This article was written by one of our amazing contributors! Content may include promotional links.
There are many different ways in which people try to communicate complex ideas, sell services and market themselves, and convince others of their own viewpoints.
Perhaps the most obvious and straightforward approach to take is simply to compile a list of all relevant facts and let them speak for themselves. “If you use our services, you’ll benefit from a 15% increased yield of…”
In reality, though, the vast majority of effective communication in most contexts has a lot more to do with narrative, and an understanding of its power and value, than it does with simply collecting and presenting relevant data.
This is true across many different domains. Find top custom eLearning content providers, and you’ll inevitably find people who know how to present information in an appealing way, and not just people who have technical expertise in a given field.
Here are a few reasons why it’s essential to understand the power of narrative.
1. Because people are less rational than you might want to think
If you’re the kind of person who prides themselves on their intelligence and their logical consistency, you likely find yourself deeply irritated and bewildered on a pretty regular basis when you meet people who don’t seem to approach the world in the same way.
For better or for worse, however, people generally tend to be less rational than you might want to think.
The highly-acclaimed book “Nudge,” by Thaler and Sunstein, gives plenty of examples of cases where the behaviour of individuals and groups can be influenced and altered simply through minor changes to seemingly meaningless environmental cues and design choices.
So if it’s not rationality that’s solely leading people’s decisions and guiding their approach to the world, what is it?
Well, the obvious answer is emotions – and those have everything to do with the stories that individuals are hearing, telling, and embracing.
2. Because we are all hardwired to resonate with and respond to stories
It might be that when you hear the term “narrative,” you immediately think of Shakespearean plays, or fantasy novels, and feel confident that you’re not the kind of person that has much to do with that at all.
When all is said and done, however, we are all hardwired to resonate and respond to stories – and it shows in the sheer number of TV series and films that are met with popular acclaim.
According to anthropologists, humans evolved to live in small tribal bands of a hundred or so people, and the art of storytelling around a campfire was well-established long before writing was invented.
Even when you meet up with your friends on any given weekend, it’s likely that a large part of what you do is storytelling – describing entertaining things that happened to you, or that you’ve heard of.
We are all hardwired to resonate and respond to stories, which makes understanding the power of narrative a very important thing.
Because stories compete, and the most compelling ones tend to make the ultimate difference
Different stories compete with each other for our attention, for our emotional investment, and for cultural dominance. This can clearly be seen with regards to political parties and their arrival viewpoints and concerns, but it manifests itself in business, and everywhere else in life, too.
If Coca-Cola spins a particular narrative through marketing and creative imagery that manages to get you emotionally invested in the brand, that’s at the expense of Pepsi, and vice versa.
If you don’t understand and utilise the power of good storytelling, you should expect that some professional rival of yours will.