The Art of Storylistening

Everyone loves a good story. Storytelling is a powerful way to communicate. But it is storylistening that gets you the right story.

As organizations grow and become more complex, managers are facing the challenge of delivering clear and concise messages to stakeholders. Employees do not know how to make good use of information while Leaders are bogged down with lengthy explanations of technicalities, when it comes to cascading new policies. How do you inspire, influence and persuade ?

Clearly, there is a need for a guide to help corporations - using the storylistening techniques I learnt from Shawn Callahan of Anecdote. Shawn explored how narrative techniques can be used in a business setting.

Here's how:

1. Where do you start? Every single employee is a storyboard. With 100 employees, you have 100 story ideas! First task is to decide the project themes on the type of stories you want. Then craft questions that will elicit responses eg what is the major turning point for your life?

2. How do you collect anecdotes? Invite employees, transcribe recordings and extract anecdotes.

3. What do you do with the anecdotes collected? Sensemaking. Immerse employees in narrative and identify the patterns, encourage dialogue and tell stories to explain, test and reinterpret.

4. What do you want to achieve with the anecdotes? Decide what and how you want to achieve out of these information. Select an Endorsement Committee to help with the decision.

5. Understand the impact. Monitor at intervals and polish process.

Start with these listening techniques and you are on the way to building up a repertoire of stories for your organization. Tell it well and you will create a shared experience with your audience.

Lili Koh
7Skies Communication