2020 Summit—storytelling advice to summiteers

Posted by  Shawn Callahan —April 14, 2008
Filed in Business storytelling

The Australia 2020 Summit promises to bring together the nation’s best and brightest brains in a bid to discover new ideas to take the country forward. For those attending it will be an opportunity to make their mark. The Summit is a big event, full of big IQs and bigger egos – it’s tough to stand out from the crowd. My advice for summiteers: make an impact by reaching people’s emotions. Statistics don’t do that – but stories do.

For example, the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is someone who understands the power of a story. One of his first television commercials as Prime Ministerial aspirant used his personal story as the basis for his plan to reform education: http://www.alp.org.au/labortv/6FiTQAgNy6

Stories work because they get people’s attention and people develop a resolve to act when their emotions are triggered. My tips for our 1000 brightest minds if they want to stand out from the other 999 Summiteers:

1. Grab your audience’s attention with a story of how’s things are failing and tell it with detail, empathy and authenticity. Humans are psychologically attuned to take notice of tales of woe because we have evolved to notice and avoid danger.

2. Paint a picture of what it could be like with a story of hope illustrating that good things are already happening. As celebrated sci-fi writer William Gibson noted, “the future is already here. It’s just not very evenly distributed.” Hopeful stories generate resolve to take action.

3. Find real stories and never embellish, fabricate or tell half the story for effect. One untruthful story will erode all your good work.

Forget the dreaded PowerPoint presentation and, instead, use stories to leave a longer lasting impression. As conference veterans know too well, the chances of meaningful discourse are slim at best when bombarded with one slide after the next jam packed with enough bullets to deplete Cadbury’s licorice supplies.

If the aim is to generate conversations so leaders are not only exposed to new thinking but also remember and adopt new ideas then a combination of stories and reasoned argument is essential. And always lead with the stories because trying to change someone’s mind with hard, cold facts only results in people with convictions to dig their heels in even further.

Anecdote’s “business narrative” techniques are becoming more and more mainstream as people realize the limitations that come with statistics and surveys to tackle and solve problems and implement change. Stories often get to the heart of the matter because they represent the natural way people share what they know.

Here my interview with Richard Aedy from the Life Matters program on ABC Radio National. Here’s the audio (approx. 8 minutes).

Or check out our latest storytelling for leaders workshop.

About  Shawn Callahan

Shawn, author of Putting Stories to Work, is one of the world's leading business storytelling consultants. He helps executive teams find and tell the story of their strategy. When he is not working on strategy communication, Shawn is helping leaders find and tell business stories to engage, to influence and to inspire. Shawn works with Global 1000 companies including Shell, IBM, SAP, Bayer, Microsoft & Danone. Connect with Shawn on:

Comments

  1. John Caddell says:

    Hi, Shawn, very well done. You sounded great, the interviewer was prepared and asked good questions, and it was well-tied-in to the upcoming event.
    Regards, John

  2. Sanjeev says:

    Shawn,
    That was a great interview. All three points well covered so succinctly. It reminded me of the nice work you folks did for the Methodology Rejuvenation project.
    Looking forward to your blog post re 2020.
    Sanjeev

  3. Reg Rutten says:

    Fresh from last night’s John Wlliamson/Warren H. Williams concert at the University of New England,
    I hope that the Australian Republic debate will not be bogged down as another minor item in another ‘talk fest’..
    good luck with the Ummit!
    Reg Rutten,BA,BSc(Hons),
    Armidale

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