Storytelling with Impact | Blog posts on crafting stories

Using Story for Persuading, Influencing, or Most Importantly, for Understanding

March 7, 2019/in Audience, Public Speaking, Speaker Coaching, Storytelling/by Mark Lovett

If you spend time, as I do, reading about the art and practice of storytelling you will often come across reference to the notion of persuading or influencing as the objective of crafting and presenting the story that you have in mind. I hear this from other speaker coaches, as well as renowned public speakers, and it’s not wrong, but it’s never been the way I see things.

Having watched a few thousand talks, and worked with a few hundred speakers, the stories which impacted me the most were the ones that informed me, expanded my knowledge, or brought forward a new way of looking at an important issue, not those trying to convince me that their way of thinking was better than mine.

Persuading
Causing someone to do something, or believe something, through reasoning or argument

Influencing
Having an effect on someone with the desire to change their behaviors, beliefs, or opinions

Understanding
The ability to comprehend based on knowledge of a subject, problem, process, or situation

When working with speakers I’ll ask them to think about what their audience will understand differently after hearing their talk. And there’s not a single answer to that question, as each person will have a different mindset before your talk begins.

And while it’s impossible to know what everyone listening understands in the moment, it’s a productive exercise to at least define a number of general categories (half a dozen or so) and then write out how you see their thinking/understanding transform.

Take that view a level deeper as you think about your audience by age, income, gender, ethnicity, education. How would a native understand your talk differently than an immigrant? Or a college student, as compared to a politician or business leader?

This exercise will prove beneficial while editing your manuscript. Consider your choice of words, and how deep you take your explanation of the issue. Remember, it’s not about having the audience think like you, it’s about them thinking differently than before they heard your talk.

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Peacemakers at the University

February 14, 2019/in Career, History, Peace Innovators, Public Speaking/by Mark Lovett

One benefit of being a professional in higher education is the opportunity to change the lives of students at a critical point in their personal development. As young adults discover who they are and attempt to map out their future, or at least determine the direction they will take upon graduation, they need to know how they can make a difference.

As Dean of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego (USD), Patricia Márquez understands the perils of conflict, the importance of conflict resolution, and the need to develop peace professionals.

Dean Márquez doesn’t open her talk by referencing USD, or her own experience as an educator, but rather tells a historical tale that takes the audience back in time to “113 years ago, in 1895”. She goes on to explain how Charles Eliot, the president of Harvard University, decided to start a business school at the university. This combination of a second hand story and historical narrative is a compelling way to begin her talk about the importance of peace studies in a world that is dealing with conflict at every turn.

At three minutes into her talk Dean Márquez brings us a century forward into the present day, and for the first time introduces the topic of conflict resolution. She makes the case that just as business education became a foundational piece of our expanding economy, peace studies will become just as pivotal in shaping our collective future. This is an interesting way in which an audience comes to understand the merits of an idea by hearing about a similar, or parallel story that comes to the same conclusion. “We need professionals to build peace.”

This statement becomes her stake in the ground, the key idea that she will go on to explain in detail with specific examples of how this paradigm is playing out around the world. She then uses specific examples to illustrate the challenges we face in achieving peaceful coexistence. From New York City to Kibera, Nairobi, Mexico City and Cape Town, to the most common human desire, to live a better life, as exemplified by the flow of migrants.

“In an increasingly diverse, dense, and connected world, the question for us is how to build peaceful coexistence where the rights of all individuals are being met.”

How does your story relate to events in the past? Is there a parallel story that can highlight the path of your own narrative? Are there personal stories that provide current and relevant examples of how your idea or solution can change the status quo?

Peace Innovators is a program from the Kroc School of Peace Studies, University of San Diego in which select faculty members prepare presentations that are focused on the human issues they address within their professional studies as well as class curriculum. I had the pleasure of working with each of these speakers as they prepared their talks.

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De Oratore by Cicero – Book 2 – The Objectives of Oratory

February 7, 2019/in Cicero, History, Narrative, Public Speaking, Writing/by Mark Lovett

In addition to being a lawyer, politician and philosopher, Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) was also a preeminent Roman orator. Drawing on the teaching of Greek rhetoric and the craft of oration in Roman times, he composed De Oratore to highlight the principles he believed were at play whenever someone planned to speak on an important topic.

While political speeches and legal proceedings were at the forefront of public speaking during this time, the concepts presented here are valuable in the drafting of any nonfiction narrative. Written in 55 BC, and comprised of three books, De Oratore is a dialogue that is set in 91 BC.

Cicero shares a dialogue, reported to him by Cotta, among a group of excellent political men and orators, who came together to discuss the crisis and general decline of politics. They met in the garden of Lucius Licinius Crassus’ villa in Tusculum.

Lucius Licinius Crassus – Quintus Mucius Scaevola – Quintus Catulus
Marcus Antonius Orator – Gaius Aurelius Cotta – Publius Sulpicius Rufus

Marcus Antonius replies to Catulus:

…for who is ignorant that it is the first law in writing history that the historian must not dare to tell any falsehood and the next that he must be bold enough to tell the whole truth?

While there are many genres of storytelling that are wholly or partially fictitious in nature, personal storytelling is not one of them. Once a speaker deviates from the truth, the entire story becomes suspect. When your intent is to share your wisdom, experience and viewpoint, authenticity and accuracy will form the foundation. And if the audience sees cracks in that foundation, they will disregard your message.

Telling the ‘whole truth’ is trickier to address, as there are time constraints for every speech or presentation. It’s not uncommon that a client I’m working with has a story to tell that could easily consume many hours, yet they only have a 15 or 20 minute time slot. Crafting such a talk requires condensing some passages while cutting other scenes altogether, but in the end, the story must represent the truth and not be misleading in any way.

Antonius later offers:

Thus the whole business of speaking rests upon three things for success in persuasion; that we prove what we maintain to be true; that we conciliate those who hear; that we produce in their minds whatever feeling our cause may require.

Once again Antonius touches on the topic of truth, but introduces the notion of proving what you claim to be true. The audience must feel that the point you are proposing is not just your opinion, but rather an idea supported by evidence. This is especially true for any scientific or historical talk which includes material that is beyond the speaker’s direct experience.

Conciliation refers to a listener being satisfied, or won over, by your argument. This is a matter of logic, as your narrative must make sense, by exhibiting a logical flow, for the audience to accept it. The audience must also connect to your story emotionally. They should feel what you feel at each point in the narrative. It’s this resonance which aligns the listener’s experience with yours.

Keep these objectives in mind as you work on your story and decide which elements to include, the order they will be presented, and the manner in which they will be delivered.

[De Oratore excerpts from Delphi Complete Works of Cicero, Translated by J. S. Watson]

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Transcending the Border with Anchors Not Parachutes

January 14, 2019/in Humanity, Narrative, Peace Innovators, Public Speaking/by Mark Lovett

Ev Meade, PhD, director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego, explores how universities can help to build peace in places beset by violence and shrouded in fear, but only if we learn to see ourselves as anchors, rather than parachutes.

Often times the best of intentions don’t deliver the intended results in the nonprofit world. This can happen when organizations approach a difficult situation with a short term solution, and impose their ideas upon those in need without understanding the root of the problem.

In Ev Meade’s view, those “parachute” tactics fall short of the mark. In order to effect real, long-lasting change, organizations need to think of themselves as “anchors” who become embedded into the community, seeking feedback from those who live in the area and thus know what’s really going on. At that point solutions can be crafted for the long term.

In his talk Ev speaks about the challenges of working in Sinaloa, Mexico, home of the Sinaloa Drug Cartel, as well as the cartel’s former leader, Joaquín Guzmán, known as “El Chapo”.

Ev takes us into the community and describes what life is like for the residents, in one case highlighting the fact that “more than 90 percent of homicides do not produce an arrest.”

Despite the somber nature of the topic, Ev brings his passion and energy to the stage, with great use of vocal variation and pausing to support an evolving narrative that looks at failed policies, misconceptions and stereotypes, then presents a new way of dealing with troubled communities that involves an understanding of the facts and partnering with the community before becoming an anchor that can be relied upon.

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Stories Told and Stories Untold in Porto

January 7, 2019/in Architecture, Art, Portugal, Society/by Mark Lovett

The most appealing benefit of travel, in my opinion, is how each place visited has a story to tell, or in some cases, keeps a story untold. I’ve spent the past week in Portugal and have experienced a continuous stream of told and untold stories. A stroll down any street will reveal bits of a city’s history, art, and architecture, but never the full story. Such was the case with this azulejos tile mural on the exterior wall of the Carmo Church in Porto, Portugal.
The Igreja do Carmo was built between 1756 and 1768 in the rococo or late Baroque, style by a disciple of Nicolau Nasoni, Jose de Figueiredo Seixas. The Igreja do Carmo has an outstanding azulejo-covered exterior with the azulejos added in 1912. The tiles were made locally in Vila Nova de Gaia and designed by the artist Silvestro Silvestri. They depict scenes of the founding of the Carmelite Order and Mount Carmel. by Portugal Visitor

The architect, the artist, the city where the tiles were fabricated – stories that intersected once upon a time to achieve permanence and grace as more than two centuries have passed, yet the conversations, the human details, have been lost and can only be surmised.

It wasn’t long after visiting the Carmo Church that I came across an example of Porto’s cool street art, and with a bit of research on the artist came to realize this was no random work of art. Hazul is somewhat famous in the city and beyond. Reading about Hazul reveled more of his work on Instagram. In the end I was able to discover more of the artist’s story, but still don’t know the story behind this mini-mural – what he was thinking – that remains a mystery.

Established as a protected wine region in 1756, the Douro Valley produces the renowned Port wines that are shipped down the river to be stored in Vila Nova de Gaia, across the river from Porto. While these shipments are now made by truck, in years past they were transported in rabelo boats.

In a strange twist of fate, the conflict between France and England, which deprived the Brits of their much loved French wine, led to their discovering Port wines, for which they developed an enduring passion.

From the vineyard workers, to the winemakers and those who navigated the river in boats stacked with barrels, they shared a common story based on their love of Port wine.

I’m blessed to hear stories from the clients that I coach and help them to uncover the hidden gems that they can share with the world. And when I’m traveling, there’s this feeling of appreciation for those who created the world I’m discovering, but at the same time, there’s a feeling of frustration due to the fact that I can’t speak to them directly and dig deeper into their story.

It’s a paradox, that no matter how much we know, there’s a measure of untold story that remains, so it’s up to all of us to be storytellers, to let the rest of the world share pieces of our magical life.

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