What Makes Storytelling So Effective For Learning?

Vanessa Boris

This is the second of two posts co-written by Vanessa and Lani Peterson, Psy.D., a psychologist, professional storyteller and executive coach.

Telling stories is one of the most powerful means that leaders have to influence, teach, and inspire. What makes storytelling so effective for learning? For starters, storytelling forges connections among people, and between people and ideas. Stories convey the culture, history, and values that unite people. When it comes to our countries, our communities, and our families, we understand intuitively that the stories we hold in common are an important part of the ties that bind.

This understanding also holds true in the business world, where an organization’s stories, and the stories its leaders tell, help solidify relationships in a way that factual statements encapsulated in bullet points or numbers don’t.

Connecting learners

Good stories do more than create a sense of connection. They build familiarity and trust, and allow the listener to enter the story where they are, making them more open to learning. Good stories can contain multiple meanings so they’re surprisingly economical in conveying complex ideas in graspable ways. And stories are more engaging than a dry recitation of data points or a discussion of abstract ideas. Take the example of a company meeting.

At Company A, the leader presents the financial results for the quarter. At Company B, the leader tells a rich story about what went into the “win” that put the quarter over the top. Company A employees come away from the meeting knowing that they made their numbers. Company B employees learned about an effective strategy in which sales, marketing, and product development came together to secure a major deal. Employees now have new knowledge, new thinking, to draw on. They’ve been influenced. They’ve learned.

Something for everyone

Another storytelling aspect that makes it so effective is that it works for all types of learners. Paul Smith, in “Leader as Storyteller: 10 Reasons It Makes a Better Business Connection”, wrote:

In any group, roughly 40 percent will be predominantly visual learners who learn best from videos, diagrams, or illustrations. Another 40 percent will be auditory, learning best through lectures and discussions. The remaining 20 percent are kinesthetic learners, who learn best by doing, experiencing, or feeling. Storytelling has aspects that work for all three types. Visual learners appreciate the mental pictures storytelling evokes. Auditory learners focus on the words and the storyteller’s voice. Kinesthetic learners remember the emotional connections and feelings from the story.

Stories stick

Storytelling also helps with learning because stories are easy to remember. Organizational psychologist Peg Neuhauser found that learning which stems from a well-told story is remembered more accurately, and for far longer, than learning derived from facts and figures. Similarly, psychologist Jerome Bruner’s research suggest that facts are 20 times more likely to be remembered if they’re part of a story.

Kendall Haven, author of Story Proof and Story Smart, considers storytelling serious business for business. He has written:

Your goal in every communication is to influence your target audience (change their current attitudes, belief, knowledge, and behavior). Information alone rarely changes any of these. Research confirms that well-designed stories are the most effective vehicle for exerting influence.

Stories about professional mistakes and what leaders learned from them are another great avenue for learning. Because people identify so closely with stories, imagining how they would have acted in similar circumstances, they’re able to work through situations in a way that’s risk free. The extra benefit for leaders: with a simple personal story they’ve conveyed underlying values, offered insight into the evolution of their own experience and knowledge, presented themselves as more approachable, AND most likely inspired others to want to know more.

Connection. Engagement. Appealing to all sorts of learners. Risk-free learning. Inspiring motivation. Conveying learning that sticks. It’s no wonder that more and more organizations are embracing storytelling as an effective way for their leaders to influence, inspire, and teach.

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Whoever They Are, Wherever They Are: Empowering Everyone You Lead

Vanessa Boris

You may have noticed: Great leaders have great teams, and poor leaders have teams that struggle. Each member of that struggling team may well have tremendous capability and potential. Yet that capability isn’t utilized, and that potential stays untapped.

The best leaders make the purposeful choice to empower everyone they lead, whoever they are, wherever they are. When they do, individuals flourish, and the group works like a well-oiled machine. Let’s look at what it takes to truly empower others and bring your team together around a shared purpose.

Start by getting to know your people

People are empowered when they’re in charge of their own work and feel they can make a real contribution to the organization. As a first step, get to know the members of your team as individuals. When you meet one-on-one—casually or formally, over coffee or over Zoom—start by asking questions. Find out what the person’s goals are, what they’d like to learn to do better, what new thing they’d like to try. Ask them about the skills they’re most confident about and whether they have any hidden talents they want to share.

While you should be doing a lot of listening, also take the opportunity to share some things about yourself. A team member might be interested to learn that you always had to work hard at developing a capability that comes naturally to them. Likewise, they wouldn’t mind hearing about an earlier career success—or better yet, failure—and what you learned from it.

It’s okay to get personal, too, by sharing information about your own life or asking about theirs. Learning about someone’s vacation plans, hobbies, volunteer activities, and families offers opportunities to bond. Just don’t overdo it. You don’t want to pry, and some people may want to keep their private sphere separate from their professional lives—which is fine.

You’ll naturally be more drawn to certain members of your team than others. Maybe you and one of your colleagues are both golfers. Or maybe you both love vacationing in Italy. Take care not to play favorites. Be conscious not to offer assignments or make promotions based on “affinity bias,” where we instinctively trust those most like us. And be equally aware of its companion, “confirmation bias,” where we unconsciously seek out information that supports our initial assessment of people.

Getting to know someone isn’t just a matter of conversation. Observe your team in action, making note of how they approach their work and their peers. Watch for what sparks their interest in a meeting or on a project, and what seems to make their eyes glaze over. You can learn a lot through “field observation”—and then apply your insights as you provide people with opportunities to use and build their skills.

Inclusivity matters

Make sure everyone gets a turn to chat with you, virtually or face-to-face, not just your fellow golfer. Be certain everyone gets a shot at a stretch assignment, not just the person who gave you restaurant tips for Venice.

It’s critical, as the leader, to set the tone here. Make every member of your team feel welcome and included. Research shows that inclusivity matters—and it’s the right thing to do. In their March 2019 article in the Harvard Business Review, “Why Inclusive Leaders Are Good for Organizations, and How to Become One,” Juliet Bourke and Andrea Titus reported their findings that teams with inclusive leaders are 17% more likely to be high performing and 29% more likely to collaborate well. When you act inclusively, your team will too.

Empowering everyone across a distance

Even before the pandemic struck, many leaders faced the challenge of leading across a distance. Today, for a lot of us, working from home has become the norm. Even when Covid-19 is no longer a factor, it’s likely that a hybrid approach that combines some time in the office and some time working from home will be common. And globalization continues to mean that work teams may span national borders and multiple time zones.

Successfully leading a dispersed group requires getting everyone on the same page and finding a common purpose even when team members speak different languages, live in different countries, and have different workstyles. Frequent, targeted communication is key for unifying people around a common purpose. Share news on progress toward team goals, competitive insights, key milestones, client feedback, and team and individual accomplishments, along with other relevant information. And don’t forget to provide opportunities for bonding by planning virtual celebrations, team-building exercises, and time for just plain small talk.

Whoever they are, wherever they are, as a leader you need to empower everyone you lead. Your team will benefit—and so will you.

How do you build comradery and connection with your team?

The post Whoever They Are, Wherever They Are: Empowering Everyone You Lead appeared first on Harvard Business Impact.