Storytelling - Cesar Fowler

Challenge

I work as Community Builder in a coworking space in Barcelona. One of my daily  duties is to receive potential members and explain what is coworking, specially dif- ferences between a coworking and a shared ofﬁce, and how we do coworking in  our space. I use it also when someone not familiar with the concept asks me if it is  true or not that members are committed to help each other.

Selection

I chose storytelling to illustrate what is coworking. Giving voice to our members,  explaining some anecdotes of real life stories, gives color to my statement. This is  because exaggeration (consciously or not) of the seller’s product is quite common  so people won’t trust at all certain statements if they came from you. Using some- one else voice to communicate those advantages are more credible than if they  came from you.

People love to hear real life stories. We are all tired of theories, at least when they  shall be proved to work in real world. So listeners tend to pay more attention to  real world stories, specially is they are related to persons.

We are a social species. We love hearing from people, we are really curious about  other human beings (just think about Facebook) and we love to hear how some- one beneﬁt from a service we are almost ready to buy: the story is focussed on  someone like them instead of be focussed on a different point of view.

Application

A good example of storytelling I use is the story of Javier and about his thoughts  about his value as a member of our community. I explain the story when someone  asks about interactions or synergies in the space or when the potential member  asks about community management dynamics: how we do it & what our members  are willing to do.

Javier’s story

One day I was going to the reception desk to pick up some letters and I stop by  Javier’s table to ask him about how was he feeling lately, he’s fatherhood, the busi- ness, and all those things community builders are curious about. He replied:  “Everything is ﬁne here, but I’m a bad coworker”

I was a bit surprised and asked him why?

- “Well… I have two small daughters and I can’t attend community din-

ners.”

- Javier, I told him, I sent you or introduced you three members which

have doubts related with their projects. On all three occasions that  member came back to my desk and told me: “this guy is amazing! He  know a lot of things!” And if I can choose between attending a dinner or  helping other members in need of knowledge I will always choose the  second one. We are all human beings with families and obligations and  it be wonderful if you can do both, but in real life believe me that I’m re- ally happy about your contribution.

Insight

I use this technique to show several critical points about coworking as it give the  listener the following insights:

- The workplace paradigm is upside down: although people is paying to

come to work they are concerned about their role, integration, and du- ties inside the community.

- The members are willing to contribute to the community.  - We have members who provide extraordinary value to the community.  - It gives a vivid example about how we solve members problems and

share knowledge.

- If gives a clear view of our priorities.  - Informs members we keep constant attention to them

Approach

Sometimes when I’m talking with a new member I realize he or she is more con- cerned about another issue, like material help instead of knowledge, or a certain  service like web design for his/her business. In these cases I switch to a different  story explaining how Fabio helped 8 companies, including ourselves, to create a  new website and how this drove us to a great increase in members due to the web- site leads. On the other hand I also explain them Fabio is able to offer better pric- ing as he’s working 10m away form them so his managing time is less than working  with outsiders. I also explain in some cases, when the potential member has not  money at all to spend, he’s willing to give a hand for free to members, like myself,  who build our personal website.

