Telling your vision as a story

In times of change people are likely to feel confused, uncertain, or even afraid.

The best way to get them to support your new project is by inspiring them. And the best way to do that is by telling them a story.

Human beings are hard-wired for stories. We connect with them, engage with them, and remember them in ways that simply don’t happen when we receive the same information in other forms. Princeton neuroscientist Uri Hasson has found that,

“Story is the only way to activate parts in the brain so that a listener turns the story into their own idea and experience.”

More than this, when facts and emotions are combined into a story they create meaning. As screenwriting guru Robert McKee explains,

“When an idea wraps itself around an emotional charge, it becomes all the more powerful, all the more profound, all the more memorable… In short, a story well told gives you the very thing you cannot get from life: meaningful emotional experience.”

Story is the best way to deliver a vision that your audience or stakeholders will not only understand, but will find so meaningful and inspiring that they adopt it as their own.

To achieve this, first take the seven building blocks of an inspiring vision described by Inner Leadership:

• Speak with your own authentic voice
• Make it relevant for your audience
• Show there is a problem
• Define the future state you want to create
• Relate your message to higher principles, values, or ideals
• Define the needed steps and show that they are achievable
• Let people make up their own minds but make sure they choose

Listed alone like this they are dull, flat, and lifeless.

But as an example, let’s improvise one deliberately boring sentence for each of them.

By joining them to make a story, the impact is transformed:

“We are facing a difficult situation, unlike anything we have experienced before. But we come from a long line of people who have faced difficult situations and overcome them. We can’t stay as we are, or go back to where we were: we have to move forward. If we go in the direction I am suggesting then we have the opportunity to build something very special together. By following this path we will uphold the very principles we stand for. We already have all the tools and resources we need. The only question is, are you willing to step up and play your part for those who will come after?”

Like your mother’s cooking or the recipe for gunpowder, when boring ingredients are combined in the right order and proportions to match your situation, they can become something that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Story is the best way to combine fact and emotion so that you and other people will feel inspired to want to make your new project happen.

What is the story you are telling yourself and the people who matter to you about where you are going, why, and how you are going to get there? Does it inspire you? Would you like it to be more inspiring?

Adapted from Inner Leadership: tools for building inspiration in times of change.

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