10: The Art of Telling a Story
The author suggests that the use of case studies began at Harvard Business School in the 1920s as a way to bridge the gap between abstract theory and concrete application, and the broad adoption of this technique is an indicator of its success. By using real-world stories to illustrate concepts, it concretized and granted credibility to theoretical principles that might otherwise have been difficult to conceive and believe.
Storytelling is nothing new to instruction, though prior to Harvard's experiment they tended to be fictional depictions. Most religions use epic stories of heroes and gods to teach moral principles by hypothetical example, and Homer's epics (dating to 1200 BC) were themselves case-studies in soldiering.
He switches channels to use the analogy of a restaurant meal: what often makes it memorable is the accompaniment. Meat is meat, and tastes the same at every restaurant, but what causes one place to become a favorite is the seasoning, spices, and sauces. In the same way, people have heard lectures on many topics and there are a relatively finite number of core messages (every business speech is "let's make more money" and every officer's speech is "let's win this battle") - it is the speaker's stories that generally make one speech memorable whereas others seem flat and flavorless.
Scientific presentations are notoriously dull, as researchers often get lost in tables of numeric data and experimental procedure. They are doing some truly amazing things in the lab, but that feeling of excitement and awe does not come across when they speak about their research. But when a researcher can tell the story, or depict a vision of a future life in which his discoveries have an impact on real people, it can be quite compelling. That's not to say that technical presenters should abandon their tables and charts, but they should at least include a story that brings all this boring detail to life for their audience.
He does concede that stories alone are not enough to sell an idea - especially when the story seems implausible or contains some specious details. An incredible story, in the sense that the audience cannot believe it is true or even plausible, is simply "not credible" and neither is the speaker who uses it.
The point of all of this is that stories are needed to bring ideas to life. Audiences pay attention to stories because they are able to relate to and remember them, and in so doing relate to and remember the topic of the speech.
But the difference between a "story" and a "narrative" is emotional engagement. A narrative can describe a completely dull and uninteresting sequence of events, but a story engages the emotions and gets people to merely to hear what happens, but to care about what happens.
Where Do I Find My Story?
A story need not be an epic tale of grand and heroic deeds to be compelling - and in truth, most people have dull lives in which nothing spectacular ever happens - but this doesn't mean that they do not have stories.
Everyday events that happen to common people, such as shopping for a gift or hunting for your car keys, provide excellent material for compelling stories - and what's more, the audience can really relate to them because they can imagine themselves in the speaker's place.
The author suggests journaling as a way to create a bank of stories. It need not be a written journal, but can be a picture or a brief audio recording that captures the salient details (EN: Though I expect searching media is harder when the time comes.)
It's also not important to tell a well-crafted story, but merely to record sufficient detail to recall it later, when it's needed. It may be only a few words or a single picture, just enough to bring back the memory should you need it in future.
In most instances, a speech is not built around a story - but a story may be included in a speech. Much of what you record in your journal will never be used - but you don't know at the time that a story occurs to you if it will be used in a speech, so don't question whether there is a purpose or a point when you write it down. Just record it, as it may be relevant later.
Writing the Story: The Three Cs
The author provides three "C" words to help individuals recognize when an event in real life has the potential to become a useful story: character, conflict, and construction. These elements are often prominent in stories that have strong emotional appeal.
Character refers to the people in a story - a person who learns something from an experience, which may be life changing or simply give them a fresh perspective. Or a character may be a person who demonstrates, through action, some element of their personality. People in the audience identify with people in stories, particularly when your characters are ordinary people rather than celebrities or heroes.
Conflict is an effective tool, and it is the spine of a good story. An incident in which a person who wants something attains it effortlessly is of little interest. If they encountered obstacles and struggled, it then becomes a story because the audience sympathizes with the character and wants to hear that they succeeded. (EN: Or if the character is reprehensible, they want to hear that they failed).
Construction refers to the way in which a story is put together - it has a natural flow and is intelligible. The characters involved make sense, the events are plausible, and the transitions are smooth. A fascinating event becomes boring or confusing if the story is not well constructed.
(EN: lots more to be said about constructing a story than the author has to say, though this is a good approach for beginners.)
The Structure of a Story
A story is a structured narrative, which generally consists of three parts: beginning, body, and ending.
(EN: Which is an obvious oversimplification, but a good start for someone who has never contemplated this. But more to the point, what most speakers use is anecdotes, not stories, which are very brief and simple - and a good anecdote communicates a basic idea in few words. The structure of anecdotes is simpler than that of stories and very flexible, so perhaps this basic approach is better than studying storytelling itself.)
Setup
An effective but clumsy way of inserting a story into a speech is to make a sudden stop and announce "let me tell you a story." This relies on the audience to be interested in hearing a story, and some will simply roll their eyes at the notion and stop paying attention because they consider storytelling to be infantile, pointless, and patronizing.
One way to make the transition smoother is to ask a rhetorical question: "How many of you have ever ...?" or "Have you ever considered ... ?" or the like. This transitions you to tell a story of someone who has.
Another approach is to make a statement with which you expect the audience to disagree. "Arranged marriages are common even in western cultures," you might say - then pause while the audience considers this, and then tell a story of an instance in which this statement holds true.
The author also suggests that the speaker may do something out of the ordinary to grab the attention, and mentions a speaker who arranged to fall face first onto the stage. He comments that the gimmick "achieved its purpose," but does not indicate how this could be used to transition to the beginning of a story.
Beginning
The beginning of a story gets the audience's attention and sets the stage for the story to come - introducing key characters and giving sufficient information about them to make the actions they will take in the story make sense.
In terms of depicting characters, the author suggests a few ways to do this: describe them in terms of their visual appearance or behavior, use a "voice" for the character, physically move to different parts of the podium to embody or represent a character, or use a prop or bit of costume to become the character.
(EN: This is all well and good, but insufficient. A story may not be about a character, but an object or an organization or a place. The author's basic idea is right - to provide detail that is germane to the story - but it is not merely limited to character.)
Body
The body of the story is the transition from beginning to end, describing "what happened" to the characters introduced in the story to get them to the end state that will be described.
In essence a story is about a change, and the events that led to the change taking place. The difference between a story and a narrative is that a story includes conflict - there is something that prevents someone from achieving something they want, and the body of the story tells of the things they did to overcome the obstacle.
A conflict is not necessarily an epic battle - it is merely overcoming something that prevents someone from getting what they want. It can be simple affordability (someone wants something but doesn't have the money to simply buy it) or a psychological barrier (someone wants to do something but is afraid to do it).
In any case, the beginning sets up the initial conflict (what is wanted and why getting it is not straightforward) and the body of the story tells the various things they attempted in order to achieve it. If their efforts eventually succeed, it is a comedy. If their efforts fail and they cannot succeed, it is a tragedy.
Ending
The ending of a story resolves the conflict. It begins the moment that the character gets what he wants or must give up the struggle to obtain it, and then tells of the consequences.
In the most basic story, it ends with "happily ever after" because the character is satisfied with having accomplished his goal. In other instances, the resolution is a melancholy acceptance of a negative outcome.
To be useful in a speech, a resolution must leave the audience with a strong emotion. They should be pleased that the character got what we wanted, disappointed that he did not, disgusted at those who stood in his way, angry because they feel injustice has been done, or so on. A good story evokes a strong emotional reaction, and a bad story evokes no emotional reaction.
(EN: Some would argue that a story that creates a negative emotion is bad - but that merely means they did not enjoy the emotion they experienced. The story is "good" in that it succeeded in evoking it.)
In some instances, the story will not resolve itself - the speaker intentionally wants the audience to make up their own ending. This "requires considerable skill" but is effective when something other than the resolution of the story is critical to the speech, or when leaving things neatly wrapped up would not serve the speaker's purpose.
The Point
It is also important for there to be a reason for including the story - it is not merely a time-filler that has nothing to do with the point of the speech, but a tool by which the point of the speech moves forward and supports what comes next.
That is, the bit that follows a story shows its relevance. A clumsy speaker will say "The reason I told you this story was ..." and then proceed to the main message. It is important to clarify the message so that the story is not left for the audience to interpret (that's fine in literature, but not in speech) and relate it to the thrust of his speech.
Using the Story
Stories are used to support speeches, so the length of the story will depend greatly on the length of a speech. A two-minute story can be included in a short speech, but a ten-minute story might be included in an hour-long keynote. A speech may include a single story, or a number of stories.
However, the amount of time is less important than the relevance of a story. It's not necessary to include one at all, and a story should not be used as time-filler.
A story is used when it is useful in supporting the thrust of the speech. And the amount of detail in the story should be just sufficient to get the point across and for the story to make sense. The speaker should trim any unnecessary parts, because they distract from its function.
The story should also make sense in itself, flowing smoothly in a chronological order (you shouldn't have to "go back" to add a detail) and sensibly (if an unknown character shows up without purpose).
He mentions that he has worked with speakers who have a great story and are trying to make a speech out of it - but that is entirely the wrong approach: the story is included to support the speech, and a speech is not built around a story. If you have a great story, then write a book. - or keep it on file for when it is needed in a speech.