a consumer give you their time?

Any intelligent person can sit down and make lists. It takes rationality but little creativity to design an argument using conventional rhetoric. The man purchased the object for. An anomaly? Like a magician, each story he tells triggers one of three hormonal responses in your mind: dopamine focus, motivation and memory , oxytocin trust, generosity and bonding or endorphins creativity.

You can physically experience this yourself by watching the video:. In a three-minute video, Saroo Brierley was accidentally separated from his family at a young age and raised by adoptive parents. As an adult, he used Google Earth, to piece together his origins and find his family. Importantly, Mr. Brierly is the focus of the story, not Google or a product. This video was just one of many masterful pieces Google has produced. The video is in essence, a case study, that uses storytelling techniques.

It was part of a series of short Hollywood-style films. The UK marketing trade publication, The Drum summed it up as follows:. In the series, Slater systematically hacks a company from the mailroom to the boardroom through overlooked vulnerabilities and poorly secured printers and PCs. Genuinely hard people make no effort. So, a story that embraces darkness produces a positive energy in listeners? We follow people in whom we believe. Instead of communicating via spin doctors, they lead their actors and crews through the antagonism of a world in which the odds of getting the film made, distributed, and sold to millions of moviegoers are a thousand to one.

They appreciate that the people who work for them love the work and live for the small triumphs that contribute to the final triumph. CEOs, likewise, have to sit at the head of the table or in front of the microphone and navigate their companies through the storms of bad economies and tough competition. To get people behind you, you can tell a truthful story. If you have a grand view of life, you can see it on all its complex levels and celebrate it in a story.

A great CEO is someone who has come to terms with his or her own mortality and, as a result, has compassion for others. This compassion is expressed in stories. Take the love of work, for example. Years ago, when I was in graduate school, I worked as an insurance fraud investigator.

When I spoke to him, he was waiting to have a titanium plate inserted into his head. The man had been grievously injured, but the company thought he was a fraud. In spite of that, he remained incredibly dedicated. All he wanted was to get back to work. He knew the value of work, no matter how repetitive.

He took pride in it and even in the company that had falsely accused him. How wonderful it would have been for the CEO of that car company to tell the tale of how his managers recognized the falseness of their accusation and then rewarded the employee for his dedication. The company, in turn, would have been rewarded with redoubled effort from all the employees who heard that story.

How do storytellers discover and unearth the stories that want to be told? The storyteller discovers a story by asking certain key questions. First, what does my protagonist want in order to restore balance in his or her life? Desire is the blood of a story. Desire is not a shopping list but a core need that, if satisfied, would stop the story in its tracks. Next, what is keeping my protagonist from achieving his or her desire? Forces within? Personal conflicts with friends, family, lovers?

Social conflicts arising in the various institutions in society? Physical conflicts? The forces of Mother Nature? Lethal diseases in the air?