Storytelling is a necessary ingredient in a speaker’s recipe for success. Stories work because they are able to connect a speaker’s unique experience to an audience’s universal truth. What starts as a personal recollection transforms itself on the way to the audience and is received as a shared perspective. This creates empathy for the speaker and gives validity to his/her concepts.
When developing a story, keep in mind the 4 features that combine to create interesting and relate-able anecdotes:
The Set Up: Who is the main character and what
is the situation they are in?
The
Challenge: What is the problem/conflict the main character in finds him/herself
in?
The Resolution: How does the story turn out? How
is the problem solved?
The Relevance: How do you answer the audience’s
main question, which is “So What?”?
Let me illustrate
with a story….
A few years ago I was on a small plane that was bouncing along
through extreme turbulence like it was a rock skipping over a pond. I was so
frightened that every time the plane hit a bump, I’d grip the sides of my seat and
scream, “Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.” And when the plane smoothed out, I’d exhale and relax.
Sitting across the
aisle from me was a boy who could not have been more than 6 years old. And EVERY
time the plane hit a bump and I shrieked, “Ahhhhhhhh”, the kid would lift his
arms in the air and yell, “Wheeeeee”, just like he was on a roller coaster.
I was both humbled and enlightened as I realized that life
had just slapped me in the face and said, “Pay attention.” I understood that
the boy and myself were both being given exactly the same information. The data
we used to judge our situation was exactly the same, yet our responses were completely
different from each other. How could that be? Because our beliefs about the situation
were different! And it is our beliefs about a situation, as expressed by our
self-talk, that drive our behavior, not the nature of the situation itself.
My lasting takeaway? If I am going to change the way I act
in a situation, I have to change my self-talk rather than try and change the
external situation.
- . The Set Up: Who is the main character and what is the situation? (I was on a turbulent plane ride)
- The Challenge: What is the problem/conflict the character finds him/herself in? (How come the boy is having fun and I’m so afraid?)
- The Resolution: How does the story turn out? How is the problem solved? (I understand about self-talk)
- So What?: (I now have a way to manage stress and deal with fear; I learned something about myself)
Now that you have the ingredients,
go cook up your own great stories!
Izzy Gesell (Izzy's website) is an organizational alchemist who helps individuals and
organizations transform their thinking from commonplace to extraordinary.
Through his keynotes, trainings, coaching and facilitated sessions, Izzy offers
imaginative, intuitive and immediately useful insights and programs. He is
skilled at delivering meaningful material in a way that makes participants
enjoy their time with him.
Izzy was one of the first to use Improv Theater concepts as tools for
personal and organizational learning. He is the author of Playing Along:
Group Learning Activities Borrowed From Improvisation Theater, a co-author
of Cancer & the Healing Power of
Play, a co-author of Humor Me: America’s Funniest Humorists on the Power
of Laughter, and a contributor of a chapter on Improvisation as a
facilitation tool in the IAF Group Facilitators Handbook. His video course for Lynda.com was their
first course shot before a live
audience. A second Lynda.com course, "Humor in the Workplace" was just released.
this is great!
ReplyDeletemitsubishi