THE STATS CRUNCH IS DEAD, LONG LIVE JACKANORY!

The London Business School has found we retain 65-70% of a message through stories, only 5-10% through stats.

Wednesday, 17th September 2008

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there lived an employee and brand engagement specialist called Ian Buckingham.

Ian and co-author Paul Miller wrote in the new Gower Handbook of Internal Communication about the best way to get your message across.

And that way was storytelling…

The London Business School has found we retain 65-70% of a message through stories, only 5-10% through stats.

Take Orson Welles’ adaptation of sci-fi novel War of the Worlds, say Miller and Buckingham.

The 1938 radio show’s simulated news bulletins sent thousands scurrying to their cars and heading for the hills to escape the apparent Martian invasion!

The pair quote Antoine de Saint Exupéry: “If you’re building a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast, endless sea.”

No consultancy or accountancy models, Buckingham and Miller argue, would’ve had the rallying effect of Churchill’s wartime speeches.

And Martin Luther King had a dream, they write, he didn’t have a change goal and wasn't at a critical point of inflection.

To Buckingham and Miller, corporate non-sensory phrases such as ‘dedicated management capability’ or ‘randomised user-orientated response’ are anathema. Give them metaphors any day.

They say the most effective storytelling tool is Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero’s Journey, even forming the main plank of a petrochemical giant’s leadership programme.

The pair write: “The journey metaphor in which their goal was perceived to be heroic and worthwhile was a powerful theme for the hard-nosed and analytical…”

The Hero’s Journey, they say, shows how corporate objectives may become personal aims, creating value, purpose and perspective.

So there you have it.

Tell a story to your staff and you’ll all live happily ever after…

+ See the pair’s tale by visiting www.by2w.co.uk