You can use three kinds of stories, and all are effective. The fi rst kind is one that is directly related to your organization or issue . A story that you gathered from an employee about the trouble she had using your company ’ s online benefi ts portal when one of her children was
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sick would be one example of this kind. A story that you heard from one of your company ’ s salespeople, about a corporate customer who would routinely stand on the top of her desk and scream at him because she didn’t like your company’s pricing policies, would be another example.
The second kind of story is a hypothetical one. This is a story about your business that is not “ real ” in the sense that it has ever happened, necessarily, but it is certainly “ realistic ” in that it could happen. (This is very important; for your hypothetical stories to be effec- tive, they must be immediately credible to your audience — and they must be clearly iden- tifi ed as hypothetical.) The details of the story are what bring out its reality. A “ day in the life ” of one of your customers is one example, where we see in detail what she is doing at different moments. Another example would be a run - through of how an employee would use a new system that you are proposing. Again, what makes it real is the specifi city — the concreteness — of the details that you provide.
The third type of story is one that takes a more metaphorical approach — which is not in itself about your situation or company specifi cally, but which is symbolic or illustrative of the point that you want to make. While metaphorical stories might seem less valuable because they are not specifi cally about your particular situation, research indicates that they are also very effective. If possible, apply the same metaphor at different points in your presentation, and try to stick to a single metaphor for the same point, rather than using several different metaphors. 1
Here is a great example of a very powerful metaphorical story, in which the author tells a great lesson he learned about advertising (du Plessis, 2005, pp. 109 – 110; quotation repro- duced with permission).
“ When I am asked where I learnt most about advertising theories, the answer is not a book about the brain, or a book about advertising, or any journal paper, or a specifi c professor. I learnt the most about advertising from a miner.
In 1994 South Africa had its fi rst democratic election, which effectively moved power from the mainly Afrikaans white government to a black government.
Obviously emotions were running high, especially because (since there were many more black than white voters) the outcome was a forgone conclusion. Afrikaners felt threatened by what the future might hold for them, and blacks felt liberated and able to make aggressive statements in public showing their new - found ‘ power. ’ Afrikaners in rural areas felt especially threatened. During this time I was asked to do research among the black miners in a rural coal mine, to establish what they saw as their major problems. I did this under the condition that the results would be shown to representatives of their management (white) and trade union (black) at the same time.
To my dismay the black miners rated as their third biggest problem the fact that
‘ White managers insist on giving their instructions in Afrikans. ’ I was dismayed because I knew, from my experience with focus groups, that the black miners spoke better Afrikans than English. They preferred to speak Afrikans rather than English, and to listen to Afrikans programs on television. So why would they want the 1 McCroskey (1969) ’ s meta - analysis
of numerous studies showed that metaphors are more persuasive than literal statements. This is likely because a metaphor “ helps to structure and organize the arguments of a message better than literal language ” (Sopory &
Dillard, 2002, p. 387).
1 McCroskey (1969) ’ s meta - analysis of numerous studies showed that metaphors are more persuasive than literal statements. This is likely because a metaphor “ helps to structure and organize the arguments of a message better than literal language ” (Sopory &
Dillard, 2002, p. 387).
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ASSEMBLING THE ANECDOTES THAT WILL ILLUSTRATE YOUR EVIDENCE 69
management to give them instructions in English? It seemed obvious to me that the only reason for their giving this problem such a priority was that they were making a political statement. This was not an unlikely explanation at that time.
Because mining is such a physically demanding job, both managers and face workers tend to be big, strong people. As an Afrikaner, I felt rather uneasy at the prospect of presenting this politically sensitive result in a meeting of these big people in a small room. I tried to gloss over the point in my presentation. The leader of the trade union asked me to go over it again more slowly. I tried to gloss over it again, and he again called on me to spend more time discussing it. I told him outright that I believed it was a political point - scoring exercise, and best left out of the meeting.
He then proceeded to give me a lesson in communication, which I still rate as the most valuable I have ever had. His words went something like this:
‘ It is true that most of us Zulus are more profi cient in Afrikans than in English. However, Afrikans is our third language and English is our fourth. Most of us speak two native African languages better than we speak either Afrikans or English.
Afrikans is the managers ’ fi rst language. When a manager gives an instruction in Afrikans, he will give a concise instruction, believing he has expressed himself clearly, and then be upset when we do the wrong thing.
When a manager gives an instruction in his second language he feels more insecure. He will probably repeat the instruction a few times, using different words, and will use a lot of body language to demonstrate what he means. Then he will ask us whether we understand – and patiently re - explain if we don ’ t.
The difference is that when he instructs in his fi rst language he believes he has done a good job of communicating, but when he does it in a language we are both less profi cient in, he really does a good job of communicating! ’
We all tend to forget that the people who create advertising, the agencies and marketers, are doing this in their fi rst language (so to speak). They have been trained in the language of advertising, they have a lot of experience in the language of adver- tising, and they know the product very well. The people they are creating the com- munication for are not steeped in either the language of the product or the language of advertising. In fact, they mostly cannot be bothered to learn either. ”
The story is about miners. On the face of it, it has nothing to do with advertising. But du Plessis uses it to make a very powerful point about advertising, and about communication in general.
You can use stories — actual or metaphorical — to illustrate any aspect of your presentation, including the business problem that the audience has, the solution you are offering, and any of the evidence that you are including. This means that stories will have a big role to play in your presentations. Some people are natural storytellers, and they instinctively incorporate stories into their communication and do it well. The rest of us need some help in telling a story: how to get the plot right — how to identify the essential elements of the story and tell them in the right order.
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