Storytelling    Challenge and Selection    As a startup founder, I have to use storytelling on a daily basis but I feel I have room for  serious improvement. As someone who is generally very logical, my instinct is to take the  conversation down the road of facts and objectivity.    I chose storytelling in order to reinforce the principles to myself and continue improving this  skill. From team conversations, to sales and investor pitches, I am required to craft and tell  compelling stories.     People are busy and have little patience for average ideas (or even good ideas told badly).    Application    During a startup incubator challenge, I was tasked with managing both technical and  non-technical team members. With my background, I have a rough understanding of tech  and thus became tasked with ensuring the two parts of the team were aligned.    Translating messages from both sides and helping to guide the product strategy before  frustration. The business team would ask to build feature x and the tech team would respond  with saying x was not a good idea, let’s build y.    For weeks I tried to rationally come to a solution between the two parties with no success.     Eventually I switched to a storytelling method of relating every proposed featured to a story  that a fictional user would endure when using the product. Using tension points and  suspense, I managed to align the two teams and find common ground which was making the  users life better.    Insight and Approach    Like magic, we understood WHY we were doing this. We wanted to make our target user’s  life easier. My storytelling approach put this common goal in the front of my team’s minds.    I created multiple mental images. A troubling present moment and a depressing world that  exists without our progress, and on the flip side a beautiful future that we could co-create.    I gave each member a role in the story, they became a character in the same world as our  customers and other stakeholders. With this new mindset, they were transformed for  workers into a team that understood the importance of their individual roles.    Learnings    Even super intelligent people are not fully rational beings.    Facts and figures are not persuasive, even when presented beautifully.

We need compelling stories of one, not facts of many.     I will ensure all of my team takes a storytelling course to ensure they know at least the basic  structure of the hero’s journey and how to hook the listener into their message.


Storytelling Challenge and Selection As a startup founder , I have to use storytelling on a daily basis but I feel I have room for serious improvement . As someone who is generally very logical , my instinct is to take the conversation down the road of facts and objectivity . I chose storytelling in order to reinforce the principles to myself and continue improving this skill . From team conversations , to sales and investor pitches , I am required to craft and tell compelling stories . People are busy and have little patience for average ideas ( or even good ideas told badly ) . Application During a startup incubator challenge , I was tasked with managing both technical and non - technical team members . With my background , I have a rough understanding of tech and thus became tasked with ensuring the two parts of the team were aligned . Translating messages from both sides and helping to guide the product strategy before frustration . The business team would ask to build feature x and the tech team would respond with saying x was not a good idea , let ’s build y. For weeks I tried to rationally come to a solution between the two parties with no success . Eventually I switched to a storytelling method of relating every proposed featured to a story that a fictional user would endure when using the product . Using tension points and suspense , I managed to align the two teams and find common ground which was making the users life better . Insight and Approach Like magic , we understood WHY we were doing this . We wanted to make our target user ’s life easier . My storytelling approach put this common goal in the front of my team ’s minds . I created multiple mental images . A troubling present moment and a depressing world that exists without our progress , and on the flip side a beautiful future that we could co - create . I gave each member a role in the story , they became a character in the same world as our customers and other stakeholders . With this new mindset , they were transformed for workers into a team that understood the importance of their individual roles . Learnings Even super intelligent people are not fully rational beings . Facts and figures are not persuasive , even when presented beautifully . We need compelling stories of one , not facts of many . I will ensure all of my team takes a storytelling course to ensure they know at least the basic structure of the hero ’s journey and how to hook the listener into their message .