Tell one good story today
- Mon, August 29 2011
- Filed under: Marketing essentials
I’m taking a break from the office today to work on my writing. This experience has me thinking about storytelling.
Here are two of my favorite quotes about stories—featured in Daniel Pink’s fascinating book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.
“Although businesspeople are often suspicious of stories… the fact is that statistics are used to tell lies and damned lies, while accounting reports are often BS in a ball gown… If a businessperson understands that his or her own mind naturally wants to frame experience in a story, the key to moving the audience is not to resist this impulse but to embrace it.”—Robert McKee
“Scratch the surface in a typical boardroom and we’re all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories.”—Alan Kay
In one interaction today, make your “punchline” a story and see what a difference it makes. All you need is a protagonist and a challenge. You’ll get everyone’s attention.