Story time for learning
The best way to train
HOW OFTEN have you sat at a training session and found yourself struggling to stay awake? Do you remember those incredibly mind-numbing History lessons at school? Do you remember the occasions when you and your classmates were able to convince your teacher to tell you a story - even one based on history and how well you were able to relate? And quite likely you remember the lesson as if it were yesterday, but you have totally forgotten when the Third Battle of Panipat was fought, or who fought whom. Or where Panipat is.
Research has shown that anecdotal or story-based training has much better effect than conventional training that was totally lecture-based, though enhanced with all the bells and whistles that MS PowerPoint provides. So what does a trainer do? Start a story and bash on regardless? Actually, no. The choice of a story is never random but should be focused clearly on the learning objective. Ergo, if the training objective is communication, an anecdote involving failed or successful communication will be ideal but an anecdote about a missed catch in a cricket match in your youth would be a total waste of training time no matter how gripping the suspense and substance of the story might be.
It is not enough to find the right story; it is absolutely essential to tell it properly, so that the desired ends are achieved; The best is to choose a plain simple style as if you were addressing one single person, only your eye contact should be universally panned to retain the interest and attention of the entire audience. Throughout, you need to keep building the story by preparing for the punch line that anchors the learning. Never lose sight of the objective - you are not there merely to entertain, you are there to train if entertainment also happens it is a bonus to the learning process.
One of the intentions of the anecdotal style of training is to build the trust of the participants in you. The idea is to use narrative to communicate who you are and demonstrate what you know and what precisely qualifies you to be there standing in front of them and telling them what to do. It is a good idea to tell a type of story that focuses on a turning point in your life. It has a positive tone and is told in context with the eventual learning objective.
Another kind of story that is very successful in training is the `springboard' story that involves an anecdote where some motivation has taken place because of events that led to it and how positive it was (and is) to the organisation. Some of the best business schools in the world today teach only through the case study methodology and this kind of story is no different because it is an articulated case study, made more real because the story teller has been part of the experience being related.
Similarly, a sales pitch often sounds corny or if not, certainly very trite. However, if the narrative in this case was personalised to the needs of the audience, it becomes that much more believable since you will have laid the foundation by the first trust-building story.
Another area where the story-telling method works remarkably well is in the building of organisational values. People, particularly fresh employees, find this very valuable in finding their feet in the company. This is not unlike the biblical Sermon on the Mount, which was so spectacularly successful, couched as it was in a parable style that both appealed to and satisfied listeners with its non-preaching, minimalist style.
Most daily interaction with others pivots on our ability to persuade, whether we are trying to get children to clean up their room or motivate a participant to learn a behavioural skill to which he has had no exposure.
One of the secrets to persuasiveness is to understand that it has a lot less to do with logic or information content than it has to do with creating the right emotional experience. In an experiment as part of my doctoral work, participants at a workshop were asked to rate the most important elements of a speaker's presentation with respect to words, tone of voice, or body language. 55% of the participants rated body language most highly, followed by voice tone at 38%, and only 7% rated words as being most important. While email certainly is an efficient form of communication, it also has limitations, offering, as it does, no body language or tone of voice.
A human being capable of generating an emotional experience by expressing humour, insight, compassion, and other traits is necessary to bring learning to life in order to motivate action.
One of the most powerful ways to communicate a message is through story telling.
Stories elicit emotions. Stories use symbolism and metaphor that can overcome resistance to the underlying message. Stories also use the natural interpretive powers of human beings to lead the listener or viewer through particular feelings to a certain emotional state.
Virtually every form of business communication - in the hands of the right person - can be a form of telling a story.
Try it next time you address a group of people; begin by saying "Once upon a time... " and then see how acute their attention becomes!
ABHIMANYU ACHARYA
abhimanyu@india.com
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