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Storytelling is very under appreciated in business generally. Storytelling is what allows teams to make decisions without running every single one by their mana

Storytelling is very under appreciated in business generally. Storytelling is what allows teams to make decisions without running every single one by their manager.

geerlingguy 6y ago
Storytelling makes things relatable. Without it, it's as boring as reading a new tech gadget's spec sheet. (Though some would very much like doing that...)
wenc 6y ago
I heard this on Lex Fridman's podcast a while ago. This is Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott on “storytelling”: Lex Fridman: Microsoft has 50-60 thousand engineers. What does it take to lead such a large group of brilliant people? Kevin Scott: … (snipped)... One central idea in Yuval Harari’s book Sapiens is that “storytelling” is the quintessential thing for coordinating the activities of large groups of people once you get past Dunbar’s number. I’ve really seen that, just managing engineering teams. You can brute-force things with small teams, but past that things start to fail catastrophically if you don’t have some set of shared goals. Even though this is sort of touchy feely, and technical people balk at the idea that you need to have a clear mission, it’s very important. Lex Fridman: Stories are sort of the fabric that connects all of us, and that works for companies too. Kevin Scott: It works for everything. If you sort of think about it, our currency is a story. Our constitution is a story. Our laws are a story. We believe very strongly in them, and thank God we do, but they’re just abstract things, they’re just words. If we don’t believe in them, they’re nothing. Lex Fridman: In some sense, those stories are platforms.
- whalesalad 6y ago
  I recently started to listen to Lex Fridman and really love his show. Makes long walks in the snow with the dog go by much faster. I want to go on just to have a meaningful conversation with someone.
- munificent 6y ago
  I like to think of stories as data in actionable form. Just knowing the facts doesn't tell you what to do. Those facts need to be embedded in some larger framework of meaning that enables you to make correct choices based on it. That's what a narrative is.
dagw 6y ago
But you have to make your story believable. I worked for a company where the CEO loved to tell 'inspiring' stories about the companies future riches glory. The problem was that his stories felt so outlandish ("We'll be bigger than Microsoft" etc.) that everybody basically wrote him off a delusional and ignored everything he said.
- ksdale 6y ago
  That's arguably part of the craft, though. People will believe all sorts of outlandish things if the story is told well enough. The story not being "believable" could be a function of crappy storytelling as much as a function of fact.
  - steveklabnik 6y ago
    To directly connect this to the article: Jobs’ famous “reality distortion field.”
billfruit 6y ago
Are there any resources/books etc that helps in improving ones storytelling skills?.
- wenc 6y ago
  I took an in-person class at Second City Chicago. It was 3 hours per week for 8 weeks, and the class had to put on a paid show at Second City at the end of term -- pretty hectic, and very hands on. It teaches a genre of storytelling called "personal storytelling" (not the same as business storytelling, but the principles are similar) that is popular at events like The Moth. https://www.secondcity.com/classes/chicago/storytelling-levels-101-201-2020/ https://www.secondcity.com/classes/chicago/storytelling-leve... Storytelling is also seeing a resurgence as a community activity -- if you google "live storytelling" events in your area, you'll probably find some (there are tons in Chicago) though during COVID they are all online so it doesn't matter where you are. These are essentially open-mics -- you can YouTube "The Moth" to see what they are like. Storytelling is one of those things where you gotta learn by doing -- reading a book can only help so much. That said, there's also a book called Long Story Short (Margot Leitman), which I found helpful. (again only for the genre of personal storytelling) https://bookshop.org/books/long-story-short-the-only-storytelling-guide-you-ll-ever-need/9781632170279?aid=2298 https://bookshop.org/books/long-story-short-the-only-storyte... If you're interested in business storytelling, I've heard that "Building a Story Brand" (Donald Miller) is a good primer. https://bookshop.org/books/building-a-storybrand-clarify-your-message-so-customers-will-listen/9780718033323 https://bookshop.org/books/building-a-storybrand-clarify-you...
qznc 6y ago
If anybody is looking for a book, I'm half way through The Leader's Guide to Storytelling by Stephen Denning. It focuses on business use, explores different use cases, and provides actionable advice. It is somewhat lacking in scientific foundations despite a long bibliography and gives rather anecdotal evidence. Still a good broad overview targeted at corporate use.

Storytelling is very under appreciated in business generally. Storytelling is what allows teams to make decisions without running every single one by their manager.

geerlingguy 6y ago

Storytelling makes things relatable. Without it, it's as boring as reading a new tech gadget's spec sheet. (Though some would very much like doing that...)

wenc 6y ago

I heard this on Lex Fridman's podcast a while ago. This is Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott on “storytelling”: Lex Fridman: Microsoft has 50-60 thousand engineers. What does it take to lead such a large group of brilliant people? Kevin Scott: … (snipped)... One central idea in Yuval Harari’s book Sapiens is that “storytelling” is the quintessential thing for coordinating the activities of large groups of people once you get past Dunbar’s number. I’ve really seen that, just managing engineering teams. You can brute-force things with small teams, but past that things start to fail catastrophically if you don’t have some set of shared goals. Even though this is sort of touchy feely, and technical people balk at the idea that you need to have a clear mission, it’s very important. Lex Fridman: Stories are sort of the fabric that connects all of us, and that works for companies too. Kevin Scott: It works for everything. If you sort of think about it, our currency is a story. Our constitution is a story. Our laws are a story. We believe very strongly in them, and thank God we do, but they’re just abstract things, they’re just words. If we don’t believe in them, they’re nothing. Lex Fridman: In some sense, those stories are platforms.

whalesalad 6y ago
I recently started to listen to Lex Fridman and really love his show. Makes long walks in the snow with the dog go by much faster. I want to go on just to have a meaningful conversation with someone.
munificent 6y ago
I like to think of stories as data in actionable form. Just knowing the facts doesn't tell you what to do. Those facts need to be embedded in some larger framework of meaning that enables you to make correct choices based on it. That's what a narrative is.

dagw 6y ago

But you have to make your story believable. I worked for a company where the CEO loved to tell 'inspiring' stories about the companies future riches glory. The problem was that his stories felt so outlandish ("We'll be bigger than Microsoft" etc.) that everybody basically wrote him off a delusional and ignored everything he said.

ksdale 6y ago
That's arguably part of the craft, though. People will believe all sorts of outlandish things if the story is told well enough. The story not being "believable" could be a function of crappy storytelling as much as a function of fact.
- steveklabnik 6y ago
  To directly connect this to the article: Jobs’ famous “reality distortion field.”

billfruit 6y ago

Are there any resources/books etc that helps in improving ones storytelling skills?.

wenc 6y ago
I took an in-person class at Second City Chicago. It was 3 hours per week for 8 weeks, and the class had to put on a paid show at Second City at the end of term -- pretty hectic, and very hands on. It teaches a genre of storytelling called "personal storytelling" (not the same as business storytelling, but the principles are similar) that is popular at events like The Moth. https://www.secondcity.com/classes/chicago/storytelling-levels-101-201-2020/ https://www.secondcity.com/classes/chicago/storytelling-leve... Storytelling is also seeing a resurgence as a community activity -- if you google "live storytelling" events in your area, you'll probably find some (there are tons in Chicago) though during COVID they are all online so it doesn't matter where you are. These are essentially open-mics -- you can YouTube "The Moth" to see what they are like. Storytelling is one of those things where you gotta learn by doing -- reading a book can only help so much. That said, there's also a book called Long Story Short (Margot Leitman), which I found helpful. (again only for the genre of personal storytelling) https://bookshop.org/books/long-story-short-the-only-storytelling-guide-you-ll-ever-need/9781632170279?aid=2298 https://bookshop.org/books/long-story-short-the-only-storyte... If you're interested in business storytelling, I've heard that "Building a Story Brand" (Donald Miller) is a good primer. https://bookshop.org/books/building-a-storybrand-clarify-your-message-so-customers-will-listen/9780718033323 https://bookshop.org/books/building-a-storybrand-clarify-you...

qznc 6y ago

If anybody is looking for a book, I'm half way through The Leader's Guide to Storytelling by Stephen Denning. It focuses on business use, explores different use cases, and provides actionable advice. It is somewhat lacking in scientific foundations despite a long bibliography and gives rather anecdotal evidence. Still a good broad overview targeted at corporate use.