Influence Through Storytelling

Facilitator: Joyce Hostyn
Company: Open Text
Session Title: Influence Through Storytelling
Session #: 202

Date: Monday, February 23, 2009
Time: 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Room: Crystal

Description

Stories motivate, persuade, inspire, entertain, and inform. In this interactive session, you’ll find out why stories are more effective than traditional fact based methods at communicating complex ideas and inspiring people to want to change. Learn how to create stories and combine visual thinking techniques with storytelling. During this session, I'll raise awareness of importance of changing/creating your own “story", and inspire you to map out your own Hero’s Journey in your effort to effect change.

Outline:

• Facts vs stories 
• Three brain theory - what brain research tells us about influence: the role of habit, intuition, and how decisions are really made
• Storylistening, storythinking, storytelling (six basic story types)
• Defining your own story (a hero's journey)

Additional Information/Links/Materials

• Storytelling that moves people: a conversation with screenwriting coach Robert McKee
• The Four Truths of the Storyteller, Peter Guber
• The Six Stories You Need to Know How to Tell, Annette Simmons
• Angry/negative people can be bad for your brain, Kathy Sierra
• What's Your Story, Hermina Ibarra and Kent Lineback, Harvard Business Review
• Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins, Annette Simmons (Goes into depth on the six story types with examples from her own experiences, provides exercises on how to find and develop your own stories, and describes how to use your stories to communicate with power and impact.)
• The Secret Language of Leadership, Stephen Denning (Popularized use of storytelling within organizations based on his experience using storytelling to redefine the World Bank as a knowledge bank. Aruges that narrative is integral to the way we make decisions and that we can't decide what to do until we decide what story or stories we see ourselves as living. If we want to change the way people act, we need to change those stories. Leadership and change are driven by ordinary people who act and speak in a different way.)
• Power of Intuition, Gary Klein (About how we really make decisions vs how business schools teaches us decisions are made. Defines intuition as how you turn experience into action. Lot of processing happens below the conscious level, enabling us to recognize problems and form quick reactions without understanding where the reactions came from. Quotes Einsten "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.")
• Brain Rules, John Medina (A great, extremely readable book introducing 12 rules on how the brain works - he uses storytelling to make the theory extremely accessible. The second rule "The human brain evolved, too" is a short introduction to the evolution of the lizard, mammalian, and human brains. As he describes each rule, he gives tips on how to work with your brain instead of fighting against it. He's got a website with some entertaining videos that illustrate the rules at www.brainrules.net. Garr Reynolds created a presentation on it and blogged about it on Presentation Zen - Brain rules for PowerPoint and Keynote presenters.)

Session Notes