“The highest-paid person in the first half of the next century will be the ‘storyteller.’ The value of products will depend on the story they tell. Nike and many other global companies are already mainly storytellers. That is where the money is — even today.” -Rolf Jensen, futurist and author of The Dream Society

I read that quote when Jensen’s book first came out in 1999.  As an artist, it captured my attention and called to me to consider a shift from information to imagination.  Storytelling is a form of communication that is common to everyone’s experience, but Jensen’s book showed me how it is becoming increasingly important as we face the large amounts of information that are now available to us. And I thought, “That’s good news for theater folk!”

Today, stories can be useful in many different ways.  They can be useful to plant seeds as in a Springboard Story.  They reflect who we are and what’s important to us.  I use stories to introduce concepts or to clarify points in my presentations.  I also use them to entertain.  My stories help you understand what I’m saying, but creating stories out of raw information can also help you see a problem or situation better in order to understand the solution better. Sometimes the data is overwhelming, but the story behind the spreadsheet can be illuminating.  For more on the many applications of storytelling, please visit A Storied Career, Kathy Hansen’s wonderful blog on modern and post modern forms/uses of storytelling.

How to craft a story:

Not all stories are created equal.  A good story is indeed powerful, but what many people call stories are not complete. They are just reports or facts. Many are just set ups for the real story.  So what makes a good story good and also useful?
•    Get the while story
•    Evoke an emotional response
•    Deliver it well

Get the whole story:

A good story has some specific story components.  They are:

Setting: Time, location, description of surroundings, anything that puts the story somewhere at  sometime.

Cast of characters: Who are the people involved either individuals or groups? What are their interests, desires, motivation, needs, etc. How are they related to each other? What do they have in common?  What makes them different?

Objective storyline: What’s going on at the time the story takes place?  How is the stage set for the obstacle?

The Obstacle: Every good story has an obstacle, or something to be overcome. What is it? What happened to create the conflict? How do the characters feel about it and react to it or do they?  Where’s the pain?

The Resolution or Solution: How was/is the obstacle resolved?  What happened to answer the challenge? How was the conflict derailed?

The conclusion: What is the end result?  Was there a lesson learned?

The sequel: Hollywood makes a mint from these.  In business, maybe you will too. Keep the relationship alive and the story growing.  There are always new challenges and solutions.

You can find many storytelling processes and approaches online, and I encourage you to explore.   I’ve found that if I get the story elements above,  I usually have what I need.

Evoke an emotional response:

A good story evokes an emotional response in the teller and in the listener. Emotion is important for the storyteller because emotions can be heard in the voice. This happens through changes in the muscles, the breath and the brain which in turn affect the pitch, cadence, and inflection of the voice.  Coupled with the ability for the voice to show emotion is the ability for the listener’s  ear to pick up minute differences in the sound the voice produces.  The ear can perceive 1400 different pitches and 280 different levels of volume for each pitch it can hear!  A storyteller who feels the emotions in their story will automatically create color in their voice. People will remember you and what you said far better if you are expressive.  Find emotions in your story by answering questions such as the following: What was sad? What was difficult and how did it feel?  What made the characters joyful?  What were they inspired to say or do? What physical sensations did they feel when they discovered the obstacle? Even if it’s a story behind a spreadsheet, it is most likely a story about humans.  Humans have feelings.  Find them and talk about them.

Deliver it well:

Storytelling is powerful regardless of delivery medium.  There are digital stories and live stories, films, videos and even Twitter stories.  And if you think 140 characters can’t be much of a story, check out Smith Mag’s Memoirs!  If you get the story right, you can use a simple Flip camera to deliver a great story, or tell one at the dinner table.

And you don’t need to reveal story components in any particular order.  Typically, it’s safe to start with the setting and go down my list from there.  However, the film “Crash” is an example of how a story can be good even if you mix up the components in delivery.  What matters is the alignment of your story and intention with your delivery.  To discover intention, ask: Who is the audience?  Why are you telling the story?  What do you hope to get in the way of a response or action?  Why should anyone care?

Summary:
By collecting specific information to create stories, you can assure yourself that you can answer the key issues that need to be addressed to qualify your lead, or find the best solution, or create the most interest.  By using emotions in your story you will grab your audience and have more impact.  And finally, your alignment of your story with your intention and your delivery will insure that everyone gets the most from the story you have crafted.

Related Posts:

The Storyteller’s Voice is Everyone’s Business

The Power of Intention
The case for expressive speaking (even on earning’s calls)

This is a guest post by fellow blogger, Denise Graveline.  Denise stepped forward with this post after learning of a medical crisis in my family.  In what can be viewed as the Web 2.0 version of  bringing a casserole to a friend,  she shares her thoughts on the importance of the voice in storytelling.  This is a lovely story, indeed,  and a powerful example of the impact of vocal expression.  Enjoy the post, and, Denise, thanks!!  I owe you!

You know telling stories is a good tactic to use when you’re doing a presentation or a speech.  Stories can expand on data points or add a personal touch, certainly. But more than that, telling stories can help speakers find meaning–tying up the threads of our experience neatly–and help our audiences get perspective on their own lives. And the sound of your voice matters in putting those personal stories across.

This week, NPR did a two-party story (here’s part one and part two, with audio and transcripts) centered on Shaun Parker, who told his story as part of a speaking competition called Get Mortified.  It’s edgier than Ignite! or TED: Participants get up in front of a live audience to share a wince-worthy tale of their own. Producers work with the speakers to polish their presentations for Get Mortified events in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Portland, Austin, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Malmo, Sweden. (The video above is a promo of Shaun’s story, and there’s full video of it in the NPR story.)

Shaun’s story moves from an unrequited high school love, for whom he utterly embarrassed himself with a lip-synched love song video…to almost moving to Hollywood to pursue a dream of working in films…to putting that aside when his father became deathly ill…to using his time polishing his editing skills until he was able to finish that high school video, perfecting the synchronization…to moving, finally, to Hollywood.  It’s a quest, a story of lost love, a tale of family honor, making a lot of lemonade out of lemons. The parameters are all things we can relate to: falling in love, caring for someone who’s terribly ill, persisting at a personal dream.

What holds it–and many stories told by speakers–together is his voice and where it goes along with his story. That’s why I’m so glad you can listen to the story, as well as watch the video. Because he’s willing to “get mortified” and tell the most embarrassing part (and that video is wince-worthy), with the wry vocal tone of an older and wiser adult, the audience groans, knowing it’s okay to do so. And when he builds up to finally getting ready to move to Hollywood, only to put it aside to be with his ailing father, the audience loses its voice and goes silent–because it can hear the emotion in Shaun’s voice.Then he brings it full circle, using the video as a metaphor for his experience, making it a lesson; in his voice, you can hear satisfaction, hard-fought and won…just not the way he imagined it would be.

I think speakers’ voices change in quality almost reflexively when they tell personal stories, and that’s what draws audiences in.  It’s a mix of emotion, authenticity and intimacy that comes close to conversation with a crowd. Listening to Shaun’s story, a well-rehearsed one, I felt carried along right to the end. And here’s what that ending felt like, from the NPR story:

“The crowd just started cheering so loudly that you could feel the cheers sort of just shaking the whole room,” Katcher says. And Parker says that moment — when he became a storyteller — changed his life. “I remember distinctly feeling if nothing else ever happens for me out here, I have that moment that I stood in front of 250 strangers and I moved them,” he says.

So your voice is a force for power, and it works both ways when you tell a story: on you and on the audience. If you do it right, your audience will reward you with some vocalizing of its own.

Denise Graveline is a writer and communicator whose Washington, DC-based consulting firm, Don’t Get Caught, helps organizations with strategic communications plans; coaching, training, workshops and facilitation; and editorial and creative services. A former journalist and communications director for several major nonprofits and a federal agency, she is the 2002 Washington Women in Public Relations “PR Woman of the Year” and a former member of the White House Council on Women.

Related posts:

The case for expressive speaking…even on earnings calls

The Storyteller’s Voice is Everyone’s Business