Share your Vision with Inspirational Storytelling
How storytelling can make you a better communicator and leader. Allowing you to share your vision. Creating a more engaged and committed team.
Build your Skills to:
Share your Vision
Engage your Audience
Bring your Idea to Life
Are stories a better way to communicate your vision, goals, and call to action?
Leaders user stories to inspire their audience. Managers engage their teams focus. Storytellers help their listener understand their idea and connect with the emotions to allow them to remember the message and act on the goal. Remember a story that impacted you?
how did it make you feel (feelings remain when facts fade)?
what new insight did you get from it?
did you get a sense of pride, fear, or satisfaction?
did it give you an idea, goal, action or ambition?
If your remembered story did any of these things, then you know the power of a great story. Presentations provide information, stories convey meaning and purpose. Stories also provide a shared experience that connects us.
Want to know more about storytelling for business? Take a look at Why Storytelling is powerful.
If you think that Stories are hard, I can help. I break down the process and create a simple structure to follow. I also provide a free guide make your start successful.
A Guide to help you get there
I have created a free 5- page Guide to help you to work through your idea, shape the message and the call to action. To help you take your audience along for the journey.
Stories eat PowerPoint presentations for lunch. They provide context, vision and motivation that other, generally accepted formats don’t. That is why I am a storytelling advocate and I want to help you become one, too.
Maybe you are already an accomplished storyteller. If so, well done! Please share your experiences and tips in the comments section below (we'd love to hear from you!).
““Storytelling is more than an essential set of tools to get things done: It’s a way for leaders — wherever they may sit — to embody the change they seek.””
So let's go through the process of Storytelling for projects together. I will break down some tips and tricks for you. I hope that in the end, you feel ready to try your first story. We start by coving the big 3 questions of the story:
why
who
what
Start your story planning with Why
“Regardless of WHAT we do in our lives, our WHY—our driving purpose, cause or belief—never changes.”
If you don't know your “why”, your audience won't know either. In the books and articles I researched for this piece (referenced below), priority is given to including:
a compelling why we give the message now
what value the audience can gain from that message
and, encouraging listener to act (or believe something) following the message
Why is the big picture: It is not a milestone. It is the ultimate goal. Think beyond the doing to the realized outcome:
Your message is not: We are not building a CCTV monitoring app for the city.
Your message is: We are making citizens safer.
Points to consider
As project managers, we may get wrapped up in the details. Try not to do that here. The data, key information, and indicators are important, and when needed, can help the story move along. But don't get 'down in the weeds' with detail. Stories are not meant for that. If you need to share lots of details, I suggest you open with your story and then move into workshop mode to sort through the process, technology, or other content that your team needs to address.
Your goal with Why is to establish the purpose for the audience and your story's Hero.
Provide a 'picture' of the Who - your Hero
A big difference in a story versus a presentation is the need for a Hero. A key figure and actor or 'doer' in your story. The Hero will take on the goal, overcome the challenge, and reap the rewards of success. There is pride in a job like that, so make the most of introducing this character.
Who could be your Story's Hero
The project team or a specific individual team member
Their goal is the product. The challenge is time, quality, scope, etc. The reward? Success as a team and individual benefits of praise, pay, promotion, or something else?
(Aligning these expectations is not part of the story but something the Manager should consider).
Or, your Hero could be….
The end-user of the team's product
Their goal is to fix a problem or fill a need. The challenge is a service, product, process, knowledge, or technology gap. The reward? Your product, of course! And the better, easier, happier life that the app helps to make happen.
Points to consider
The Hero needs to be a central character to the themes in your story. So it would help if you painted a picture, who is this Hero, give a short backstory, what drives the Hero for this goal. What is their motivation?
What do they need to succeed, and what other help do they need?
Heroes are not alone in the story, and rarely is success achieved alone, in projects, or in life. While your principal is the Hero, you also need to define the other team members who will work together.
If the Hero is a member or group of the team, you need to place each of the supporting roles clearly to show the listener how the supporting roles impact contributes to success for all. Be careful in doing this. This approach can be clearer, but it also can divide instead of unify your team. Please make sure everyone in the audience can see themselves as the Hero. To do this, you may try to make the Hero the “teams meta figure” a composite of all of the skills.
If the team has different parts to play, show how these roles depend on each other for the ultimate outcome. And show how their work toward each of their individual goal intersects to enable the teams goal.
Make this shared goal, diverse contribution clear to your audience. Everyone wants to be a hero, so in the end, do your best to make them see they are one.
If the Hero is the customer, your team may be the supporting members, enabling the end-user Hero to get the job done with your product or service.
Paint a picture of your What
We think of Storytelling in terms of Why's and Hero's and Goals (oh my, #wizardofoz reference).
However, business or project stories need to have more. These stories need to have relevant facts and details. This story is not the same as a fairytale. This story's What is not vague: But SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely).
Points to consider
Please be mindful of the double-edged sword we run into again and again. Your story needs to contain SMART goals and objectives, a defined way of work, and the details of what is required for the team to succeed. However, do not add so much that you lose the story to the administrative minutia of life. This is where your story will die. There is no glory in the rules of how to file your weekly reports. So leave that out of the story.
Your story's focus is to create emotional motivation and reaction. Emotion, connection, and shared purpose are what will drive the action and the team forward.
Create your Story Arc
Define the Vision Quest
Visions have a Quest. A journey taken from Status Quo to Transformation. What is your Story?
What is the current state
Who is taking the Journey
How will they overcome the challenges they face?
What is the resulting Transformation?
What is the compelling call to action at the end?
Story's have a beginning, middle, and ending (unlike some PowerPoint presentations I have sat through). Define the idea you want to share with your audience. How will you:
convey the purpose of the shared goal?
describe the challenges ahead? (give examples if you can)
define the process to overcome those challenges? (don’t forget to stay with the big picture)
chart out the end to end journey from the Status quo to transformation? (paint a picture of success)
Points to consider
Add contrast to your story to make the current and future state is clear. But don't exaggerate. This is business, and we need to balance between aspirational and expectation setting.
Consider your Story design
Form follows function
A Story should be fit for it’s purpose
Make sure your story fits the idea, topic, and audience. Think about how the telling of this Story at this time and place add impact to the message.
Know the emotional highs and lows you want to hit. Understand the power of pacing and pausing.
What will your Story include?
A story can contain an picture, interview or video. Be inspirational, or have data at its heart. If you have seen a Ted Talk you have seen all of these methods used, and you can include them in your story, but it has to fit and have a purpose. Also remember your arc and don’t shift narrative focus while introducing these other aspects of your story.
How will you tell your Story?
But how will you format your story? Is it a story in front of an audience, an animation video, an interview?
Another point to consider is: What direction will time flow? Changing the direction of time can help you focus on different points with the audience. If you like old movies, you can follow my logic with my examples:
Traditionally stories move forward in time (I chose Lion King for my example here). We meet everyone at the start of the story. In the end, the Hero is transformed.
Your story can follow this path also. Today we are at point A and in the future at point B.
Stories can also start with the end. In showing the end first, stories can provide hope for a good outcome or a warning for a bad outcome. (My example here would be Citizen Kane). We get the warning but come to understand the full meaning of the outcome as the story progresses.
Your story is likely to have a positive ending. Because of this, project stories can start with the ending if you are going for an "imagine the good that will come from our work" kind of vibe..
Stories can sometimes start in the middle (as in Forrest Gump). This may be what you want to do to create suspense. Or start with an interview that starts at a pivotal point in someone's career, then show their start, how they overcame odds to achieve the goal, moving up to their career today.
Your story might start here, especially if you are in the middle of your project, and outcomes are not clear or assured.
The order in which stories are told can help showcase the point you want to make, add contrast, or engage the imagination of an audience.
Points to consider
The form of the story should fit the purpose and the audience. Making the story more complicated than needed may confuse people. A sample audience to practice on can help you know if this maybe your situation.
Create the Content
Focus on Quality
Give yourself time to get it right
The Idea and the Storytelling approach need to fit together. The Quality should be high (as high as the situation allows for). Make sure you have a key message and repeat it a few times in the story. As a problem at the start, a challenge, and resolved in the transformational ending. If you have a call to action for your audience - ask it clearly.
You may think your content is already created. After all, this is business and you have your project plan or outline. But Storytelling allows you to work in new ways and demands another format for idea and information flow.
What makes a Story a Story is the sharing of a journey that asks the listener to engage on an emotional level, not just an intellectual one.
Style, pacing, pauses, and even music provide the emotional cues in Storytelling. Will you want to use new tools to create content to tell your story? Will you want to use the traditional method of simply standing in front of your audience? Both are effective.
Content may also be based on the what of your story. Are you building an app? Maybe that is how your story is told. Are you managing a project for a sports team? Use uniforms and the sport equipment to bring home the message.
While visuals are not always needed, they do add impact, fun, and audience retention value. A visual often remembered where a slide is not.
Points to consider
If you use technology or visuals to tell you the story, be aware of space limitations (physical or digital).
Distribute for Impact
Make it Memorable
Story memory is strong - so leave them feeling like a Hero
Your story needs to be memorable. But also consider make it re-memorable, by recording it in some way. It is easier than ever to manage video recording and access. Think about how the vision and story can become part of the lexicon or history of the project.
Once you have a story. Rehearsing your it from start to finish (including the use of props or visuals) will help you gain muscle memory of the details and flow, sharpen the wording, and check your timing. Story's that go on for too long, lose their impact. So be sure to check timing and stick to it, don’t wander during your wrap up. Go out with a bang!
Storytelling generally takes place in a specific place and time.
a zoom call at the project kickoff
an off-site meeting with an outdoor space
a construction team meeting held at the building site
Being mindful of the location will help you prepare for how you will tell your story: is it a small group or open-air auditorium. Will sound equipment be used?
Is this a big moment for the project or team? Will the story be videoed for future replay. Videoing your story can be as simple as hitting the zoom record button. It can be a meaningful way for the team to remember a milestone in the project or team's history. If you use technology or props, make sure you and your team prepare in advance, technical glitches can interrupt a story's flow.
Points to consider
Consider privacy issues when recording live or on video chat. Advise your attendees in advance so that those that desire can turn off their audio and cameras.
Continuous Learning
Storytelling is like any skill, it is learned over time. Give yourself time to get good at it, practice, video yourself and review it (I know, it is hard to watch yourself sometimes, but you can learn so much). Ask the audience what point they took from your talk (via Q&A or a survey). Assess the distance between your intended outcome and the actual impact.
Remember, communication is complex. The story format may not be the issue. Check your performance to make sure you hit the key points (see the box below). Assess the message clarity, method, and format. Review and put these lessons learned into the next story - as a leader, you will likely get many opportunities to increase your impact with stories.
Points to consider
You may want a story to build engagement with your team and discuss details to realize the goal. If so, split up these two aspects of your team event. Tell your story, and unite the team behind your shared vision. Following that, hold a working session to deal with the details. A session where your now 'heroic' team can shine and take the lead is a great way to put your story into action.
““Leadership requires two things: a vision of the world that does not yet exist and the ability to communicate it.” ”
Share and idea from your heart
(and without using a laptop)
In your project story, you will:
highlight the importance of your topic to you and your audience
create a contrast between the status quo today and the transformed future
provide a compelling case for change and call to action
define the challenges to overcome
clarify the desired outcome, give examples
illustrate what lies on the other side of victory
Are you ready to turn your message into a story?
In the Storytelling for Projects Guide, I have summarized the examples and content shared here. I have also added a step-by-step storyboard to help you draft your first story in minutes.
A Storyboard allows you to map out the various stages of your story. Focus on the highlights of a story. Visualize the Hero and each of the scenes as you would a movie. Think about what is inspiring (and realistic) about the way the Hero and team react to the challenges and victory’s.
Work through the Storyboard in iterations.
Version 1: Note the word cues I have provided and filll in each card with a few words to shape your ideas into a story arc. Once you have completed the Storyboard, read through it aloud and see if the Goal, Hero and other actors, Challenges, and Transformation are all clearly and accurately represented.
Version 2: Next make notes where you want to add details or data to make your points hit home with the listeners. Add details, backstory, and examples.
Version 3: Now start again from the beginning added in version 1 and 2 content. Add notes for pacing, pausing, a team member interview, a prop or video. Check timing and think about the points above about how you will deliver your story (standing is always best, even on Zoom).
Version 4: Practice makes pretty good. So do practice and include an audience member to check for reaction and take-aways to ensure your story meets your need and the teams.
Points to Consider
If on zoom I suggest you have the ability to move a bit to show energy and enthusiasm for the journey you are imagining. This energy will translate across even on video.
Ready to start? Great! Download your own copy of the Storytelling for Projects Guide using the link below.
References on the topic
An interview with Spike Lee
Business Storytelling For Dummies
By Karen Dietz, Lori L. Silverman
Storytelling is for kids-- and project managers
By Eddie Merla
Please let me know what you thought about this blog post and the free Guide. Did I miss something? Do you have something to add?
Please add a note in the comments below.
