Storytelling: A Tool to Re-Enliven Communication
3 June 2014
Read by 3309 persons
What makes a successful presentation? To communicate effectively, it's not enough to just form sentences; you need to tell a story. In short, you need to script your message, both in terms of content and form. Because a story is often better than a long speech, storytelling is an essential tool for captivating and convincing your audience!
Storytelling: The Art of Telling Stories
Storytelling is a somewhat scholarly term for an age-old art: the art of telling stories.
Originating in the United States, the concept, forged by political communication, began to flourish with Ronald Reagan, himself a former actor. Inspired by narrative and cinematic techniques, it has gradually spread throughout society, across marketing, journalism, healthcare, psychology, etc.
In businesses, where it is becoming increasingly widespread, it is now applied to oral presentations, crisis communication, managing people and projects, developing sales arguments, etc.
Storytelling: A Management Tool
If storytelling is so trendy today, it's primarily because telling a story provides chronology, direction, meaning, and reference points in a society dominated by channel surfing, immediacy, and short-termism.
It's also because storytelling is a conveyor of emotions, and emotions in turn are a powerful catalyst for energy and action. There's nothing like a good story to anchor messages and set people in motion.
In a society and environment where citizens, consumers, employees, executives, and leaders are subjected to an avalanche of information, where it is vital to capture the attention of others, where emotional competition is so fierce, today's manager cannot ignore this tool; they must know and master it if they want to convince, motivate, and influence.
Storytelling: A Narrative Method
A storytelling presentation has a narrative structure built using specific techniques. It uses illustrations, anecdotes, analogies, and metaphors. It draws its authority and credibility from testimony and experience. While its favorite tool is narrative, it can also use images, film, sketches, short scenes, or happenings. It applies to any type of subject or medium: press releases, marketing plans, sales arguments... and even those that may seem the most ungrateful: presentations of curves, statistics, reports, PowerPoints, etc.
Storytelling: The Art of Engaging to Engage Others
Storytelling pushes the user to open up and engage. It's about telling a story, which means bringing characters to life and mobilizing emotions.
Whether using personal experiences, one's own story, or one's own feelings, or conversely, one's imagination, observational skills, ability to be touched by others or impacted by events, storytelling requires that you put yourself on the line, that you take the risk of giving of yourself, of revealing yourself a little. It is therefore necessary, from a strictly pedagogical point of view, that trainees provide situations that have awakened their sensitivity, struck their imagination, stimulated their interest or curiosity.
Certainly, there is a technique to be transmitted, but it is there to encourage the speaker to give of themselves and reveal themselves. And it is by taking the risk of opening up (including through body language, voice, gestures, and emotions) that they will become a force of engagement, conviction, governance, and leadership.
Jean-Luc Solal.
Etre-bien-au-travail.fr
Published June 2, 2014.
Posted online June 3, 2014.
Storytelling: The Art of Telling Stories
Storytelling is a somewhat scholarly term for an age-old art: the art of telling stories.
Originating in the United States, the concept, forged by political communication, began to flourish with Ronald Reagan, himself a former actor. Inspired by narrative and cinematic techniques, it has gradually spread throughout society, across marketing, journalism, healthcare, psychology, etc.
In businesses, where it is becoming increasingly widespread, it is now applied to oral presentations, crisis communication, managing people and projects, developing sales arguments, etc.
Storytelling: A Management Tool
If storytelling is so trendy today, it's primarily because telling a story provides chronology, direction, meaning, and reference points in a society dominated by channel surfing, immediacy, and short-termism.
It's also because storytelling is a conveyor of emotions, and emotions in turn are a powerful catalyst for energy and action. There's nothing like a good story to anchor messages and set people in motion.
In a society and environment where citizens, consumers, employees, executives, and leaders are subjected to an avalanche of information, where it is vital to capture the attention of others, where emotional competition is so fierce, today's manager cannot ignore this tool; they must know and master it if they want to convince, motivate, and influence.
Storytelling: A Narrative Method
A storytelling presentation has a narrative structure built using specific techniques. It uses illustrations, anecdotes, analogies, and metaphors. It draws its authority and credibility from testimony and experience. While its favorite tool is narrative, it can also use images, film, sketches, short scenes, or happenings. It applies to any type of subject or medium: press releases, marketing plans, sales arguments... and even those that may seem the most ungrateful: presentations of curves, statistics, reports, PowerPoints, etc.
Storytelling: The Art of Engaging to Engage Others
Storytelling pushes the user to open up and engage. It's about telling a story, which means bringing characters to life and mobilizing emotions.
Whether using personal experiences, one's own story, or one's own feelings, or conversely, one's imagination, observational skills, ability to be touched by others or impacted by events, storytelling requires that you put yourself on the line, that you take the risk of giving of yourself, of revealing yourself a little. It is therefore necessary, from a strictly pedagogical point of view, that trainees provide situations that have awakened their sensitivity, struck their imagination, stimulated their interest or curiosity.
Certainly, there is a technique to be transmitted, but it is there to encourage the speaker to give of themselves and reveal themselves. And it is by taking the risk of opening up (including through body language, voice, gestures, and emotions) that they will become a force of engagement, conviction, governance, and leadership.
Jean-Luc Solal.
Etre-bien-au-travail.fr
Published June 2, 2014.
Posted online June 3, 2014.
