On Storytelling and Business as Usual

We have constantly been asked and reminded in professional lives to be a good storyteller and once in a while we end up attending sessions on “ how to be a storyteller” with emphasis on few good takeaways and bullet points, in sum one fits all solutions. I have always been intrigued by storytelling, are we not? While growing up and long before we were baptized with digitization, storytelling was crucial to growing up, family, bonding, passing of values, joint families, ancestry, history, and so on. The art of storytelling is as old as time for instance look at any ancient cave painting dating back to the stone age and you will see various hunting scenes and that was the beginning of storytelling which actually predates invention of writing and approves the fact that storytelling is deeply engraved in our genes. For instance, during school days our favorite teachers were ones who could break down the complexity of subjects and could explain things in kids language, the fact is that our mind is wired to listen and relate to stories and this art has been passed to us since centuries, be it Ulysses or the Shahnameh or in recent days Harry Porter series which took the world by storm so much so that both youngsters and adults were collecting the Potter series, does it make the grown-ups less serious? Or it is the deep desire within us to relate to storytelling.

As time has moved so did the storytelling, from the cuneiform to writing from clay tablets to books from black & white rolls to cinema to television to Netflix to Instagram this is a continuous flow of storytelling that has kept on evolving over time. Bear in mind that the platforms have changed or evolved but the core and heart remain same that’s “storytelling “

Now going back to the world of corporate where more seems less, where if one doesn’t know the management terminologies and speaks without flinching would seem less of an impact, though I am not generalizing, the deep knowledge which once was sacred have become “ knee-deep” lost in many jargons, unproven theories and benchmarking cause that’s all we know. For sure once has to be competitive and must stay ahead of one’s game to survive the onslaught of new technologies and adapting to the ever-changing and evolving digital world. But aren’t we are still engaged in storytelling, though it has become so complex that we get lost in the myriad chains of words when it's not even required? More than ever the corporate world and business all over need more and more compelling storytellers, ones who can share the vision and alignment of an organization across all layers from C Suite to the entry-level profiles as one day these novices will be shuffling heavy weights around.

One of the finest storytellers of our time was Steve Jobs who was natural at telling stories. To Jobs, storytelling came naturally as he was able to make very complex products and made it so easy to use that a 3-year-old kid is as comfortable using iPad as drinking a bottle of warm milk. It was important for Jobs to understand his audience and connect with them and the only barrier was communication which he so deftly tore down.

In my career of luxury retail, I have had the pleasure to work and meet some of the finest storytellers, ace salesmen, and women who could sell you moon many times over and you would still want leftover moons orbiting Jupiter. This rare breed of storytellers is so efficient and yet so discreet at times. Now luxury brands are mostly old houses and some date back 100 or 200 years, for instance, Patek Philippe timepieces which have been making watches since 1839 and yes since 1839 it has never ceased making timepieces, so what do we find in the old chambers of these heritage companies, “compelling stories” along with values, history, tradition,  workmanship and so on. But how do we get the knowledge about the company and its values for instance is by storytelling which has been passed from generation to generation of old guards carefully passing down this immensely rich heritage. Why do people buy luxury, as gold is also luxury from time immemorial, but unlike old times we don’t have the need to hoard as no barbarian army is at gates looking to siphon off one’s wealth gently tucked under the pillow.

As time progressed  we too moved on and just like ancient Romans who once collected the old Greek sculptures, Pompei and Caesar including, we now collect objects of desires and depending on the financial appetite from a Rolex timepiece to a private jet and once in a while a quiet island. The compelling question is what exactly the consumer is buying and why she is choosing the given brands from the ocean of branding and notice, here again, it’s the story which has over time been delivered with so much conviction and back with the highest of quality and so the client makes her mind and buys. When we look around, we see the auction houses being on fire with bigger and bolder records, be it pop art, renaissance, and everything else in between. As we have become more settled, we again want to accumulate but only the best of best which storytelling can buy.

Are we all storytellers? I would assume so, at least as kids we all are when even before we learn to speak properly, we are able to communicate to the parents as to what was bothering or keeping us happy. However, as years pass, we lose the touch with inner self and became too busy polishing the skills and learning the management jargon. When was the last time we picked up a book, ancient old literature penned some centuries ago and let the tales of old wisdom engage and talk to us, or even let Peter Drucker engage us in the old wisdom of past. For somewhere not very far sits a storyteller with thousand stories hidden deep in his bosom ready for its audience.