How we got here
So you want to do storytelling? Telling tall tales? But how to start? You are probably much in the same situation as I was in late 2019:
I had a story to tell, of this I was sure but I did not know how to tell it. Nor did I know where to start to learn how to tell it.
Originally, I decided to start a blog to gather resources about storytelling. Very soon I got overwhelmed by the sheer material out there. Just checking the calendar: it is already July 2021. Certainly, it took some time to get here. I used this time to dig into the topic and to clarify my blog’s purpose:
My main idea for the blog was storytelling. I want to write about the topic of effective communication and getting the point across. How to not get lost in the myriad of options that we have today.
I know not every much more precise, but I hope it will help me.
So let’s descend into the mine of storytelling.
What is storytelling?
The most obvious way to obtain this answer could be to look up Wikipedia.
A glance over this article reveals: storytelling is quite a vast field.
The two most prominent and established thematic fields are storytelling in fiction and storytelling in marketing.
Storytelling in fiction is the very process of writing a story.
Storytelling in marketing is the process to wrap the product in a story to provide a better possibility for the customer to identify with his potential next buy.
Business storytelling
I will try to write about a far less popular part of storytelling:
Storytelling in business decisions.
“Business decisions” generally means a very large field.
Aspects of business storytelling:
- How to pitch your business idea?
- How to build a team?
- How to sell your products?
Business storytelling as an engineer
Due to my background as a scientist and engineer, I will restrict myself to the question:
How to influence business decisions as an engineer?
Examples:
- You have an idea, which you think to be great. How do you convince other people that it is a great idea?
- You want to change the course of things in your department. What do you need to do?
- You did something brilliantly in a small team. How do you scale your idea to a larger team, in short how to make your ideas grow?
Impact without power
These situations are certainly applicable to many professions. A recurring theme is acting impactful without formal power. There is a high probability that this getting more important as the knowledge economy spreads and we all want to sell on the “marketplace of ideas”.
The rise of influencers on platforms such as Youtube and Instagram is one such aspect.
At the same time, many big companies aim to democratize decision-making and reduce silo structures by fostering internal communication platforms. In a knowledge network power arises from being a node with many connections. The connections can be two ways, like in a classic network or one-way like for the modern followers.
What to expect
The aim is to have an overview of some good resources on storytelling. In addition, I want to explain key elements like the influence of the audience, story structure, and of course story delivery.
Stay tuned for the next article!
