Storytelling Tips for Left-Brained Data-Driven Presenters

Where the Art of Story Meets the Business of Persuasion

I have spent my life using, studying, and teaching the art of strategic storytelling to people who want to use the tool to impact and influence others. I consider myself an artist first, exploring words like notes in music, never disappointed at how they work together to bring an audience to feel something or challenge their way of thinking. As with any art, the creative process is not linear. So when faced with an audience of left-brained data-driven professionals, I found it a harder challenge. How do I take an art and turn it into the formula my engineers are thirsty for? How do I help scientists break story down into a mechanical process that creates an emotional experience? And even more important, how do I help data-driven people let go of the idea that presenting the facts is enough? Today I'm going to try and break down what has taken me years to figure out. For now - this is the best I can explain it.

Understand Why Story Matters

From Data to Meaning

Most of you reading this, most likely find yourself in a position of having information that someone else needs. Your number one goal is probably to educate that audience. Give them the information you have. This is the easy part for most of us, unless we aren't clear on our content, which will be the topic of another article. For now, let's assume you are clear on what you need to deliver. Many presenters will share the facts, and consider the job done. But your job is not done. Just because you gave them the facts, doesn't mean they understand them.

The one pattern I see in working with scientists, engineers, IT, financial planners, and other data-focused industries, is that they often speak a different language from their audience. Using terms the audience has never heard before. Unless your audience is made up of people who do the exact same thing as you, don't assume they understand what you are saying. In fact, it's best to assume they don't. This is where strategic storytelling comes into play.

Story allows you to wrap the data in a language that they can understand. Story gives data meaning.

For example, I once worked with a computer guy who was frustrated because his buyers never quite understood what he could do for them. So we created a story they could easily understand. I asked him what problem he typically solved for people, and if there was anything else he could compare this problem to out there in the real world. Could he find a similar problem that everybody could easily understand? He said, "Yeah. It's like a bakery with a refrigerator, and all the employees are buying items and shoving them in the fridge without paying attention to what's already in there. Things are getting pushed to the back and spoiled before they are ever used. They are losing money. And nobody is paying attention to the refrigerator. That's what is happening in their computers. And I help them clean out the refrigerator saving them time and money."

This was a perfect illustration. Pretty much anybody in his audience can understand the concept of a bakery having a refrigerator and needing to buy supplies. It's an easy story for them to step into and understand. But story serves another purpose too.

From Lecture to Persuasion

Just because your audience now understands your data, doesn't mean they will be motivated to act on it.

As presenters we assume that just telling them what they should do is enough. It's not. Hearing the facts is not the same as believing the facts or the person delivering the facts. Telling people what to do, is not the same thing as making them want to do it. Our job is not just to inform, but to persuade. Data doesn't persuade. But story does.

Most of us aren't hired to simply lecture. We are hired to move the listener to action. This changes our role from just teacher to sales person. And the cardinal rule of sales, is that for someone to buy-in to what you're saying, they must first like you - trust you - believe you - and feel like they know you. They buy YOU first. Therefore, you can't just be a talking head. You must become a trusted source. Trust. Like. Believe. Feel like we know. These are all words that have to do with emotion - with how we FEEL about YOU personally.

Most presenters skip this critical part entirely and head straight to the data. This is a mistake. Give us a chance to meet you - to hear about what this work means to you personally - show us who you are so that you become human and we trust you enough to listen and uncross our arms. Here again, story does this beautifully.

I was working with a financial planner who was having a hard time connecting with his buyers. I could see why. He was coming across as too slick. He was giving off a bad vibe. I couldn't see giving him my money, because I didn't trust him. I didn't even feel like I knew him. So I began asking him some questions about why he does the work that he does, and how it affects him personally. He told me his father worked hard his whole life and lost everything because he made bad decisions. He said it broke his heart to watch his father go through that, and he made a promise that he would not make the same mistake. So he began to study how to protect the money he needs to provide a better future for his two kids. He has twins who both want to be doctors, and he is desperate to make sure they get the life they deserve. So he has spent most of his life studying ways to protect his investments and provide a future for his children. And now he loves to help others do the same. It is so exciting to him when he shows someone how just a few easy steps will give them more freedom and choices. "I guess you could say I'm doing this for my dad," he said with a crooked smile.

Just listening to him reveal that about himself, completely changed the way I saw him. He went from someone slick that I didn't trust, to someone who loves his kids, and who really wants to help people. The door is now open for me to uncross my arms and listen to what he has to stay.

Your data will not convince people unless you first create the trust that causes them to lower their arms and lean in. Story allows you to show people who you are without having to tell them. Why? Because the value of a story is transferred to the teller.

From to Hearing to Experiencing

Most of us know that we learn the most from what we learned personally, the hard way. We learn the most from what we actually experience. My son can hear facts about history, but he truly learns when he is taken to the actual battleground and hears the stories of those who died there. I could learn to drive a car by reading a book, but the real learning happens when I get behind the wheel. As presenters, we must figure out a way to get people behind the wheel. Story allows your listener to go from just hearing the information and having it processed in one part of the brain, to actually lighting up many other parts of the brain and forcing them to get involved.

Story forces your listener to find a similar experience in their own lives. Story, when done well, causes your listener's emotions to mirror those of the people in your story. It's quite amazing actually how story allows you to plant ideas into peoples' minds in a non-pushy way. But don't believe me, go check out the studies done at Princeton and Harvard and in Psychology Review, just to name a few. The science backs this up.

Story allows your listener to go from hearing your truth, to actually experiencing your truth. It allows you to put your listener behind the wheel of the car and drive - without ever leaving their seat.

The Structure of a Story

Hopefully, you now you see why story is so powerful and can't be ignored. But all stories are not created equal. If the story doesn't have the proper structure, it is useless and can actually work against you.

There are many ways to get to a workable story. Here's mine:

• The right story beats the best story. Stop worrying about whether a story is good enough. Worry about whether it does what you need it to do. What do you need the listener to think, do, and feel as a result of hearing this story? Find the right story, then work to make it better.
• Choose stories that mean something to you. Personal experience stories are much more impactful than stories you pulled from a book. You may have been told not to talk about yourself, and not to make yourself the hero of your story. This is not entirely true. It's okay to talk about yourself as the hero of the story, if it's about something you learned the hard way. Your own experience and the resulting lesson. We don't, however, want a book report of how great you are and everything you did right. Be the hero that learns a lesson, not the hero that saves the day.
• Understand the intent. Before you craft your story, make sure you can clearly state the lesson(s) and teaching points from that story. Understanding that on the front end makes crafting it so much easier.
• Create a solid structure. A list of facts is not a story. A story is about an experience someone has, with a marked before and after, where the character goes through a transformation. Most effective stories in business have the following components: Character + Conflict + Emotion Related To Conflict + Resolution + Emotion Related to Resolution + Victory Moment (Life as a result) + Emotion + Lessons + Objection Moment ("I know what you're thinking" moment ) + Action Step for Listener.
• Write and Talk the WayYou Talk. The key to an effective story is not to craft it as a story to be read, but as a story to be told. Effective stories are authentic and conversational - not overly polished or performed. The more I feel like that is really you, the more I will believe you.
• Use simple language. Your listener is listening, processing, feeling, coming to conclusions, and following the plot. That's a lot of things happening as you talk. Slow down. Don't be afraid to pause. And use simple language that doesn't take a lot of time to process so they can follow along at a quick pace. Take the shortest distance to get there, use creative words instead of overused words that don't have meaning anymore, and get rid of details that don't matter.
• Five minutes or less. Try to create stories that are all under five minutes. It will force you to find what is truly important to say.