For business storytelling, don’t start with the hero story
Starting your presentation with an epic “big hero story” is one of the big ideas in business storytelling. It’s also tosh…
Storytelling for leading change
Change projects are notoriously dodgy. Speakwise suggests about 70% of change projects fail and that those statistics haven’t changed much in decades. The question is why it’s so poor — and how storytelling can help. Business storytelling for the win! Using the big hero story Let’s face it, this is the default of lots of …
Busting a business storytelling myth: The Big Hero Story
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 …
Read more “Busting a business storytelling myth: The Big Hero Story”
What is business storytelling?
What is business storytelling? Why does it matter? I define “business storytelling” as the process of scientifically and tactically using stories to aid your business — not just randomly telling stories about your business. It’s particularly useful in presentations, as well as marketing, and large sections of management and leadership. That’s it. All the other stuff you read online …
Why the bad guys are using business storytelling
We talk a lot about stories being a great way to persuade and influence – and quite rightly so. The problem is that the bad guys are using the same tactics, often better than the good guys. Why is it so hard to change people’s minds, even with stories.. and what can you do about …
Read more “Why the bad guys are using business storytelling”
Broadcasting your stories
Here’s a hard truth I took a while to learn… Don’t think of your presentation as a broadcast or performance Of course it is, and you should never lose site of that for reasons I’ve explored in this very newsletter a million times, but there are times when that idea serves you badly. Firstly, if …
You are not your story! Unraveling the Myth of a Singular Story
You are not just one story. Ever heard someone say, “Find your story“? It’s a popular thing for trainers, coaches and so on at the moment. It means they can then sell you something to do just that. But “Finding your story” is based on the assumption that there’s one defining narrative that sums up …
Read more “You are not your story! Unraveling the Myth of a Singular Story”
We are the stories we tell
We are the stories we tell – or at least the stories that they tell about us. Let’s unpack both of those options. We are the stories we tell The stories we tell are either about us, or stories that we’ve chosen to tell about other people. Both say a lot about us because either …