Blog Post #99 - Do you know how to tell a story well?

Do you know how to tell a story?

Ever since my son entered school I wondered what he will be investing his 13 years of life on? Most kids go to school at 5 and graduate by 18.


Then go to college for 3-4 years, 2 years masters (if interested) and 2 - few more for phds.

Some kids will stop school by 21 or 17 years of education. - Look at the statistics.

50% of statistics is incorrect - this fact is based on another statistics.

Armed with this 17 years of education we want us and our kids to spend 50 years earning our living and living our life.

My son's badge had a weird number 2025. I didn't realize what that meant. That number 12 years from now is the year he will graduate from high school.

Living with kids days are long and years look short.

My younger one will graduate in 2030 out of high school.wosh!

About 2075 these kids will retire.

Now - let me tell you what I learnt from his kinder garden class - How to tell a story?

Most of us in the corporate world have been trying to create power points and answering executives with answer first format - the first slide should summarize what you need the executives to act on.

Most of the time you are supposed to ask yourself the question - so what?

Apparently the executives,recruiters,your boss,your co-workers,your spouse and kids have less patience and want to know the answer to the question - so what if I listen to you or what do you ask me to do!

If you are confronted with critical questions or actions or feedback you are supposed to say

That's interesting tell me more
That's interesting why did you do that way?
That's interesting why did you say that ?
That's interesting what do you mean by that?

We all loves Stories.

Instead of these power points and lectures we have been educated by so many researchers that what you need are stories.

Read the book - Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die  Chip Heath   and Dan Heath  - the same folks I refereed in another post about the book Decisive.

Use the SUCCESS acronym when you share your ideas

• Simple
• Unexpected
• Concrete
• Credible
• Emotional
• Stories

Do you know how to tell a story?

Apparently Kinder gardeners and their teachers  are here to help.

When you are making the next presentation or trying to communicate with your spouse try this technique.

Fiction or Not?

First acknowledge if the story is true or false. 

What you heard from a friend about a friend's friend or a blog(including this one) or from google links - sometimes searching google is referred as research which is kind of funny imagining people with rats and people with mouse trying to use the same term with different mazes to navigate and different cheese ! 

Unless it is from a credible source - you need to classify it as Fiction.

Point of View

Then you elaborate on are you going to tell it from a First person or from a third person. Most of the time when you watch a movie or listen to a speech observe the point of view to know whose point of view you are listening to.

Author's purpose

In other words the intent - Long time back a met with an executive who said after I listen to your presentation what do you want me to? Do you want to get some funding , understand the project status or appreciate how great your team's work has been. In other words tell me your intent. 

Even in personal interactions are we trying to Persuade people to do something or are we just informing or entertaining?

Characters

Very late in my life I learnt the word  protagonist and antagonist . The good lead character and the bad lead character . Why not call them Hero and Villan? I am not sure but these are the words. 

Supporting Characters

Everyone else other than the protagonist including the antagonist is a supporting character according to me. If the antagonist becomes the good guy by definition he is the protagonist under the cover of antagonist - sheep in wolf cloth.

Setting: 

Where does this thing happen? You can add what time along with the place in case time is of essence to the story. Does it happen in one day or few decades or over a few centuries?

1. A character,
2. In a situation,
3. With a problem,
4. Who tries repeatedly to solve his problem,
5. But repeatedly fails
6. Then, at the climax of the story, makes a final attempt - (which might either succeed or fail, depending on the kind of story it is), after which
7. The result is “validated” in a way that makes it clear that what we saw was, in fact, the final result.

(from http://www.philipbrewer.net/story-structure-in-short-stories/ ) 

1. The hero is confronted with a challenge,
2. rejects it,
3. but then is forced (or allowed) to accept it.
4. He travels on the road of trials,
5. gathering powers and allies (runs around trees in indian/bollywood/tollywood/kollywood movies), and
6. confronts evil—only to be defeated.
7. This leads to a dark night of the soul, after which
8. the hero makes a leap of faith that allows him to
9. confront evil again and be victorious.
10. Finally, the student becomes the teacher.

(from http://www.philipbrewer.net/story-structure-in-short-stories/ ) 

Remember my previous post I discussed about Victor Frankl..If you have not read that post read it before we continue

D= S-M An equation which reveals the secret to happiness and meaning of life answering the question - What is the purpose of my/your life?

The Basic idea from Victor Frankl Logotheraphy was that man finds a meaning once after a decides. Humans make decision. 

Not choosing to make  decision is considered a decision.

When confronted with a situation where a bad guy is speaking ill of a nice guy as part of gossip if you stay quiet it is considered a decision to support the bad guy. If you don't agree what else did that act achieve? Remember that not acting is considering accepting the decision of the other person and in this case agreeing the good guy is really bad.

Why is decision important for stories? Without decision the story cannot proceed. Once the lead character makes a decision then the story moves further

1. Require the character to make a choice,
2. show that choice by actions, and
3. those actions must have consequences.

from http://www.philipbrewer.net/story-structure-in-short-stories/ ) 

Next time when you talk to folks about your good old days or watching a play or a movie or playing a game(yes - gaming industry uses this concept well) or shopping (yes marketers use this story telling concept too from ads to making you sign up for the points card which offers discounts for free(!)) you see stories and like any thing else in life there are good and bad ones.

Watch what you watch!

Keep telling stories and creating history!
Sivakumar Manikanteswaran