There’s almost nothing you have to relate to people in your job that you couldn’t tell better if you wrapped it up in a story.
The things we learn early seem to be the most indelible. Tying your shoelaces. Nursery rhymes. Multiplication tables.
The same is true in our business lives. Those principles that you learn in your first job or from your first memorable boss. We never forget those.
Many years ago a furniture executive walked into a roomful of us and announced, “I want to tell you a story.”
Everyone paid attention. He didn’t tell a story.
Instead, he said, don’t ever forget that lesson. Everyone likes a story. Everyone will listen to a story. If I’d walked in here and said, now pay attention because I have some important information, half of you would have paid no attention at all.
During six decades in business, that hasn’t changed. Recently, a new business blog came across my desk entitled corporate storytelling. It pointed out that people relate to stories. People connect with stories.
If you want to connect with an audience, tell them a story. Don’t give ‘em a bunch of statistics, it went on. Gee, it read so much like what the guy told us almost fifty years ago.
It’s certainly a fact: there’s almost nothing you have to relate to people in your job that you couldn’t tell better if you wrapped it up in a story.
To reach Mr. Malmo, hear and read more of his commentaries, or to ask him your own marketing question, go to http://askmalmo.com.