Slides or Stories?

How do you get someone to listen to you, to understand the excellent points you are trying to make?

The usual business approach is to create a slide presentation and go through the points one by one, stating your case and trying to convince the audience of your genius. The natural response is resistance, criticism, defiance - don't try to change my mind!

Colin was trying to get his department to adopt some new scheduling software, but no-one seemed interested in what he had to say. Though fortified with stats and charts showing all the benefits, whenever he'd bring it up, he'd meet resistance. He was getting frustrated and didn't know what to do differently.

Colin asked for five minutes at the next executive meeting, with the intent of presenting his case. He had extensive data, and had prepared a consise yet comprehensive slide show to promote his point of view, but he was racked with uncertainty; why would it work this time, when it hadn't worked in all his previous attempts?

The night before the meeting, as he read a bedtime story to his two children, he was distracted by his worries about the upcoming meeting. "Daddy, you missed the part about the dragon and the mouse!" shouted Kathy, his four-year old. With a start, Colin realized he'd skipped four pages, yet his kids had been so engaged and interested, that they knew exactly what he'd missed. He re-read the story, with the mouse part included this time, wishing he could generate the same level of interest in his presentation the next day.

Later that night, as Colin ran through his presentation, he wondered how he could make it as interesting as the bedtime story had been for his kids. He recalled some of the interviews he'd done with some of the users of the current software system, and remembered their frustration with all the ridiculous, time-wasting steps they were forced to perform. He laughed out loud as he recalled John's spoof of the user's manual and...

I won't tell you exactly how this turned out, other than to say that Colin presented a story at the executive meeting the next day, a story that engaged the audience, allowed them to see the waste in the current system, and got them onto his side - they asked what could be done to fix the problem, and he was able to support his position with his slides, stats, and charts.

When you tell a good story, people lean into it, interested in seeing how it will turn out. Or, they lean back, as they relax into the imaginary world you create. Stories engage people and lead them gently to new ideas. Stories are one of the oldest forms of human communication; you can use them to build interest and engage people's energy. Specs and stats and slides are great supporting material, but stories are the key to unlocking resistance and getting people on side.