In part 1 of this blog series, we go over why we use stories in learning and communication.

Stories are life’s second-best teacher. 

The team at VitalSmarts express it best in their book, Influencer:  The New Science of Leading Change: While experience is life’s best teacher, vicarious experience is the second-best teacher. Vicarious experience includes watching someone model a particular behavior, watching someone go through a similar challenge, or hearing a well-told story. When you tell a story effectively, you are, in effect, creating virtual reality for the listener. You are creating an experience within them. In that experience, they are far more likely to think in different ways, imagine new possibilities, and understand your message at a deeper, more visceral level. 

The brain is hardwired to remember stories.

There’s a reason why stories have been used throughout the ages to teach important principles, societal values, and pass wisdom down through the generations. There’s a reason why you can remember a speaker’s stories years later, but cannot remember a single PowerPoint bullet list you’ve ever seen.  It’s because the human brain is hardwired to remember stories. For more on this, check out Kendall Haven’s book StoryProof: The Science Behind the Startling Power of Story

Stories (and analogies) are easier to understand than abstract concepts.

It is far easier for the brain to process concrete language than abstract language. That’s why giving examples of, and telling stories that illustrate, what you are talking about is so important. That’s also where using analogies can be so helpful.

Analogies take abstract concepts and make them concrete, tangible, and relatable. For instance, let’s say you are trying to convince a group of managers that they need to upgrade their management practices their “old school” command-and-control approaches. You want them to understand that such practices don’t allow them to access the talent in their workforce or address the challenges in the New Economy.  

Just saying so will have minimal impact. However, imagine using this analogy: “Trying to manage this new workforce in the New Economy is like trying to run a start-of-the-art PC on Windows 3.0. It doesn’t matter how great the hardware is, you will never realize more than a fraction of its true output capability because of the outdated software you are running it on. It doesn’t matter how great our processes are, how much talent we recruit, if we are using an outdated operating system, outdated software, we will never get more than a fraction of the potential out of our people.”

Doesn’t that make the idea far more understandable and believable? For an example of using analogies to make your point hit home, watch this video on [the difference understanding human nature makes.

](http://storiesthatchange.com/how-to-use-analogies-to-make-your-point-more-sticky/)

Stories illustrate and drive home organizational issues in ways that platitudes and generalities cannot.

Because stories hit home at a deeper level than abstract ideas and exhortations, they are a powerful way to make important organizational issues clear and present. For example, rather than talking in general terms about the central role  interdepartmental teamwork plays in  your ability to deliver a great customer experience, you could share a story about how poor teamwork resulted in an outcome that alienated a customer. Then, add another story on how great teamwork resulted in an outcome that delighted an important customer.

Stories connect today to tomorrow.

Stories can connect your current state to your future state by giving examples of when your organization moved through a similar process or how another organization experienced a similar change. Giving workers a successful real-life scenario that involved change can help ease their fears and make the path understandable and the positive outcome more real.

Even stories of how change was not implemented successfully can help your team to learn from those mistakes and move forward with fewer missteps.  Finally, telling future stories—painting pictures of what the desired outcome will be like—also helps allay fears and boost optimism.

Here’s an example of using a story to communicate “This Is What A Resilient, Bring It On Workforce Looks Like”. Notice how it makes the idea far more interesting and inspiring, than just listing characteristics of a resilient workforce.

In the next installment of the blog series, we will discuss how you can use stories to make your online presentations more engaging and memorable.