Storytelling has been around since humans began communicating. Whether it was in the form of cave drawings or primitive grunts. The earliest stories were developed as a way to help current and future generations survive. As speech evolved, stories evolved too. Stories were developed to help share values, beliefs and even hopes and dreams. The ability to tell stories enabled humans to survive and thrive.
For your professional career having the ability to tell stories is also critical for survival.
Defining your strategic narrative will enhance your communication and leadership style.
A Strategic Narrative allows you to communicate your thoughts and values.
Storytelling is an Art
Your biggest impacts are from stories.
Why are fairy tales so easy to remember? Because they are stories.
If a story begins with any of the following lines…are you likely to be intrigued and interested to hear where this goes?
- A long time ago …
- It was a dark and stormy night …
- Once Upon a time ..
- The first time I ever …
Versus … these less than stellar attention grabbers:
- Uhhh, ummm…today we are going to go thru this powerpoint.
- Hold all your questions ’til the end…if we have time we’ll address them then
- Oh…no questions please.
Storytelling Works!
Tell them, Show them, Watch them.
Who are your storytellers?
Hopefully you are your own best storyteller. If not, work on becoming one. Work on developing your Strategic Narrative.
If you are a manager of a business and have no storytellers…find one or make one.
One is just the start. Seek to identify or create several storytellers.
This post is partially inspired by this book. Lead with a Story.
So … What’s your Strategic Narrative?
Author:
Jeff is a veteran in the Enterprise Content Management industry. Over the past 20 years he has worked with customers and partners to design, develop and deploy solutions around the world. Jeff is currently the Director of Strategic Alliances at Winshuttle. He has worked for Microsoft, FileNet (IBM), K2, Captaris, Open Text, Kofax and Kodak. He speaks and blogs about ECM and the Intersection between Social, Mobile and Cloud Computing.
