In the world of business storytelling (and generally in presentations), there’s a prevailing belief that starting with a compelling hero story is the surefire way to captivate your audience. It can be effective, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Every story has its time and place — just like you sometimes need a spreadsheet and other times you need a word processor.
Why the Hero Story Approach Is So Appealing
Let’s keep it simple 🙂 The main attraction of the hero story is its simplicity and emotional appeal. You introduce a relatable character facing challenges; the audience identifies with them; the character has a lot of struggles; the character wins in the end; the audience feels good about themselves by association. This structure is inherently engaging, drawing listeners into a journey they can connect with. No mystery there to be honest!
You know it makes sense ‘cos just about every TV drama/entertainment/big movie has the same story. Superhero movies are big right now and we feel good when the Avengers win. Simple!
It’s inspirational and gives us a warm-fuzzy feeling. If all you need to do is that, go for it (but see below about the problems of how you do that!)
So when isn’t it the right fit in a business storytelling situation?
While the hero story can be powerful, it contains the seeds of its own destruction (points if you recognise the reference there! 🙂 ) By definition, a big hero is a biiiiiiig hero — whether it’s a person or a business or whatever — and if the gap between the hero and how people who hear the story think of themselves is too big it actually backfires. Big heroes do the impossible: it’s pretty much part of the job description.
But that means that if you use it in a business storytelling setting you get the “that’s okay for them but I’m just…” response.
Here’s a personal example. My gym does a free HIIT class on Saturday mornings and everyone who’s been tells me stories of how good it is. Ohhhh and it’s free… what the problem? Well one of the stories they tell is about the person who takes it. He’s a retired SAS soldier. And that, right there is, where my head goes “oh heck no! I’m not going to that class. He’s awesome and I’m not. I can’t possibly keep up!”. And so I don’t go, for fear of looking like an idiot.
Don’t think that applies to just people too. I’ve helped plenty of start ups who couldn’t see how they related to “the big boys” and the only reason was that they were the big boys. The story they told themselves had too big a gap between where they were and where they thought the big boys were. Every single bit of business storytelling about the big boys simply backfired!
Sidebar>>> when discussing technical data or complex concepts, a straightforward approach may be more effective than a drawn-out story. This is the perfect time to use “Ten Second Stories” to back up the data and increase its impact.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying the big hero story isn’t useful in some circumstances — the inspiration can be handy — but I’ve seen it backfire in almost every situation I’ve seen it tried… particularly in business meetings and particularly if the storyteller isn’t held in very high regard by the audience already.
At the other end of the spectrum is the ten second story by the way, and that’s not universally useful either…
The Takeaway
If you want to have the momentary “oh my word” moment in your business storytelling by all means try the big hero story. On the other hand, if you want to have an impact that lasts past the end of your presentation think long and hard. The ideal story (for business storying this is, not for entertainment etc) is one which is a “stretch” from where the audience thinks they are right now, but not a “strain”.
By analogy, going back to the gym… if I can lift a 15Kg dumbbell easily give me an 18Kg but not a 25Kg weight, no matter how awesome it looks when you pick it up.