2020 Predictions — STORY TELLING

Story-telling is an incredible tool for connection.

I’m predicting it will make its comeback this year.

It gets the message across.

It makes the person or topic relatable.

It advances learning.

The use of story-telling over visuals could be upon us. Jesse and I were discussing mediums the other day and how they are the key to understanding.

A visual person will always struggle if something is said, but not read or drawn out.

An auditory person can read something several times and not grasp it until they engage in conversation with others.

We discuss this a lot in our training with our team. Because the matter is more challenging when it’s numbers you are communicating. Many people can’t read or contemplate numbers easily, let alone if it’s in a medium that isn’t aligned with how they learn.

No matter what learning style is preferred, a story needs to go along with it to understand better.
If you invest in data analysis and don’t conclude with a story and action points, you won’t have much. A data-driven decision requires a story—a story of what the data says. And an account of what the decision will accomplish.
If you are having conversations without explicit stories, likely, you are not being understood.

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” ~ G.Bernard Shaw

To get around this, I think we can use stories.

The battle, though, is the social media universe and its limitations and how that will impede the art of story-telling.
Better use of stories will become a more prominent business language component that includes writing, video, meetings, and other opportunities for communication. We need to balance the attention of our audience with stories that hit the mark.

An analogy is one good example.

I start every presentation with a story. Yet, here I am this far into this blog (and frankly with all four of my prediction articles), and I haven’t told one story yet. I guess I have some work to do on this in 2020!!