Influence through Influence through storytelling

Joyce Hostyn

Senior Director, Experience Design

Open Text

amount of evidence of sabotage or treason

against Japanese-American citizens

The very fact that no sabotage has taken place is a disturbing and confirming place is a disturbing and confirming

indication that such action will be taken.

General John DeWitt, WWII

problem with facts

power of story

using story to effect change

but before I start, I have a confession to makeconfession to make

I’m not a natural born storytellerstoryteller

can’t draw

BUT

I believe powerfully

in the power of story

in visual thinking

I have never given a single presentation on “why we need

to do experience design”to do experience design”

have never bothered cost justifying usabilityjustifying usability

neverthelessnevertheless

I’ve built successful experience design teamsdesign teams

and I’m on a mission to effect change through storytelling &

designdesign

What I’ve learned from my experience

You can use stories

and visual thinking

to influence people

and effect change

A health worker in Zambia, was struggling to find a solution for treating malaria. In this tiny and remote rural town, the health worker logged on to the Web site of the U.S.’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention and got an answer. [The World Bank] doesn’t have its know-how and expertise organized so that someone expertise organized so that someone like the health worker in Zambia can have access to it.

But just imagine if it did

Stephen Denning

What I’ll cover

Three brain theory

Some basics of storytelling

The art of possibility

but firstbut first

wants(hopes for

future)

you

Draw your life

2

4

people(important

to your life)

you(reactions to idea

of engaging people) current

reality(parts that stand out)

13

4

three brain theory

we need to rethink a few assumptionsassumptions

the assumptions being

Our model of the world is reality

We are aware of what we do

We know why we do what we do

We remember things as they really happened

in other words, our assumption that people are

rationalrational

recent brain researchtells ustells us

unconscious mind controls up to 95% of behavior

We have three brains

unconscious unconscious mind controls

95% of behaviour

Lizard brain

fightflight

freeze

can’t distinguish

imagined reality from actuality

Is it safe?

Mammal brain

emotions memories

habits

tacit or embodied (know-how)

confidence is built on the experience of success

When we leap to a decision or have a

hunch, our unconscious is... sifting

through the situation in front of us, through the situation in front of us, throwing out all that is irrelevant while we

zero in on what really matters.

Malcom Gladwell, Blink

Human brain

reasonsrationalizes

became prized during age of enlightenmentenlightenment

explicit or theoretical(know-why)

10 steps for organizational change

4 components for a balanced scorecard

mammal brain makes decisionsdecisions

human brain rationalizes themthem

we buy on emotion and justify with factwith fact

They come to act like rewards, and the rest of the

brain adapts itself to predict and

salad of salad of salad of salad of perfectly perfectly perfectly perfectly grilled grilled grilled grilled to predict and

acquire them… It’s a proxy for the

reward to come.

Read Montague

Why Choose This Book?

grilled grilled grilled grilled woodsywoodsywoodsywoodsy----flavored flavored flavored flavored calamaricalamaricalamaricalamari

logic

emotions, memories, habits

We think our models of the world are reality

Meet Harry

example from Roger Martin, The Opposable Mind

Bill

Sally

I really like Innovate Corporation. It’s been an innovative leader for a long

time. But I’m coming under

increasing pressure increasing pressure and have to make

trade-offs.

Customers value

leadership and

innovation.

Customers are

feeling intense

cost pressure.cost pressure.

Customers will

stick with us if we

continue to

innovate and lead.

Customers will

migrate away

from us due to from us due to

cost concerns

and our

pricing.

Innovation and

leadership are the

most critical

avenues to pursue.

We’ve got to

get our costs

down so we down so we

can be price

competitive.

I really like Innovate Corporation. It’s been an innovative leader for a long

time. But I’m coming under

increasing pressure increasing pressure and have to make

trade-offs.

"A way of seeing is also a

way of not seeing."

Kenneth Burke

We often don't see what’s before our

eyes.

We see our concept of concept of

what reality should be…

…what we expect to see.

our reality illusion is in placeplace

and our experiences will tend to reinforce our

initial stanceinitial stance

as we weave those experiences into the story that already exists in our

minds

Rarely pausing to consciously inspect the state & activity of our unconscious mind

we make sense of the

world world through stories

story is the emotional experienceexperience

the insight, the wisdom, the thing one has come to saything one has come to say

Just the facts, mam

Too often communicating like this

• 981 people died in alcohol-related crashes in 2000• Out of 420 pedestrian fatalities, 38 per cent of those

tested for alcohol had been drinking, and most of these had BACs over 0.08.

• Almost nine out of every 10 people killed in alcohol-related collisions (87.4 per cent) were in or on the drinking driver's vehicle (i.e. drivers/operators or drinking driver's vehicle (i.e. drivers/operators or passengers).

• Almost nine out of every 10 drivers killed in alcohol-related collisions (87.5 per cent) were male.

• Over half (56 per cent) of the drivers killed in single-vehicle crashes tested positive for alcohol, compared to only 20 per cent of those killed in multiple-vehicle crashes.

You pulled those

numbers out of

thin air

Everyone knows the

media exaggerates

Expecting listeners to accept the facts

That’s actually

not a lot

Instead of telling stories

http://www.texasdwi.org/jacqui.html

Facts are meaningless

without a contextual without a

contextual story

War is evil. It’s always evil. It represents a massive human failure and never truly

resolves anything. resolves anything.

Evil exists in the world.

If left unchecked, it can spread like a deadly If left unchecked, it can spread like a deadly disease.

.

APAP

We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally

proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we the facts so as to show that we

were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only

check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a

battlefield. George Orwell

Facts are, "like fish in the Ocean," that we may only happen to catch a few, only an indication of indication of what is below the surface.

E. H. Carr What is History?

Fact is not dialog

Faced with the choice between changingone's mind and proving there's no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the

proof.

John Kenneth Galbraith

using facts kicks using facts kicks in the

confirmation bias

People don't need new facts.

They need a new story.

Annette Simmons

The Story Factor

three aspects of story

Listening

ThinkingThinking

Telling

Listening for stories

WHOis your who?

Conversations at the water cooler

use the 5 whys to get to

the real storythe real story

Collect and capture stories

Using emotional words

frustrated elated angry exhausted awed timid disappointed

kindness honored stressed excited joyous confident nervous

depressed fearful shocked friendship hopeful relaxed proud despondent

courageous accepted disgusted embarrassed amused happy

surprisejealous close pity remorse sad surprise worried unhappy

respect appreciated distant

Practice empathy, seek to understand first, and assume the best motives in others

Map their current ecosystem

Who needs to change?

Map their current ecosystem

Wants

Motivators

Influencers

Environment/context

Tell a story of why they don’t want to

change from their perspective

the

learn to see

the stories around

you

Thinking with stories

http://www.reason.com/images/07cf533ddb1d06350cf1ddb5942ef5ad.jpg

use stories

to think

Telling stories

• Key dates

Draw a timeline of

• Key dates

• Incidents

• Experiences that shaped you

• Trials and turning points that tested you

• Stories of childhood, family, school, loves

• Development of political views

1962

not a key employee

boss from hell

passed over school patrol

not a nurse

Sasha arrives

OMG new mom, new city, no job

prof from hell

acquired (again)

new boss

new boss(again)

nephew arrives

farm bound

Disney pitch

Joan

China trip

garden

Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins, Annette Simmons

six story types

People prefer not to trust you

ambitious, greedy, inexperienced, dumb

who I ambreak through the worst case stories they tell

themselves about you

with a story that builds faith in you

HavenTree

Mine your timeline for stories

1962

not a key employee

boss from hell

passed over school patrol

not a nurse

Sasha arrives

prof from hell

acquired again

China trip

boss laid off

nephew arrives

farm bound

Disney pitch

Joan

garden

OMG pregnant, new city, no job

why I am hereexposes what’s in it for you

or people tend to make up ‘rat’ reasons

teachingcombine what with how

less about what you want than how you want it done“What would <insert person here> do?”

visionwhat’s in it for them

so they can imagine the payoff in the future

values in actionabout doing the right thing

values create culture and culture creates values

I know what you’re thinking

brings an issue into the open and reframes it“I felt exactly the way you feel now”

we don’t come into a room with open minds, we already have a narrative in our head: “this is bullshit”

good stories

create an experience in images that evokes an

emotional response

Carter's confidence, energy and intensely emotional delivery make her talks

passion

her talks themselves a force of nature

Guy Kawasaki on Majora Carter’s TED talk

To provide food for her family, Sufiyaworked all day in her muddy yard making bamboo stools. Yet somehow her hard work was unable to work was unable to life her family out of

poverty. Why?Muhammad Yunuspioneer of the microcredit movement curiosity

authenticity

hope

emotional connection

visual

stories

let gut feeling talk to gut

feeling

if what we see is a representation of realityrepresentation of reality

stories are one of the most effective ways in which we

communicate our view of communicate our view of reality to others

transporting people to different points of view

reframing what factsmean to them

tell stories

to connect

People don't believe what you tell them

They rarely believe what you show them

They often believe what their friends tell them

They always believe what they tell themselves

Seth Godin, Tribes

What leaders do: they give people storiesthey can tell themselves

Stories about the future and about change

weare all are all

storytellers

Create a story that speaks to the

Who needs to change?

Create a story that speaks to the

person you want to change

battle between two wolves

the one you feedthe one you feed

which one are you feeding?feeding?

what stories are you telling

to yourself, about about

yourself?

Be careful how you interpret the world; it is like that. is like that.

Erich Heller, British philosopher

What’s the biggest thing stopping you from effecting change?change?

NOT other peopleNOT other people

A hint

fear of judgment

fear of failure

preoccupation with status

fear of uncertainty

aversion to unpredictability

fear of choosing

All of us construct narratives about ourselves – where we’ve come from,

where we’re going. The kinds of stories where we’re going. The kinds of stories

we tell make an enormous difference in

how well we cope with change.

Hermina Ibarra and Kent Lineback, What’s Your Story?

To effect change

you need to take charge of your storyyour story

because it’s the only story you truly have control overtruly have control over

the art of possibility

The most important story you will ever tell

about yourself is the story you tell to yourself.

author your own hero’s journey

To be authentic is literally to be your own author... to discover your native

energies and desires, and then find your energies and desires, and then find your

way of acting on them.

Warren Bennis, An Invented Life

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/padmeleiajaina/Wallpapers/Luke%20Wallpaper2%20copy.jpg

http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/02/the_users_journ.html

Kathy Sierra

emotion & imagination can rewire our brainsbrains

from victim (acted on)

they would never let us

nobody around here could ever do that

there’s no point in even trying

that’s not possible

to hero (actor)

I will

I can’t

I believe

I choose

I choose not

I have a dreamdream

Martin Luther

King Jr.

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks but no one thinks of changing himself.

Leo Tolstoy

If you keep doing what you’ve always done…always done…

The most important story you will ever tell

about yourself is the story you tell to yourself.

based on assumptions

the bedrock of your worldviewworldview

that you’re not aware you’re makingmaking

you have no control over your storystory

Beliefs and values are not inherited or coded in

the genes. They are assumptions about life.

Are your beliefs and values helping take

your story where you the genes. They are assumptions about life.

your story where you want to go?

As long as you’re making assumptions…assumptions…

why not make assumptions that make you more powerful

and effectiveand effective

knowing

who you are

what you want to do

what you believe in

what you aspire to

Invent your future reality

Expand your WANTS into a vision of your future reality

• Keywords of desired future or change you • Keywords of desired future or change you want to implement

• Elements

• Language

• Results

• Influencers

Paint a vivid picture of your future story

rich with emotion & visuals

tell your future story to othersothers

create a new language

vision

gap

reality

gap

To get you to do things, you're got to

create a purpose and a story so compelling that you are moved to make compelling that you are moved to make

those corrections in your life, and make them for good.

Geoffrey M. Bellman

Getting Things Done When You Are Not in Charge

gives you

courage

focus

energy

and you WILL effect change if youchange if you

believe it

are authentic

persistent

and live it

learn to seelearn to see

The real voyage of discovery

consists not in making new

landscapes but in having new in having new

eyes.

Marcel Proust

yourself

others

the whole system

seek to understandseek to understand

the language that binds you

how the situation occurs to you & othersyou & others

stories you tell yourself

stories you tell others

stories you tell ABOUT othersothers

EMBRACE the dark side

not being picked a captain of the school patrolthe school patrol

boss from hell

discovering I’m not a key employeeemployee

start telling stories

be yourself

with passion

using stories

to effect change

in yourself

your organization

your community

the world

because it’s all invented