Stories You Must Be Able to Tell

In early 2005, Daniel Pink introduced his book "A Whole New Mind - Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age". One of the points he made and exemplified is the power of using stories. It demonstrates how most minds work. That is to make a point, use a story. Stories are easier to remember because stories is how we remember. Mark Turner in his book "Literary Mind" says "Most of our experience, our knowledge and or thinking is organized as stories." Stories can divert and amuse the listener. Facts illuminate and reveal.

In business, we need to build a reservoir of stories to share with clients, prospects, vendors and team members to illustrate the points we want to make to them.

Expanding on this idea in his 2006 book "What's Your Story? Using Stories to Ignite Performance and Be More Successful", Craig Wortmann advises us to have personal stories in four areas:

• Success Stories
• Failure Stories
• Funny Stories
• Legends

Success Stories
Success stories are great for showing you and your company off in the best light. We all have success stories from our resume to demonstrate strengths. We all crave success stories we can relate to - because we can envision ourselves walking that same path.

Failure Stories
Indeed, we all need a few of these stories we can pull out of the closet for certain situations. They demonstrate we are human too and make us very relatable. They also help us build strong bonds with people. And by being authentic instead of pollyanna-like, failure stories increase the trust factor in every relationship.

Funny Stories
People need to see that we have a sense of humor. Why should a team show up to work with you if you are always cracking the whip, always aloof and perfect? When we can laugh at ourselves or tell a funny short story - it can break tension, provide perspective and make work fun again.

Legends
Legends are stories many people know already, but they can be used as examples of a point you want to make. Many legends and their stories - Michael Dell/DELL, Henry Ford/Model T, Bill Gates/Microsoft, Thomas Leonard/Coachville, Zig Ziglar/Sales motivation - offer shortcuts to an idea or principle you are addressing - without out lecturing.

Do you have stories in all four areas? Your stories don't have to be larger than life. Everyday examples are more real and tangible for people to grasp and apply. I've got the success stories and the failure stories to share. I have to build a repertoire of funny stories and more legends.