7 tips for telling powerful stories
by Linda Ferguson
Everywhere we turn – from management books to the movies – the benefits of telling a great story are clear. There is no doubt that storytelling remains the key to influence. The right story at the right time can change the lives of individuals and of corporations. In your own life, you can probably think of at least one person you value because he or she always has the story you need precisely when you need to hear it.
Almost everyone tells a great story some of the time. And almost everyone wishes, from time to time, for the inspiration or the talent to tell a story better. Everyone can tell better stories and tell them better. The paradox is this: the way to tell a powerful story is to spend less time worrying about the story and more time focused on the experience the story represents.
Here are seven simple tips for getting the results you want the next time you tell a story:
1) If there is nothing you want, there is no story. Stories begin (like all inspiration) with knowing what you want in whatever terms are clearest to you. Do you want to create a particular emotion, to open up a new way of thinking about a problem, or to provide a pattern for a particular change in a particular listener? To do what you want begin by knowing what you want.
2 ) There is no story without a listener. Who are you telling this story? Focus on connecting with this person or people. You are going to invite them to take a journey with you: why will they want to come?
3) Trust the story you want to tell. You almost certainly have a story that comes to mind as you think about what you want and who you are telling the story. We all have a wide, flexible supply of stories. The story that comes into mind is the story you want to tell: sophisticated brain processes have selected it and presented it to you. Trust those processes even when – especially when – you are not sure why the story you want to tell is precisely the story you should be telling.
4) Experience your story with all your senses, with all your emotions, with all your associations. Jump into the story as though it were happening to you as you tell it (the story is happening to you as you tell it). Let yourself see pictures and hear sounds and feel sensations as you move your attention through the story. Make it real.
5) Save some attention for the person or people you are telling this story. Everyone thinks a little differently. You have to observe to notice whether your audience needs more time to see or hear or feel the story as you tell it. They will be telling you what they need through their expressions, their movements, even the rhythm of their breathing or fidgeting. They will stay with you in the story if you stay with them.
6) Stories have endings. Let your story end at the ending.
7) Assume the story worked and pick up your relationship with the audience from there. You do not need to explain the story or to draw out the correspondences. You do need to draw attention back to your connection with the listeners and the goals that you share.
Everyone has stories. If you trust the stories you have, you will find that other people trust them too. If you are engaged with the people with whom you are sharing your story, you will find they want to share with you too. They will share by completing your story in their imaginations, and by feeding back their interest to you as you tell. They will do this even if you put your story in writing and tell it to people you cannot see or hear as you tell.
As a human being, you were born with the talent to tell stories that get results. When you follow these seven steps, you will use that talent more often and you will get terrific results – so terrific, they might even give you the seeds for another story.
About the author: Linda Ferguson, Ph.D. is a senior partner with NLP Canada Training Inc.,Toronto, Canada. NLP Canada provides intensive training in the practices and principles of NLP. Drawing on fields from the arts to business to neuroscience. Learn more at www.nlpcanada.com
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