The Little-known Power of Storytelling in Business (and in Life)
When David Ogilvy walked the corridors of his agency, Ogilvy & Mather, there was an interesting ritual that he had instituted to welcome new branch heads. When the new manager walked into office on his first day at work and sat at his desk he would find a Matryoshka doll on his desk. The Russian Matryoshka doll is a series of nested dolls that emerge, progressively getting smaller as you open the top and remove the next from within. In the last, smallest doll would be a handwritten note from Mr Ogilvy himself. And it said, ‘If we hire people smaller than ourselves we will become a company of dwarfs. If we hire people who are bigger than ourselves we will become a company of giants.’ The ritual ended many years ago because as the agency grew it was logistically impossible to deliver these dolls to every office across the world where a new branch opened. But an interesting thing happened regardless — the story of these dolls continued to be told across offices and till today the impact is the same.
Storytelling has been around for as long as humans have occupied the planet. And pre-dates language itself to when people used sign language and mime to describe where the wild animals were, how to trap a rabbit, where the edible plants were, how to make fire and to signal, ‘Run, the mastodons are upon us.’ Yuval Noah Harari tells us in Sapiens that the stories that we told each other helped us not just survive but evolve as humans, and eventually as civilisations.
The world’s major religions began as stories, told orally. Along the way they were written down, and with the passage of time took on layers of gravity. It was a matter of time before they began to be treated as scripture, to be venerated. Today, billions of people draw their identity from one religion or the other. We do good and commit acts of atrocity in equal measure from beliefs shaped by these ‘scriptures.’ It’s sobering to note that these scriptures have their origin in stories.
Throughout history the most effective speakers were storytellers. If you have ever used the expressions ‘Good Samaritan’ or ‘Prodigal Son,’ you are referring to stories told by a teacher on the dusty roads of Palestine over 2000 years ago. And the story of the Trojan Horse - well, that goes back a further one thousand years. Stories are memorable because the good ones are told and retold over time. And also because the germ of wisdom or truth contained within a story is remembered better than if it were merely an assertion.
As a kid growing up in Malaysia I devoured books by Enid Blyton that I borrowed from my cousin Christy who lived next door. Blyton painted a picture of England and all things English that I longed to experience. It would be four decades before I’d get to see the shores of England and taste buttered scones, strawberries and cream, and gingerbread cake. And I thought they tasted exactly the way I’d imagined them. Stories are mystical. They become a part of who you are, and you carry them (both the good and the awful) in your head everywhere you go.
In business, smart executives and businessman like David Ogilvy have intuitively known the power of storytelling and leveraged them to influence people and grow their business. But they’re few and far between.
A BBC article states that the MS Powerpoint software has been installed in over a billion computers worldwide and that a staggering 30 million powerpoint presentations are being created every day. This does not bode well for storytelling because it assumes that just creating several slides on the software and slapping on text alongside bullet-points that are dramatised with swipes, transitions and dissolves would automatically guarantee a good presentation. That is missing the point entirely. You are the presenter, not the software. It will never replace you. And the software cannot tell the story. Only you can. And, guess what, chances are, barring essential data and images that you wish to show, you are probably better off not using Powerpoint. The storytellers of old just stood and told their stories.
Similarly, in sales pitches, town-hall speeches, internal meetings, memos and email communications, instead of stating your point using logic, data and left brain arguments, try a little storytelling.
It’s simple and natural once you get the hang of it. Think of what story you are going to tell to make your point, and wrap your message in it. Practise the story on paper or in your head and narrate it to your audience. Watch them pay attention to you. Sometimes the story need not even relate directly to the business point you are making, it could just be an anecdote of what happened that morning with your toddler, or a conversation you had with your spouse or an event you witnessed on your way to work. Once you have hooked them, reel them in and get on with business. I still remember from years ago the point of meetings and presentations where a story was told.
What stories do you tell?
Tell stories of childhood, of funny teachers and classmates who made you laugh, of the older bully you stood up to, of teachers who gave you the love of Mathematics, anecdotes of your children when they were young, encounters with strangers, conversations you overheard on the bus, bizarre dreams that woke you up in a sweat, your early days as a trainee, of successful client meetings, of disastrous client meetings, of the guy who tried to cheat you, of the mistakes you made and survived to tell the story. You have no excuse for not having a story. Annette Simmons, author of Story Factor says that if you are breathing, you have a story to tell.
Can everyone tell stories?
During the recent lockdown I often found my three-and-a-half year old granddaughter sitting by herself in the midst of her dolls, puppets and stuffed toys. She would be telling stories to an imaginary audience — a pretend world of kings, princes and princesses, good guys and bad guys (usually monsters). Her narration would have drama and action accompanied by appropriate sound effects. Jonathan Gottschall, in his book Storytelling Animal says, ‘Story is so central to the lives of young children that it comes close to defining their existence.’
We can recover this skill that came to us naturally as kids. So tell your story every chance you get — at work, at home, on the bus, on the train, to your daughter, your partner, neighbour, and to the stranger on the plane. You’ll find the people around you being drawn to you, almost mysteriously. Actually not to you but to your stories. Which is okay, because your stories are what make you you.
