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How to become a better storyteller in the age of AI
Ross Stevenson
January 30th, 2024
Today’s Thoughts ☠️
Hey there 👋,
Great storytelling sets you apart.
We’ve been passing knowledge through stories for centuries, AI won’t change that.
You can hone this skill for scalable career opportunities. In a world of overloaded AI-generated content, tell human stories.
Today, we’re unpacking 4 storytelling strategies to level up your skills.
Get your tea 🍵 or beverage of choice ready. We've got lots to discuss!
In today’s chat👇
Est reading time: 15 mins
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You’ll get to hear more about them and their great work with reimagining learning with AI in future editions (and by scrolling down the page).
THE BIG THOUGHT
How To Become A Better Storyteller in 4-Steps
And so are you
We’ve been telling each other stories since the dawn of time.
Some for entertainment. Others for social connection, and a lot of time, for sharing knowledge.
It’s not a radical new concept which can be turned into a flashy tool or methodology by an education provider (although I’m sure they’d try!). If you’re like me, you love nothing more than a good old story to inspire you to do something great, or, in some cases, put you into the sleep we so crave.
You’ll spend a lifetime improving your storytelling skills.
It’s a natural pillar of human connection and communication. We connect through stories. I spend countless hours watching, reading and listening to some of the best and worst at it (that’s conference life for ya). It helps influence my own style.
I’m a big believer that good stories entertain people, but great stories change people.
Here’s what I’ve learned from the last two decades of conferences, TED Talks and plain old corporate meetings. Plus, some human characters who embody these traits.
We can’t be prompting AI for everything now, can we?
1/ Create a connection
The stories (or should I say PowerPoint presentations) I disconnect with most are the ones that make no effort whatsoever to understand the audience.
You know, the ones where someone just talks at you like you’re an emotionless wall built for the sole purpose of receiving noise.
This is often seen in my world of workplace education.
Many are misguided by the sage on the stage persona, where L&D people are some sort of all-knowing gurus preaching their vast knowledge to their flock of disciples.
The truth is most of us don’t know shit without a script or some off-the-shelf content. Telling people concepts off a slide is not enough.
We have ChatGPT to fill that activity these days.
Instead, we must show practical application in the world we move through. This is where the magic happens.
You have to relate to people. Dump the guru-ness mystique and encourage open conversations with everyone on the same level.
This is something I learnt in my facilitation journey when I asked myself, what are you without a fancy script?
It was a good question.
Scripts are safety nets to not immerse oneself in a topic and do their research.
It’s impossible to get deep expertise in all areas of life and it would be madness to even try. But, I could get good at a few key topics that would serve me well.
Off the back of that realisation many moons ago, my approach to facilitation (on the rare times I do it these days) completely changed. Today, any workshops I do get involved in are built on open and honest conversations.
→ No sage on the stage let me tell you how to do this thing.
Each experience is set as humans on an equal coming together with a beginners mindset in the pursuit of sharing stories to help each other become better.
One last thing, which you may have picked up on already, is treating people like adults. Workplace learning has bred this quasi-education like approach of the parent-child relationship.
Not surprising as this was the way we were conditioned in the education system.
Back then you were a kid so logically adults know more, but the script switched in the workplace. We’re all adults in the workplace just with different experiences and points of view.
This is what we have to shape when telling stories, especially from a workplace learning perspective. This is an adult-adult conversation. Everyone is equal and the delivery of the experience should reflect that.
This applies to everything from public speaking to blogs, resources, podcasts and books too.
I got a lot deeper on this first point than I had expected when I began typing these words. I blame the white tea I’m consuming as I type.
Let me share a practical example from the world around us that I feel embodies a lot of what I just shared.
This one comes from my own field of the learning industry with Nick Shackleton-Jones, author of How People Learn, Ex-Chief Learning Officer of Deloitte and all-around cool human.
I’m a fan of Nick’s work in all formats and his ability to tell stories in all settings sets him apart from quite a few in the industry (as does his ability to throw marshmallows at crowds).
This talk showcases a lot of what I’ve referenced above.
2/ Reframe complicated → simple
A hallmark of great storytellers, in my opinion, is their ability to turn complex ideas into simple tales that anyone can pick up.
I encourage you to explain anything to another person like a 5 year old. That always gets people taking a moment to pause and think.
I think we've all read, watched or listened to something with someone who's an expert in their field, but terrible at their delivery of ideas. Often leaving us in a state of WTF! This is a real shame, as we lose out on what could be valuable know-how.
It's an art to take complex ideas and break them down into easy to digest and relatable stories.
Not only that, if you can educate and inspire at the same time with this, then you're in the superstar leagues.
I've only come across a handful of people that do this really well. One of those is the fabulous Brene Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston, and a visiting professor in management at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business. Spending the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy.
I love Brene's work and it has influenced so much of my own.
Every leadership programme I've built has Brene's book Dare To Lead as highly recommended reading. Brene's tagline of "Maybe stories are data with soul" strongly connects with me.
If I could give you one resource to learn from Brene's approach, it would be her Netflix special released a few years back where her storytelling awesomeness is in full flow.
Brene's ability to take her research and weave it into an enjoyable and educative experience is something I learnt so much from.
Check out the trailer below, and if you don't have Netflix, you can find plenty of Brene's other talks on YouTube.
3/ Infuse your humour and personality
I’m sure you’ve seen the same amount of live talks that sound like a scripted interrogation rather than an informative masterpiece.
Often, people don’t want to come across like this.
They’re just scared people won’t like who they really are. If you’ve met me IRL or consumed any amount of my work, you’ll know I’m the antithesis of the 9-5 corporate stereotype.
I come with a cargo ship worth of witty comments, memes and GIFs to unleash on unsuspecting listeners at any moment.
Yet, I’m not everyone’s cup of tea.
That’s fine. However, this is me.
This is something I really struggled with in my early L&D leadership career. I spent a lot of time telling myself in meetings “Whatever you do, just don’t be you and we’ll be cool”. How misguided that was.
What I was suppressing was actually what gave me my ‘edge’.
I led myself to believe that I had to fit a view that others expected - Basically one of a corporate robot.
3 things changed this in my career:
Age: It’s true what they say. As you age you realise you only get one shot at being you.
Environment: This plays a huge role. It is hard to explore your potential when you’re partaking in a cortisol filled environment of chaos. Choose where you apply your talents wisely.
The psychology of people: Basically, no one is watching you and they’re aren’t out to catch you. Yes, life is full of some strange folk at times, but 99.9% of the time, it’s all in your head. You will make peace with it.
No one wants a corporate robot that looks feels and talks the same as everyone else.
Realising this made me 100x better at what I do. Like I said before, it was my edge in a crowded market. You can’t please everyone and you shouldn’t aim to.
Someone who I feel showcases what I'm talking about here, and navigates it very shamelessly, is Professor Scott Galloway of NYU Stern Business School.
Like me, he's not everyone's cup of tea and embraces that.
Yet, he's authentic to who he is and does this (mostly) in a way that's positive and exemplifies his work. I recommend you check out this video to get an example of what I mean ↓
4/ Be playful
We seem to lose this along the way in all aspects of life.
A lot of things can be serious in this world but at the same time not so serious.
Being playful is something which can allow us to bring character to many topics. You can deliver playfulness through what you say, imagery and suggestion. I've learnt a great deal about playfulness over the last decade from writer Tim Urban.
Tim has one of the most popular blogs on the digital highway called Wait But Why.
With its deep and often very long articles covering life, love, careers and human existence. It has very much served as an inspiration in my own creation of Steal These Thoughts.
For me, Tims's storytelling works so well because it's relatable, playful and at the same time transformational. Some of my favourite posts of his include:
And he has a thrilling Ted Talk on beating the procrastination monsters which demonstrates all this in a visual format too.
Final thoughts
We’ll end our storytelling journey here folks.
In sum:
Humans tell better stories than AI (as of when I write this)
Connection is built through stories.
Storytelling is a pillar of high-performing human skills
👀 Bonus
A live break down of my storytelling framework.
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