Storytelling has been around for hundreds of years, yet many of us still struggle with how to tell a compelling story. In our newest vlog, “Why Storytelling at Work is So Important”, @lornerubis and I discuss how to craft a meaningful narrative and provide tips to improve your storytelling.
Storytelling is a great opportunity to make strong personal and emotional connections with those around us. We can use this important tool in our professional and personal lives to help us achieve goals and build stronger relationships.
Great storytellers give people the opportunity to find themselves in the story by creating an emotional connection. In business, we often forget to include the emotional, believing that data alone will convince people. While numbers are vital, the emotional connection will turn a project presentation from ‘just okay’ to phenomenal.
For your next presentation, think about how you want people to feel at the end. By starting with the end in mind, you develop a narrative that invokes the emotions you want.
Then consider how to structure the story. Maybe you introduce the problem, then describe the ways one could solve it. Or you could start with an idea before taking your audience on a journey through the peaks and valleys of solving it, introducing the challenges before wrapping up with the solutions.
However you choose to tell a story, remember that great storytellers aren’t born overnight – it takes practice.
Today’s main takeaways:
- When starting a presentation, first work to understand the emotional connection you want to create.
- Take every opportunity you see to work on building compelling narratives.
- Learning to be a great storyteller takes practice, so be patient.
Here’s to disrupting sameness and achieving #betterwork.
Lynette
