If you look around enough is being shared about the importance of story telling as part of your communication strategy. As an individual whether we are telling stories to our children, our spouse – our friends or colleagues or to our customers, this is one skill that we need to hone. And so that we are clear, although it is sounds like selling – it is not. Great story telling aids selling but not the other way around.
Allison Davis writes this highly relatable article about using the Gettysburg address by Abraham Lincoln as a format. She quotes Shawn Callahan, author of Putting Stories to Work, who calls the structure of this speech ‘The Clarity Story’.
The narrative runs like this:
“Part 1 begins with a look back at the past to take the listener back to the way things used to be.
Part 2 shifts to something that happened: the events that caused a problem or opportunity.
Part 3 which describes the decision or action needed to respond.
Part 4 looks ahead to the future to envision a desired outcome.”
Reminds me of the Promised land narrative championed by Andy Raskin. Read the article (3 mins) and see how you can leverage the format for your story.
