The Winning Edge - Why storytelling is essential to startups.
Storytelling can help startups get the winning edge
The entrepreneur lives his or her story every day and knows it better than anyone, but that’s only half of the battle. It takes strategy and strong relationship-building to provoke up a story into a narrative that is woven through various sources. Then, there’s keeping that story alive, once it’s unleashed into the public domain. Thus, putting the spotlight on the value of storytelling.
Our brains are wired to respond to narratives, making stories a powerful tool for building brand identity.?
Facts speak to your mind and stories to your Heart.?
Just for a minute think about what you remember of the past. It would mostly be information communicated as stories.? A compelling story will engage your brain in a deeper way than facts alone.
Facts speak to your mind
At work, messages usually are a collection of facts and figures, with a logical structure. When you face one of those, your brain activates the language-processing zone. When was the last time you burst into tears or laughed out loud when watching a spreadsheet? Probably not.
Stories speak to your heart
When you are reading or hearing a story, your brain will react in a whole other way and simultaneously activate up to seven areas at once. Including the zone that processes images, which works 60,000 times faster than language processing. Other activated zones include those that trigger emotions or those that command our other senses: touch, hearing, taste, and even smell.
Humans the only species on earth, which believes in stories, myths, and narratives. In short, if you ask a monkey to loan you a banana in exchange for a banana and a half in a year; the monkey will not only eat it but also throw you a stone. Why? Because the monkey does not believe in the “interests’ myth.”
For Humans, this ability to believe in stories, allowed us to form large and complex societies.
How Storytelling Moved from the Historical Stage to the Business Arena
From Emperor Augustus to Steve Jobs; from Alexander the Great to Elon Musk; storytelling and the ability to “fabricate” new myths had played a massive role. ”
Successful people in business understood this concept and made it work in their favour. Would anyone love Apple if it didn’t believe in “Steve Jobs‘ Myth?” Would anyone trust Tesla or SpaceX if it didn’t believe in “Elon Musk’s Myth?" People might but we all know the role they play in creating the aura.
What is business storytelling?
Storytelling is all around. In a few years, it’s become a big buzzword in our trade. Business storytelling is a critical part of developing a business model. Indeed, the way you frame the story of your organization will influence its brand in the long term. That’s because your brand story is tied to your brand identity, and it enables people to identify with a company.
There is space for great storytelling in business
Work is not only about facts or figures. A lot happens every day at the office. We spent a whole lot of time there. We laugh and cry, we win and lose. After all, most of us at work are still humans. People tell business stories to communicate and connect with employees, customers, colleagues, partners, suppliers, and the media. Business stories differ from regular stories, in that you tell them with an objective, goal, or desired outcome in mind, rather than just entertainment.
A good story will inspire action and facts inspire change/movement. We all remember the below slide.
“At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel”. The words are by Maya Angelou, a novelist and a poet.
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Techniques for Storytelling :
Remember the famous President Kennedy's , Steve Jobs , Elon Musk, APJ Abdul Kalam etc. MOON-SHOT SPEECH.?
Types of Stories
Six structures that you can use to tell business stories. Let's look at below.
How to Tell a? Story - CAR Framework
These three elements make up the CAR framework, which Paul Smith wrote about in his book, "Lead with a Story."
Context? - The context provides the background information that listeners or readers need to make sense of your story.?
Action - The action is where we experience defeats and learn lessons.
Result - What's the moral? Why did you tell this story?
Benefits of business storytelling
From startups context, storytelling is extremely important. ?A story is an evolving thing, so even once you feel you’ve really nailed it, don’t forget to change with the times and shift your focus as your company grows and changes too.