Decision-Making Stories
The Art and Science of Business Storytelling
Posted by Chris Sissons on Nov 6, 2024
Stories in Business ยป Chris Sissons
Good stories rarely arrive on demand. If we seek a story to help solve a problem or illustrate a point, chances are we’ll have difficulty finding one.
This may seem to be a massive problem. Even if you’re convinced stories are helpful to business, if we struggle to find the right story, wouldn’t it be possible to try something else? Maybe.
But first, let’s attempt to understand how stories work. Stories connect with our audience emotionally but how do we know which story will do the job?
If we switch the problem around and ask how we might use this particular story, we’ll find this is a much easier question. We can see where a story points or where it might point with a few tweaks. As we build our library of stories we can store them without planning how the story might be used. As our library develops, we dip in when we need a story for a particular purpose.
However, the particular power of stories derives from their origins. When we remember an incident from life experience, our subconscious presents it to us for a reason. It challenges us to live with this story and work out where it points.
You’ll rarely find a story that fully addresses a particular problem. Storytelling is not an exact science, it's an art. The invitation is to work with the stories presented to us and work out what they say. When we use stories in public, we use them to point to a solution or issue. When we’re wrestling with them in private they are addressed to us. Our subconscious has no language – it can’t tell us directly what it is trying to say. It may be saying:
- This is the solution to the problem even if you don’t see it as such.
- This is the solution to another unrelated problem that I think is more important or urgent
- This is a problem that needs to be solved before you solve the problem at hand.
- This is something I find amusing.
- This is an emergency, you’re not recognising the real issue.
And so on! If the problem is urgent, is there a better way to solve it using stories?
Instead of seeking a story from life experience, try writing the story of the problem. Don’t try to solve the problem. Tell its story as clearly as you can. Be as specific as possible about times and places, the sequence of events, the roles played by various actors. Don’t worry about length or structure – this story may never be shared.
Now examine the story, perhaps with someone else who comes to the problem fresh. What is your subconscious telling you through this version of the story? Interrogate the story. Why did each event happen? Did all the actors have the same information? Why did they act in the way they did?
The written story provides a degree of distance and may help you see the answers you need.
This is the sixteenth in a sequence of posts about business storytelling. The first post was Marketing: Art or Science? The last post was Business Evolution and the seventeenth post will be Dimensions of Telling.
To try out one of your business-related stories and receive feedback from me with a few other business owners, please comment below to arrange an informal conversation. I run these sessions free of charge on the second and fourth Thursdays. Visit my website to find out about the Telling Stories Autumn meetings.
Minerva's picture today is of her storytelling session in the local library. She had to bring her owls with her and if you look closely, you'll see the terrified library users.
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