Jennifer Aaker: Harnessing the Power of Stories

story is up to 22 times more memorable than facts alone what is your signature story this is a story that my student Robert shot wanna shared with me it was a story about his best friend Sameer Bhatia who's a social entrepreneur a graduate at Stanford University he met and fell in love with a girl named Rina and Reena and Samir were traveling in India when he started to feel hot and feverish and he went to the hospital and he was immediately diagnosed with leukemia he called Robert and Robert was shocked he talked to the doctors and he learned that the best chance of survival was to find a match in the bone marrow registry but there were no matches in the registry for Sameer and worse the odds of finding a match for Sameer were 1 and 20,000 so Robert figured that if the odds were 1 in 20,000 what they should do was run bone marrow drives and try and get 20,000 South Asians into the registry the only problem they had weeks to get this done so Robert had a choice he could send people data about the dire odds for Sameer and also details about the bone marrow registry or he could share a story he chose to share that story and he shared that story about Sameer in a way that was so personal rather than analytical that anyone who read this story or heard this story felt connected to Sameer and the call to action was abundantly clear first get tested and get yourself into the bone marrow registry second share this story with 10 of your friends and ask them to share the same story with 10 of theirs and third come to the Sameer website to learn more about how you can help and the story spread and Alette to 470 bone marrow drives run twenty four thousand six hundred and eleven South Asians registered into the bone marrow registry in 11 short weeks and in that time a perfect match was found for Samir ultimately and tragically Samir passed on though three months later as some of you may know the odds of survival are as high as 80% if a perfect match is found immediately but they can be as low as 40% if that is not the case and the reason I share this story is that out of the twenty four thousand six hundred eleven people who registered for Samir two hundred and sixty six people who needed a bone marrow match were matched with people in that group in just one year alone that's 266 people who don't just have the gift of hope they have the gift of time so listening to Robert's story made me want to understand the research around story when and why is story effective in persuasion and moving people toward your goals so when most of us advocate for ideas we think of a compelling argument a fact or a figure neuroscience research shows that in fact our brains are not hardwired to understand logic or retain facts for very long our brain is in fact wired to understand and retain stories in one study a researchers asked students in a classroom to make a one-minute pitch to their cohort on average a typical student used 2.5 statistics in their pitch and only one out of 10 students actually worked in a story ten minutes later the researcher asked everyone to take out a piece of paper and write down everything they remembered about each pitch only 5% of the people surveyed actually cited a statistic 63 percent remembered the story a story is a connected set of events with the beginning a middle and an end and it's a journey that moves the listener and when the listener goes on that journey they feel different and the result is persuasion and sometimes action stories are not facts figures or less and yet when facts and figures are interwoven into a story it can pull at the audience both intellectually as well as emotionally now stories can be short 140 characters like a tweet or they could be longer like a book or a movie the best story is well told can be told in multiple forms and at multiple lengths stories are important for three reasons first stories shape how others see you second stories are tools of power and third stories persuade so first stories shape how other CEO research shows that the stories that others tell about you influence how they see you whether they want to hire you and whether they want to buy from you in one study researchers asked people to list the stories that others told about that the results showed that 36% of the people surveyed didn't know what stories others told about them the remaining said something very interesting that is the more stories they listed that others told about them the happier they felt in the more confident they felt and when the stories that others told about them were positive or funny the more liked they felt and when those stories connoted power or impact the more respected they felt second stories are tools of power when you tell a story people slow down and they listen and listening is a form of power as well listening to others share their stories to you in one exercise people were asked to watch individuals in a meeting and they were asked to infer how much power did each individual in that meeting have so these individuals watch the people in the meeting and noted who shared stories and who was listening the results showed that those who are listening who were being talked to were actually those who were deemed most powerful so listening matters draw people in and listen to their stories third stories persuade stories can be a tool to advocate for your ideas your cause your company anything that's important to you stories persuade and they move people to action and when study researchers wanted to know how to best raise funds for Save the Children which is a nonprofit focused on the well-being of children worldwide they created two conditions and they ran two versions of the app in the first version of the ad they provided statistics about the problems facing children in Africa in the second version of the ad they told the story of a seven-year-old girl who faced significant problems her name was Rukia she was from Mali and then they asked individuals after the study whether they wanted to donate money to save the children the results showed that the individuals in the story condition donated twice as much as those who read about the statistics there are four characteristics of an effective story first goal why are you telling the story in the first place second grab attention why would the audience want to listen third engage why would the audience care fourth enable action why would the audience want to share the story these are the four elements of a good story and the story's goal is defined by where you want the audience to go the destination of the audience your goal clarifies why you're telling the story in the first place and when you develop your goal you should know what is it that you want the audience to do feel or think after they heard your story it's not just important to know where you want the audience to land after the story you also need to know where they started from what is that they're thinking about right now before you tell them the story so it's both the destination where you're taking them as well as the journey for example with Robert he knew that he needed to get 20,000 South Asians into the registry within weeks but he also knew that the individuals he was to sharing a story with had a misperception about how hard it was to get into the registry so therefore he had a debunk the myths about the bone marrow registry and how hard it is to get into it and how hard it is to do a bone marrow transfer if you're lucky enough to match so he had to know where the audience was and where he wanted them to go the second thing you need to grab attention with a hook why would someone listen to your story oftentimes the most effective tool you have is in fact the hook and it could be a shocking statistic a dramatic pause a funny joke why is it someone's even looking and listening to your story third engage what makes the story compelling relatable a entik why would an audience care once you do share the story with them and the answer that question is to what degree do you have a protagonist who wants something who has conflict and there is an emotional roller coaster that you're feeling as you listen to the story and so the key characteristics of a good story that's engaging compelling and relatable are is there a protagonist does he or she wants something there must be an arc the journey that the protagonist goes on for example in Roberts story he made sure that Sameer who was the protagonist was relatable he even had Sameer blog through the whole process so that people felt like they knew Sameer and Robert didn't just talk about the highs of the journey he also blogged and talked about the lows of the journey so that anyone reading Sameer story would feel like they were going on a journey with them forth how are you enabling action how are you making it so that the story can be shared or co-created with others in the case of Robert he made the ability to join the story abundantly easy clear and even fun on the website they made tools and templates that people could download and be able to use at their organizations to run their own bone marrow drives other individuals started adding their stories to Sameer stories and in that process this story groove how do you craft your story everyone needs a signature story it's a story that after you tell it people who listen to it somehow look at you differently and the most powerful signature stories are those that take the audience where you want them to go one of the most powerful signature stories is the vision story the vision story is about where you want to go for many of us there's a gap between how we see ourselves and where we're going versus how others see you and where you're going story is one of the most effective ways to close that gap the story brings other people along on your journey test your signature story with multiple audiences when was there a ha moment and what part of the story made the aha moment happen what did they take away from your story if they had a title your story what would they title it as the story will evolve over time and in different situations you're going to need a portfolio of stories when you take this inventory of stories notice two things first which stories might you want to stop telling they're not useful for you anymore the second is what are new stories that you need to cultivate or Bank what are stories that might allow you to address a potential gap where others see you in a way that you don't see yourself can you populate that gap with new stories that help bring others along with you I was the first person in my immediate family to go to college I grew up in the city of Detroit and I went to an Ivy League school where most people where I grew up don't have the opportunity to go now I'm a senior tech executive and I get to work with lots of entrepreneurs and I give them lots of advice and when I tell them my story of how I took big risks to get where I am it really resonates with them it's really important in my career that I'm seen as innovative and it's not very innovative to just tell someone that you're innovative so I like to tell a story of when I was in the renewable energy industry and I applied for these federal tax credits that historically had never been used for solar or renewable energy before we ended up being awarded twenty million dollars in these tax credits and we're able to deploy solar to low-income communities throughout the Bay Area and the story shows how I innovate instead of just telling people I'm an innovator so I became a mom nine years ago and after a great pregnancy and a great delivery the unexpected happened and I began to hemorrhage luckily I was in the care of great providers and I had the care that I needed at the right time but when I was trying to understand why this complication happened to me in the weeks that followed I came across some startling information which was that half a million plus women were dying every year from pregnancy and childbirth related complications such as mine and that my complication was actually one of the leading causes of maternal mortality I needed to share this information with people and the statistics themselves are incredibly powerful and always get people to pay attention but when I talk about my own experience it gets people to pay attention in a different kind of way suddenly people understand that oh this isn't something that only happens to women in very impoverished places in the world this happens everywhere this happens in New York City this happens in the United States and happens two to three times a day in the United States in fact that information is powerful stories can be very effective in different contexts for instance I was in a negotiation with a young woman the other day who started the conversation with my mother once told me and I was blown away she really took the time to make a personal connection in order to ask for what she really wanted so my advice to you is to find a way to be memorable make that personal connection tell a story I think one of the most important things is to really be authentic not just for yourself but really being authentic is the best way to make a deep connection with others and to bring people in it's very hard to stand apart if you don't let yourself be somewhat vulnerable and I think when women are afraid of being vulnerable it can it can really put people at a distance so I think you know what I would encourage you to do is to is to be authentic and let yourself be vulnerable an action you can take is to write down your goals for this month this year and for the next five years and then consider what is a signature story that might allow you to achieve one of those goals a signature story is a story that you've told over and over again most likely it's a story that when you share it others look at you slightly differently and it's a story that moves you closer to the goals that you might hold so I think because I came from a career that had associations attached that you know clichés and stereotypes I was a bit of baggage that I that I you know that I'll carry for a while but because my advocacy has always been so rooted in personal experience that's my most powerful tool talking the truth from an experience and a perspective that that no one else may have and then I have the knowledge expertise now to be able to add on the data and the facts and the statistics and so that of course makes my story even more compelling but I start with the truth I start with my experience and I know that that's an effective way to tell a story stories are a great tool to get people to understand you but you have to make sure that you're telling the right story to the right person at the right time for it to have the impact that you want it to have story is also a mindset and it influences how you go about your day instead of coding things as good or bad things that happen to you you code these events as highs and lows part of a story and this can have dramatic impact I took on a role to lead our operations in India and when I got there people were coming to me asking questions like why do Americans think that we're only good at call centers and back-end programming and I said to them you guys are smart but you have to be the one who shows them something different you have to shift the mindset and as I walked away from some of those conversations I said wait I have to do the same thing here I was in this role where most people who fill it are white men and I'm this black woman and I knew I was just as smart as they are so in shifting my mindset I was able to show that I team that I was as effective leader as anyone could be in life there's signal and there's noise the stories that you tell yourselves and that others tell about you are the signal to be effective you're going to need to cut through the noise you're going to have to engender confidence in you and your vision stories help you do that build your portfolio of signature stories one day you're going to need them so go out share stories and move people to action

Channel: Stanford Graduate School of Business

Views: 91,105

Rating: 4.9100528 out of 5

Keywords: storytelling, narrative, psychology

Id: 9X0weDMh9C4

Length: 19min 41sec (1181 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 13 2013