Storytelling News Humans have been telling stories since the dawn of time. Cultures have based their values and principles on myths, and legends passed down the generations through oral tradition. Yet until recently, not even the top 500 companies had considered that it could be the integral tool missing from their learning and development (L&D) tool kits. Businesses around the world are now using actors to enthuse their staff. Programs incorporating Neuro Linguistics Programming and Emotional Intelligence have become a regular on companies T&D calendars. In the last few years however, training companies have been on the hunt for the next exciting tool. A few of the leading training companies seem to have found this new tool: Story telling and mastering the Art of Persuasion. Story telling has recently been identified as the ideal way to communicate change and stimulate innovation within organisations. At MFW we have proven that information that has been presented in flow charts or power point slides in the past, will be understood and retained much more when woven into a story. Gina Zoia, a professional actor and trainer with MauraFayWorkshops (MFW), has observed that "many professionals perceive story telling as something very separate from work. When they want to impress they use facts and figures." As a result, training companies have had to devise programs that teach professionals how to weave these facts and figures into a story that connects their client or colleagues emotionally and empathically to numbers and words. So much of business is about persuading, selling and winning people over. Sales people all know that the way to win a customer over is to affect them emotionally. If a manager tells a story, they can tap into their staff member’s emotional responses to events, ideas and concepts. MFW was one of the first training companies to use professional actors and have developed story telling workshops over the last two years. In MFW’s story telling workshops, participants are taken through the four key element of story telling: Setting, character, conflict and resolution. They are taught how to relate these element to a business situation – whether it is dealing with a difficult staff member, presenting at a board meeting or selling to a client. They learn how to frame their story in a context such as a boardroom. They identify their protagonist whether it is their companies CEO or the newest recruit. They are taught how to build tension and struggle through adversity then learn that their stories needn’t have a happy ending, rather a possibility for change or a moral such as a need for planning in the future or a restructuring of roles within an office. Everyone likes to hear a story – not so many people like to sit through a Powerpoint presentation or read through sheets of data analysis. Once a manager has mastered the art of story telling, chances are their staff will look forward to their next meeting together. They will find they have much more success persuading staff and clients towards their way of thinking. And they will build more personable effective relationships with whom they share their stories. Written by Georgia Van Cuylenburg |