engaging through storytelling

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Engaging through Storytelling Bill Lu, Dec 2015

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Page 1: Engaging Through Storytelling

Engaging through Storytelling

Bill Lu, Dec 2015

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Welcome to storytelling workshop. My name is Bill Lu and I work for Marriott International. I am wearing two hats – the senior director of Continent TA and the Country head of HR –Korea. I have recently completed a Master degree program in organizational clinical psychology at INSEAD and my research focus was on storytelling in employment marketing. During the course of my research study, I have came across many academic research papers, journals and articles about storytelling and I have personally conducted several workshops and interviews to further analyze the implication of storytelling in modern organization life. I am very honored to run this workshop to share with you some insights from my research study and hope that can prompt some further thoughts from you on its implication for your role as HR leader for your organization.
Page 2: Engaging Through Storytelling

Why Storytelling?

“Engaging Through Storytelling” – Bill Lu

Chulguen Charlie Yang “Telling Tales at Work - An Evolutionary Explanation”

Human beings are called “Homo Narrans” mainly because all forms of human communication are fundamentally stories

Fisher, W. R.

Presenter
Presentation Notes
The first question we need to answer is why storytelling has suddenly become the center of discussion today in modern organization life? Let me tell you that storytelling is not just a recent hot topic, it is deeply rooted in human evolution history and it can be traced back to when language first emerged. it’s the fundamental way of how we make senses of the world. According to Charlie Yang who studied storytelling from psychological evolution, the human mind is a product of evolution by natural selection like any other physical organ Storytelling as an adapted cognitive device that was selectively retained by natural and sexual selection, because of its survival and reproductive payoff. Compared with simple gestures or sounds, storytelling is emotionally richer and more effective in terms of fidelity, memorability, and the amount of information that can be delivered. A plot enables both the sender and receiver of a story to make sense of otherwise random events by reconstructing a shared version of experience embedded in an information-rich context Given that individuals with the best command of language and rhetorical skills were afforded special privileges, including more and higher quality of offspring, storytelling must have been selectively retained by natural
Page 3: Engaging Through Storytelling

“ If you would like to bore people to tears until they tear out their hair and claw their eyes out, then hammer them with facts

for the entire 18 minutes,,, “

Studies of TED Talks - those heavy on Pathos (Emotions/Stories) are the most

persuasive…

…We can’t persuade through logic alone!

“Engaging Through Storytelling” – Bill Lu

Presenter
Presentation Notes
If you want to bore people to tears hammer them with 18 minutes facts and figures. We are human beings and our brain is wired with narratives. Facts and figures can not connect us emotionally as stories do. People are better intrigued by stories. "We tend to rely more on presenting facts and statistics instead of creating an emotional connection with our audiences. Some in management are more comfortable with the 'facts and stats' approach.“ They connect with people in a more visceral way because they trigger the listener's own experiences and personal associations.
Page 4: Engaging Through Storytelling

Storytelling in Marketing

“Engaging Through Storytelling” – Bill Lu

“Successful marketers are just the providers of stories that

consumers choose to believe. Marketing is all about the

psychology of satisfaction”.

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Storytelling was first adopted in marketing In the book by Godin, all marketers are liars. Every marketer tells a story. And if they do it right, we believe them. We believe that wine tastes better in a $20 glass than $1 glass. $10,000 rolex watch is more accurate than $100 casio quartz. Successful marketers don’t talk about the truth. They don’t talk about the features and even benefits. Instead they tell a story that we want to believe. They hinges on doing what consumers demand and a story that fits our worldview – intuitively embrace and then share with our friends. Think about weddings. It’s about creating a special day, a day just for you, a day that you will remember, a day that you ‘v dreamed of forever, a day where you are the princess you’d always like to be. 9,000 flowers and wedding dress. On this day, they way you feel is everything. Nobody really needs a wedding. The entire wedding industry is built on a lie – a story that says “ if your wedding doesn’t include at least all of the standard items, you’re not special”.
Page 5: Engaging Through Storytelling

Storytelling in Organizations

“Engaging Through Storytelling” – Bill Lu

“Storytelling is for managers and employees to understand

each other’s values and come to an agreement on a common set of value in an interactive

process in which the values of both sides intermingle”.

Bao Y., Dolan S.L. “Sharing the culture: Embedding storytelling and

ethics in the process of culture change management”

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Another area that storytelling is widely adopted is in organizations. Marriott international’s 87 years of history is full of JW Marriott's personal life story based on his single belief that taking care of associates …..developing from a 9 seats hot shoppes D.C. root beer stand to multi-billion dollar hotel business – taking care is the foundation of our culture. In keeping with Aristotle's claim that narrative is the art of persuasion. In this view storytelling by nature can be seen as a means of persuasion – brain washing. One way transmitting company culture and values. Another view is interactive organizational process. Value congruence. Tellers and hearers both have inputs to set the value.
Page 6: Engaging Through Storytelling

Engaging Through Storytelling

“Engaging Through Storytelling” – Bill Lu

Presenter
Presentation Notes
How to tell your story in a way it touches the hearts and minds of the hearer? How do we make emotional connections with our audiences.
Page 7: Engaging Through Storytelling

self-referencing and identity marketing

“Engaging Through Storytelling” – Bill Lu

“If your customers talk about your brand as if it’s a part of who they’re, you have made an emotional attachment

with them!” Papadatos, Caroline

“The Art of Storytelling”

Presenter
Presentation Notes
Great stories don’t teach people anything new. Instead, the best stories agree with what we already believe and make us feel smart and secure when reminded how right we were in the first place. In my experience in conducting employment marketing research, I discovered the distinction between college graduates and vocational school graduates in their preference of employer. If we sell a career story of a successful GM rises up all the way from toilet cleaner that probably won’t connect well with a HK U graduates.
Page 8: Engaging Through Storytelling

authenticity

“Engaging Through Storytelling” – Bill Lu

“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken”. Oscar Wilde

Presenter
Presentation Notes
The only way your story will be believed, the only way people will tell themselves the lie you are depending on and the only way your idea will spread is if you tell the truth. And you are telling the truth when you live the story you are telling – when it’s authentic. Not true because they are factual, but true because they are consistent and authentic. None of the successful marketers are sitting around scheming up new plans on how to deceive the public. Instead they are living and breathing their stories. Not only are they lying to the public, they’re lying to themselves.
Page 9: Engaging Through Storytelling

defining moment

“Engaging Through Storytelling” – Bill Lu

“All good stories hinge on turning points, dramatic moments when the clouds part and the truth is revealed”.

Herminia Ibarra Professor of Organizational Behavior, INSEAD

Presenter
Presentation Notes
in all human experiences, hardship is common theme. The journey involved in overcoming it is absolutely necessary to the feeling of rewarding. If a reward come out of a blue, you may enjoy the surprise but we don’t value it the way we do for a reward we have worked hard to earn. there are moments of truth – the moments that change your life. We don’t tend to remember much else about our lives besides these defining moments. Happiness, after all, isn’t a continual state of being. It’s an intermittent cycle, in which periods of remembered bliss alternate with periods of forgetfulness.
Page 10: Engaging Through Storytelling

Final Food for Thought

Page 11: Engaging Through Storytelling

“True leaders are really CSO’s – Chief Story Officers … and the stories they tell become the stuff of dreams”.

Robert Burke - Leadership and Spirituality

“Engaging Through Storytelling” – Bill Lu