How Truth Speaks Through Story

In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.- Czes?aw Mi?osz, Nobel Prize for Literature 1980.

“Truth, naked and cold, had been turned away from every door in the village. Her nakedness frightened the people. When Parable found her, she was huddled in a corner, shivering and hungry. Taking pity on her, Parable gathered her up and took her home. There, she dressed Truth in story, warmed her, and sent her out again. Clothed in story, Truth knocked again at the villagers’ doors and was readily welcomed into the people’s houses. They invited her to eat at their table and warm herself by their fire.”

- Jewish Teaching Story

One should always speak the truth—the naked truth. Managers and coworkers will appreciate it. The reality is that almost everyone remembers their manager or coworkers reacting less than enthusiastically to the naked truth. Saying, "This idea is not going to work," even if it is a spot-on remark, will only trigger more resistance.

There is a better way to tell the naked truth: dressing it up in story. Story is a less direct and more malleable device of persuasion. Other forms of influence, such as bargaining, flattering, or enforcement, are inherent to formal authority or an exchange between (dis)similar positions of power. Story, however, does not need to come from authority or power to exert its subtle influence.

Examples work. Or do they?

When we can't agree on something, we are prompted to give an example. Sometimes it works, but when it doesn't, it's worth taking a moment to understand why examples fail to build common ground. Examples are linear, chronological, and specific. Stories provide context to the events and sensory experience to the characters. "Some old paintings look like modern photographs" is an example. Velazquez’s Las Meninas is a story. "Arrogance particularly offends the powerful" is an example. The doomed fate of Arachne is a story.

Good stories evoke emotions in the unconscious mind. When a story is rooted in truth, it allows individuals to connect with characters, situations, and themes that mirror their own lives or reflect aspects of the human condition. Regardless of personal experiences, the fundamental truths embedded in stories have the power to stir something inside us.

Truth with a capital T

In a stirring keynote on the power of storytelling , Annette Simmons put forward a bold idea: What people want, what they desperately want, is faith. Something to believe in. They are so fed up with information that they don’t want to know anything about your project's numbers or "fundamentals." But people will listen if you make them believe that something new or different is possible.

This is where story comes into play. In her book The Story Factor , Simmons explores how all good stories reveal a truth so fundamental that it bears a capital T. Simmons identifies truth with a capital T as the kind of truth that we know, recognise, and believe without previous experience or empirical evidence. Love hurts. Decisions are not rational. Service is sacrifice. Empires fall. Life is short. Resentment is bad. Justice prevails. Fortune favours the bold. It’s better to be loved than feared. Have faith that the dots will connect.

Truth with a capital T builds common ground where examples (and facts and figures) could not. Truth with a capital T brings people together and has the power to shift their mindset from self-interest to purpose-driven. Personally, I have never heard anyone recite bullet points of a slide deck because no one remembers them anyway. But I, and surely you too, have heard others tell and repeat the stories that reframed their perspective and shaped their behaviour. It might be a movie, a symphony, a novel, a team victory, a personal tribulation, a family tale.

The key to people's minds

If the key to one’s heart is in their playlist, the key to their mind is in the stories they tell. A person sharing a few stories about The Godfather saga will probably give their full attention to tales of loyalty, guilt, and redemption. A colleague who frequently cites The Economist will probably be receptive to stories about how history repeats itself. A person who can’t stop talking about AI will be open to myths about the perils of trying to control Nature. A few years ago, I provided executive communication services to a CEO, and I could not figure out his style. I connected with him only after he told me his passion was collecting comics. At that point, I understood why he strongly preferred very succinct phrases and had a low tolerance for elegant words. I finally had a point of reference.

Data, facts, and figures are important, but people don’t need any more of that. Nevertheless, when our project pitches don't stick, one of the first points we review is whether the "what’s in it for me" proposition is clear enough to those we want to influence. In other words, are we being clear about the reward, their reward? Alas, we often forget that rewards and other forms of motivation, such as negotiation, cajoling, and even coercion, focus too much on the desired outcome for each person individually.

We have a better chance if we help our audience visualise "what’s in it for us all." Help them visualise it; don’t tell them what you think it looks like. Let people use their imagination, intelligence, and experience to fill in the blanks. Even if they ask you for examples as a means of clarification, steer clear of that trap—they are expecting gross oversimplifications or ridiculous business jargon. Surprise them with a story.

Success stories are not going anywhere

In business settings, storytelling is often reduced to sourcing success stories (often called case studies), which are then crafted and marketed to sell products and services. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that. But there is a compromise: while success stories may well provide the narrative triumphs that all companies need, they are unlikely to reveal the truths with a capital T that transcend and shape the collective memory of the organisation.

If the place of success stories in business communications is uncontested, so is the fact that audiences crave narratives that delve into the depths of human existence. Success stories are time-bound and linear. Real-life is much more nuanced and multifaceted. It encompasses failures, struggles, transformation, and sometimes, victory. In a way, success stories go out naked, or in semi-transparent underwear. A led to B, B to C, and D confirmed A. Perhaps that’s why so many of them end up huddled in annual reports, shivering in brochures, hungry for attention on websites. As the Jewish tale tells us, companies should consider clothing their chronicles of success in story. Because in the search for Truth, authenticity trumps immediacy.

If you think I can help you and your team become better storytellers, contact me. I’d love to hear your story.