The Leader's Guide to Storytelling

by Stephen Denning

  Fiorina's story didn't embody the change idea that she was trying to communicate. In fact, her story had the opposite meaning. As one analyst put it, “Tying two stones together won't make them float.” The response of the market was devastating.

  How did Fiorina, normally a savvy, charismatic communicator in one of the most critical interviews in her entire career, come to be telling the wrong story? The fact is that in the heat of the moment, Fiorina forgot to make sure that the story she was to tell embodied the idea she was trying to get across.

  Storytelling is a performance art. It's not enough to know intellectually what you're meant to do. You actually have to do it in the heat of the moment, when the whole world is hanging on your every word. You have to ensure that in performance, the story being told embodies the idea that you are trying to get across.

  Find an Uplifting Ending

  The idea of a happy ending is much misunderstood. In a broader philosophical sense, some would argue that there are never any happy endings. In the end, we are all dead.

  The happiness of a story's ending relates to the narrative as told and the point of view of the narrator, not necessarily to the events that actually happen. Some endings that are regarded as happy include disastrous outcomes for the “bad” characters in the story. Take, for example the fairy stories “Snow White” and “Cinderella,” which are generally seen as having happy endings, even though Snow White's stepmother is forced to dance herself to death in red-hot shoes and Cinderella's sisters have their eyes pierced by doves. The question isn't whether the events in the story are happy for all concerned; the question is whether the story is told in such a way as to convey a satisfactory ending for the character we care about, that is, the protagonist.13

  It also depends on when the story ends. Cinderella's story ends with her marriage to the prince, with the implication that they live happily ever after. The story could have a very different tone if it continued to tell the tale of, say, her difficult marriage with the prince and ended with her premature death in a tragic car accident in Paris.

  And it bears repeating yet again: a positive ending is needed for a story to spark action, not for all stories. Stories that get attention or transfer knowledge typically have a negative tonality. A frequent mistake is to try to spark action with a negative story.

  Don't Use the Negative to Spark Enthusiasm

  There is much talk in business circles of the need for a “burning platform” to create a “sense of urgency” that will catalyze change. Thus in 1993, IBM was going through a “near-death” experience, which made it easier for the new CEO, Lou Gerstner, to make the case that change was needed. This sometimes leads to the misunderstanding that a negative story will itself spark change. Negative stories get people's attention, but they don't spark action. The action comes from a positive story that shows the way forward.

  Creating fear in your audience with negative stories, combined with hierarchical sanctions, may provoke grudging compliance—but not the enthusiastic implementation that transformational change requires. So use the negative knowledge-sharing a story to convey the message that the situation is indeed grim—but follow it with the positive story that shows how to solve the problem.

  How to Deal with Bad News

  Sometimes people tell me that there are no happy endings in their organization. Everything is terrible. It's as if they work for the Doom Channel. This isn't entirely plausible, but if you are in a situation where things are genuinely bad, then there is a way to deal with the bad news and still have an authentically positive ending. The secret is to get all of the bad news up front and then go on to your positive story.

  If you were telling a story that occurred during the sinking of the Titanic, you could proceed as follows:

  I'm going to tell you about something that happened when the ocean liner Titanic sank, way back in 1915. It was a horrible thing. The ship sank. Fifteen hundred people drowned. It was a massive engineering disaster for a ship that was supposed to be unsinkable. Gross incompetence and stupidity on the part of the captain of the ship. Criminal negligence in not supplying the ship with enough lifeboats. This was a catastrophe—one of the worst naval disasters of the twentieth century. It continues to reverberate even today. But within that tragic scene, something rather wonderful happened to a young man on that ship. Let me tell you about it.

  And then you go on to tell the wonderful, positive story of what the young man did on board the Titanic. You continue with that soaring positive arc of the young man's story with an uplifting end.

  When you tell a story in this manner, you will have got all the bad news out of the way before you tell your positive story. You've leveled with the audience and told them the harsh truth of the disaster. But within that disaster, there was something positive, something wonderful. This isn't hype or spin. It combines the triumph with the tragedy.

  So if you do have a generally grim situation, the key is to get all the bad news up front, and then tell your positive story.

  Make Sure Your Listeners Are Listening

  To tell a successful springboard story, you need listeners' undivided attention. If they are thinking about what they did at the party last night, or how they are going to answer the e-mail waiting for them in their in-trays, then the springboard story will have no effect.

  In The Secret Language of Leadership, I discuss many different ways in which you can get the audience's attention. Here are two of the easiest and most effective. One is to talk about the audience's problems. You start talking about the issues that are keeping them awake at nights and describe those problems more starkly than they have ever heard in their lives. This catches their attention. Suddenly they're not just interested in what you have to say: they're riveted. Then you tell your springboard story.

  The other way is to tell them who you are and how you dealt with some adversity that is relevant to the subject under discussion. One reason they're not listening to you may be that they don't know what sort of a person you are or why you might be relevant to their future. In this setting, communicating who you are through a story can begin to generate the interest and trust that you will need as a platform to spring them into the future. How do you tell such a story? It is to this issue that I turn in the next chapter.

  Incorporating the Springboard Story into an Entire Presentation

  This chapter has focused on the springboard story as a kind of narrative that is particularly useful to leaders—a story that can spark change. My book, The Secret Language of Leadership, discusses in more detail how to weave the springboard story into an entire presentation.

  Thought has to be given as to what precedes the springboard story. Thus, springboard stories are aimed at stimulating desire for action. But if the audience isn't paying attention, the springboard story risks falling on deaf ears. Hence, a preparatory step may be necessary: get the audience's attention, which is typically done with a story that is negative in tone.

  Similarly, thought must also be given as to what follows the springboard story. Merely stimulating desire for change may prove ephemeral unless the change is reinforced with reasons. This is typically done with stories that are neutral in tone.

  These three steps—getting attention, stimulating desire for change, and reinforcing the desire for change with reasons—are the same whatever the leadership setting (Figure 3.1). Of the three steps, the middle step—stimulating desire for change—is the most important. Without a desire for change, people will have no energy or enthusiasm. So if transformational leaders do only one thing, they should make sure they stimulate desire for change.

  Figure 3.1 The Secret Language of Leadership

  The three-step template is flexible. It offers a generic model for any leadership presentation. If resistance in the audience is particularly high, the speaker may need to spend a great deal more time getting attention than when the audience is already somewhat interested. By contrast, in an elevator speech, there may be time only for the critical m
iddle step—a story that kindles desire for change. Where generous time is available, the speaker may be able to give a large number of reasons in favor of change. The template can be tailored to meet the needs of the specific audience and the time available.

  Preparatory Step: Getting the Audience's Attention

  In many business settings, people are not listening in any attentive way. So how do you get their attention? One study showed that the factors most highly associated with getting attention are, in rank order, the message is personalized, it evokes an emotional response, it comes from a trustworthy source or respected sender, and it is concise.14

  Social scientists have also shown that negative messages are more attention getting than positive messages. Stories about the audience's problems or stories about how the author dealt with adversity similar to the audience's problems are well adapted to get the audience's attention. Questions, challenges, a striking metaphor, an unexpected exercise, something of value, or vulnerability admitted are other ways of getting attention.

  Chapter Eight of The Secret Language of Leadership provides a detailed discussion of the different ways of getting the audience's attention.

  Closing Step: Reinforcing with Reasons

  Stimulating desire for change is important, but it's not enough. The desire for change may wane unless it is supported and reinforced by compelling reasons why the change makes sense. Where the reasons are placed in a presentation is crucial.

  If reasons are given before the emotional connection is established, they are likely to be heard as so much noise. Worse, if the audience is skeptical, cynical, or hostile, the reasons tend to flip and become ammunition for the opposite point of view. By contrast, if the reasons come after an emotional connection has been established with the change idea, then the reasons can reinforce it, because now listeners are actively searching for reasons to support a decision they have in principle already taken.

  The most effective way to present reasons that will resonate with your audience is to give the reasons in the form of stories—for example:

  The story of what the change is, often seen through the eyes of some typical characters who will be affected by the change

  The story of how the change will be implemented, showing in simple steps how we will get from here to there

  The story of why the change will work, showing the underlying causal mechanism that make the change virtually inevitable

  Instead of relying on pure reason, or facts and figures and arguments, stories give reasons an emotional punch. Stories appeal to the heart as well as the mind and make the reasons memorable.

  Chapter Ten of The Secret Language of Leadership provides more detailed discussion of how to use story to reinforce with reasons.

  Template for Crafting the Springboard Story

  Finding the Right Story

  1. What is your change idea?

  2. Who is your audience?

  3. What action do you want your audience to take?

  4. Think of an incident where the change idea has been successfully implemented, at least in part.

  5. In that incident, can you find a single individual who is similar to your audience and could be the protagonist of your story?

  6. Does the story have an authentically positive ending for the protagonist?

  7. Will the audience see it as an authentically positive ending for them?

  8. Does the story fully embody the change idea? If not, can it be extrapolated so that it does?

  Assembling the Story

  1. Begin with:

  The date

  The place

  The protagonist

  2. What obstacles was the protagonist facing?

  3. What would have happened without the change idea?

  4. What did the protagonist do to overcome the obstacles?

  5. What was the happy ending for the protagonist?

  6. Check that the story has the right level of detail.

  7. Link the story to the change idea, by “What if … ” or “Just think … ” or “Imagine … ”

  Practicing the Story

  1. Practice telling the story a number of times and observe the audience reaction.

  2. Amend the story in the light of experience before telling it to your target audience.

  4

  Build Trust

  Using Narrative to Communicate Who You Are

  “Our fundamental tactic of self-protection, self-control, and self-definition is … telling stories, and more particularly concocting and controlling the story we tell others—and ourselves—about who we are.”

  Daniel Dennett1

  When I go into a new organization or encounter a new audience and start talking about an idea that is often seen as strange and counterintuitive, such as leadership storytelling or radical management, people are often wondering who I am. Who is this man? Where does he come from? Why is he talking about this subject? Should I listen to him? I respond to these issues in the following way:

  I was born in Sydney, Australia. I grew up there. I went to Sydney University. I studied psychology. I studied law. I worked for several years in a big corporate law firm. And then I went to Oxford University in England and studied some more law. And then I came to Washington, D.C., and joined the World Bank, this big international organization that lends billions of dollars to developing countries to help eliminate global poverty.

  Now I was a quintessential left-brained, analytical kind of person. Clear, crisp, succinct, bottom line: that was me. And as you know, big organizations just love that kind of person. So I climbed up the managerial ladder in the World Bank. And by February 1996, I was actually the director of the Africa Region. The Africa Region handled about a third of the operations in this big international organization. So I was beginning to think that this was a pretty important kind of position.

  But then the scene changed. The president of the World Bank suddenly died. My boss unexpectedly retired. Somebody else was appointed to my position.

  Now, things weren't going too well for me in the World Bank. I went to see one of the top managers and asked him, “Do you have anything in mind for me?”

  He replied, “Not really.”

  I pressed him quite a bit, and eventually he said, “Why don't you go and look into information?”

  Now information in the World Bank in 1996 had the status of the garage or the cafeteria. So I was not being offered a promotion. I was being sent to Siberia.

  But I was interested in information. So I went and looked into information and saw that we were wasting a lot of money there. But our real problems lay elsewhere: we needed to share our knowledge with all the millions of people who made decisions about poverty.

  So I set out to persuade the World Bank to start sharing its knowledge. To my surprise, no one was interested. I gave the reasons. They didn't listen. I showed them charts. They looked dazed.

  Then I stumbled on something else—a story that somehow had the capacity to communicate the idea of knowledge management and get people rapidly into action. One of my early listeners was high enough in the organization to get the ear of the president, and the president announced my idea as a major organizational initiative at the annual meeting of the World Bank in front of 170 finance ministers. Suddenly, the man from Siberia was back!

  I was appointed director of knowledge management, and four years later, the World Bank was being benchmarked as one of the world leaders in knowledge management.

  That's how I tell my story when I'm talking to a new audience. Through that story, I'm communicating a number of things about who I am:

  I am someone who has been a manager in a large organization, so I know the kind of stress that many people in the audience are going through.

  I am an analytical kind of person, not a wild and woolly artist who can't grasp the importance of the bottom line.