Why Stories Don’t Seem to Excite Me Anymore

Who doesn’t love a good story? Stories can make us smile, they can make us wonder or throw us into depths of nostalgia. A great story can pull at our heartstrings and make us believe the unbelievable. Everybody loves a good piece of story. Long, short, happy or sad, stories pull us into a parallel universe. They transport us into a new world and let us see things in a way we could never have imagined.
Stories create magic and the best part is that they can even make a dull subject so much more glittery and exciting. Simple ideas, if narrated just as they are will not capture much attention. BUT, if we turn them into a story, well then that’s a different story altogether! That’s how powerful stories are.
So yes, stories are great. They transform the boring and mundane into interesting pieces of creativity. Stories can captivate us. These days, companies, big and small are using storytelling to narrate their tales of innovation, success and much more.
I personally believe stories are effective but in small doses. Stories simply lose their essence if they float around without any rhyme or reason. The question is, “are stories always essential?”. I would probably say “no”.
Whenever someone tells me “hey, let’s tell a story”, I cringe. Not because stories are tough to weave, and the thought of immersing myself in boring numbers is depressing; but mostly people don’t understand the true reason for storytelling.
Most people out there believe stories are only about informing what the past state was and what the present state is. They generally feel that if we subtract the new number with the old one, and there you have it, a pot of steaming story, ready to be served. Many a times, stories are treated as tools for manipulating reality and probably serving ‘not so good’ news in a more appetizing fashion.
I really think that today, the word ‘story’ has become the most over-rated and over-used term in industries. Come what may, companies want a ‘story’. What they fail to understand is that to create a winning story, you need the basic ingredients. Were you to dish up a tasty bowl of noodles, you would at least need something more than store-bought noodles, right? Just the same way, the recipe for a great story does not lie only in numbers but rather in the action that takes place behind the scenes. Attrition rate remained stagnant throughout the year. It’s a fact and it’s simply not required to create an uninteresting story around why the attrition rate remained the same. This ‘me too’ attitude is the buzz-kill in storytelling.
Don’t tell a story just because it’s a fad. Tell a story, only if you mean it.
Not telling a story at all is much better than telling a badly-crafted story that stirs nothing and creates no excitement. It’s not necessary for every board-room presentation to have a story. Simple facts and figures work great. It’s important to convey the information in the right way whether it’s through an intricate story or through a simple headline, as long as you get the point across, it’s okay.
Stories are powerful tools and let’s not undermine them. Let’s keep stories for moments that matter. Let’s keep the magic alive.
