Stories Can Create More Effective and Engaging Communication

Stories can provide the bridge between an idea and implementation; explain the abstract and concrete, while developing a relationship with your audience. Story telling can motivate, teach, coach, and build trust and create connection.

Over the years as a speaker, manager and facilitator I observed the greatest retention of my message was from stories that I told. The impact went beyond facts and theories, stories engage the audience, were conversational and taped into the emotions and senses. Often I would encounter people years later and they would playback a story I had shared with them and more importantly voice the point of the story and how it helped them overcome barriers or create solutions to problems.

How to use stories to educate and explain:

Listen:Learn to listen to your audience for clues as to what would resonate with them and what is important in their world. Be prepared to tell a variety of stories from your arsenal.

Use personal experience as a basis for your story: The greatest way to build trust and relationships is to be vulnerable, the story can demonstrate how you had overcome an obstacle or barrier, reveal up-close and personal experiences that your audience can relate to, remember we are all human.

Be Genuine: Share real life stories that can demonstrate how you can learn from your mistakes (usually the best lessons are from our mistakes), and demonstrate effective techniques in how you overcome barriers.

Engage your audience: Stories capture the imagination by allowing people to paint their own pictures and images of what you are sharing. Have a beginning, and middle and end with a clear take away. Like a good joke it is all in the delivery of the story and your conviction.

Be conversational: The delivery should be natural in a conversational tone; you are letting your audience behind the scenes to this revealing story about people and events. It can be fun, serious, sad, dramatic, all the range of human emotions. People love a good story.

Stories have been around since the beginning of time. They continue to be a powerful and effective means of communication. Start creating your stories today. Let me know what has worked for you.

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Anovick Associates, LLC.

Paul Anovick