Central truth

What happens is fact, not truth. Truth is what we think about what happens. —Robert McKee, Story

Whilst listening to a story, have you ever nodded in agreement and said: that’s so true.

It doesn’t always happen, but when it does, you know the story has a strong central truth.

But when it does happen, you’ll also know what the story’s about. Some call it the moral of the story. You’ll be able to summarise its point in a pithy sentence: simple solutions work best; you’ll get what you invest; small things can make a big difference.

This is vital knowledge for telling a good story.

Often, however, I’ll get a blank stare when I ask business people to share the lesson they drew from a story. They can’t do it. Finding the central truth is a skill to learn.

The first place to look is to examine the characters’ actions. What did they do? And what caused them to do it? Can you learn a lesson from what happened??

Sometimes it helps to put yourself in their shoes. What would you do in that situation? How differently did they act from what you would do? Can you learn anything from their experience?

The story’s conclusion bears close examination. A good story will either make its point clear or leave it open for you to ponder.?

Mark Schenk and I host a podcast called Anecdotally Speaking . In each episode, we tell a business story. One part of the show is dedicated to identifying the central truths we can find in the story. We often find two to four business points. No many but always more than one.

Just seeking out the business point each time you hear a story you like will improve your ability to find business points in a story. I’ve said it before, but this is such an important skill to develop. It’s worth practising.

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In most cases, truth is based on facts. But not all truths come from factual accounts.

Parables are short, simple stories conveying a moral or lesson. Their truth has been honed through years of retelling and refining.

Here are two parables to add to your story bank.

Two wolves

An old man tells his grandson: “There’s a fight going on inside me. It’s a terrible fight between two wolves. One is evil—angry, greedy, jealous, arrogant, and cowardly. The other is good—peaceful, loving, modest, generous, honest, and trustworthy. These two wolves are also fighting within you and inside every other person too.” After a moment, the boy asks, “Which wolf will win?” The old man smiles. “The one you feed.”1

Fixing the toothpaste line

Proctor and Gamble had a problem with their manufacturing process. Every now and then, they would ship a box of toothpaste without a tube of toothpaste in it. So they engaged a consultant and designed a system at a considerable cost that weighed each box as it came down the conveyer belt to fix the problem. If the weight were too low, an alarm would sound. The workers on the line would then remove the empty box.?

Like all good improvement projects, they kept a close eye on their data. Before they installed the new system, they noted the problem would occur a few times a day. But the alarm stopped sounding just days after the system was in place. This was peculiar, so the designers went down to the line to see what was happening.?

The workers placed an industrial fan a couple of feet ahead of the scale. When an empty box passed, the fan blew it to the floor. It never got to the scale and fixed the problem of shipping empty boxes.?

When they asked the workers why they did it, they just said they were sick of having the loud alarm sound all the time.

Footnotes

1. Most likely a Christian parable attributed as a American Indigenous legend. https://apihtawikosisan.com/2012/02/check-the-tag-on-that-indian-story/

References

McKee, Robert. Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting. ReganBooks, 1997.