The power of storytelling

Challenge & Selection

One of the most powerful and at the same time controversial tool of Design Thinking is  Storytelling. Why it is powerful?  Well, for so many years’ different stories, legends had been  using to charm and attract attention of any kind of public. In addition, even now, interesting story  would grab people’s minds easily. A business world is not an exception. Currently, when most of  the deals are singed after chain of negotiations, presentations, conference calls and brainstorms the  power of constructive and useful storytelling is sensed more than ever.  On the other hand,  storytelling is an art. Art of cinematography even: with main theme twisted around the necessary  result. For my day-to-day routine I use Storytelling to present sometimes boring and hard to  understand information for my internal clients.  Understanding the process Storytelling supports  me to make all my work very useful and meaningful. Taking into consideration, that perception  level of verbal communication for people sometimes can be lower vs Visual communication, so,  whilst using storytelling tool you must follow the reaction of listeners

Application

How am I getting ready for story creating process? I am not a writer, journalist or someone who  easily implements many compounds into presentation. No. However, I am the one who knows the  topic in details. I use the following rules:

-  Content is the base. Only after understanding the main theme, I am able to play around  with the approach of delivery. I often use the Pyramid of objectives and Ideas- I observe  those  from the most important to the least

-  Research – truly crucial for successful story. I usually go deeper into the analysis to pull  out hidden stones. On that stage is better to have at your disposer more details which  subsequently would help you to

-  Even though storytelling is an absolute in verbal communication, there is no restriction to  use suitable visualization. And this is why Storytelling a spacious room for creativity and  invention of your own universe of information sharing

-  Never forget that story must sell. Here I go to the structure: fun story at the beginning,  drama in theme announcement,  magic in the process of solving all possible issues and  emotion ending

-  Your target audience is measure of your success. I need to know beforehand who will be  my listeners – what they need to receive from me. To what analysis level I should go to  make them, interested.

When the story is ready, I need to find out how to sell it. First, I use my emotions. Human

beings are ready to pay for qualified stories. Moreover, all of us make decisions in 90% of

time unconsciously, and only after, we are trying to explain this using some form of a logic.

So, just numbers or simple facts are not enough to sell. Then, call to action takes part in the

process that includes: building the relationship with listeners, motivate them, affect their

beliefs, explain, listen and answer all the questions

Insight & Approach

What have I realized after using thinking design technics in my routine is getting feedback and  be flexible. Sometimes it is not easy to stick to the plan that used at the beginning. The audience  sometimes knows more that I predicted, so it is important to have plan or scenario B.

I would not change the approach of story inventing actually, I’d rather work with delivery  process as I have realized that I need to feel audience’s mood and adjust to their needs at the very  moment

