How do you use storytelling and framing techniques to engage and persuade your stakeholders?

Stories bring a different level of involvement between the narrator and the audience, one that connects through emotion and shared experience. Information relayed through stories is recalled better because of the connection between memory and emotion. The stronger the emotion created, the stronger the memory. Stories can also help humanize the storyteller through the way that the story highlights values and beliefs shared by the audience.

Your ability to communicate and persuade most effectively relies on reading the t-leaves - understand what your audience wants to know, feel and do and consider how to match that in some way against your own agenda. It’s as much what you say as how you say it. And how you show your audience you have a shared understanding.

Storytelling can engage and inspire your stakeholders. It is an opportunity to add context to the data points you need to communicate. By bringing your audience on a journey, you are better able to have them understand the why behind your message and facilitates trust.

Humans are in fact wired for narrative. We’ve been telling stories since we’ve had language because stories have kept us alive. Our evolutionary advantage is our ability to solve problems as a group and cooperate creatively at scale. Scaling an idea relies on a unifying vision that spurs people to take action. Data can help align teams to solve a strategic problem but too much data is overwhelming. Stories can counterbalance information overload. In short, use storytelling to give your audience a vision of the future that resonates and compels them to action.

Sin duda la narración de historias humaniza a las empresas, haciendo que sus mensajes sean más accesibles, memorables y efectivos tanto en sus relaciones internas como externas.

Simply put, stories have four elements to craft: Protagonist, Place, Plot and Purpose. Companies should start with PURPOSE, then find a PROTAGONIST, then place that protagonist somewhere relevant, in a PLACE and finally structure HOW they relate information and WHEN which is simply put, a PLOT.

Many of the story structures we use have been around for millennia. Yet we still find them compelling and in some cases irresistible. They help us quickly make sense of events that unfold over time and the people and forces shaping those events. At the same time, they inspire us—priming us for action even as they shape our understanding. Through them, we come to tell heroes from monsters and blessings from curses, and we are primed to think and act accordingly.

Think of framing like a painting by Georgia O'Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, or Frida Kahlo. Just as these artists carefully choose color, texture, and form to evoke feelings and convey a message, your communication choices also influence how your message is received. By zooming in on certain aspects while omitting others, you can create a vivid picture for your audience, helping to develop more effective and persuasive messages and advancing your communication goals.

Framing is another way of saying, structure your information in an emotional way: through history, through personal experience, through user experience, through someone's emotions. That places your information within someone's mind.

Joseph Campbell studied storytelling architecture. His hero journey correlates with Beckhard's change model, which together, is how we support clients in developing their change narratives. Beckhard's formula for storytelling is: 1. Dissatisfaction (D): The conflict or problem that creates a need for change. 2. Vision (V): The desired outcome or goal. 3. First Steps (F): Actions taken to overcome the problem. 4. Resistance (R): The antagonist or obstacle opposing change.

It's always hard to analyze, as the text here suggests, your goal because it always seems to simply be CONVINCE someone to do something: buy, follow, execute, whatever. But Persuasion is not about logic or facts, but about emotional framing, that is putting your info into an emotional context. Not an obvious process if you're not good at structuring a story.

The advice on this number 5 is all very good. No need to complicate matters, align your purpose with your story is basically the idea. If you've got a purpose, find a story from someone that illustrates that purpose in real life.

Something that I think is often forgotten is that to write a compelling story, it’s crucial to put yourself in your reader’s shoes. Understanding their perspective allows you to craft a narrative that resonates emotionally and intellectually. Ask yourself: what are their concerns, interests, and experiences? What tone or style will engage them most? By stepping into their world, you can shape your writing to meet their expectations and needs. This not only makes the story more relatable but also ensures that it speaks directly to the reader’s desires, creating a connection that keeps them invested from start to finish. Writing with empathy enhances both the relevance and impact of your message.