Most people love stories. And many enjoy telling stories—even those who don’t think of themselves as storytellers. But when it comes to telling stories at work most people balk!
Their reasons range from, “I have far too much data to cover,” to “(personal) storytelling in a work setting seems inappropriate.”
Research shows storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to connect with your audience, and making them receptive to your message.
Starting with this post, we’ll explore specific examples of storytelling at work (about matters both personal and professional.)
Edwin Catmull, former president of Disney and Pixar Animation spoke to Prof Bob Sutton and his students at Stanford University about his career experiences and his (then) recent book Creativity Inc.
While his entire talk, as with most of the Stanford e-corner video collection are well worth watching, in this post we’ll explore a 2-min vignette. In it Ed shares with the class one lesson he learned—”How to Argue with Steve Jobs.”
Ed’s narration style and the short length of this extract makes it an easy listen. Yet if we analyze it closely it hews strongly to a classical story structure (called Freytag’s Pyramid) —begins with a hook, that builds anticipation, sets context for the listener, then an inciting incident happens (there’s no going back, Jobs is their new boss), rising tension to a climax and then resolution (in this case a series of smaller conflicts & resolutions). All packed into under 2-minutes and 300 words.
| Stage | Script | Words | Effect/Outcome |
| The hook (18 secs) | Steve had a reputation. Which everybody knows, it’s part of the public record, people talk a lot about it. And I want to later address some of that. | 19 | Simple direct opening, context setting. Given the topic is Steve Jobs, audience is engaged. The last sentence provides the hook—a sneak peek of what to expect! |
| Context (17 secs) | But I did ask Steve to begin with, I said, so what happens or how do you work if somebody doesn’t agree with you. | 24 | The equivalent of Once upon a time |
| Inciting Incident (5 secs) | And he said, well I just explain it to them until they understand. So I go back to my colleagues and explain this, and they all have this nervous laugh. | 13 | The world has changed—with a new boss, things cannot/will not stay the same. |
| Rising tension (11 secs) | Now the thing you should understand is, in all the 26 years with Steve, Steve and I never had one of these loud verbal arguments and it’s not my nature to do that. | 33 | Sets an expectation that conflict is imminent, even though there was never ever yelling (not his style) |
| Climax (17 secs) | So, I never actually had an argument with Steve, but we did disagree fairly frequently about things. the way it worked was, I discovered, it was that I would say something to him, and he would immediately shoot it down because he could think faster than I could. | 17 | Now we are down to the conflict—frequent disagreements and immediate shooting down of proposed idea |
| Resolution? (12 secs) | So, it would end the conversation and I would then wait a week, and usually this was on the telephone. I’d call him up and I give my counter argument to what he had said | 35 | His response to address the conflict |
| Conflict (2 secs) | and he’d immediately shoot it down. | 6 | No resolution, still conflict |
| Mini-climax (8 secs) | So, I had to wait another week, and sometimes this went on for months. But in the end one of three things happened. | 23 | The conflict is not resolved, but we have another mini-hook, what are these one of three things? |
| Resolution? (6 secs) | About a third of the time he said, oh, I get it, you’re right and that was the end of it. | 21 | A third of the time, still doesn’t tell us what happens the other 2/3rds. We are still on a hook |
| Resolution? (5 secs) | It was another third of the time in which you’d say, [..]I think he is right. | 16 | But what about the final third? We are still on a hook |
| Conflict (4 secs) | The other third of the time where we didn’t reach consensus, | 11 | Cliff hanger |
| Resolution (2 secs) | he just let me do it my way, never said anything more about it. | 14 | Resolution |
Notice all the things, again within this 2 minute period that Ed does to make his story engaging and memorable.
Body language – open, expressive, self-deprecatory smile
Gestures – Ed’s hands are almost as expressive as he is
Vocal Variety – fast, slow, low pitch, laughter
Pauses – if….. (at 25s)
Sensory – “they all have this nervous laugh.” “this would be on the telephone”
Questions to consider
- What stood out for your in Ed’s narration of how he argued with Steve Jobs?
- Do you think Ed has told this story before? What makes you think that?
- Humor is always hard to pull off. Did Ed attempt humor? And did it work?
