EYN#023 - 4 Tips On How To Tell Short Stories In A Business Context

Read Time: 3 mins

How do you make storytelling relevant in a business context? In fact, should you use stories in a business context?

Well firstly, yes you should use stories or anecdotes. Stories create an emotional connection between your audience and your message.

Emotional connections are remembered.  Pure logic, rationale and data points are forgotten.

Invest some time in learning to tell a few stories well, and reuse them - take them on tour.

Here’s some tips for creating your story or anecdote…

Make 'Em Short

Let's set a limit - 2 minutes. Speaking at average pace that's a maximum of 300 words.

Have a go at writing the script of the story. Max length of the script 300 words. Or record yourself telling the story on the phone - and make it less than 2 mins.

Keep it punchy, keep it short and people will engage.

Make 'Em Interesting

The point of the story is for people to connect with it. They won't connect if it’s dull. In a short story you need at least one of these:

• Surprise - People engage with the unexpected. It will grab people's attention.
• Conflict - A bit of conflict, light and dark, right and wrong, sad and happy goes a long way.
• Humour - People love and remember a funny story - it it's work appropriate :)
• Intrigue - Something that they haven't heard before that piques their interest.
• Metaphor or Analogy - These can help people understand a tricky concept

If it's got none of these ask yourself what's it got that will make people want to hear it?

Make 'Em Relevant

There needs to be a purpose for the story. Why have you bothered to tell it? People will become quickly disengaged from an irrelevant story.

• How does it hook people in to your key message?
• How does it point people to your key message?
• How does the response it evokes help you?

Give 'Em Structure

Give your story a bit of structure and people will consume it easier. This is not the time for Pulp Fiction style madness:

• Beginning - Set the context, introduce the star of the story and the problem or situation.
• Middle - Share the adventures and meat of the story
• End - Give a resolution. It could be positive or negative.

Add a story or two into your presentations and you'll find people engaging with what you said, remembering it and maybe even taking some action afterwards.

Hope this helps

Ben

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Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

• Podcast:  The latest episode is "Using Story Arcs To Engage Stakeholders" with Mark Green.  Check it out on the Elevated You website or on  Apple, Spotify and Google Podcasts.
• Technical Storytelling Essentials: Accelerate your career, increase your impact and influence people.  Affordably priced, world-class course digital course for individuals.
• Technical Storytelling for Organisations: Programs designed to increase the impact of your team.  Inspire, develop and motivate your team to influence key stakeholders and generate action with your customers.