synopsis
The narrative leader
Build influence through “storytelling”
Didier Avril, série Storytelling
Our sources
This synopsis is based on the publications
presented below and on the back page.
Le storytelling en action
[Storytelling in Action]
Olivier Clodong, Georges Chétochine,
Editions d’organisation, 2010,183 pages.
Les sept règles du storytelling
[The Seven Rules of Storytelling]
John Sadowsky, Loïck Rock,
Pearson Village Mondial, 2009,163 pages.
The Story Factor, Annette Simmons,
Basic Books 2006,320 pages.
In this synopsis…
The narrative leader
A n ancestral tradition, storytel-
ling has been from time imme-
morial the principal means by
which human beings have passed on
their knowledge and values. The great
religious books, such as the Bible, the
Torah, the Koran, etc., used stories to
communicate values and a specific vi-
sion of the world. The great ideas of the
Greek philosophers – notably Socra-
tes – have come down through the ages
in all their nuances thanks to fabulous
storytellers such as Plato. Tales and
legends communicate our convictions
and values, just as grandparents pass
down what they believe and hold dear
in the bedtime stories they tell to their
grandchildren. Nietzsche showed that
a group defines its identity around its
chosen stories. Indeed, business orga-
nizations form their culture primarily
through anecdotes and events that are
told and retold by the people who work
there.
There is nothing surprising about
this. Storytelling is the means of
communication most closely ali-
gned with the way the human mind
works, explain the experts. Indeed,
we remember best the observations
to which we ascribe meaning. Stories
create meaning by bringing dry facts
to life and building a logical intercon-
focus synopsIs
Rational arguments Keys to effective
and stories: two storytelling
complementary tools of
influence
 manageris ©2010 – 187b
nection between the various elements
that comprise them.
“Telling tales” often has a negative
connotation. Some stigmatize storytel-
ling as manipulative, that is, as a way of
persuading others through the imagi-
nation, rather than reason or intellect.
Thus, the story naturally has a limited
role in the rational universe of busi-
ness. Very few leaders dare attempt to
hold the attention of an audience long
enough to tell a story intended to serve
as lasting inspiration. Indeed, most ma-
nagers prefer the reassuring structure of
a logical and factual “PowerPoint” pre-
sentation, which naturally leads people
to the desired conclusion.
That being said, there is a growing rea-
lization that a purely rational approach
is not sufficient to influence people
on a sustainable basis. Just as marke-
ting creates story lines to give meaning
and continuity to a brand, many lea-
ders today would like to capitalize on
the power of stories. What is currently
known as “narrative communication”
or “storytelling” is thus now returning
to center stage.
focus
In what situations
should you use stories?
1
 focus

Rational arguments and stories:

two complementary tools of influence

The challenge
The world of business is basically rational. Educated to think logically and use sophisticated analytical techniques,
business leaders and managers naturally tend to prefer to convince their counterparts with rational explanations.
That’s why seminars and board meetings can hardly get by without at least one PowerPoint presentation. Yet, clearly
structured factual arguments are not the only way to sway an audience—far from it! Indeed, the ability to tell good
stories would be a valuable asset in the management toolkit of many a leader.

Distinct advantages and disadvantages

Logical arguments and stories work according to very different principles.

LOGICAL ARGUMENTS STORIES

Use reason to sway the listener Use emotion to sway the listener

•• The listener yields to logic and accepts the speaker’s •• The listener adheres to the message because he or she
)

point of view. is deeply convinced.

•• ••
Eventually, however, the listener reverts to his or her The message will not be conveyed effectively unless the
)

initial point of view as soon as he or she finds a good speaker owns the story and tells it authentically.
supporting argument.

Point to a single conclusion Let the listener draw his or her own conclusions

•• The speaker controls the message. •• The listener accepts the conclusion, because he or she
)

came up with it.

••
If any of the cited arguments are shaky or too
••
)

black-and-white, the listener may well challenge The same story is subject to different interpretations.
)

the entire conclusion.

Simplify the message to focus on the essential Describe different facets of a situation

•• The listener easily understands the speaker’s message. •• The listener observes that the speaker understands the
)
)

complexity of the situation.

•• Reality is often more complex and subtle than
)

••
argumentation tends to imply. The message is rarely The message is not explicit. The listener may draw
)

couched in sufficiently moderate terms to be absolutely conclusions that diverge from what the speaker hoped to
credible. communicate.

Are easy to remember in the short term Make a lasting impression

•• The human brain stores logical arguments to be able to •• Well-told stories create emotions that make them easier
)
)

retrieve them logically. to remember over time.

•• ••
Logical arguments are remembered in the short term; but Remembering every detail of a story is a challenge,
)
)

without an emotional link, they are not deeply engraved making subsequent re-telling difficult.
into the long-term memory.

2 manageris ©2010 – 187b The narrative leader


Keys to effective
storytelling
T he idea of “telling a story” in
a professional context may
sometimes be quite intimi-
dating, and may seem best left up to
born orators like Martin Luther King,
Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle,
Jack Welch or Barack Obama – all
legendary storytellers. Yet, each of us
is capable of telling a story that cap-
tivates a child, who will recall it with
delight for days afterwards. We have all
had experiences that could be valuable
to others. Similarly, good leaders must
have a vision, values, a strategy and an
action plan to attain their objectives. In
short, we all possess the basic material
of which good stories are made.
Anyone can tell
a story that will sway
an audience.
The mistake lies in believing that
the art of storytelling requires spon-
taneity. Quite to the contrary, the best
stories – those that seem most spon-
taneous and natural – are often the
most carefully prepared. For example,
Five practices can help
optimize a story’s power
The narrative leader
Winston Churchill – one of the greatest
political storytellers in history – was
known to prepare his stories painsta-
kingly, weighing each word, every tiny
detail, every intonation, and to test
them out ad nauseam on his friends and
family. Thanks to these efforts, his sto-
ries galvanized huge crowds and are still
recounted more than 50 years later!
Telling effective stories thus takes
work and real effort to achieve three
important objectives:
Hold the attention
of the audience
To be effective, a story must grab the
attention of the listener. This is a funda-
mental requirement in order for the lis-
tener to project him or herself into the
story and connect it with his or her own
situation. A story that became legend
in the Soviet Union is that of the miner
Alekseï Stakhanov, who extracted four-
teen times the standard amount of coal
during a contest. This story was told on
and on with conviction and feeling by
factory managers. It was so compelling
that there was no need to specify that
every other miner was thereafter expec-
ted to go the extra mile like Stakhanov.
1 Prepare authentic stories
2 Anchor stories in reality
3 Speak to the emotions
4 Involve the audience
5 Rehearse continuously
SYNOPSiS
Make a lasting impression
To be effective, a story must become
legendary (even if the legend concerns
only the speaker’s immediate circle)
and be told and retold by those who
hear it. This is how people embrace a
story and let it influence their behavior.
At Apple, many stories about Steve
Jobs’ beginnings continue to circulate
in the hallways. Everyone has heard
how the first Apple computer was de-
veloped in a garage by a handful of bri-
ght young people who saw themselves
as “rebels” ready to fight to the death
against a world hostile to their ideas.
Inspire trust
The line between influence and ma-
nipulation is always thin. To be persua-
sive without triggering rejection, a story
must inspire trust in the speaker. Barack
Obama, for example, was a masterful
storyteller during the 2008 presiden-
tial campaign. The many tales he told
about his family – his mother’s illness
and his struggles with the health care
system, the African roots of his father,
etc. – were very powerful in earning the
public’s trust.
 manageris ©2010 – 187b 3

Check-list
To identify the stories that most
resemble you, undertake an
introspective voyage:
• What have been the high points of
your life? When did you have the
most energy? Why? What particularly
motivated you? What guided you?
• Conversely, what negative experiences
made a lasting impression on you?
What did you learn from them? Did
these experiences help shape your
values? Did you act differently as a
result?
• What encounters have been particularly
meaningful to you? What most struck
you about these individuals? How were
you moved or edified by what they did
well or poorly?
• Which stories have had a major impact
on you? To which of your values did
they refer? Would you be able to retell
them?
Based on Les sept règles du storytelling
[The Seven Rules of Storytelling],
John Sadowsky, Loïck Roche,
Pearson Village Mondial, 2009
“The most effective leaders start by looking in a mirror”.
Noel Tichy, The Leadership Engine
Remember
To make a lasting impression, a story
must be simple, but contain enough
details for listeners to feel they are
actually experiencing it:
• Personalize your stories. Give a
name to the main character; describe
his or her notable physical features
and personality. Give listeners the
impression they know the person!
• Take the time to “set the stage.”
Listeners must be able to visualize the
scene. Give them details, e.g.: Where
did the story take place? What was the
weather like? What were you doing
there?
• Call upon all of the senses. Listeners
must be immersed in your story.
Describe colors, sights, sounds, smells,
sensations, etc.
• But keep it simple. Avoid drowning
your story in too much detail. Find the
right balance between making the story
precise enough to make an impression,
and keeping it moving quickly enough
to avoid boring listeners.
4 manageris ©2010 – 187b
1st key to success
Prepare authentic stories
No matter what story you tell, you is generally quite helpful here. The
reveal something about yourself when authors of Les sept règles du storytelling
you tell it. Because you chose that parti- [The Seven Rules of Storytelling],
cular story, it must be important to you recommend systematically asking
somehow. The values or vision that it yourself three questions: Who are you?
conveys are your own. What do you represent? What mark do
To be credible, you must be perfectly you want to leave on your company and
at ease with the story and be able on the world in general? Thus, Michael
to tell it with passion. If you do not Dell regularly tells listeners how he
really believe in it, your chatted about “business
nonverbal language – opportunities” with his
Your story must
attitude, gestures, tone sound right
parents at the dinner
of voice – will almost and “resemble” you. table as a child. And
always contradict the how, at the age of 12,
message of the story. he launched his first
Listeners are unlikely to miss such business experiment by developing
discrepancies, and will doubt your a catalogue to give stamp collectors a
sincerity. chance to make purchases without going
The first step in becoming a good through an auctioneer. Louder than any
storyteller is consequently to build factual explanation, this story conveys
a repertory of stories in which you Dell’s conviction that disintermediation
believe and which transmit the values you is the wave of the future, and contributes
hold dear. Some introspective research to his credibility as a business prodigy.
2nd key to success
Anchor stories in reality
A story is effective if listeners or rea- A story like this is much more powerful
ders can put themselves in the shoes of than an abstract presentation of the
the protagonists to experience the situa- facts! Indeed, the power of this story is
tion by proxy, that is, feel their emotions, illustrated by the response of an Obama
and then draw their own conclusions supporter, who, when asked why she
from this experience. had come to support the presidential
To achieve this, a story must be candidate, simply said: “I am here
personalized around strong characters because of Ashley.”
who are given distinctive shape and For this type of projection to take place,
form and named by name. To convey his however, the story must include many
ideas on reforming the sensory and visual
American health care The story must details. For example,
system, Barack Obama be sufficiently precise the story of Ashley
often told the story of and detailed could be accompanied
Ashley, a 9-year-old girl to seem real. by a photograph of the
whose mother, ill with little girl’s determined
cancer, had been laid off and was forced face, or a precise description of the
to declare personal bankruptcy. Ashley meeting: “When I met Ashley, she looked
had succeeded in convincing her mother tiny and frail in her red dress, but you could
that her favorite dish was a sandwich of see her fierce determination in her eyes and
mustard and pickles, the two cheapest mouth.” With such details, listener will
ingredients she could find. So, she ate be able to sense and visualize the scene
mustard sandwiches for an entire year. clearly and thus remember it better.
The narrative leader
3rd key to success
Speak to the emotions Example

Stories speak to the heart more than ges,” he says. “An incident puts things out Introduction of a speech calling for a
road replacement:
do factual arguments. Indeed, this is of balance and demands a reaction.”
"I came here by the cliff road this
the key to an effective story, because The way a story is told is just as fun- morning. I had my four-year-old daughter,
emotions make a much more lasting damental. To speak to the heart, you Sarah, with me. I belted her tightly into
impression than ratio- must reveal your own her seat; I knew that road is dangerous.
nal explanations. A story that speaks emotions, weaknesses, I was driving very carefully, when a car
Stories tend to move to the emotions fears, and be willing to came from the other direction. Instantly,
people, for example, makes a lasting share them with your the thousands of people killed on that
when they contain fan- impression. audience. You must also road every year flashed into my mind. I
tastic, epic, surprising, tell your story with thought about all those people who had
died at that exact spot – not to mention
combative or challenging elements – passion, by modulating your tone,
those who had merely been injured! As
all emotionally charged. In his article, volume and pace of speech. Try to use
you can see, Sarah and I survived the trip.
Storytelling that Moves People, scenario short, simple sentences like when you This time, the other driver wasn’t drunk.
writer Robert McKee recommends de- are thinking to yourself. Don’t tell the This time, the other driver was attentive.
signing a story like a film scenario: “A story chronologically, but insert your But I wonder if, one day, maybe we’ll just
story expresses how and why a life chan- thoughts and feelings. be another statistic on that road."
Adapted from The Power of Storytelling, IESE
Insight, April/June2005.

“What touches the heart is engraved in the memory.”

4th key to success Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary

Involve the audience

To be profoundly influenced by Kroc happened to pass by a McDonald’s Remember
a story, listeners must make it their restaurant whose parking lot was piled
own. To do this, they must somehow with garbage. Empty milk cartons, “hap- To help listeners assimilate your story,
feel as if they personally experienced py meal” boxes, and paper napkins were get them involved:
what they are hearing. The more you strewn about the ground. Kroc stop- • Use inclusive language. Tell the story
are able to tell a story ped immediately, went as if you assume that listeners share
interactively, the more A story works even in, and asked to see the your perspective.
the audience will assi- better when listeners manager of the restau- • Avoid closing listeners into a story that
milate it. participate, thus making rant. He simply said, is tied up too neatly. In particular, let
By the same token, it their own. “We have a lot of work to them draw their own conclusions.
• Invite listeners to react. Giving listeners
you must let listeners do; we don’t want trash
a chance to participate in your story
draw their own conclusions, barring on our sites.” Everyone went to work to helps them assimilate it.
which they are likely to feel manipula- clean the place up, including Kroc him- • Respect their time. The best stories
ted. In the Journal of Management De- self! The fact that the story stops here are short. Because listeners pay active
velopment, Sandra Morgan tells a story makes it all the more effective, because attention to the entire story, they can
about Ray Kroc, then president of Mc- listeners can continue to think about it remember it fully and retell it in turn,
Donald’s. While driving to Chicago, and draw their own conclusions. thus making it their own.

Invite listeners to react

Even if the answer is obvious, answering a question gets listeners involved in
Don’t hesitate to ask rhetorical questions
the story. E.g.: Do you think he accepted that? What would you have done?

If you leave silences in your story, listeners will tend to fill them and thus
Take pauses
participate.

If listeners exclaim, laugh, sigh, applaud, hold their breath, listen to their
Don’t interrupt demonstrations of emotions
reactions, and wait until they are ready before continuing.

Make an aside referring to the audience’s reaction and adapt your story if
Accept losing some control over your story
necessary.

The narrative leader  manageris ©2010 – 187b 5


Check-list
To prepare a story, you must start by
defining a framework or basic pattern
which can be expanded upon more or
less depending on the situation:
• Describe the environment.
– Where does the story take place?
At what time of year?
– Who are the protagonists? What is
most remarkable about them?
What role do you play?
• Clarify the structure of the story.
– What is the initial situation?
– What is the most striking event likely
to trigger emotions?
– How does the story end?
• Think about pacing.
– What aspects should be expanded
upon?
– What could you eliminate altogether
or cover more rapidly?
– What are the important transitions?
• What message would you like your
audience to take away from the story?
Four areas of preparation
Get in touch with your emotions
Start by focusing on what you are feeling when you tell the story.
What do you want to communicate? What words and details are
particularly meaningful to you?
Prepare a pattern or framework
For a story to “work,” you must define a few invariables, that is,
the backbone that ensures that everyone who hears it will hear
the same story, regardless of its form.
6 manageris ©2010 – 187b
5th key to success
Rehearse continuously
Great storytellers like Winston ling] recommend keeping a written
Churchill and Jack Welch rehearse journal to jot down new ideas for sto-
their stories again and again, and work ries to test on your friends and family
very hard on refining them in order to before developing them more fully.
maximize their impact. In the Harvard Putting spoken language into writing
Business Review article The Four Truths will also force you to be more precise
of the Storyteller, an investment banker in your choice of words, sensory de-
recounts, “When we help a company with tails, articulations, and planned pauses.
an IPO, we see the chairman and his team This type of script is not designed to
tell their story 10, 20, so- fix the story in stone,
metimes 30 times! And but rather to clarify the
The most natural
you know what? Each basic pattern, so that
narrators are those who
time is generally better best prepare the narrator can more
than the last.” their stories. easily move away from
So, when you tell a it, depending on the
story, observe the reactions of those audience’s reaction, and hence be more
who hear it, and integrate this feed- natural in telling it.
back to improve it. Every time you tell In the same way, rehearsing your
a story, you relive it, and are likely to story in different ways – in front of a
think of new ideas for improving it the mirror, into a tape recorder, or with an
next time you tell it. The process of re- observer who is asked to provide feed-
hearsing and developing your abilities back – will help you acquire a natural
as a storyteller is thus a continuous and style. Intensive practice will make your
iterative process. story more impactful by helping you
The authors of Les sept règles du sto- tell it without having to think about it
rytelling [The Seven Rules of Storytel- consciously.
Listen to your audience
Ensure that your story is meaningful to others beside yourself.
Test your story on a neutral audience. Depending on the
reactions you receive, you can refine your story by articulating
your scenario differently, choosing different words, describing
the characters and context in a different way, etc.
Practice modulating your story
Imagine that you have to tell the story in an elevator, at a
dinner, to a perfect stranger, to a subordinate, etc. If you do
this exercise regularly, you will be able to tell your story in any
context.
The narrative leader
 focus

In what situations
should you use stories?

The challenge
Telling a story is often much more effective than using a logical argument to influence others. More than the facts,
what people often take away from a speech are the anecdotes selected to illustrate the message, akin to Martin
Luther King’s legendary “dream,” or the story of the unwittingly boiled frog told by Al Gore in his documentary
"An Inconvenient Truth.” At the same time, stories must be used in the right circumstances to avoid losing your
audience.

Some situations where stories are more effective than rational arguments
Storytelling is particularly helpful in achieving three main objectives.

Establish your credibility
For people to listen to you, you must
inspire trust.
However, trust is normally built over
time, as people observe that you act
according to your word.
A story can help accelerate
this process by serving as a
“concentrated experience.”
• Always be ready with a story that shows what kind of person you are.
e.g.: Rather than saying “I have a very human side,” you can recount a difficult
choice you had to make as a manager, and how you dealt with the human
aspect.
Jack Welch used to tell in minute detail how his mother taught him to
persevere in early childhood.
• Learn to illustrate your intentions with stories.
e.g.: Rather than saying "I want to succeed," which can be interpreted in many
ways, telling the story of someone successful whom you admire will help
listeners understand your intentions and assimilate them more easily.

Convey the implicit • Use stories to transmit know-how.

Some ideas are too complex or
abstract to be simply explained
factually.
Storytelling is very helpful in such
situations because a story doesn’t
even try to cover the subject
completely, which would be
impossible, but simply and strikingly
illustrates a particular dimension
of it. It is then up to the listener to
deduce the rest of the message!
e.g.: The UPS parcel delivery service abounds with stories of employees who
went out of their way to deliver packages on time in the most complex
situations. These stories show what types of initiatives are possible and
expected of delivery staff to keep the customer promise.
• Present your vision in the form of a story.
e.g.: A World Bank executive placed priority on access to information by telling
the story of a social worker in a small Zambian village who had discovered
how to prevent and treat malaria on the web. "That’s what we would like for
everyone!" he concluded.

Defuse conflict • Express your messages less abruptly with a story.

When you want to influence
someone, encountering a certain
degree of resistance is normal.
A story presents the various facets
of a situation. As such, it helps
demonstrate that you understand
the listener’s viewpoint and thus
lower his or her resistance.
e.g.: Rather than demanding more collaboration from your subordinates,
encourage them to make changes by telling a story like that of NASA, where
organizational silos were the root cause of the Challenger disaster.
• Move away from a confrontational mindset with a story.
e.g.: When conflicts become heated, logical arguments are often unhelpful
as people generally take sides and often refuse to budge. Telling a story is a
nonaggressive way to put the situation into perspective and present the bigger
picture.

The narrative leader  manageris ©2010 – 187b 7

 Find out more

Our selection
For the best ideas on this topic, we recommend the following publications:
Further readings
Le storytelling en action [Storytelling in Action]
Olivier Clodong, Georges Chétochine, Editions d’organisation, 2010. To explore this topic further:

In this book, Olivier Clodong and Georges Chétochine dissect the mechanisms that
• Use your influence effectively
make storytelling such an effective tool of influence. Based on numerous examples (Manageris synopsis 124a)
taken from the world of politics (Barack Obama, George Bush, Abdoulaye Wade Obtain a better grasp of the mechanisms of
in Senegal, Marc Ravalomanana in Madagascar), brand marketing (Chanel, World power and influence in the organization.
of Warcraft, Twilight), business (Danone, 3M, IBM, HSBC), and great humanitarian
• The underpinnings of manipulation
causes (animal rights, microcredit, etc), the authors identify how we can influence
(Manageris synopsis 128b)
others with well-told stories.
Study the mechanics of manipulation to
The first two parts, which expand upon a long series of highly detailed real-life situations, serve to
manage its impact more effectively.
prove the immeasurable effectiveness of storytelling, while explaining the phenomena at work.
The authors continue in part three by offering a relatively unstructured toolkit from which leaders • The keys to persuasion
can draw at will to improve their storytelling skills.
(Manageris synopsis 171b)
Adapt your strategy of persuasion to the
This is a book to be read more for its extremely lively and well told examples than for its explicit
decision-making style of your counterpart.
conclusions.
• Leadership beyond words
(Manageris synopsis 176b)
Les sept règles du storytelling Reinforce your powers of persuasion with
[The Seven Rules of Storytelling] nonverbal language.
John Sadowsky, Loïck Rock, ED.Pearson Village Mondial, 2009.
An excellent how-to manual, based on the leadership coaching experience of the
authors, this book starts from the conviction that anyone, and particularly any leader,
can and should develop his or her storytelling skills. The argument is well put in the
first part, and “sold” with stories (Dell, Apple) which will surely inspire you and make
you want to read the rest. This is followed by seven golden rules, each of which has
its own dedicated chapter, to turn you into a good storyteller even if you aren’t a
natural at it. Some important points to keep in mind: Start with some introspection
to identify stories that “resemble” you and inspire trust in you; learn to “let go” to allow listeners
to make your stories their own and draw their own conclusions; personalize your stories and provide
sufficient details to anchor them in reality. And last but not least, keep it simple!
Once you have read this book, all you’ve got to do is to dare give up your structured PowerPoint
presentations and start telling stories!

The Story Factor

Annette Simmons, Basic Books 2006, 320 pages.
This short book is different from traditional management literature. The author tries
to show how stories are much more persuasive than rational arguments, and applies
this principle to the letter. So, don’t expect to find any structured demonstrations or
lists of recommendations: Annette Simmons tells stories to convey her point of view.
It is then up to us to decide whether or not we should apply her ideas!
MANAGERIS
This is a book that is both enjoyable to read and interesting in terms of its fresh
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We also relied on the following publications:

One-year subscription
to Manageris synopses
• The Power of Storytelling, Brian Leggett, IESE Insight, April / June 2005.
Share information and knowledge through storytelling.
Web subscription 850 €
• Telling Tales, Stephen Denning, Harvard Business Review, May 2004. (22 synopses) + V.A.T
Which stories should you tell and how should you tell them to influence the behavior of your
Full archive subscription 1 850 €
listeners?
(over 200 synopses) + V.A.T
• Real Leaders Don’t Do PowerPoint: How to Sell Yourself and Your Ideas, Christopher Witt,
Dale Fetherling, Crown Business, 2009.
A humorous look at the public speaking skills of leaders. One synopsis
• Storytelling That Moves People, A Conversation with Screenwriting Coach Robert McKee,
Subscribers 33 € HT + V.A.T
Bronwyn Fryer, Harvard Business Review, June 2006.
How to turn a story into a genuine tool of influence? Non subscribers 66 € HT + V.A.T
• The Four Truths of the Storyteller, Peter Guber, Harvard Review Business, Dec. 2007. For copyright permissions and group rates,
Four pillars that support the authenticity of a story. contact us.

8 manageris ©2010 – 187b The narrative leader