Leadership Conversation: Art & Science of Storytelling

Introduction

Stories provoke the imagination. Stories can preach, teach, and make you cry, laugh, entertain, inspire, encourage and challenge people on their worldview. Stories can also reiterate a key point and drive people to take action.

Experts say storytelling is virtually the most effective way to not only capture human attention, but to get people to remember. Something in our hardwiring actually hypnotizes us when we hear the words: “Let me tell you a story ...”

Storytelling is a powerful tool that business and marketers need to know how to harness and once they do, the benefits are enormous. Neuro-economist, Paul J Zak’s experiments demonstrated that character-driven stories with emotional content result in a better understanding of the key points a speaker wishes to make and enable better recall of these points weeks later.  He advises business people to begin every presentation with a compelling, human scale story.

There is an art as well as a science to great storytelling. From the evolution perspective, emotional simulation is the foundation for empathy and is particularly powerful for social creatures like humans because it allows us to rapidly predict if people around us are angry or kind, dangerous or safe, friend or foe. Research shows that a skillful story line changes the activity of people’s brains because storytelling evokes a strong neurological response, triggering neurochemical activities, which enhance connectivity and relationships.

There are two key aspects to an effective story:-

1) It must capture and hold our attention.

2) Then it “transports” us into the characters’ world.

This program teaches the art & science of storytelling by introducing a special narrative structure propagated by renowned nineteenth German novelist, Gustav Freytag.  

Program Audience

This program is for people who want to motivate, inspire, entertain, influence, and help others change or drive a point home. It is targeted for everyone – teachers, preachers, parents, grandparents, managers, marketers, mentors, leaders and such.

Program Objectives

At the end of the program, participants would be able to:

·  Explain why storytelling is more effective than lectures or fact sharing in persuasive communication

·  Describe the formula of great storytelling

·  Utilize a narrative structure to create a compelling story

Program Contents:

Module 1: Why storytelling is more effective than a power point presentation or lecture:

·  Oldest form of human communication

·  Cuts across culture and languages

·  Business case for storytelling

Module 2: The DNA of great storytelling

·  Characteristic of a great story – blending art & science

·  Formula of effective storytelling - introducing the Freytag Pyramid as a narrative structure

Module 3: Using the Freytag structure to create and tell a compelling story

·  Skill Building Exercise

·  Feedback session

Ideal number of participant: 8 - 12

Program duration: 1 day (non-residential)